I love watching television shows, particularly variety/game shows. Back in 2008, I wrote in my Blogger profile 'Favourite TV Shows: Variety Shows'. Yes, that's what I wrote back then and even left it on the blog before I closed my blog temporarily. When I re-opened it, I found that how lame was my profile. Lame, absolutely lame! Therefore, it's time to improvised and turned into 'Random Blog' which you see it right now.
Back to the topic. I've seen a lot of variety/game shows throughout my life. BUT! This particular TV game show was one of my all-time favourites. Guess what? I've been a fan of this show for 17 years!
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| Source: gameshows.about.com |
Back when I was 3 years old, I was staring at the TV screen, looking at that big wheel spinning round and round. When I looked at it, I found that it was an interesting show and started to like it. Because of that, it's been 17 years since I started watching. First, it was the big wheel that attracted me. After that, I watched on the alphabets, words and phrases, and also listened to how the hosts, contestants and announcer speak. Apart from school, Wheel of Fortune is the show where I learn my English.
I didn't want to share this post at first because I don't know why, I find it very embarrassing to share with people. I always thought that not many people in my country would know that show. When someone asked me what kind of games do I like to play? I would only answer 'Word games' but I didn't go on further to say 'Hangman' or even 'Wheel of Fortune'. Word games are the only games that I like to play because I like to think, wanting to solve the partially-filled puzzle. Although there are other games that I like to play, word games still top my list.
Ever since I liked watching Wheel, I started to search for more information about the show.
Wait! I started to watch that show on TV since I was 3 years old?! How could that be? According to the information that I've searched, Wheel has aired in many countries, be it their own adaption of the show or the American version of the show. Under the 'Singapore' category, it stated that it only started airing since the 19th season (2001 - 2002) and also it was the Mediacorp days. I find it misleading and I wanted to edit it out. The US version of the show started airing on Singapore television way before Mediacorp was formed in the early 2000s.
My first time watching Wheel on TV was in its Season 14 (1996 - 1997) on TCS Channel 5 (Pre-Mediacorp days in the 1990s). I could remember that it aired weekdays at 6pm and was followed by the Singapore version of 'The Pyramid Game'. After Pyramid was cancelled, Wheel became the only English language program that I would watch. After Season 14, the TV station continued to air new seasons of the show, from seasons 15 to 19 (1997 - 2002).
In 2002, Singapore decided to have its own version of Wheel. Hence, I think the US version has stopped for a while to make way for the Singapore version. Instead of airing weekdays, it aired Wednesdays to Fridays. Instead of airing it at 6pm, it aired at 9pm, before the news started. The dollar values on the wheel were too cheap, prizes back then were not in favour and car was only offered in the first tournament while the rest of the tournaments were cash. After that, it's history until US version of Wheel was back for its historic 20th season.
After the 20th season of Wheel was aired in Singapore, the TV station did not acquire more seasons. I felt disappointed at that time and clueless on why did they never bring in new seasons. As I watched other shows, I thought that airing Wheel in Singapore might be difficult until that day came in 2008.
In 2008, the TV channel itself improvised their programming and Wheel was brought back again. That time, it aired its Season 25 (2007 - 2008). However, it made me even more clueless on why they didn't air seasons 21 - 24 (2003 - 2007). Anyway, as long as Wheel was back on air, I could continue watching. Instead of airing weekdays at 6pm, it aired Tuesdays to Thursday at 7.30pm. And what made it so ridiculous, due to Beijing Olympics, the show stopped airing after 22 episodes. After the Olympics, the show never continued, which made me angry and upset. Fortunately, the show continued to air in late 2008/early 2009. Season 26 (2008 - 2009) was also aired after the end of Season 25. After that, it stopped airing again until 2013. Again, it skipped another 3 more seasons to Season 30, which is currently airing it now.
I don't know why they skipped some seasons. Skipping the seasons made audience clueless on what happened to those changes. I can believe, for sure, not many people will know how the 'Wild Card' works which premiered in Season 24, why the 'Mystery Wedges' turned from $500 to $1,000 which was changed during Season 22, what is the purpose of 'Free Play' (Season 27), where's the 'Free Spin' (Retired after Season 26), why are there '1/2 car' tags (First introduced for 1 week in Season 28, became permanent in Season 29) and most importantly, why does the announcer voice change? (Previous announcer, Charlie O' Donnell, passed away in November 2010 which was a few weeks after Season 28 premiered and it was replaced by Jim Thornton who became permanent in Season 29).
As a fan, it doesn't stop at watching the show. I got their handheld games,computer games and also a Nintendo Wii video game, specially purchased from an online game store where its headquarters is in Hong Kong.
Airing the US version of Wheel in Singapore did have 'skipping' involved and when it does, I would always look for the latest updates on how the game works right now. I may not be the best in knowing the history of my favourite game show which was first started in 1973 as 'Shopper's Bazaar' than people in the United States, I may be one of the best in knowing that outside the United States based on my years of experience watching Wheel.
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