Wheel of Fortune THIS

[CoyoteChris]

I have anger issues......unless you have been out of touch, you know that a member of our armed services was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune.
She was playing along and was ready to solve the puzzle. But, instead of saying "Seven swans a swimming" she said "Seven swans a swimmin', at least according
to the judges. Even though the "G" was already on the board, she was robbed of $3850 dollars, as far as I can tell. Now I don’t know her ethnicity, her accent, or if she
has a speech impediment like I do, and I don’t care. I am as mad as Hell. If her accent is good enough for Naval Intelligence were she works, its ok by me. She is being very gracious,
cause she has way more class than the host and his eye candy assistant, who, if they had any class, would have walked off the show when the judges robbed one of our sailors.

Believing it is better to light one candle than curse the darkness, I am contacting all the advertisers I can find that sponsor that show and let them know what I think of the show and them for
supporting it. Screw you, CBS.

[Olympia]

That's a mispronunciation?! Yipes, it isn't more than a regional variant. Well, of all the idiotic moves. I suppose they would penalize someone from Texas who says "embrawdery," the way Jaclyn Smith does on K-Mart ads, because the diphthong is missed. What boneheads! It's not as if the servicewoman doesn't know how to spell the participial form. So if my friend from Spain, who is fluent in three languages, came on the show and said something in her perfectly serviceable (and charming) accent, she couldn't possibly win, even though she could outguess the other contestants six ways to Sunday.

You would think that by now Pat Sajak and Vanna White had enough clout to be able to speak up on the woman's behalf. Naval Intelligence? She does more for her country every day than that pair has done in thirty years.

(I think Wheel of Fortune is on ABC, by the way, unless it's on another network west of the Mississippi. Don't curse CBS! They air NCIS and Blue Bloods.)

[Tonichelle]

(I think Wheel of Fortune is on ABC, by the way, unless it's on another network west of the Mississippi. Don't curse CBS! They air NCIS and Blue Bloods.)

ABC here too.

[Olympia]

I pay a lot of attention to pronunciation because one of the things we write about at work is phonics. There's a lot of variation in pronunciation across a country this size, and extra layers of variety are added by the fact that many Americans speak English as a second language, so they pronounce certain sounds differently.

Just the regional variations are enough to give us variety. There are people in the South who pronounce "pen" and "pin" virtually identically--Paula Deen, the celebrity chef, probably does. My friend from Wyoming says "root" so that it almost rhymes with "put." And there are whole swaths of the country where "mirror" is pronounced as a one-syllable word. (Sort of like "meeer.") And so what? They all probably think I have a funny accent. This is what language is.

When I was in the U.K., I found that there's a difference between Northern and Southern pronunciation there, too. Unless I've gotten it turned around, Southerners say "tortoise" the way I always grew up hearing it, "TORR-tuss," while the other group says "torr-TOYCE." One group pronounces the color mauve in the French way that we use over here in the U.S., "mowve," with a long o sound. The other group says "mawve" with an "aw" vowel sound. Variety is the spice of life! Would an English Wheel of Fortune show insist on BBC-standard pronunciation? Yipes! There would be carnage.

For myself, I prefer watching Jeopardy. They're upfront about the kind of precision they require, for instance including "The" in movie titles where it's relevant. Interestingly, they don't mark off for spelling for the final Jeopardy question, where contestants must write their answers.

Oh, by the way, there's a Houston Street in New York City that's pronounced House-ton, not Huuuston, like the city. The city of Newark, Delaware, is pronounced New-ARK, stress on the second syllable, not NEW-ark, like the New Jersey city. And the college in Massachusetts called Amherst is pronounced am-hurst by some people, but Amherst students pronounce it "amurst" without the H.

Also, while I'm thinking of it, there's the Southern/Western pronunciations of "wadn't" for "wasn't," and "hep" for "help." The letter L is often fudged, from Californians saying "Acapoo-co" for "Acapulco" to African Americans leaving the "l" off the end of "cool" to people from somewhere or other swallowing the "l" in "folder." All these I've heard with my own ears, from the mouths of educated people. The pool of possible Wheel of Fortune contestants is getting narrower by the minute.

[Scrufflet]

And let us not forget those who seem to insert "sh" where it doesn't belong - "shtrongly" and "shtructure". This drives me nuts. But I digress!
Back to WOF. Once the puzzle solution was "Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa". Not one person could pronounce it properly and they stumbled around until somebody got it right after the seventh try! This is ridiculous! Imagine what would happen if they had names of Russian figure skaters! Aack!

[CoyoteChris]

Thanks! I will check ABC....he web says it is produced by Sony....I will check local listings...
I think the hosts showed a distinct lack of class. Pat S. is a multi millionaire. He should have said to the lady, see me after the show and please allow me to make amends out of my own pocket so I can regain a bit of honor and morals
for this show....
Check this out....
The December 20 show featured contestant Michael Rufus, who won $4600 with "Hickory-Smoked Country Ham." But when he says the phrase, he appears to miss the letter "D" in the word "smoked." For a show that seems to take pride in demanding that contestants say the puzzles correctly, it seems baffling that the judges made contradictory rulings on two puzzles during the same taping session ("Wheel" typically tapes a week's worth of episodes in one day).

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...nouncing-word/

[Olympia]

Good point about the s/sh pronunciation, Scrufflet. And a lot of Spanish speakers pronounce the z sound as s, now that I'm thinking about this.

I also thought of something else. Does this policy eliminate deaf and hearing-impaired people who speak? Someone such as Marlee Matlin would be kept off the program because, although she communicates fluently both speaking and signing, her pronunciation isn't always standard. And she has an Oscar. She sometimes speaks through an interpreter. Maybe they would accept her interpreter's pronunciation of the answer....you see how ridiculous and insulting this can get for contestants.

Chris, your point about Sajak (or Vanna White, for that matter) giving the money is a great one. And the money should be given publicly, to shame the producers into changing their policy. This reminds me of something I watched on another show. On the cooking channel, there's a chef's contest. Only the winner gets any money; the prize is ten thousand dollars. After several elimination rounds, it came down to two chefs, a woman from France and a guy, Lance Nitahara, neither of them wealthy celebrity chefs. The young woman said that if she won, she'd use some of the money to go see her grandmother in the old country. In the end, the guy won. He looked at the woman and said, "I'm giving you the ticket money." Whenever they show that episode, it takes my breath away.

[Scrufflet]

And another thought! Have you ever seen anybody on the show who is disabled? Once, I saw a man who could not spin the wheel and had someone do it for him. He was fine with the rest. No canes, no wheelchairs, no visible impairments! Shows like Ellen have people in wheelchairs in the front row and they don't make a big too-do about it.
What about visual impairments? Ever see a braille wheel? I'd like to!

[Olympia]

Good points. It would make the show accessible to a wider range of contestants.

[Tonichelle]

I don't know that you could do braille just because the score board is not capable of it, some things you just can't help.

[Olympia]

Maybe, but there's often a way around these things. One just has to think outside the box. After watching Oscar Pistorius run in the Olympics, I begin to think that many situations are a lot more elastic than they seem to be at first. One possibility: the scoreboard doesn't have to be in braille; it could be audio.

[CoyoteChris]

Chris, your point about Sajak (or Vanna White, for that matter) giving the money is a great one. And the money should be given publicly, to shame the producers into changing their policy. This reminds me of something I watched on another show. On the cooking channel, there's a chef's contest. Only the winner gets any money; the prize is ten thousand dollars. After several elimination rounds, it came down to two chefs, a woman from France and a guy, Lance Nitahara, neither of them wealthy celebrity chefs. The young woman said that if she won, she'd use some of the money to go see her grandmother in the old country. In the end, the guy won. He looked at the woman and said, "I'm giving you the ticket money." Whenever they show that episode, it takes my breath away.

In the case of WOF, I imagine these two multi-millionaires were afraid of their producers. Great evil is done when good people do nothing. And, of course, in the case you pointed out, great good is done when good people do everything.

[CoyoteChris]

I have to go with Toni on this one. This is a visual game and I have no problem with blind people not being chosen, all though I certainly wouldnt have a problem if there was a braille board in front of a blind person and that person could read it and play fast enough to keep up. But there is no reason a person with a speech impediment or accent could not spell out the answer on a tablet. I assume the producers keep people with heavy New York or southern or New England accents off the show.

I don't know that you could do braille just because the score board is not capable of it, some things you just can't help.

[CoyoteChris]

Well well well, Y'all ready for this? The Wheelmobile is coming to a casino 5 miles from my house looking for contestants.....June 29th. WOF is produced by Sony Televison, in conjuntion with CBS television, and in my area it is on NBC.
Here are the requirments. Copied and pasted here...
What are the contestant eligibility requirements?
•You must be at least 18 years of age.
•You are not eligible to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune if you work for or are related to anyone who works for Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., CBS Television Distribution Group, Sony Pictures Television International, game show prize suppliers, KHQ-TV (including its advertisers and affiliated radio stations), or any TV stations or networks broadcasting Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy!.


•You are not eligible to appear on Wheel of Fortune if you have appeared on another game show, dating-relationship show or reality show in the last year or three game shows, dating-relationship shows or reality shows in the last ten years.
•You are not eligible if you have appeared on any version of Wheel of Fortune.
•All expenses incurred while interviewing and (if selected as a contestant) appearing on the show are the responsibility of the applicant.


•The applicant understands that Wheel of Fortune is under no obligation to use him/her as a contestant. It is entirely at the producer's discretion.

REASONABLE ACCOMODATIONS SHALL BE MADE FOR PERSONS WITH PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS AND/OR DISABILITIES.

[Olympia]

Interesting. Very interesting.

And it's produced by CBS? And on NBC in your area? And ABC in other localities. It really is true about all those companies being in one another's pockets.