The History of Wheel of Fortune's Early Years
Wheel of Fortune is known today as a famous nightly series that focuses mainly on giving contestants the opportunity to win cash by solving hangman-type puzzles. When the series was first conceived, however, it was not even called Wheel of Fortune. The original 1973 pilot, hosted by Chuck Woolery, was titled Shopper's Bazaar. The pilot placed the game's focus on the contestants shopping for glamorous and extravagant merchandise, but failed to impress NBC's executives, who declined to make it a series.
A second pilot was shot in 1974. Chuck Woolery was dropped and replaced by host Ed Byrnes. NBC picked up the pilot, which had been re-named Wheel of Fortune. Byrnes did not return when the series began a regular shooting schedule; instead, the country singer and the host of the first pilot, Chuck Woolery, took the reigns. Joining him was aspiring actress Susan Stafford, who performed the function of letter-turner and model for the prizes.
NBC announced in November 1974 that Wheel and another new game show, Blank Check, would be debuting in January 1975. The two new shows would be taking the place of two cancelled shows: the longrunning quiz Jeopardy! and short-lived word game Winning Streak. Although the former show's contract was originally not set to expire until September, Merv Griffin agreed to allow NBC to end production nine months early in exchange for adding Wheel to the schedule. Thus, Wheel of Fortune debuted on NBC on January 6, 1975, at 11:30 a.m. EST.
When Wheel debuted, NBC was riding high in the daytime, and the show quickly became a solid performer in the network's daytime lineup. NBC's VP of Daytime Programming, 31-year-old Lin Bolen, was widely considered a genius at this point. A 1975 news article described her as being credited with changing the landscape of daytime TV with a "combination of ingenuity, hustle, and unabashed chutzpah," and the performance of Wheel seemed to add to her mystique. Her wave of success wouldn't last very long, however, and it almost carried Wheel into oblivion.
By the late 1970s, NBC was struggling. Their daytime and nighttime lineups featured few ratings stalwarts and most of their shows lost their time slots to ABC and CBS. In their primetime lineup they tried such bizarre fare as Supertrain, a drama about an atomic-powered train that featured a disco and a swimming pool. In the daytime, they decided it was time for a shake-up as well. Enter a young comedian named David Letterman, whom NBC believed could rejuvenate their low-rated daytime schedule.
In 1980, Letterman signed on to host a 90-minute, daily talk show, which would be aired live. The casualties of this decision were to be three of NBC's six daytime game shows. Wheel, though fairly popular, was not considered untouchable, and NBC drew up at least one mock schedule that would give the show the ax. Rumors began to swirl among viewers that the show would be going off the air, though on the May 7, 1980 episode Chuck Woolery personally put these rumors to rest by assuring viewers the show had "not been cancelled."
Wheel of Fortune did indeed escape the Grim Reaper, as NBC opted to cancel daytime veteran Hollywood Squares, the modestly successful High Rollers, and the short-lived word game Chain Reaction. Wheel and Password Plus would continue to air in their same time slots, while Card Sharks moved to 12 noon EST to replace Chain Reaction. The new lineup took effect on June 23, 1980.
Letterman's show was a bust and wound up in TV's graveyard by the end of the October 1980. Wheel continued to thrive, and two more game shows, Las Vegas Gambit and Blockbusters, joined it on NBC's daytime lineup when Letterman's show was cancelled. Barely a year later, however, Wheel would undergo a major change.
Host Chuck Woolery was working under a contract that was set to expire at the end of 1981. Merv Griffin attempted to keep him aboard, but Woolery wanted a raise. Griffin's offer was less than what Woolery asked for, and Woolery opted to leave the series. He signed off for the final time on Christmas Day, 1981, with a young weatherman named Pat Sajak taking over the following Monday. Griffin was reportedly very bitter over the whole ordeal, and never again spoke to Woolery.
Woolery himself may have later wished he'd stayed with the show when it became the highest-rated show in syndication (watched by 40 million viewers a night during its peak years), a distinction it still holds today.
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