'Wheel' has been one of fortune for Pat Sajak

Web posted July 4, 1998

By Susan King
Los Angeles Times

Pat Sajak jokes that he knows the alphabet "by heart. It's amazing.''

As the affable host of television's top-rated syndicated series, Wheel of Fortune, Mr. Sajak, 51, has won three Emmys and a People's Choice Award. On average, more than 16 million viewers tune in nightly to see him and his glamorous co-host, Vanna White, guide three contestants through the TV version of Hangman.

That would make Wheel a Top 20 show if it were on in prime time.

Mr. Sajak, a onetime disc jockey, was a weatherman at Los Angeles' KNBC-TV (Channel 4) when he was tapped by Wheel creator and executive producer Merv Griffin in 1981 to take the host's reins of Wheel, then an NBC daytime show, from Chuck Woolery. It moved into syndication in the fall of 1983.

Mr. Sajak, the father of two young children, chatted about Wheel and his other business ventures in a telephone interview from Maryland, where he was vacationing with his family.

Q: Is it true you work only 39 days a year on Wheel of Fortune?

A: We only tape our show 39 days a year. The rest of the time I pretend like I'm in show business.

It's a very sporadic schedule. The only time we can count on not really taping is the time we are in now -- June and July. The other 10 months, it is nothing more than four or five days a month. Typically, we will tape two days in a row and we'll tape 10 shows. My children don't know I have a job! I get to be a full-time father and sort of pretend to hold down a full-time job. It's a good deal. People always ask, "Are you burned out?'' How can you be burned out?

Q: Hasn't the game itself changed a bit since 1981?

A: A little bit. When it first started it was a shopping show. You won money with which you could buy cheesy, overpriced products. Then we went basically to cash some years ago. They have spiffed up the set a little bit, and Vanna doesn't turn the letters anymore (she touches them). Eventually, she'll just think of the letters and they'll light up.

Q: Have you been able to put your finger on the reason for its enormous appeal?

A: I wish the heck I knew. One of the things about this wonderful, wacky business is that you don't know the answer to that question on any show. Who knows? It is a good game. If you think about it, the object of our game is not to solve the puzzle immediately. It is to solve the puzzle and amass money. It is not a lightning-fast game. If you are at home, you are ahead of the players. So there is that sort of superiority feeling. If you pass a television set and a puzzle is showing, I defy you not to play along.

Then somewhere along the line, and I don't know exactly where, we became more than a popular game show. We sort of crossed over and became part of pop culture. If you go to a comedy club and a comic makes a joke about Wheel of Fortune, even if you haven't seen the show you understand the reference.