Wheel of Fortune 2000
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On September 13, 1997, a children's version of the American version of Wheel of Fortune called "Wheel of Fortune 2000 aka "Wheel 2000" was created and aired on CBS every Saturday morning. The show was created by TV game show producer Scott Sternberg. Former Roundhouse star David Sidoni was the host, and instead of a real-life hostess, a virtual one took over. The on-screen fictional character was named (Cyber) Lucy, and the moves and voice were those of Tanika Ray. The show did not catch on with viewers, and was cancelled after one year on CBS's Saturday morning lineup. Reruns continued to air on Game Show Network (now GSN), which had been rerunning the show concurrently with CBS, for several years.
The Main Game
Gameplay was very similar to the adult version, except three teens competed in this kid's version of the classic game show.At the start of each round instead of just presenting the puzzle along with the category, the contestants got to choose the puzzles for each round among three categories (with new ones replacing chosen ones for each subsequent round).
As in the adult version players take turns spinning the wheel except they played for points and not money. On a player's turn if he/she landed a point value, the player calls a letter. If it's in the puzzle the player gets the points times the number of times that letter appears in the puzzle. But if the player called a wrong letter, he/she loses his/her turn to the next player in line (the same thing happens if that player incorrectly solved the puzzle or landed on one of the two penalty spaces which will be explained later). During a player's turn, he/she can buy a vowel for 250 regardless if the letter appears in the puzzle (and how many) or not. The first player to solve the puzzle keeps the points & wins a prize such as a Game.com, a season pass to any Six Flags theme park, and a Sony Playstation. After each solved puzzle, a short video clip presented by Cyber Lucy or a CBS television star would be shown that related to the solved puzzle.
Note: If the contestant solves the puzzle with less than 250 points, his/her score gets augmented to 500 points.
The Categories
The categories on this show are different, but some resemble the adult version categories. Some of the categories are:- "Globetrotter" (Place/On The Map on the regular show) - famous places
- "Just Stuff" - (Thing(s) on the regular show) - general items
- "VIPs" (Proper Name on the regular show) - it stands for very important people meaning that it's about famous people
- "Book Soup" - literature
- "Space Case" - things in space
- "Above & Below" - same as above except it also has to do with things on earth
- "It Adds Up" - math things
- "Every Body" - body parts
- "Word Rap" (usually Lucy's favorite) - grammar & puncuation
The Wheel
The Wheel was redesigned with brighter colors and different names for various spaces:- "The Creature" ("Bankrupt") - It would come up from under the wheel and eat all of the player's points for that round. That player would also lose his/her turn.
- "Loser" ("Lose a Turn") - just like the adult version, that player loses his/her turn if landed on.
- "WWW.WHEEL2000.COM" (750 point space) - this allowed a home viewer to win a Wheel 2000 t-shirt and cap if the in-studio contestant managed to choose a correct letter in the puzzle.
- "Double Up" (A 500 point space) - this is where a puzzle-related question was asked and if it's answered correctly by the player, 500 gets doubled to 1,000 for each right letter found; if not the correct letter was still worth 500 points.
- "250/Stunt Spaces" - Three 250 point spaces became six-peg wedges branded with the name of that day's stunt, and the first person to hit it played that stunt to receive three random letters for the puzzle. Some of the stunts include "Feed the Raptor" - feeding a mechanical dinosaur, "Cube Roll" - matching shapes on cubes, "Match-Up" - match the colored helmet with the colored chest on three astronauts (kind of like The Price is Right's Race Game), "Call Waiting" - picking up phones and guessing what famous person was on the other line. Every time they completed 1/3 of the stunt, they got a letter chosen randomly. When they got three letters, or when time was up (they had 60 seconds (75 on one stunt & time earned from answering true or false questions)) the stunt was finished. They went back to the wheel and had the option of seeing if the letters that they earned are in puzzle or choosing to spin the wheel and choose a letter of their own, meaning that the stunt only took up gameplay time. If no letters were earned, that player automatically loses his/her turn. The "stunt" wedges then became regular double-wide 250 point spaces.
- "Prize Box" (100 point space) - if landed on the player could receive 100 points for each instance of the correct letter & win small prize inside the box if a correct letter was given.
- "Top Point Value Space" - this space on the wheel in each round increased 1,000-2,000-5,000; the remaining wedges did not change.
Speed-Up Round
When time runs out during a round, the game shifts to the Speed-Up round which was played as normal (minus the extra 1,000 at that time) (usually played in the third round, one episode had the speed up round played at the end of the second puzzle, and another was played during a rarely played fourth round). As in the adult version, host Sidoni gives the wheel one final spin, then asks the player in control to guess the letter. If it's in the puzzle not only he/she gets the points landed on (vowels are worth nothing) but also gets five seconds to solve it.The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner and goes to the bonus round for a grand prize.
The Bonus Round
The bonus round was like the adult version, except that the contestant had a choice of only two secret prizes (A or B), rather than the regular five (at that time). Also, as opposed to the altered category names in the main game, bonus round puzzles had the same category names as the adult version (usually "Person", "Place", or "Thing"; no "Phrase"). Once the category & puzzle were revealed, the winning contestant was given the six standard letters ("R", "S", "T", "L", "N", and "E") to start. Once some of those letters were revealed, the player was allowed to choose three more consonants and one more vowel and see if any of them are in the puzzle. He/she then had 10 seconds to solve the puzzle; if he/she was successful, he won the secret bonus prize. One of the prizes was to be a computer (furnished by Monorail); the other was the privilege of riding to school in a limo for a week (furnished by Rosa's International Limousines).See also
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