Shopper's Bazaar

Shopper's Bazaar was the first attempt at Wheel of Fortune. Merv didn't like it, NBC boss Lin Bolen didn't like it, and the test audiences didn't like it. Put simply, it didn't work.

Gameplay
In its most basic essentials, Bazaar has elements of what became Wheel, except for the following:

The Wheel
The wheel was stand-up vertical and motorized. It stopped with a press of a button, and the contestants would yell "Stop the wheel!" causing the wheel to slow down and come to a full stop.

This wheel had no Bankrupts, but two (later four) Lose A Turn wedges. There were also two $0 spaces (meaning that even though you'd keep your turn, you don't score for that consonant), Free Vowel (as opposed to Buy A Vowel which was also there, today you'd only get a free vowel by landing on Free Play), and Your Own Clue (the contestant who landed on it would get a private clue by phone, the first of which was the category).

The Puzzle Board
The puzzle board was brown with 45 spaces divided into three rows, with the letters revealed by pull-cards. A fourth row of 15 spaces was used for letters that were called but not in the puzzle, as opposed to having an offscreen Used Letter Board.

Scoring
Scoring was handled by the Accounting Department, a wall that contained each contestant's three prizes. Each player kept their money from round to round, but prizes could only be won through solving a puzzle. Once the bottom prize on the list was "paid for", that player began working on the next prize.

Bonus Round (Shopper's Special)
The winner of the game (the one who had won the most prizes as opposed to scoring the most money) played this round where she had 30 seconds to call one correct consonant after seeing all the vowels in the puzzle. The solution was the prize she was playing for (in this case, ISLE OF CAPRI), and solving the puzzle won said prize.

A better Bonus Round was used briefly in 1975-76 and 1978, but did not become permanent until late 1981.

Music

 * Main - "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
 * Commercial - "Spinning Wheel"

YouTube Videos
Long Intro to the Shopper's Bazaar Pilot

The Full Pilot Episode to the Show