Wheel of Fortune in popular culture

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Wheel of Fortune, the American television game show, has been portrayed and parodied in many works of fiction over the years, and has made many lasting marks on society. From television shows and movies, the series has had an indelible impact on popular culture.

Contents 1 On television 1.1 Sitcoms 1.2 Children 1.3 Drama 1.4 Talk Shows 1.5 Other Game Shows 2 In Movies 3 In Music 4 WOF Drinking Game

[edit] On television

[edit] Sitcoms

• The King of Queens - Sajak and White appeared as themselves on an episode of the show. The show figures into a series of dreams that Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) has while he is sick. Doug, his wife Carrie (Leah Remini) and father-in-law Arthur Spooner (Jerry Stiller) are contestants on Wheel. At the beginning of the Wheel sequence, Arthur tries to guess a number (which is never allowed on Wheel, except for a Fill in the Number puzzle), then gets buzzed out while he tries to figure out what letter he wants to guess. Then it is Carrie's turn to spin the wheel. After the wheel has stopped, Carrie suddenly decides to solve the puzzle (which is also never allowed; a consonant must be called first). Almost immediately, Doug freaks out and rushes to the letterboard, apparently trying to prevent Carrie from guessing the intended solution to the puzzle: "Doug Heffernan is a Big Fat Liar" (only the R was missing in the puzzle). Carrie says to herself, "Wait a minute, did Doug lie to me?"

• Full House - On one episode, D.J. Tanner (played by Candace Cameron) has a nightmare about taking the SAT. In her nightmare, Vanna White pays a visit to the test room. On the puzzleboard, it was revealed that Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) was going to Stanford while D.J. was going to "CLOWN U".

• 227 - Mary Jenkins (Marla Gibbs) & Sandra Clark (Jackée Harry) appeared on the show as contestants. In the first few rounds they didn't do to well due to the success of another opponent named Rusty Lewis (Jim Doughan). Then in round three after him & Sandra lost their turn, Mary spun and landed on $5,000 afterwhich she called a "T" in which there are two of. Moments later she was at $20,000. She wanted to solve the puzzle but wanted to make sure she knew the answer so she bought a vowel (after crafty Sandra suggested for Mary to spin again in which Mary refused knowing Sandra wanted her to lose) which was an "A" which they're three of (Mary called it). Mary solved the puzzle thinking that she's right but host Pat Sajak cleared the air & told her that she's wrong; causing Rusty to solve & causing Mary to lose. The solution was "SANTA FE TRAIN" (Mary said "SANTA FE TRAIL").

• The Simpsons - The show was referenced in three episodes:

• "Homer Defined" — At the Springfield Retirement Castle, Grampa and the residents are watching news coverage of a nuclear meltdown that Homer has caused. The residents decide the reports are boring and change the channel, where the "WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE!" introduction is starting. Later, a contestant is heard missolving the puzzle ("THREE LOINS IN THE FOUNTAIN").
• "Brother from the Same Planet" — Homer is watching the show when Marge asks him to remember to pick up Bart from soccer practice. Homer responds "I'M ON MY WAY," which happens to be the answer to the puzzle.
• "Pranksta Rap" — A channel-surfing Homer comes across a Spanish version of the show, called "Rueda de Fortuna."

• South Park - In the episode With Apologies to Jesse Jackson, Randy Marsh makes it to the final round, where he is given the letters RSTLE (with "N" missing, which is not normal), and guessing the letters BNGO (more than likely Randy spelling out "BINGO" to the best of his ability). The puzzle is revealed to be N_GGERS, and the title "people who annoy you". While Randy is afraid to answer, he eventually gives it as "NIGGERS" just as the time runs out. A startled Vanna White reveals the puzzle to be "NAGGERS" (and also reveals it in a different manner than she revealed the other letters, turning it instead of merely touching it, similar to old puzzle board), as Sajak requests the live feed be cut (even though Wheel of Fortune is normally a taped show), and it soon is. This subsequently sets up the plot of the rest of the episode, which is a parody of the Michael Richards Laugh Factory incident.

• Family Guy — "Wheel" has also been featured in two episodes, including:

• "A Hero Sits Next Door" — A puzzle is nearly completed: "GO _UCK YOURSELF." A contestant solves the puzzle: "GO TUCK YOURSELF IN." Chris comments that Peter was close; Peter complains that he also missed "MY HAIRY AUNT."
• "I Take Thee Quagmire" — Peter is a contestant on the show, and advances to the bonus round. When asked to pick his letters, he says Z, a 4, three Qs, and the Batman symbol. None of them appear in the puzzle, but he immediately manages to solve the puzzle, "ALEX KARRAS IN WEBSTER." The scene then shifts to the classic shopping segment, where Peter uses his winnings to purchase several items (before placing the rest on a gift certificate); he is embarrassed when, upon asking how much "that fat guy in the circle," learns that it is him. In addition to its accurate depiction of the rules during the 1980s-era, the segment includes near-perfect renditions of the original "Changing Keys" and its "puzzle solved" fanfare. Peter also addresses Pat Sajak as Regis, even though Regis has never hosted Wheel of Fortune.

• Gimme a Break! - Nell (Nell Carter) & Addy (Telma Hopkins) appear and compete during Best Friends week. Nell has $7,600 & wants to win a car. But after commercial, she accidentally says "GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A CAR!". However, in the end, Addy gets $2,700 & solves it correctly "GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!" She buys a trip for two to New York. Oddly, there was no third contestant. Addy and Nell simply played against one another head-to-head.

• In the Friends episode "The One With the Princess Leia Fantasy", Joey is seen watching "Wheel of Fortune". The puzzle on the TV shows ___N_ R_S___RE. The catergory is LANDMARK. Joey then says, "This guys so stupid. It's "Count Rushmore." Chandler then says, "You should go on this show." He then tries to convince Joey to go to a Knicks game with him and Janice. Chandler gets upset at Joey and says as he's exiting, "Oh, and by the way, there is no Count Rushmore", to which Joey replies "Oh yeah? Then who's the guy who carved the faces on the mountain?".

• Saturday Night Live had a parody of Wheel of Fortune in 2006 with three clueless contestants. The puzzle read, "BY THE S_IN OF YOUR TEETH," but the players couldn't figure out the last letter, a K. Tom Hanks, playing Pat Sajak, said, "My name really isn't Pat Sajak. It's really Jack Sapat, they just made me change it to be easier to say!" The sketch also used the 1983-1989 "Changing Keys" theme song.

• MADtv had a sketch of Wheel of Fortune with celebrity couples playing. Kenny Rogers (Will Sasso) thought Vanna White was a witch because of her making the letters light up. He finally begins chasing her shouting, "Burn the witch!" when the puzzle was solved.

• On another MADtv sketch, government workers were playing. Like the SNL sketch, the puzzle was down to one last letter. It said GIVE ME LIBERT_ OR GIVE ME DEATH. No one got the puzzle. When Vanna touched the last letter, a smiley face appeared instead of a "Y".

• A third MADtv sketch had Pamela Anderson as one of the contestants and Ike Barinholtz, playing Sajak, couldn't stop wooing her. The other two players then looked at her and fell in love with her. One was a gay man who became straight and the other was a woman who became a lesbian.

• Sabrina the Teenage Witch made a reference in one of the episodes, where Hilda and Zelda's cousins, Racine and Boyd, along with "Mama," as their mother is commonly known, is watching the show, shouting the traditional "Wheel...of... Fortune!" trademark before the TV exploded due to magic used by Hilda, as part of their ongoing feud of their magic book. The episode they were watching is unknown, however, because the shot never actually showed the TV (although the viewers can see the back).

[edit] Children

• Sesame Street - "Squeal Of Fortune" with Pat Playjacks & Velma Blank. Players spun a wheel with a pig in it and had to guess how many times the pig squealed before the wheel stopped spinning. The Count ended up being the winner.
• Animaniacs - "Wheel of Morality", a quick sketch that usually plays near the end of an episode. In it, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot would spin the wheel to get "the moral of the story". Often, though, the "morals" were completely ridiculous and had nothing to do with the rest of the show. Among the spaces on the wheel were the prize spaces such as "$5000", "Trip to Tahiti", and even "Bankrupt" (a pun on the term "morally bankrupt"). They landed on both prizes oncer; however, they never landed on "Bankrupt".
• Pokémon - "Wheel... of Frontier!", one of the episode title puns. The title card even has Ash, Brock, May, and Max reading the title card synchronized, pausing slightly after every word, like in the intro to Wheel of Fortune. There is an actual wheel in the episode to determine how many Pokémon Ash and his opponet, Greta will battle with. The wheel had 6 spaces, 2 with 1 dot (1 Pokémon), 2 with 2 dots (2 Pokémon), and 2 with 3 dots (3 Pokémon). The wheel landed on a 2 dot space. That was the only appearance of that or any wheel on Pokémon.
• Fairly Odd Parents - In Cosmo Con, the wheel Binky was spun on was called the Wheel of Torture.
• Super Mario Bros. Super Show" - "On Her Magesty's Secret Sewer service",King Koopa chooses Mario and Luigi's fate by playing "The Wheel of Misfortune" hosted by Vampa White. The wheel landed on "Tunnel of Doom."

[edit] Drama

• The A-Team - H. M. Murdock (played by Dwight Schultz) appeared on the show twice. On both shows he used his fellow A-Team member "Face"'s (Dirk Benedict) system to win. The second time around he was at the bonus round in which the answer was "South America". He took a pause for a moment, and then stuck paydirt by coming up with the correct answer.

• Dead Like Me - the moment George realises she has just died is represented by a fantasy Wheel of Fortune scene: staring at the letterboard which is displaying YOU'RE D_AD, she proclaims: "I'd like to solve the puzzle."

Other dramas that have featured WoF as part of the plot included L.A. Law, and Santa Barbara.

[edit] Talk Shows

Chuck Woolery and Pat Sajak have appeared as guests on each of their respective talk shows over the years. During a celebrity WoF show in New Zealand, boxer David Tua became a local legend while requesting a vowel by asking for "O for Awesome".

[edit] Other Game Shows

• Before she joined the show, Vanna White was a contestant on The Price is Right. She never made it out of contestant's row; Host Bob Barker jokingly wondered out loud what she became of today.
• On the U.S. version of Deal or No Deal, Gary Rioto started using sounds like "oh", "ah", and "ee". Host Howie Mandel exclaimed "You're buying vowels. That's a different game."
• Mel Peachy, a host on the GSN interactive gameshow PlayMania visited the set in November 2006.This episode also featured a wheel to determine prizes for games

[edit] In Movies

• Rain Man - There is a point in the film where a Wheel of Fortune episode can be heard on Raymond's TV, but the show has little to do with the plot; in fact, the episode in question could have been a regularly scheduled episode. (Raymond does say the "Look at this studio…" line, but the line was regularly done on the show at the time.)

• UHF - features a parody of Wheel Of Fortune in the game show Wheel Of Fish, in which a large spinning wheel is festooned with dead fish of various species. It was "hosted" by Kuni, played by Gedde Watanabe.

• In the film Back to the Future Part II, an episode of Wheel of Fortune is seen at the Cafe 80s.

• The 1995 Australian movie Angel Baby featured Jacqueline McKenzie as a schizophrenic woman who believes that her guardian angel sends her messages via Australian WoF hostess Adriana Xenides. She sees the Wheel of Fortune puzzles as omens and guides by which to live her life. For example, the puzzle 'Great Expectations' makes her believe that she is pregnant, while the phrase 'Worst Case Scenario' is a message of doom. The woman, Kate, keeps a shrine to Adriana in her home, and is distraught when Wheel of Fortune is put on hiatus and she has no way of communicating with her angel. Special Wheel of Fortune material was recorded for the movie, with host John Burgess, Adriana Xenides and announcer John Deeks playing themselves. The movie won McKenzie an Australian Film Institute award for best actress

• The Craft - In the living room of the character played by Fairuza Balk, a 1993 episode is shown whilst the teen witch sociopaths are trying to initiate a character played by Rachel True to their club. Around that time, the diamond backdrops used from 1990-1992 during Wheel's years at CBS Television City (syndicated) were replaced with backdrops that had the letter W in a circle. These were used from fall 1993 to early 1997 at Sony Pictures Studios, where the Wheel crew had moved to in the fall of 1995.

• Open Season - Boog the bear is staying up late watching the show in his bedroom. The words "Wheel! Of! Fortune!" and a wrong letter buzzer are heard.

• Scrooged - Wheel of Fortune can be seen on the television in the homeless shelter where Clair worked.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie - While fighting the foot clan in April's apartment, Michaelangelo spins on his shell and yells out "Wheel of Fortune, dude!" After he stops, Donnatello says "I guess they're not game show fans!" and Michaelangelo says "And I thought everybody loved Vanna!"

Other movies that have featured WoF as part of the plot included Arachnophobia, and Serial Mom.

[edit] In Music

In Notorious B.I.G.'s song "The What", off 1994's Ready To Die, he raps "I want the fuckin Fortune like the Wheel ..."

[edit] WOF Drinking Game

There is a drinking game, popular in Australia, known as Goon of Fortune, in which players stand in a circle around a Hills Hoist, to which multiple bags of wine (Goon) are attached. The "wheel" is spun, and the players nearest to the stopping position of the bags drink from them.