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A Farewell Ode to Pat Sajak: Celebrate His Wit, His Heart, His Chemistry With Vanna White

AARP honors the retiring ‘Wheel of Fortune’ host, whose high points range from R-S-T-L-N-E to C-D-M-A

Chris Nashawaty,

AARP

Published June 06, 2024

Everett Collection

After 41 years and more than 8,000 episodes, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak, 77, will sell his last vowel on June 7. We’ll miss Sajak’s dry, deadpan wit, his refreshing lack of used-car salesman smarm, his sunny demeanor and dad jokes. And we’ll miss his affectionate banter with Vanna White, 67 — the rare onscreen couple who still seem to genuinely enjoy one another’s company after all these years. White will remain on the show, turning letters alongside Sajak’s replacement, Ryan Seacrest, who turns 50 on Christmas Eve. No disrespect to Seacrest, but something will be lost on a new, Sajak-less Wheel.

As we contemplate his final spin, we decided to pay tribute in a way that diehard fans might appreciate: by using the show’s six free bonus-round letters (R-S-T-L-N-E) and the four most popular ones chosen by contestants (C-D-M-A) as our jumping-off point for what has made Sajak such an pop-culture institution.

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(Left to right) Vanna White and Pat Sajak

Herb Ball/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

R: Ratings

Sajak became the permanent host of Wheel of Fortune on December 28, 1981. It was watched by 40 million people a night, five nights a week. “We became, in this strange way, part of people’s lives,” he said in a funny, revealing interview for the Television Academy. “It’s kind of like the sunset: You might not go out and watch it every night, but it’s nice to know it’s out there.” And with 60 international versions, the sun never set on the Sajak empire.

S: Sajdak

The host was a charmer from the start. His actual name is Patrick Leonard Sajdak, pronounced “Sadgedak” (it’s Polish). He always had a sense of being different, a self-guided missile headed for television. Other kids would watch cartoons; he’d sneak out of bed to watch his idol, Jack Paar, the quirky, irascible, brilliant Tonight Show host who wound up being his close friend. Ninety percent of his schoolmates were Black; at home, he said, “Sometimes I feel I was left on the doorstep by gypsies.” Today, he’s a rare staunch conservative in liberal Hollywood.

The irrepressible humor that later made Wheel of Fortune creator Merv Griffin hire him showed early. At school, he’d submit two versions of tests, one with real answers, one with funny answers. He got his first broadcast job at a tiny 250-watt radio station housed in a vast former Cadillac showroom owned by Polish-American Congressman Roman Pucinski. When he broke into TV as a witty weatherman in Nashville, he used his real name in private and “Sajak” on air, dropping the d. “If you see an extra d, it’s mine,” he told the Academy. At first, Wheel winners chose goodies from an onstage showcase of prizes (bedroom furniture, Jet Skis, Turtle Wax). They switched to cash prizes to make contestants’ taxes less complicated. People often ask if Wheel is fixed. “Fixing game shows is now a Federal crime,” Sajak told the Academy. “I’m not going to prison so somebody can win a refrigerator.”

Dan Miller, Chevy Chase, Joan Van Ark, Naomi Judd, Wynonna Judd and Pat Sajak on the premiere of The Pat Sajak Show

The premiere episode of "The Pat Sajak Show" on Jan. 9, 1989. Pictured from left is announcer Dan Miller, Chevy Chase, Joan Van Ark, Naomi Judd, Wynonna Judd and host Pat Sajak.

CBS via Getty Images

T: ‘The Pat Sajak Show’

In 1989, he got his own late-night CBS talk show, The Pat Sajak Show, while still hosting the syndicated Wheel. He had a ball, interviewing Chevy Chase, Joan Van Ark, and baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, and feeding straight lines to George Burns and gunning to beat The Tonight Show’s ratings as Johnny Carson approached retirement. ‘’I was very taken with his warmth, his wit, his ability to interview and his grace in handling people,’’ said CBS exec Michael Brockman. “I also liked that his humor didn’t come at the expense of other people.”

But the ad industry and TV execs were (and remain today) foolishly convinced that only viewers under 50 are worth having. “Game shows skew older, and we have an older audience,” Sajak told the Academy. “It was my natural audience. They weren’t happy with that.” They killed his show in 1990.

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Pat Sajak turning over the letters on an episode of Wheel of Fortune

Sony Pictures/Everett Collection

L: Laryngitis

In the middle of one memorable Wheel episode in November, 1996, Sajak came down with laryngitis. Quick-thinking producers had Vanna White fill in while Sajak turned the letters. This would not be the only time that he would hand over his emcee duties. On April Fool’s Day, 1997, Sajak and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek switched jobs for the day. Sajak and White were the contestants (playing for charity). “I wiped the floor with Vanna,” he told the Academy. “I do the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink — brag!” He took the test Wheel contestants take. “I got a perfect score.”

Chuck Woolery

Game Show Network/Everett Collection

N: NBC

Wheel of Fortune first aired in 1975-81 on NBC, hosted by Chuck Woolery, who quit over a salary dispute. NBC execs tried to force Griffin not to hire little-known Sajak to replace him, but Griffin threatened to take his show to CBS if he couldn’t hire him. Ever since, Sajak has been proving him right.

E: Epic fails

Many indelible moments have come from contestants’ embarrassing wrong answers. A player named Edgar was looking for the solution to “WISH LIST,” and the board read _ I S H L _ _ _. Edgar guessed “FISH LOVE.” Contestant Lolita, facing a board that read S _ L _-_ O _ T _ _ _ T, guessed “SELF-POTATO.” The correct answer was “SELF-PORTRAIT.” Last month, one contestant’s wrong answer went viral. Faced with the following board: _ _ _ _ I _ T _ E B _ _ T!, Tavaris from Port Saint Lucie, Florida, guessed “RIGHT IN THE BUTT!” The answer was: “THIS IS THE BEST!”

“I really do ache for these people when something like that happens,” said Sajak, whose secret weapon is kindness mixed with wit. “I don’t think I ever poke fun at them, unless they’ve really got it coming.” But when one solved “STYROFOAM CUP as STYROFOAM HAT,” he said, “It took me 20 minutes to regain my composure.”

C: Chemistry

People often falsely suspect Sajak and White’s obvious chemistry conceals secret romance. “I don’t know how we would’ve done as a couple,” White told the Academy. “I’m the dramatic one.” Quipped Sajak, “You’re a woman, you have to be, it’s your job.” “There you go,” said White.

But at first, she failed her audition. “She was so darn nervous you could barely see past her quivering lip,” recalled Sajak. “He was so gracious,” White told the Academy. “I was just trying to hop her bones; it didn’t work,” joked Sajak. “Very nice bones!” But he told Griffin not to hire her. Griffin insisted on White, as he’d insisted on Sajak. “I asked Merv why he chose me,” said White. “He felt that Pat and I were like a brother and sister team, kind of like Ken and Barbie.”

“It’s silly stuff, it’s brother-sister stuff, it’s sexual innuendo — it runs the gamut,” said Sajak. When she’s displeased, Sajak teases her by saying, “All aboard the Bitchmobile!” They used to get tipsy between tapings at the bar across the street from the studio. “She’s as far from a prima donna as you can imagine,” he said. “I’ve known Vanna longer than I’ve known any woman in my life.” Sajak thinks all marriages would be better if they were arranged like his relationship with White — they’re apart for two weeks between tapings, go their own way, then reunite.

Pat Sajak serving as a DJ in Vietnam and Robin Williams in the film Good Morning Vietnam

(Left to right) Pat Sajak serving as a DJ for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in Vietnam; Robin Williams in "Good Morning, Vietnam."

Left: Army/DOD; Right: Touchstone Pictures/Everett Collection

D: DJ

While other youths protested Vietnam, Sajak joined the Army in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. He kept applying to be a disc jockey on American Forces Vietnam Network, but he was so good as a finance clerk the brass refused. He wrote a letter to his old boss, Congressman Pucinski, and presto: He was a DJ on Dawn Buster, the same radio show previously hosted by Adrian Cronauer, who inspired 1987’s Good Morning, Vietnam “You’d yell, ‘Good morning, Vietnam!’ as Robin Williams does in the movie,” said Sajak. He played Top 40 hits and did commercials — “Instead of being about acne medication, it was about keeping your M-16 clean.”

M: Merv Griffin

Griffin, host of The Merv Griffin Show (1962–86), created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (inspired by playing Hangman as a kid with his sister on long road trips). He saw Sajak’s gift before America did. “He had great charm,’’ Griffin told The New York Times. Griffin liked Sajak’s wit as a weatherman (the same gig David Letterman had before fame). “He was always playing practical jokes. I remember once he came on with a bandage over his right eye. After a break, the bandage was over the left eye. Pat never said a word, just kept doing the weather.’’

Pat Sajak accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 38th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards held at the Las Vegas Hilton on June 19, 2011 in Las Vegas.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

A: Awards

I’d like to buy a vowel, Pat. Sajak’s Wheel earned seven Daytime Emmys and three Emmys for Outstanding Game Show Host. The Guinness Book of World Records ranks Vanna White as history’s most frequent clapper (over 3.7 million times as of 2015).

Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

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