Okay. I admit it. I like a game show.
I always have.
I’m not sure how or when it started, but they have always interested me. I get sucked into them, really. I could be walking through a room, and there might be a game show on TV somewhere. It drags me right in. I like to guess the answers.
Like Jeopardy. Or, in the case of Wheel of Fortune, figuring out the missing letters to form the word. It is the original TV version of Wordle. When my Mom was in the nursing home, she liked to watch The Price Is Right. And so we would.
But as a kid, I used to love to watch games like Password with Allen Ludden and Betty White. Or What’s My Line? Or Tell The Truth.
I mention this because I noticed that today is Pat Sajak’s birthday, October 26, 1946. We watch the Wheel frequently in the evenings. We just do.
And I think old Pat does a great job hosting the Wheel of Fortune. I must not be alone in this assessment, as Sajak had been the host for a long time. The Wheel of Fortune debuted in 1975. It has become the longest-running syndicated game show on American television. As such, Pat Sajak and his co-host, Vanna White, are a couple of pop-culture icons.
So here’s the thing.
I think he’s funny and quick on his feet. I enjoy watching him host the show, making fun of himself and also making fun of others in a friendly sort of way. It makes the show work. So yeah. I liked the guy.
But I didn’t know much about him. Now I’ve discovered he was born in Chicago. He went to Columbia College. Sajak joined the army in 1968 and went to Vietnam. Over there, he became a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon.
When he got out of the army, he worked in radio and TV and became a weatherman for a Los Angeles TV station. And then, in 1981, Merv Griffin hired Pat as the host of Wheel. Before Pat, Chuck Woolery was the host of Wheel for the network daytime version. In 1983, it became a syndicated evening program. It hasn’t missed a minute of word-solving fun with Pat and Van since that time.
But I’m getting to the thing. Recently, Pat Sajak appeared in a photo shoot with Georgia Congresswoman and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene. It went a bit viral on social media. I dug in a bit and found that he is a Republican, donating money to Republican organizations.
So now, I’m faced with a dilemma about myself. My initial response? “Never again will I watch the Wheel of Fortune,” I declared in my kitchen, holding my hand over my heart.
But I’m not so sure about this cancel culture of ours.
On many levels.
There seems to be a lot of this going on. On both sides of the political line.
It certainly isn’t helping things any as our divide grows larger and larger.
On the other hand. Do I want to knowingly support someone, in business or otherwise, who makes a concerted effort to work against human rights? Like equality for non-whites, women, gays, immigrants, and on and on?
As for the show and Pat, they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Wheel of Fortune is one of the most popular TV shows in the world.
But still, there is this. Tune in, or tune out? That is the question.
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“People are pretty much alike. It’s only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.”
— Linda Ellerbee
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“The time to quit is before you wish you had.”
― Kimberly K. Jones, Sand Dollar Summer
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“Are you sure you want to quit? All unsaved progress will be lost.”
― Nintendo
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Spin or solve.
