Caught a quick commercial. Interviews with Susan and Merv.

I'm sure what scandals they can dig up here, but I'm sure they'll go over Vanna's boyfriends death.

Next Sunday at 8pm.

They could talk about the rift between Woolery and Griffin. There's also Jack Clark's painful cancer struggle and subsequent death.

Per the TiVo, the E!THS on "Family Feud" and "The Price is Right" will be running the same day, the former at 5 pm and the latter at 7 pm.

If Jack is mentioned, he'll probably just be glossed over. No doubt they'll get their E! rocks off on The Chucker's resignation because it reeks of controversy, drama and uncomfortable backstage dealings.

Wonder if they'll churn out any rare footage for it...

Chuck Donegan (The Optimistic "Chuckie Baby")

I wonder if they'll cover the litigation-happy guy from a short while back who said he was injured when Sajak started wrestling him.

("After the break: The Rolf Years Months.")

I wonder how many of the same still photos will be shown over and over and over.

I wonder what stories will be rehashed unnecessarily, kinda like Janice's missing husband on TPiR.

Mind you, I'm happy to have a game show related THS, but I also know THS is pretty crappy with their execution, esp. writing.

From TVguide:

"The chronicle includes insights from the show's creator, Merv Griffin; the show's original producer Nancy Jones; Susan Stafford and Rolf Benirschke, who hosted one season of the series."

This will be 2 hours.

And to think Price's was only 1 hour.

Will Joe Raygor be making a cameo along side?

Wasn't there a lawsuit against Raymond Taylor, a three-time champion on the syndie WOF in the early 90s. He had apparently made an unappreciated cameo or two on the Sony lot a few years later.

LOL...in all seriousness, I could see Joe offering some commentary on the Rolf era, much like Marc Green did on the TPiR THS. :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

So could I, Chuck, so could I. He's quite an expert on the "Rolf Years". :)

A question I have to ask..with all the hosts they could have gotten for WOF in the first revival, why Rolf Benirschke? This may have been gone over in the ATGS days but I never saw a WOF with him as host.

Tim Lones

We think he has pictures of Merv Griffin with a moose.

They were thinking ahead, and realized they needed at least one host that would later be willing to appear on an E! True Hollywood Story.

I guess they'll mention Bob Goen in passing.

The more-or-less serious answer is that Merv Griffin was fond of hiring unknowns, and he thought he had a knack for it. Truth is, sometimes he got lucky but more often he crapped out.

Trebek seems to be the one big exception, and Harry Eisenberg reported in his book Jeff McGregor(I assume the same guy from the 80s Dating Game) was originally under consideration to host the J! revival.

You will all be hearing my attorney very shortly... :)
-Joe R.

Benirschke.....
Reilly......

Martindale (oh no wait! Good host, bad show........)

Merv had nothing to do with Martindale or Headline Chasers; Wink created that himself, but since Merv and King World had an previous agreement, Merv's company was forced into helping with the production. In fact, according to some previous posts, Merv hated HC, Wink in turn hated Merv, and they fell out.

A similar situation supposedly happened with Monopoly, but that's another story.

Forgett 'Desperate Housewife's' this week. I am really looking forward to it.

My predictions on what will be covered on Sunday's Wheel THS:

Vanna's miscarriage, and her birth two years later to Nicholas, and three years later to Giovanna.

Vanna having to break the news about her fiancee John's death to his parents.

Vanna and George getting a divorce, after George is forced to sleep in the guestroom (from a National Enquirer headline).

Vanna possibly leaving Wheel when her contract expires in a few years.

It should surprise precisely no one that the story comes out differently in Wink's autobiography. He tells of having to get Merv's "final say" in order to work with KingWorld, and tells of their first meeting:

"Literally two minutes into the presentation, Merv got up, moved to the arm of my chair and said to me, 'Wink, this isn't just another game show -- this is a very important game show!' "

Wink also credits Merv for changing the name from his original The Front Page. One paragraph later, Wink and his short-attention-span style of writing has moved past HC's cancellation and on to the next show.

I feel it's worth throwing out since I haven't heard much of the book in these circles: some of Bob Eubanks' book is the same way. I absolutely loved it, from the radio stuff to concert promotion, but it's obvious what Bob wanted to talk about more. Some game shows get little ink surprisingly, but it's probably due to Bob's choice of wanting "good stories" for each show. For some, I guess there weren't too many distinct memories.

-Jason

We're drifting further and further from the original topic, but since this comment probably doesn't deserve a thread of its own and relates to the recent turn, I'll stick it in here.

I'd heard that Dick Enberg's new autobiography Oh, My! was going to have a chapter devoted to his game show exploits. Not true, sports fans. Like so many others who've had game shows in their past, Dick glosses over his game show resume. He barely even has a page about Sports Challenge, a show he did on and off for a decade and which featured some of the greatest sports legends of all time. Seems like there ought to have been some stories there. And the only specific thing he has to say about any of his traditional games is that he got to keep some of his wardrobe from Baffle.

Not many people knew who Chuck Woolery was either when he was hired to do Wheel.

I would dare say that Amazing Jonathan was an obscurity when Merv hired him to host Ruckus. (clears throat)

I'll bet they'll get Chuck to do some commentary on the show, and there's plenty of interview footage. Chuck has never said an ill word about Wheel, at least in public.

Veering a little off topic, would anyone here still like to see Chuck hosting Wheel for one special week, or at least for the April Fools show? I mean, it probably will NEVER happen (then again, who ever thought Peter would host Squares again, even if it was for one show, and who ever thought Monty would still surface on the LMAD revival).

Not so much a matter of being unknown..Woolery at least had a few TV appearances before WOF..and Trebek was already known as a Game Show Host in Canada brfore Wizard of Odds. but Benirschke was a San Diego Chargers Kicker with NO previous TV experience. According to the ImDB (which at times is known for inaccuracy) The only other time Rolf appears on TV is on ESPN's "SportsCentury"talking about the 1981 Dolphins-Chargers playoff game.

E!'s description:

http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Whee...tune/index.html

As a television personality? Sure. I was certainly familiar with his act as a magician/comedian well before Ruckus, though.

I only got eight out of ten on the quiz. BTW, "a number of shaky starts" suggests that we might get clips from the pilots. It would be very, very easy for them to find some hilariously bad moments from them!

Regarding one question on the quiz. I find that interesting, but wonder if they could've found an alternative method, esp. since J! used pull-cards for the previous 11 years. Either that or a Ferranti-style board.

Oh yeah and 8-2 on the quiz.

I only got 7, but, hey--at least I got a trip to Hawaii!

Oh, I don't really get to go? :-(

Doug

Which brings up an interesting question:

Should you call a high school quiz bowl a game show?

Didn't the Shopper's Bazaar pilot actually use something similiar to the pull card method used on Jeopardy? I heard it mentioned on here last year sometime.

David

Was Art Fleming that well known before he was picked to the original J!? The only thing I know about him pre-J! is that he was once a radio air talent in Akron, OH.

Man -- he got hosed. When will he ever need those sport jackets again?


He did two TV series as an actor; both were probably syndicated (which means even less people saw them than would watch a syndicated drama now). Merv (or his wife, can't remember which) spotted him doing WNBC's late news.

I got 4 right and I won 6,000....eh points. But one question was How long did Chuck Woolery host Wheel. Didn't he host it for 6 years, not 7?

Started 1/75, finished 12/81. It's close enough to 7 years.

Ahhh Okay. I thought Wheel debuted in Sept.

Thanks

Just a reminder to everyone that this airs tonight!

Nice to see Chuck and Susie, among many others, appear on E!THS, as well as the woman who almost got Vanna's job, Vicki McCarty Iovine. I Googled and found out that, yes, Vicki's husband is record producer and executive, Jimmy Iovine.

Not to mention.....say it with me.....ANOTHER PLAYBOY PLAYMATE......

ObGS: "Price" is notorious for Playmates starting with the Queen Playmate.

Looks like the 1st episode (among some others) still exists.

Line of the day comes from Merv Griffin.

Knock, knock...
Who's there?
Goen...
Goen who?
Go and hmmm yourself.

There were a few things that surprised me in the show:

For starters, the footage and stills from the pilots and early years of the were a real treat.

But the thing that really surprised me was that Mark Goodson tried to "steal" Susan Stafford away from the show. Let's suppose for a moment that Susan did make the jump to TPIR, then I assume Holly Holstrom never would have been hired.

Also, A GUY UNDER THE WHEEL!? I can't believe Standards & Practices let them get away with that. Anyone care to explain that one?

-Sam

Good show tonight. Lots of stuff I didn't know. That bit about Goodson and Price surprised me, too. But Susan's no dummy.

So, which would you take?

PRICE: No billing, little interaction with the host, mostly just stand there and point at stuff and look cute...

or WHEEL: Host introduces you, walk through a curtain to applause (OK, partially the canned NBC variety), on camera about half the time, get to drive the car out (and toot the horn), and get to chum it up with the host, and you get billing.

Makes the Price job attractive, doesn't it?

PRICE: Audience of 350
WHEEL: Audience of 8

I agree, Susan's no dummy. No one in their right mind would have made that jump. That's what's so surprising about it: that Goodson even offered.

If the siutation were reversed, with Merv trying to woo a Barker Beauty to "Wheel", I could see it.

Just add this one to the "what might have been" file, along with Jimmy Connors and Joe Namath being game show hosts!