Even now in 2024, at the age of 57, just as I had just turned 13 in December of 1979, I still miss Chuck as the Wheel host. Nothing against Pat Sajak, the man's been hosting one version or another of this program since 1981, the longest tenured host of any American game show past, present, and probably future, but there was a coziness to daytime game shows, especially during the heyday of the 1970s. The 80s still had a good fair share of non-syndicated major network daytime game shows, but by the early 1990s they began to fizzle out and fade away for good. NBC's last daytime game show was Caesar's Challenge from 1994, and now even that is 30 years ago already. Still a delight to watch 70's Wheel episodes. Makes me both happy and sad at the same time.
I remember trying out for WOF in the 80's when Chuck was still the host. They had auditions in this place in Los Angeles. I didn't get picked, they said I wasn't photogenic. Twenty years later, I tried out in Reno when they were having an audition there, I didn't get picked, but they said they would keep our names on file and may call us back. I got a call back two weeks later. Had an audition in Reno again, and we were told if we were selected, we'd be called within two weeks. Got the call on the last day of the two weeks! Only won 3,000 on the show, mainly because this lady was hogging up the wheel and I didn't know who Luke and Owen Wilson were! 😅
@@Angie2343 Read it again, ready player one never said Chuck was dead. And by the way, Ready Player One, if you applied the first time and Chuck still hosted, it could not have been far in "the 80s", but during 1980 or 1981 at the latest since Chuck's last telecast was aired on Christmas 1981
This was recorded off of WTCN-TV Channel 11 in Minneapolis just several months after it became that market's NBC affiliate, which it is to this day. In 1985, the call letters switched to KARE. It was the ABC affiliate in the Twin Cities from 1953 to 61 and an independent station from 1961 to 79.
well luckily he got to host more game shows after this. I can't imagine what Love Connection and Scrabble would have been like without Chuck. And it's not like Pat is the worst game show host because I can name hundreds of hosts worse than him with all the celebrities that they've had host game shows. It's like you can't even host a game show anymore without being at least a c-list celebrity prior to hosting anymore.
