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Wheel of Fortune impact spins through Charleston
By Lindsay Danzell
Contributing Writer
Sitting in a New York hotel several years ago, Judy and Harry Friedman looked over a list that would fulfill the couple’s mission of playing tennis at the best locations in the nation. Up next on the list: Kiawah Island.
On their trip to Kiawah, the Friedmans discovered Charleston, a city steeped in history, charm and fine cuisine. And the tennis was great, too.
“(Charleston) lived up to the expectations,” said Harry Friedman, executive producer for several television game shows including Wheel of Fortune.
Since his first visit several years ago, Friedman has sent the Jeopardy “Clue Crew” to the Holy City and began fostering the idea of bringing Wheel of Fortune to co-host Vanna White’s home state of South Carolina.
When taping offsite from its home base Los Angeles, Wheel of Fortune spends an estimated $2 million in the local economy. While taping in Charleston, the show hired more than 100 local workers and traveled with a support staff of about 130 people. The travel staff resided in the Embassy Suites hotel in North Charleston.
However, the $2 million is peanuts compared to the national exposure Charleston will receive on the widely popular show, said Perrin Lawson, deputy director of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“The huge benefit is going to be the massive amounts of positive exposure of Charleston,” said Lawson, adding that the national spotlight on Charleston will help reinforce many past and future visitors’ good feelings about the city.
From Jan. 12 to Jan. 14, Wheel of Fortune taped three weeks of shows at the Charleston Area Convention Center. The shows will air Feb. 5 to Feb. 23.
“(Going on remote locations is) a way of taking the show to people who probably would never get a chance to see the show taped,” said Friedman.
Making the Wheel spin
When Wheel of Fortune rolls into town, nearly 1 million pounds of equipment must be hauled from Los Angeles, Orlando and New York. In less than five days, the set needs to be manufactured, lights need to be hung and a mini production office needs to be built. Every location begins the planning process a year in advance.
The largest expense for producing the show on location is the shipping costs, followed by labor. Shipping the lights, rigging and equipment costs $900,000. Wheel of Fortune spent $800,000 hiring local laborers for unloading and setting up the equipment, Friedman said.
Wheel of Fortune sets for remote locations mirror ideas the nation has about the area while highlighting concepts that many Wheel watchers may not have known, said Friedman.
Walking the line between cliche and foreign, set designer Renee Hoss-Johnson and her staff consult with locals.
For the Charleston show, Hoss-Johnson adapted many of the city’s unique qualities into a quaint plantation set. The set boasted the tallest trees used in the show’s history, adorned with Spanish moss. The plantation facade and the trees accounted for about 75% of the set’s cost, Hoss-Johnson said.
“There’s a beauty, a grace, a charm about the set,” said Friedman.
Before and after commercials, “bumpers,” or clip highlights, will showcase scenes from around Charleston and Myrtle Beach, White’s home town.
When on location, White wears clothes from local designers or boutiques. Although no local designers were used in the Charleston taping, Gwynn’s of Mount Pleasant and RTW Charleston loaned White several pieces.
“The clothes are a huge part of what we do on the road,” said long-time Wheel of Fortune publicist Suzy Rosenberg. She added that the show often receives letters in regards to White’s wardrobe.
According to White’s stylist, Roberta Wagner, boutiques and designers lend White clothing in return for the show attributing credit to them. It serves to expose local designers and helps with “not wasting clothes,” said Wagner. White wears more than 270 outfits per season; during the Charleston taping, she wore 15 outfits from local boutiques.
Local chefs Ciarin Duffy, from Tristan’s, and Bob Waggoner, from the Charleston Grill, have short features on show. Waggoner, no stranger to television, relished the “tons of publicity” for Charleston cuisine.
“I think it’s a huge bonus that (the show came) to town,” Waggoner said. He used his time in the spotlight to craft a Charleston favorite, shrimp and grits, showcasing wild local shrimp.
I’d like to solve the puzzle, Pat
Anecdotal evidence suggests Wheel of Fortune’s national exposure of a town or area has beneficial impacts on the tourism industry, said Steve Schwartz, the show’s supervising producer. He described the post-Wheel effect as a “residual impact on tourism.”
“We give a beautiful skewed view of our location,” Friedman said. “We want to show it in its best light.”
Recently, Charleston has become a favorite destination for Food Network, with several local eateries featured on the network’s shows. But Wheel of Fortune offers a different, broader audience than Food Network, Lawson said. Each week, 46 million viewers tune into Wheel of Fortune.
John Crotts, professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the College of Charleston, likened the media exposure to a third-party endorsement.
“They have a very strong following. What (the show says) about a location has a stronger influence than what we can say about ourselves,” he said.
The Wheel’s actual impact on tourism is “hard to track,” Friedman said, and may not be immediately felt. But from past locations, Friedman has heard stories from visitors’ bureaus about potential tourists calling after seeing the show.
In the wake of the shows being aired, the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau will get busy giving information to prospective tourists, Crotts said.
“When we get positive press, that has a measurable impact,” Crotts said.
What took Wheel of Fortune more than two decades to come to White’s home state?
“This just felt like the right time to do it,” said Friedman, smiling.
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