WARNING: This is a long post, and is meant only in fun -- you say "Let's Pretend", I say "... Okay."
youre a syndication executive; your job is to screen pilots of game shows and make comments about them; you get a dvd of a new show called 'wheel of fortune'
the show you see is the evolved show that the real you sees every night.
you have to write a paragraph or 2 and give constructive criticism.
As an executive with many years in the television business, I must admit that I have never seen a show quite like
Wheel of Fortune. While the format is simple and easy to understand (I found myself playing along with the puzzles), I have a few issues I'd like to bring up:
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Personnel -- Main emcee Pat Sajak appears to be somewhat bored, as if he would rather be elsewhere. He appears to be "going through the motions", as it were. Assistant Vanna White acts fake as well, with what appears to be too much makeup and a trivial use (the puzzle-board is electronic). Announcer Charlie O'Donnell is a veteran of the field, but his contributions here sound almost as if they were pre-recorded for repetition where necessary.
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Set -- Very sparse, with not much in the way of decorations. The large wheel is colorful and nice to look at, although the notes sent with the DVD claimed that the green center was at one point to be used for insert shots during the credits.
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Budget -- Appears to be focused on trips, with the rest being cash. The notes showed beautiful, full-color pictures of the wheel's layouts for each round -- I noticed that 1) Top dollar is always next to a "Bankrupt" space, and 2) No amounts, outside of top dollar, use four digits. In addition, I noticed that items picked up from the wheel during gameplay (such as the trip in Round 1) were not returned to play if they were not won.
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Atmosphere -- Dark and somewhat moody; too many games on the air today use this approach. The constant clapping also got on my nerves after the first three minutes of gameplay. The theme music is extremely generic and immediately forgettable.
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Other --
1) The "Million-Dollar Wedge", according to the notes, is extremely difficult to win; granted, winning such an amount
should be difficult, but hitting a "Bankrupt" space after winning the round in which the wedge was picked-up should not lose that wedge (this contradicts the official rules, as detailed in the notes). When figuring in the fact that the wedge is not returned to play if it is lost, this makes the game somewhat anti-climatic.
2) Halfway through the show, the announcer mentioned that the "Spin I.D." winner also received $50,000 cash if they were an active "Sony Card" holder; this seemed unfair to the in-studio contestants, who had far less to win in the main-game portion.
3) The notes claimed that $1,000 was added to the amount landed upon in the "Final Spin" because pre-pilot "tests" had led to several "runaway games". This said, I noticed after the DVD had finished that the lowest amount is $1,300 -- aside from landing on the top amount, this may in turn lead to more "runaway" games.
4) The cost for "buying a Vowel" is $250, which is lower than the wheel's minimum of $300; this invariably led to several "impulse buys", with no emphasis on strategy. The notes stated that an early idea was to use a wedge entitled "Buy A Vowel", but that it was discarded when it had caused problems in pre-pilot tests.
5) The prizes in the Bonus Round are all cash amounts ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 (plus one worth $100,000). The notes stated that the puzzle's difficulty changed according to the budget and the amount landed upon, then implied that this was not true and the difficulty in fact rested entirely upon the current mood of producer Harry Friedman. If the implication is true, then that is a very unfair thing to contestants.
So in summary, while the format is decent, not much else is. I'm sorry, but with the aforementioned flaws I am afraid that we cannot pick up
Wheel of Fortune for distribution. As per company policy, we shall retain both the DVD and the notes should we decide to pick up the show at a later date. Thank you for your consideration.
-Daniel J. Lawrence; President, DB Enterprises Inc.
