Wheel Of Fortune Hosted By John Burgess 1996

An episode of Wheel Of Fortune hosted by John Burgess with Adriana Xenides from Friday 28th of June 1996

[@sp19822]

Just a couple of weeks before Burgo was put on the bus. Thankfully, Channel 9 came calling and Catch Phrase was born. I remember reading somewhere Burgo was offered Wheel Of Fortune back, after the Tony Barber experiment failed, with a payrise attached, but he declined.

[@MrShieldsy100]

Wow, one of the final Burgo shows. This is a really rare find!

[@jamesharding322]

This was 2 weeks before the show moved to Sydney

[@SirChristopherGorton]

@@jamesharding322 and he was replaced by Tony Barber. He only continued on to the end of the second half of 1996 until he passed the torch to Rob Elliot.

[@jamesharding322]

@@SirChristopherGorton I still associate "Wheel" in 1996 with Tony Barber even though he didn't start until July. I actually don't remember the January-July run when Burgo was still there, or the fact that Burgo had lost his 'tache or that they'd introduced the 4-line puzzle board and replaced one of the bankrupts in R2 with the $600 while the show was still being filmed in Adelaide, and i didn't even know about this era until about 2009 when that clip of the "BlowinG in the wind" incident popped up on here

[@7120Magnum]

@@jamesharding322 Love to know what their thinking was behind using the new $600 space to replace the Bankrupt in round 3 that was between the yellow $580 and purple $270 space.

[@jamesharding322]

@@7120Magnum Certainly looks odd having a blue $600 space instead of a bankrupt space between the 580 and 270 space. I guess with the new scoring system, the concept of going Bankrupt had become somewhat "relegated" and they wanted to give players a chance to win as much money as possible to solve+secure

[@staffordahoy679]

Obviously a famous (and much discussed) moment in Australian TV, but such a massive shame they sacked Burgo. You can see just from the opening banter of the show - and Adri's little giggle as John throws to the voiceover - that the chemistry was there.

[@jeffkaplentm]

I love how u can see a split second of family feud at the start

[@Brucetiki1]

Which would’ve been the short lived era where John Deeks hosted the Feud, which was why David Day had become the announcer for Wheel

[@7120Magnum]

@@Brucetiki1 Apart from hosting “Family Feud” that year, he was also announcer for the very short-lived show “Talking Telephone Numbers” hosted by future “Wheel” host Rob Elliott. Cancelled after 3 episodes.

[@karenc2837]

So much time waiting for the wheel to land on a dollar amount.

[@7120Magnum]

John Deeks would fill in for David Day as announcer the following week. A rumour however had been doing the rounds that Burgo was about to replaced as host by John Deeks and that Deeksy was in Adelaide for a handover of the show. It caused Seven to categorically deny rumour in TV Week on June 17 (production of Family Feud had ended and the final episode aired on June 28) explaining that he was in Adelaide doing fill-in voiceover work on Wheel. Interesting fact I learned recently was that when Ernie Sigley left the show in 1984, Seven wanted to make Deeksy the new host but the decision was vetoed by the Melbourne arm of the network who wanted him to remain as the announcer for The Price Is Right. He was also the announcer for Talking Telephone Numbers early in 1996 which could be said was a catalyst for Wheel’s revamp.

[@MrShieldsy100]

Where did you find this stuff out? I always thought David Day lasted until the end of Burgos tenure...

[@7120Magnum]

@@MrShieldsy100 David Day was there for the final week - when his death was announced in 2015, there was a photo gallery put up and one of the photos was a picture taken in his home and he was holding the Goodie wedge which he took for himself. This was where I found the story about Deeksy replacing Burgo: televisionau.com/2016/08/1996-june-22-28.html And the interview from 2018 where he mentioned that Seven planned to make him host in 1984: howtowingameshows.com/2018/02/20/my-exclusive-interview-with-the-voice-of-the-price-is-right-wheel-of-fortune-family-feud-deal-or-no-deal-and-more-mr-john-deeks-part-ii/ David Day and the Goodie wedge: content.api.news/v3/images/bin/f621841ac8bb079d7ba2e3803ecaf063

[@MrShieldsy100]

@@7120Magnum Wow thanks heaps for all this, I didn’t know anything about any of these! Had David not taken the Goodie wedge with him, I wonder if it would’ve been used in Sydney?

[@7120Magnum]

@@MrShieldsy100 Nah, wouldn’t have worked on the new wheel. They weren’t using the full wedge coverings until the first 1997 taping. Rather than making a wedge or token especially for it they just called it the Top Dollar Prize.

[@cherrypizza]

The report you're quoting was slightly incorrect. Deeks was in Adelaide not to fill in as announcer, but to workshop the format changes to the show. The fact that Deeksy was doing it added much fuel to rumours that Burgo was being sacked. Deeksy had said in reports on the incident that he was doing it simply because Burgo had commitments elsewhere at the time.

[@VFAFOOTY]

great show shame it's not on tv anymore i would love to see John's final episode he was the best host hands down great memories !It was a disgrace how he was treated and given the boot !

[@7120Magnum]

We’d all love to see that final episode. Another one would be the first episode of 1997 where Tony Barber hands the show over to Rob Elliott.

[@JamesJimmaHarding]

We have the first and last episode of 1996 and Tony Barber's debut episode, Burgo's final episode is the only one missing now. I'd love to see that episode, just to see what Burgo's cadence was like on his last show. Apparently he didn't get a chance to say goodbye, and he just closed the show out by saying something like "join us in our new Sydney studio on Monday, but not all of *us* will be coming", and saying that *nothing else* about the show would change (probably to avoid viewer panic, which was inevitable when they showed adverts for the new look wheel over the weekend before Tony Barber's debut). I think the worst thing about the July 1996 revamp was the fact that they just abruptly rebooted the show mid-season with *very* little warning beforehand, let alone how Burgo was treated and all the flack Tony got for being caught up in this

[@pauljordan4452]

The voice over man David Day was an Adelaide radio host who apparently died some years back.

[@jamesharding322]

WOW, this is nothing like what i expected Burgo's last 6 months to be like! - The end scoring had been changed to what it was during the special weeks in '95 to avoid people winning without solving any puzzles - The generic dollar amounts had already been changed to what they were after the show moved to Sydney. Even the second Bankrupt in round 2 was replaced with the $600 space while the show was still in Adelaide. The only exceptions were the 465 space in the last round being changed to 460, but had gone back to 465 again by the end of the year, and the blue 250 space in round 1 (later 280, then 310) still being a "Free spin" space while the show was in Adelaide - I never knew we had a dark blue Surprise wedge. i MUCH prefer the red-coloured Surprise wedge we had the year before, and after it was brought back in 1997

[@MrShieldsy100]

Part of me wonders what would've happened to Wheel had the execs not sacked Burgo, since he was clearly still giving it 100%, unlike Rob Elliott, who looked like he was going through the motions in his last few weeks.

[@JamesJimmaHarding]

@@MrShieldsy100 I think if the show stayed the same and kept Burgo on after moving to Sydney, they would've started playing for cash in 1997, and replaced the board with touch screens by 2000. They might've revamped the set as well too but not make it *dramatically* different, just modern it up a bit to move with the times. It's a shame because Burgo had been hosting the show for 12 years and was still enjoying every moment on the show. As great as Rob Elliott was, I don't think he was the same after about 2001, as he started to become quite blase about his presenting in his last couple of years and was clearly starting to lose interest. Steve Oemcke had the right personality for the show but you could tell he was NOT suited to this type of presenting, and Larry Emdur could've lasted a good few years if the show wasn't seeing out it's contract by the time he joined

[@sp19822]

When Tony Barber took over mid July 1996, the ratings dropped badly, then they apparently tried to get Burgo back, with a payrise, but he declined, as I think he had been snapped up by Nine by then(late 1996) for Catchphrase. Some of the format changes they made were reversed over Tony Barber's six month tenure.

[@MrShieldsy100]

@@sp19822 I know, my grandmother was a champ in November ‘96, and by that point, it was basically Rob Elliotts version with Tony Barber hosting

[@7120Magnum]

The 460 space I would assume was thanks to Gavin Wood - I noticed on an episode of NZ that their round 3 template was pretty much the same as ours except in reverse, and instead of the equivalent wedge being $465, it was $460 over there.

[@Inaworldoflove]

The prize range looks like stuff you'd see in an Op Shop.

[@paulc6944]

21:18 From NBC’s world news headquarters in New York…wait wut

[@dansog2256]

Appears that by 1996 the contestants must secure their money by solving a puzzle, before this it was safe.

[@7120Magnum]

Always the case in Australia except for July 1996 to late 1998 when a Bankrupt wiped your score completely regardless of puzzles solved. What’s happened here is a very short-lived concept where the champion was the person with the highest SECURED score at the end of the game. You couldn’t be champion if you didn’t solve a puzzle on the night. Apart from the first half of 96, and special episodes prior to this era, the champion was always the person with the highest score whether they solved or not.

[@ajk]

@@7120Magnum I never cared for that about the Australian format. I feel the US format (that I've grown up with living here) is far superior. You have to actually earn your keep, not just have lucky spins on the wheel. Much fairer system to me.

[@Iggywiggywoo]

How do you pronounce Adriana’s surname?

[@jamesstuart5877]

21:18 The fanfare from NBC Nightly News.

[@Inaworldoflove]

Great themesong.

[@coltonrichards8885]

If the host solve the puzzle in the bonus, round, or, in this case, the major prize round, does the host get the prize?

[@jennywyatt7221]

First up about the puzzles that this new video relates to: 1. Do you know where THE BAROSSA VALLEY is and have you've even been there? 2. What does MEMORY LIKE A SIEVE mean? 3. What kind of event is JURY DUTY and you've even taken part of it? 4. How old is the song ROXANNE by The Police?