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.

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.