European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 18, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine put a Affek is the Host of tort wet of  about 40 million american watch the show Dally. The american dreaming 30-minute chunks a photo by Joanne Othow Denver Postr Eady to play the to game show Gams you know the formula unmitigated greed plastic looking hosts Vanna Protty helpers spin the wheel hit the Buzzer pick the letter answer the question Complete the phrase guess the amount. Scream clap and want it so badly it hurls. Television game shows a a materialistic and competitive. But they also Are therapeutic. Whte contestants salivate Over f fabulous prizes Home viewers Are vicarious winners and Sale losers psychologists see More to them than hashing lights and Money. It satisfies some competitive instinct says Hannah Evans a clinical psychologist in Denver who won $425 and an encyclopedia As a jeopardy contestant in 1971. Especially wheel of Fortune. Everyone at Home can solve that Puzzle so they eel pretty smart. A lot of people get to Eal Sorl of  viewers also get vicarious adventure and a reinforced idea of easy Money she said the same Hope that fuels lottery Lickel sales. Nationwide game shows have never been More popular or More lucrative for their producers. The Kingpin of course is wheel of Fortune watched by 40 million americans every Day. As tvs no. 1 game show wheel had revenues of $70 million last year wheels Vanna while is undeniably a Star the new age Gal Friday the video Gofer with a million Watt smile. She brings a Balletic turn of lha wrist to her Job As card Flipper revealing tellers correctly guessed by contestants until words appear. This is Atter All Hangman with a Roulette wheel an overblown version of the children s game Vanna is our Pencil and paper. Host Pat Sajak formerly a to Weatherman is so gosh dam Friendly you would swear he had had a made for to Lobotomy. Between grueling round there Are cheers applause upbeat Patter. Howdy what hobbies do you have Pat asks a challenger. More Teeth More hobbies. We can All remember the question we lost on said former contestant Evans her ultimate jeopardy category was  the question its living counterpart was found in a new mexican Forest in 1950." the answer Smokey  no wonder it smolders in her memory. The tension. The thrills Are much the same on tic tac dough joker s wild the various pyramids and Sale of the Century. The prizes Are promotional plugs for name Brand appliances. Vars. Expenses paid vacations or recreational vehicles. Companies give away the Booty in full or in part in Exchange for the introductory mention. Wheel of Fortune dispenses an average of $62.000 in prizes per episode and still stays monday. August 18, 1986 a thin its prize budget of roughly $1 million a year for advertisers this product identification is very Cost efficient according to a vice president at Iho Madison Avenue and Agency Ebdo. Think of it As a min commercial. It gives the smaller advertiser the Chance for National coverage at a lower Cost said bsds s Barbara Walker. Recently one of the Agency s clients paid $3,800lor a product mention on Wheelon Fortune. Wheel audiences pay fervent attention to the winning contestant s Choice of rewards. The silence during deliberations is prayer meeting powerful. Against this emotional roller coaster a newscast does t stand a Chance. Currently 163 stations carry wheel of Fortune All but one a them network affiliates. Most run the show just before during or after the prime time evening news. That Means depending on the affiliate Abc lbs or Abc is getting clobbered in the ratings. In Chicago when the Abc affiliate bought wheel the lbs affiliate crumbled the lbs affiliate s general manager lost his Job and was quoted in the new York times As saying you iry to do everything right journalistic ally and you succeed to a Largo extent and then the most successful game show in the history of the land comes along and cuts your head Oil journalism is Nice but Commerce is real. At Iho moment nothing is More real than the Gamo show the american dream condensed into 30-Mmulo chunks. Tho next wave is Likely to be More of the same tailored to 1980s Yuppie sensibilities. There s a to game show in development that would be an updated Queen Lor a Day in which a panel of Throe judges would award Money to budding entrepreneurs. At stake besides  and advertising Rales Are Profil from syndication rights to game shows. Hundreds of millions of dollars Aro waiting behind door no. 1, door no. 2. Or door no. 3. Bulnes week quoted one successful producer As saying to game shows these Days can do better financially than Star  Budd Granoff. President of bams industries inc., which produces 77w new newlywed game said it costs Only $2.5 million for a Lull year s Worth of 175 episodes less than the Cost of most to movies. Airing in 160 markets this year. The new newlywed game will earn $21 million in profits. Ii the show takes off. Profile could escalate to $35 million next year even higher the next fora three year total approaching $100million. Most of the new game shows Are recycled versions of old formats. Obviously there s Loo much at risk to Gamble on creativity. The old production houses like Griffin Barris Barry 6 Enright and Goodson Todman still Rule the Market with retreads like jeopardy the new Price is right. The new j25,iwo Pyra Najand the $100,000 Pyramid. To game shows graduated into the big Money when the syndication Market changed in the Early 1980s. In 1983. Wheel had been a steady draw Lor Abc s daytime schedule Lor eight years. Then its production company. Merv Griffin enterprises teamed with King world productions to create a new syndicated version at the show. The growing number of Independent stations desperately needed now programming. At the same time the Supply of programs Tor independents was shrinking As the networks began cancelling shows More rapidly not allowing them to butt up libraries of episodes suitable for syndication King world stepped in to fill the void. Early fringe after school hours and Access Early evening time periods were Ripe for  the evening time Slot carries higher Slakes . Bigger prizes since the and Rales Are commensurately higher. The $5,000 prize on the daytime show becomes o $25,000 Giveaway in the evening. Overall the game show phenomenon is a reasonably healthy Way of getting the adrenalin going said psychologist Evans. You could go Over the Lino though if you watch every game show enter every contest mail in every  the fall 86 Market remains Ripe for greed. A show starting in september called Striko ii Rich is Joe Garagiola s vehicle to game Fame and Fortune. Garagiola recently told entertainment tonight that most television shows worry Loo much about informing. To should be Somo Lhing that gives us a Chance to  so relax. The game show has t peaked yet. The stars and stripes Page 13