Wheel of Fortune THIS | Golden Skate

Wheel of Fortune THIS

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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.)
 
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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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.
 
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Scrufflet

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
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

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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/headlin...es-chance-at-prize-after-mispronouncing-word/
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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.
 
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Scrufflet

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
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!
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
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.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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.
 

Scrufflet

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Woah Chris! Very interesting! It's time to organize every disabled person in the community, every ethnic background, every person with an accent and bombard them with entries!
As to keeping people with broad accents off, I recall watching years ago when a woman from somewhere in the east (don't know where;I'm not actually good with accents) had a very broad one. Pat couldn't understand her when she asked for vowels and I couldn't either. Never saw that happen again. It makes me think af what a nightmare it could be in Canada where we have many languages, cultur4es and accents. In particular, a very large French-Canadian community. Think of how our Quebecois skaters speak. A WOF that denied them based on accent would create a national incident!
But I hope that WOF takes the responses to heart and realizes how mean-spirited it was to deny that woman.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Even tiny little England—and more so the British Isles in general—would have such a problem. Britain is famous for its regional accents, though I gather there's been some homogenization lately due to the spread of "BBC standard" English that enters everyone's home through TV. In Britain, accent doesn't just mean region, it can also mean class. One of the most endearing traits of Zara Phillips, Princess Anne's daughter (and now an equestrian medalist from the London Olympics) is that she has somehow managed to develop a completely different accent from her mother and royal grandmother, her father, and even her brother. It's a much more regional, working-class accent that I've researched and learned is called an "estuary accent," so named because it's spoken around the Thames and its estuary. The first time I heard her in an interview I almost fell over in surprise. It makes you realize what a nonconformist she is and how free her mother kept her from royal constraints. In that accent, the final /l/ sound is often pronounced almost like a /w/.

Anyway, as I said in an earlier post, some people from various spots in Britain, including Zara Phillips, would have a tough time collecting their money on Wheel of Fortune if they received a strict judgment after pronouncing a phrase. It's all very well to say "you must speak correctly," but to people growing up with a particular accent, that is speaking correctly. (Speaking of the word judgment, Gerald Ford, our late former President, used to pronounce the word with an extra syllable: judg-uh-ment. He wouldn't win any money on that show either. Fortunately, this possibility takes nothing away from his accomplishments in life.)
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
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.

I beleive WOF is syndicated. So, it's broadcast rights are sold to local markets and can end up on different networks from region to region and air at different times of the day.

Personally, I don't blame Pat or Vanna - there have been a lot of contestants who have mis-spoke and lost and they aren't obligated to say 'I know you knew it, so, I'm going to give you the money myself'. I believe the rules say that you must recite the answer in it's full form - abbreviations not allowed. If the 'G' hadn't been revealed, this wouldn't have been as much of an issue. That's why so many of the players enunciate their responses painstakenly on WOF.

I do believe that the producers should give this woman a do-over. I think I have seen this occur on other episodes [where the contestant didn't provide the correct answer, but it was apparent they knew the answer.], but in those cases, the mistake was in the unrevealed letters. There have been other game shows that have made errors. Since you can't guess what might've happened if the game had continued, they usually invite the contestant back for a do-over. Some accept, others don't. It's not a perfect solution, but it is a second chance that they would not have had based upon the contract about multiple appearances within a given time frame.

I believe that it's against the law to not attempt to accommodate a person with physical disabilities. In the case of someone who's blind, they would need a 'Vanna' to reveal the letters in Braille to the contestant - probably with someone else looking on to ensure that the person isn't revealing too many letters. For hearing impaired, they could have the person write down their letter choice on a small white board and reveal to all - as well as have a board with each letter filled in, where the person could write in the missing letters to show their answer - they couldn't use an interpreter because they want to avoid the possibility/perception that the interpreter is helping out the person. WOF is one of the easier shows to do this because everyone has a turn in order. It would be harder to do on Jeopardy where some of the questions are audio and/or visual.

BTW, they do interview the contestants and pick people who can speak well in order to avoid this type of issue. When we went to Let's Make A Deal, it was apparent that they were looking for people who were very enthusiastic and excitable, as well as good speakers and confident in manner. Being on TV is nerve wracking enough, which is why they don't pick people who can't speak or have a conversation with a screener in small groups. Even then, some of their picks get stage struck.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Ah! Syndication. Of course. That had not occurred to me. Thanks for clarifying, Heyang.

I actually once saw an episode of Jeopardy where a woman with a visual impairment got a visual question. It was heartbreaking, because she just couldn't answer it. I wish they had been able to describe the picture to her or give some hint, because as I recall the situation there was nothing in the description that would have given the answer away. Trebek was very apologetic. The woman was a very good contestant, and she lost steam after that and didn't win.

I know we've drifted away from the original topic from time to time, but it's been fun considering all the side issues. One is the law you mentioned, Heyang, that ensures that the disabled be accommodated in a wider range of situations. I'm glad that these days, thanks to the ADA,, there's more incentive to represent the disabled in all the fun stuff of life, like game shows, as well as the practical aspects of things such as accessibility to public buildings. I still remember a charming Kellogg's Corn Flakes ad some years ago featuring a young woman who reacted to the taste of corn flakes entirely by signing, with written subtitles. These moves can only make popular culture better and more interesting.

I imagine that one good opportunity to have someone with a visual or hearing impairment on WOF would be in an episode where partners are featured, which I know they've done several times. Then the partners could divide the labor, with one partner seeing or hearing whatever is needed and both thinking out the answer and strategizing.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
I beleive WOF is syndicated. So, it's broadcast rights are sold to local markets and can end up on different networks from region to region and air at different times of the day.

You beat me too.
 
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