Six months before Pat Sajak announced his retirement from his four-decade gig as the beloved star of Wheel of Fortune, his quick wit was still as sharp as ever. In what the host believed was a first, we met a comedy stage hypnotist, Brandon O’Brien, who became the day’s winningest contestant — a Ford Escape! — on the January 27, 2023, episode. At Sajak’s urging, Brandon described his act: “We get the volunteers up onstage, and then they relax, and they’ll pretty much do anything I ask them to do.”
“Wow,” Sajak responded, not missing a beat. “It’s like being a game show host.”
He should know.
Few TV personalities have had the staying power of Sajak, and few have made it look so easy. No small feat in a profession that veteran game show producer Mark Goodson once likened to steering backward down a mountain, looking through the rearview mirror, and being witty all the while.
Like many of his ilk, Sajak earned his broadcasting stripes on radio and local TV news, honing an affable demeanor and spontaneously friendly attitude that has made the Chicago native a natural for putting nervous contestants at ease. Even after thousands upon thousands of episodes, he understands that for everyone he meets on the Sony Pictures Studios stage, it’s a new and overwhelming experience, and it’s his gift to make them not only feel welcome but like winners — even when they lose.
(Credit: ABC/Ricky Middlesworth)
Example: In the same episode as Brandon’s, Sajak greeted an Air Force veteran named Florence who admitted she cried whenever she was happy. She had an unfortunate run, landing often on Bankrupt, and when the game was over, he quipped: “Well, I wish we’d made you cry more often.” How does that not make you laugh?
Sadly for his legion of fans, the wheel of time has prompted the chipper 77-year-old to step down when this season ends. He’s earned the rest and the tributes, but it’s going to be a jolt to our TV ecosystem when we see Vanna White, who does the legwork on Wheel, bantering with a man other than her longtime work husband once Ryan Seacrest comes aboard.
Pat and Vanna. Like other famous TV partnerships — Lucy and Ricky, Bert and Ernie, Donny and Marie, Laverne and Shirley, Kelly and (fill in the blank), even Batman and Robin — the cheerfully glib emcee and his fashionable lady of the letters have earned a degree of pop-culture-icon status unique to the game show world. Their easy rapport, parceled out as chatty bookends to open and close each episode, is an endearing and essential part of the Wheel formula.
Sajak acknowledged as much in a 2007 interview for the Television Academy Foundation. “We became, in this strange way, part of people’s lives, almost their life cycle. It was dinner time, they played Wheel. We just became part of the atmosphere. It’s kind of like the sunset: You might not go out and watch it every night, but it’s nice to know it’s out there. We’re a comfort to people. It would seem odd if we weren’t there, even if they’re not watching us every day. I don’t know how that happened and how we became part of that, but it’s a wonderful spot to be in.”
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Here’s how it happened. He was the right man for the right show at the right time, setting the self-effacing tone for a timeless program that millions keep time by. (I knew never to call my mom while Wheel and Jeopardy! were on.) In his 2007 interview, he laid out his Wheel philosophy: “The star of the show is the game. The second tier of stars are the players, so somehow you have to sublimate that sort of natural performer’s desire to be the center of attention.”
And here’s the thing about those celebrities we invite into our living rooms on a daily basis. When they’re as reliably entertaining as Sajak, they do become like family, part of an eagerly anticipated routine, a tradition that we can too easily take for granted. There are generations who don’t remember TV before Pat and Vanna’s tenure on Wheel, and while we might wish things will never change, they always do.
The wheel will continue to spin, and Wheel of Fortune will continue to evolve and flourish in the way its syndicated companion show Jeopardy! has since Alex Trebek’s untimely death in 2020. But Sajak’s retirement clearly marks the end of an era.
The Pat Sajak era, when we were all royally amused by the clown prince of the game show kingdom, on whose cool and unflappable shoulders a flashy TV version of Hangman became a phenomenon.
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s Wheel of Fortune: Farewell, Pat Sajak issue. For more inside scoop on the long-running game show and Pat’s final episode, pick up a copy of the issue available on newsstands and for order online at WheelofFortuneMag.com.
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