So Bad It’s Scary: Dutch “Wheel of Fortune”
Here’s a nice little Halloween video for you all. It’s from the new Dutch edition of Wheel of Fortune. I know a lot of game show fans complain about our version, but after watching theirs I’m pretty happy with whatever we cobbled together. That little shanty town they have there is screwed up. The entire set is a video wall. The entire set. The backdrops, the decorations, the contestant podium, the puzzle board, everything. It’s all a giant LED video wall. Dollar values are tiny. It’s airing in the same time slot where a few times a year they play Deal or No Deal for five million euro and on Wheel there’s a few 0 euro spaces and some 50s and 100s. The highest is 500 it seems. You’re lucky to win more than 5,000 euro. The end game is equally as cheap. The game is unbearably slow as well. We go through two puzzles and that final spin thing in 27 minutes. Here’s the first round. I’m not throwing up the entire video because the site would weep in misery if it were to show up. They threw so much money onto their set it looks like they had no budget for anything else.
The one thing I will say is whenever our Wheel of Fortune gets a new set I’d love to have the audience on camera like they have. I do think it adds something to see their reaction and it’s better than the vast world of emptiness they seem to have from the YouTube clips of this season I’ve seen.
It burns….IT BURNS!!!
It seems the show is more geared toward the contestants having fun, than the viewers being interested, however. But the puzzle board is just…just no. I love our puzzle board now. :D
This show proves the old saying “Be lucky for what you have”. Sure we can complain about Wheel of Fortune here in the states, but compared to the Dutch, our set is great.
The good part, to me at least was the letter reveal. I kinda like the slide out of the Orange and the "flip" of the letter.
The Puzzle board is actually kinda awesome, in it's own right. If we went to a completely rectangular touch monitor like Glucksrad did for a while, we could have 5 row puzzles for long extremely.
JC, if memory serves, they use DRSTK E . K is a common used letter in Dutch
Oh, by the way Attack/Overall is similiar to POWER on the Philippines version. You get to steal all of a contestants current score for the round.
They give you R, S, T, and E, then you pick 3 consonants and a vowel.
@ Daniel: Why get rid of Pat? He’s been doing a good job since 1982 (1984 on the nighttime version). Plus, it wouldn’t make sense for Vanna to host the show (not that she can’t).
That is an updated theme. The original sounds like Production Music. Anybody know which company created the original; productions music?
As much as I like Vanna, if it's hosting the show, I'd rather stare at Pat. Vanna would be cute and funny because she's Vanna, but at least Pat is kinda humorous and kinda knows what he's doing in hosting…I say.
In addition, she truly is so instrumental to the show that it would honestly be an outrage to the hardcore "Wheel" viewers out there…and, OBVIOUSLY, there's a lot of them still (it's #1 for a reason!). It literally would be a tragedy! Her role though…is not needed though. Truly. It would probably also ruin Pat's hosting ability and some of the things we've loved about "Wheel". Some of the BEST moments of the show have been from the banter between them. Yes. She's needed in that sense I say…
I think it is. It had that feel to it that it was a special episode.
That was my feeling, too. Civilian contestants just aren't as gabby as this lot.
When Vanna decides to retire, Sony will likely discuss whether to replace her with another model, or let the game board operator do all the work. But until then, as long as she can still look fabulous in a gown and banter with Pat, Vanna's not going anywhere!
On the local lottery show I produced, we also went from trilons to a computer-animated game board…giving the hostess less to do. But she was so popular with the fans, eliminating her was not an option, either! So, instead of living the lie that she was still controlling the game board by merely touching squares, we had her introduce the contestants and model the prizes. We would have saved a lot of money by cutting her loose, but the fan outcry would have been deafening.
I actually hadn't considered that, but looking at it again with that consideration in mind… yeah, it's certainly possible. I really wish I spoke Dutch (especially since it's precisely one-half of my heritage!).
I'm not disagreeing with you, but you know… I can't help but wonder how much of Wheel's audience these days is comprised of "hardcore" Wheel Watchers from back in the day, and how many just enjoy the show for what it is and don't give a toss about the show's history.
You know the kind I mean: The ones who don't realize there was life before September 1983, who wouldn't know Susan Stafford from Eve or who think "Rolf Benirschke" is some kind of bronchial disease, who know nothing about the magical words "On Account," or even remember a time when you weren't spotted RSTLNE automatically. Or would care much if they did know about all of these things. For a show like this to be a successful as it has been for so many years, despite numerous re-inventions and format tweaks to the point where it now only superficially resembles the show that debuted on NBC in 1975, it must appeal to more than just the die-hard game show fandom (many of whom have demonstratably been turned off by all the changes to the game over they years), and I would suspect that casual Wheel viewers who just like the show and aren't concerned with where it came from probably outnumber the "hardcores" by about a 4:1 ratio. And that's probably conservative. If anyone ever takes this poll for real, the differential could very likely be much wider.
And I thought CBS version was the only one I know that has the cheap wheel.
It would seem that the reason it took FOUR MINUTES to play one round was because the host and the contestants talk way too much. That kind of stuff should be saved for between rounds or at the end of the show.
I enjoy shows with LED video walls, but I think the use of the LED video wall is better in a news or sports setting. This show was giving me a headache with all the lights going non stop. Great use of technology, but it needs to be minimized. Although, it might be hard to watch this version of Wheel of Fortune no matter what the background is.
I enjoy shows with LED video walls, but I think the use of the LED video wall is better in a news or sports setting. This show was giving me a headache with all the lights going non stop. Great use of technology, but it needs to be minimized. Although, it might be hard to watch this version of Wheel of Fortune no matter what the background is.
I enjoy shows with LED video walls, but I think the use of the LED video wall is better in a news or sports setting. This show was giving me a headache with all the lights going non stop. Great use of technology, but it needs to be minimized. Although, it might be hard to watch this version of Wheel of Fortune no matter what the background is.
I enjoy shows with LED video walls, but I think the use of the LED video wall is better in a news or sports setting. This show was giving me a headache with all the lights going non stop. Great use of technology, but it needs to be minimized. Although, it might be hard to watch this version of Wheel of Fortune no matter what the background is.