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

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.

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.”

His GI chum Tony Lyons told The New York Times, “He would say very sarcastic, snide things that the troops would understand but were over the heads of officers.” Good practice for eluding officious TV execs and connecting directly with the audience. “He had an amazing ability to get away with things nobody else could. He got away with murder.’’

Merv Griffin hosting the game show "Play Your Hunch" on June 30, 1958.

Authenticated News/Getty Images

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).