Last year Stephen Colbert asked Jim Gaffigan what’s new, the classic slow-pitch-down-the-middle that talk show hosts serve their guests. Gaffigan swung from his heels.
“The biggest thing, probably, since I’ve seen you, is Pat Sajak retiring,” the comedian said. “People ... you can see how stunned they are.”
Are we? Maybe a little. Game shows aren’t supposed to change. They’re supposed to endure, a bedrock of entertainment stability in an otherwise rapidly shifting culture. We don’t focus on them, hardly talk about them unless a contestant goes on a run or makes some laughable error.
And their hosts reign for decades, none more so than Pat Sajak, the longest-serving TV game show host in history — 8,000 episodes of “Wheel of Fortune” over 41 years, a tenure that ends Friday.
“Wheel of Fortune” is still the 2nd most-watched game show in the country, after its brainier cousin “Jeopardy!” and some years is No. 1. Though there is a disconnect between the show’s huge popularity and the esteem granted its host.
“He’s the host of ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ but really, is there anything Pat Sajak can’t do?” Gaffigan deadpanned. “He’s, ah, he’s ... like a renaissance man.”
Meaning: He’s not. Sajak is a blandly handsome former weatherman who got very rich playing a mash-up of “Hangman” and roulette on television. Aided almost the entire time by the truly incredible Vanna White — and I say “truly incredible” because while most models hired to smile radiantly on game shows are anonymous and replaceable, White has endured as the nation’s letter-turner, becoming a household name whose job is set to continue through at least 2026, when she will be 69.
Sajak might be smirked at by comedians now. But once he was a hot prospect, the next Johnny Carson. CBS tapped him as heir to the late night throne in January 1989, debuting “The Pat Sajak Show,” a carbon copy of “The Tonight Show.” Critics credited his upbringing as qualifying him to replace Nebraska-born Carson.
“Sajak, like Carson, is a child of the Midwest,” TV critic Dan Ruth wrote in the Sun-Times. “He’s a son of Chicago.”
That he is. Born Pat Sajdak, he attended Farragut High School and Columbia College, working for a stint as a desk clerk at the Palmer House. He served in Vietnam, fled to the West Coast. He dropped the “d” in his name and somehow Chicago never stuck to him — he became one of those celebrities like Harrison Ford, born here yet not really associated with the place.
The talk show was Sajak’s low point.
“This so-called Johnny-in-waiting quickly became a disaster,” Rick Kogan wrote in the Tribune. His show was “a bore ... his humor skirts between artificial and innocuous” all performed in a “sad tone of resignation and desperation.”
I should probably admit that I never watched “Wheel of Fortune” — not an entire program. A minute here or there, in the background, at the home of an aged relative. Of course I saw the occasional blooper on social media, where clueless contestants fail to grasp an obvious phrase.
But I am a fan of “Jeopardy!” and “Jeopardy!” fans, despite our pretensions, should realize we owe a debt to “Wheel of Fortune” and Pat Sajak.
Remember: “Jeopardy!” was off the air for almost a decade, from 1975 to 1984. The only reason it was brought back was because “Wheel of Fortune” was having trouble in syndication. Local stations wanted game shows in hour-long blocks — easier to schedule. So “Jeopardy!” was reincarnated, and Alex Trebek was picked by Merv Griffin, originator of both shows, to host it. Trebek once filled in for Chuck Woolery, the original “Wheel of Fortune” host.
“We were pitching ‘Wheel’ and ‘Jeopardy!’ as a package deal,” Trebek wrote in his memoir.
Sajak has recently rubbed some viewers the wrong way with his right-wing politics. “I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends” he tweeted. But frankly, given the scale of nuttery going on, Sajak can be forgiven. He’s very rich man in his late 70s. It kinda comes with the territory. Viewers don’t hold it against him.
“I do love ‘Wheel of Fortune’” and I’m not 80,” Gaffigan said, marveling that Sajak ever felt the need to quit. ‘This isn’t a real job. You don’t get to retire from playing ‘Hangman.’”
Alas, you do. The old must cede to the young, and Ryan Seacrest, of “American Idol” fame, is the perfect smooth host to step into Sajak’s shoes for the next few decades.
