User blog:Gameshowguy2000/Another so-called game show "scandal" that never really happened....

So far, you've heard me document three Wheel moments that had people shouting "SCANDAL!" all over the Internet: The one-letter solve from Season 28, and the two Million-Dollar missolves from this season (Season 31).

You have also heard me document the game show moment that defined all game show moments: Michael Larson breaking the bank on Press Your Luck and winning $110,237 in cash and prizes by memorizing the patterns on the Big Board...and picking up just one Whammy in the process.

Now, I am about to document one that probably had a handful of people saying that word: Hal Shear, the Joker's Wild contestant whose lucky suit made him a name among game show fans. Some might even think he was the Ken Jennings of The Joker's Wild, because prior to Jeopardy! lifting its 5-game limit in 2003, on B&E shows, you could keep going until you lost! Now, let me go into detail about one of his games that caused some controversy among game show fans and non-game show fans alike.

Hal had already won $28,000+ in cash and prizes in just seven games and had just come off an unsuccessful bonus game against the Devil. He was going into his 8th game against challenger Adrienne Carter using the following categories: Pot Luck (could be any of the other 4 categories in the game which you'll see in a minute), Julius Caesar, News '78, Annual Events, and The Stock Exchange.

Going into the final few moments of the game, it was Adrienne's $500 to Hal's $200. The rules state that even if the challenger reaches $500 first, the champion does get a final spin. So, host Jack Barry summed it up for Hal:

"Hal, I'm gonna suggest that you rub that suit. There's only one way you can win and stay in this game: You must get three jokers. Anything that comes up other than jokers, your glorious reign is over, and Adrienne Carter would become the new champion. You feel it all lucky?"

Hal could only reply, "I hope so", to which Jack replied, "I'm ready whenever you are." So, to start, as with every single spin that he had taken, from main game to bonus game, he rubbed the suit and pulled the handle, and cue one of the most heard catchphrases in the game show genre:

JOKER --- JOKER --- JOKER!

Yep, as luck would have it, he indeed got the three jokers that he needed to stay alive, and that caused the audience to erupt in cheers and Jack to almost pass out! By the time he recovered, he gave the best piece of advice ever to Hal: "Don't you EVER take that suit off, EVER, for the rest of your life!" He then explained that he couldn't even calculate the odds of against that happening, and as we all know, life is a game of odds, and those odds could've been 100,000 to 1 or 200,000 to 1 to happen at that particular moment when Hal needed it; he even joked that he's not mathematician and he couldn't calculate. But even with the lucky spin, it was not over yet, as Hal still had one little bit of business left: He had to pick a category and answer a question right to win. He chose News '78, and prior to the question, Jack said if Hal could nail it, another $500 would be added to his score, bring him close to almost $29,000 in cash and prizes ($28,700 to be exact); but a miss would end his reign for good. As with every big moment, Jack cautioned the audience to not shout out the answer, and for absolute silence. Here was the question posed to Hal that defined this moment:

"Called 'The Showplace of the Nation', this New York City tourist attraction was scheduled to close its doors in 1978. (Look at that face.) However, the closing was postponed for at least another year. For your eighth straight victory and $28,700, name this world famous theatre."

Hal answered, "Radio City Music Hall". That was the correct answer, and the rest was history.

Now, as you can imagine, with this particular moment viral on YouTube by many game show fans, you can bet there were some people shouting "RIGGED!" not only in reference to Jack Barry and Twenty-One, but to also thinking that the mechanical people actually set the wheels up to show the 3 jokers when they stopped spinning, after Hal pulled the handle. But it's like the game where this show is based off of: The slot machine. When you play a slot machine, and you pop the coin in and pull the handle or push the button (most machines have this option), you don't know what will show up when the wheels stop. It's a game of luck, a game of chance, a game of odds.

Let me explain the same thing I explained with my previous post: Just like with Michael Larson and Press Your Luck, this was NO scandal whatsoever. It was just plain luck. That was all it was when Hal rubbed his suit and pulled the handle and got the three-joker spin he needed to win the game. I don't know how many jokers were in those wheels, but I do know that when those three jokers popped up, it was just a lucky spin, and his answer to the question was a lucky guess.

OK...the soap box is now open for discussion on this next scandal that was not really a scandal at all. Fire away! Gameshowguy2000 (talk) 17:13, June 9, 2014 (UTC)