WOF and SOTC

[gsnstooge]

On Wheel of Fortune, how did the Star Space work and what was it played for? Same thing about home viewer dollar bill game on Sale of the Century.

[Rastaub]

Can't speak for the WOF Game, but the SOTC Dollar Bill Contest worked as follows.

Look at a dollar bill, determine the serial number of the bill. Look at the final score of the SOTC match. If the game score matches the serial number, you win a portion of what I believe was a 30K jackpot. For example if the score read player one 50, player two, 70, player three 68, and you had a dollar bill with a serial number of 507068, you are a winner.  

It was reported the Michael Larson of PYL fame spent inordinate amounts of time trying to get rick quick off this contest.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

[quote name=\'Rastaub\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 03:12 PM\'] Can't speak for the WOF Game, but the SOTC Dollar Bill Contest worked as follows.

Look at a dollar bill, determine the serial number of the bill. Look at the final score of the SOTC match. If the game score matches the serial number, you win a portion of what I believe was a 30K jackpot. For example if the score read player one 50, player two, 70, player three 68, and you had a dollar bill with a serial number of 507068, you are a winner.  

It was reported the Michael Larson of PYL fame spent inordinate amounts of time trying to get rick quick off this contest. [/quote]
 I did hear about a dollar bill contest that Michael Larson tried to get a hold of (per GSN's Big Bucks documentary). Was it $ale of the Century's? I did not know that. Thanks for that info.

The Inquisitive One

[Michael Brandenburg]

Well, we had one of "Gsnstooge's" questions answered here, so I'll provide the answer to his other one:

On Wheel of Fortune, how did the Star Space work and what was it played for?

It was called "Star Bonus" and was on for a special week of NBC daytime shows during the Woolery era.  A special "Star Bonus" card was put on the wheel, covering up the wheel's lowest dollar amount ($100 in Rounds 1 and 2; $150 in Round 3).  The first player to land on the "Star Bonus" card during the show would take it off the wheel and would then get to play a special game after the third round on the program for an extra bonus prize.

The contestant would first select from among the special "Star Bonus" prizes available for the game (they would be marked with gold stars).  Then a puzzle and its category was presented to the contestant and he would then select five consonants and one vowel.  The letters in the puzzle corresponding to the letters he selected would be turned around and the contestant would then have 15 seconds to solve the puzzle -- and if he did so, he won the "Star Bonus" prize that he selected.

If the "Star Bonus" card was not landed upon during the program in any of the game's first three rounds, it would be taken off the wheel and a fourth main-game round would be played with all three contestants.


Michael Brandenburg
(Now if this game sounds familiar, that's because it was later revived as a "Bonus Game" for the daily winner of a program -- the difference being that the program's top winner would play it instead of the first player to land on a special card on the wheel!)

[JayC]

Didn't the Big Bucks documentry say that Larson got all those $1 bills because of a radio contest?  I don't remember SOTC being mentioned.

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'JayC\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 10:55 PM\'] Didn't the Big Bucks documentry say that Larson got all those $1 bills because of a radio contest?  I don't remember SOTC being mentioned. [/quote]
 $OTC ran its dollar bill contest about 5 months after his appearance on PYL. Larson was a definite game show watcher, especially around that time. His money was stolen right around Dec. 1984. Suffice it to say, it was the contest that contributed to his loss (although Larson would've probably squandered it anyway).

Tyshaun