So... Vanna White.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I haven't watched Wheel in ages but I saw it last night... Vanna doesn't spin the letters anymore; they light up electronically.

So Vanna was trying to keep up as the letters blinked rapidly across a long phrase, prompting Pat to say: "Whoa, slow down there... Vanna doesn't move that fast anymore..." !!

It was sad. She's like an 9 year old Appaloosa mare that can't race anymore, but they let it hang around the paddock just so it's heart isn't broken... She's looks sorta frumpy too.

― andy --, Friday, 21 January 2005 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

do the british people know who vanna white is?

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure Pat ain't looking his best these days either.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I had the same experience over xmas with the inlaws!!! She doesn't turn the letters! And then a 14-year old cousin didn't know what we were talking about and didn't know who Bill Murray was, even after we named all his movies. :(((((((

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I bet Suzy Stafford wishes she had kept the gig and had been set for life.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know, I kinda like the idea of Vanna being allowed to hang around on stage in a glittery white evening gown and to collect a paycheck when she's 75. It's sweet, even if she's been rendered obsolete by her robot overlords.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

the lady's all class

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

She saunters across and lightly taps the letters, usually after the letter has lit up... maybe the Game Show Hostesses Union Local 76 has super tight laws about having to keep at least on hostess on stage at all times.

― andy --, Friday, 21 January 2005 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

the fact that she doesn't control the lighting up of the letters is scary. she is the most useless person in the world.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

So is A Current Affair still on the air?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

http://64.211.46.141/nm/W/VANNA_WHITE003.JPG

look at those old lady arms

― Snoozefest, Friday, 21 January 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Vanna at her best -- scroll down halfway and begin there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

..prompting Pat to say: "Whoa, slow down there... Vanna doesn't move that fast anymore..." !!

did he really say that? what a smug little punk....

This thread makes me cry on the inside.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Vanna became such a big star that the NBC network decided to try moving her to greener pastures. However, they didn’t want to kill the cash cow, either. So rather than assigning her a sitcom or something else that would force her to leave Wheel of Fortune, they built a TV movie around her. Being TV executives, they did everything they could to protect their fledgling star. First, as was common with made-for-TV movies of that era, the project ripped off a successful recent theatrical picture. In this case, the previous year’s Mannequin, which certainly remains one of the more inexplicable hits of the ‘80s.
Second, they surrounded Ms. White, who was not, after all, an actress, with a veteran supporting staff. Usually in these cases, you attempt to get the TV equivalent of whatever stars appeared in the targeted theatrical film. By which I mean, an actor of a similar type, but more vapid. Thus the career of such stalwarts in TV action movies as Dack Rambo and Jack Scalia, in lieu of your Harrison Fords and Sly Stallones.
Unfortunately, there was a problem with this time-honored formula. This being that the male lead in Mannequin was none other than Andrew McCarthy*. Since finding an actor more vapid than McCarthy was a scientific impossibility, along the lines of locating something more wet than the Atlantic Ocean, they cannily installed the poor(er) man’s Scott Baio, David Naughton, in the role instead.
The times demanded that every straight-laced male lead in a comedy required a sleazy, sex-obsessed best friend. This role was filled by none other than Joe Izuzu himself, actor David Leisure. Meanwhile, David’s inevitably disposable fiancée was played by Married With Children’s Amanda Bearse. The ‘Embarrassed Real Actor’ was Phillip Baker Hall, who oddly is probably best known as the Joe Friday-esque library cop from an episode of Seinfeld. The inevitable John Rhys-Davis, the Slim Pickens of the ‘80s, had a cameo appearance as Zeus, while perhaps the funniest assignment was the casting of Betsy Palmer as Hera. Ms. Palmer remains revered by slasher movie buffs as the murderous Mrs. Voorhees, Jason’s mom, from the original Friday the 13th.
[*Jabootu has some sort of deal with McCarthy that even I’m not privy to. In any case, during the ‘80s the actor starred in both of the most grossly unwarranted comic smashes of the decade: Mannequin and Weekend at Bernie’s.]

Meanwhile, the surprise hit character of Mannequin was one of the decade’s trademark Flaming Black Homosexuals—see also, for example, the similar character in Revenge of the Nerds—in the person of actor Meshach Taylor as ‘Hollywood.’ Mr. Taylor went on to become the only star of the original film to appear in the sequel, Mannequin: On the Move. Here, however, they apparently couldn’t find anyone to play a flaming black homosexual. Therefore they instead hired Little Richard.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't understand the shock about the letters, surely it's been at least a decade since she actually spun them?!

confidential to snoozefest: go take a snooze, i think you're overtired.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean c'mon she looks fabulous.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

she looks like someone is pulling a string in her back to make her smile, tracer.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

this one's for blount:

I'm gettin pages out of New Jersey
from Courtney B.
Tellin me about a party up in NYC
Can I make it? Damn right
I be on the next flight
Payin cash; first class
sittin next to Vanna White

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

but look at that posture!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 January 2005 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Dr. DAVE!

"Vanna, Pick Me A Letter"!

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 21 January 2005 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

weird but I just saw the end of Wheel two nights ago for the first time in ages, and saw her at the very end, and thought she looked pretty good for her age, which must be over 50, but then realized they shot her in all this high contrast with a gauze filter so she was all blurry. Then my wife and I reminisced on the 80's when they tried to make her a really big star. I believe they did give her at least one movie role. My little sister loved her!

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

anybody remember her playboy issue?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

frequently

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"remember"

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/stmagazine/spock-mccoy-remember-st2.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

You've heard that old joke, right? Did you hear Vanna White is sick?
She's having trouble with her vowel movements. Wocka wocka.

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You are truly a mistress of psychic pain.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

She sued Samsung back in the day for making a parody commercial (showing a Wheel of Fortune-type show in the future with a blonde robot doing her job) saying they were appopriating her image. She got bookoo cash out of it too.

― eman (eman), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I never saw the Vanna Playboy issue. How undressed did she get?

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean the PL_YB_Y issue?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 22 January 2005 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a Vanna White playboy? WTF? This is on par with the Katarina Witt playboy?

― Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Saturday, 22 January 2005 05:36 (twenty-one years ago)

No...I already know...there is nothing on par with the Katarina Witt playboy.

― Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Saturday, 22 January 2005 05:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean seriously, god

http://images.google.com/images?q=katarina+witt+playboy&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

― Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Saturday, 22 January 2005 05:37 (twenty-one years ago)

So fucking hot.

Uh, anyway.

― Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Saturday, 22 January 2005 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh don't even put the "playboy" after her name dude. So hot. Vanna White can fuck herself.

But she does look good for a 76 year old, Vanna I mean.

― Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Saturday, 22 January 2005 05:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, pretty smokin' for a 97 year old.

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 22 January 2005 06:11 (twenty-one years ago)

So is A Current Affair still on the air?

It saddens me that I would instantly know the answer to this question, but "A Current Affair" was last on the air approximately nine years ago or so.

And I had no idea the original host of "Wheel Of Fortune" was Chuck Woolery! Man, thank God he got out of that gig and into a MUCH less embarrassing one, i.e. "Love Connection". "Wheel Of Fortune" makes "Love Connection" seem like a work of Shakespearean genius. And Chuck Woolery has always been 100 times less smug than Pat Sajak.

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 22 January 2005 07:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, just went over to IMDb to confirm "A Current Affair"-related things and, after finding out that yeah, I was right, I found this:

NEW YORK - The flying "A Current Affair" triangle logo and distinctive theme are careening back to television. The syndicated news magazine show, which ran from 1986 to 1996, will return this spring with former NFL player, author and Fox Sports commentator Tim Green as host, Twentieth Television announced Thursday.

Maury Povich and Maureen O'Boyle served as anchors during its initial run.

Bob Cook, president and chief operating officer of Twentieth Television, described Green as someone with "honesty, charisma, strong on-air presence, a witty sense of humor and the ability to tell a story that engages everyone."

"I'm the suit," Green told The Associated Press. "I have a unique perspective on the world. I've had the opportunity to see a lot of exciting places."

In 1986, Green was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons and was their star defensive end for eight years. He's gone on to write books such as "The Dark Side of the Game: My Life in the NFL" and "A Man and His Mother: An Adopted Son's Search."

"A Current Affair" reported on many entertainment, crime and gossip stories during its 10 years on the air. Green — who didn't watch the original — said the new version will "look more like it did at its inception." That means less scandal, more heart.

"I heard people describe it as an everyman's `60 Minutes,'" Green told the AP. "In the script I read for the show, the content seemed sort of Shakespearean with both the comedy and the tragedy."

What's not tragic is the return of the "Law & Order"-esque theme. Fox spokesman John R. Rizzotti confirmed the signature "Current Affair" logo and theme would be back — in a "revamped" form.

Fucking hell. I can only hope it's more of a human interest TV magazine and not the "National Enquirer to 'Entertainment Tonight''s Star magazine" nightmare it was when I remember sorta catching bits and pieces of.

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 22 January 2005 07:56 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.