Wheel 2000

Wheel 2000 (a.k.a. Wheel of Fortune 2000) was a short lived children's version of Wheel of Fortune. Like its adult counterpart, Wheel 2000 was taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

Main Game
Three child contestants competed in a game based on America's game. They play for points & prizes instead of dollars in this version. At the start of each round the player to start the round was shown three categories (one new category replaced the selected one at the beginning of each new round), then selected one to play for that round, after which the puzzle under the selected category was revealed. When the round began, the player in control spun the wheel loaded with point values, surprises and penalty spaces. When the controlling player landed on a point value, he/she then called a consonant, and if it appeared in the puzzle, that player received the points times the number of appearances of that letter, and spins again. Along the way the controlling player can buy a vowel for 250 points of his/her score regardless of how many of that vowel appeared in the puzzle. But if at anytime the player called a wrong letter, called a letter already been called, or called a vowel after spinning; his/her turn is over, and control passed to the next player in line. That player also loses control if he/she landed on one of the penalty spaces or solved the puzzle incorrectly. The first player to solve the puzzle gets to keep all the points he/she earned in that round plus he/she won a prize; and if the player who solved the puzzle scored 200 or under, that player's score got bumped up to 500 points. At the end of each round, hostess Lucy or a celebrity talked about the solved puzzle or something associated to it.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Its original adult counterpart has carried over the three category selection process since its season 35 debut in 2017 where after the final spin/speed up round, the winning contestant gets to choose a category for his or her bonus round puzzle to solve before throwing to a final commercial break. However, unlike Wheel 2000, the categories strips are in Blue, Green or Purple while the other two unused categories that were not chosen by the contestant start to "slide" into the category that was chosen by him or her. In addition, It also mirrors the bonus round from Wheel's short-lived 1980s copycat show The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime.

Categories
The categories for Wheel 2000 were designed for educational/informational purposes, and some of them were similar to the adult categories:


 * Globetrotter (Place(s)/On the Map) - Famous Places
 * VIPs (Very Important People) (Person/People/Proper Name(s)) - Famous People
 * Just Stuff (Thing(s)) - General Items
 * Book Soup - Literature
 * Made in the USA - Things that are in United States
 * Space Case - Things in outer space
 * Above & Below - Earth & Space items
 * It Adds Up - Mathematics
 * Every Body - The Human Body
 * Word Rap (Lucy's Favorite) - Grammar & Punctuation
 * Lab Test - Science
 * Bright Ideas - Famous Inventions
 * Paint by Numbers - Art
 * Measure It - Self-explanatory
 * Monumental (Landmark) - Famous Monuments

The Wheel
The wheel itself had brighter colors, and had special surprises and different names for the penalty spaces:
 * Top Point Value Space - 1,000 points was the top value for round one, 2,000 for round two, and 5,000 for round three.
 * The Creature - Which acted the same as "Bankrupt". In another clip, a monster from underneath the wheel came up to eat up all the player's points when landed on. In the pilot only, if the player hit that space with no points, the player gets 'eaten' instead until their next turn.
 * Fact about The Creature - It's never possible for The Creature to actually appear from the wheel in real life. What actually happens when The Creature is landed on, the lights on the stage simply get darker with an evil laugh sound effect. In the pilot, red smoke appears meaning a player hit the creature with no points & is getting eaten.
 * Loser - Same as "Lose A Turn"; self-explanatory. In the pilot, if landed on, the player put on a dunce cap; that feature would later be seen on shows such as Street Smarts and Win Ben Stein's Money. When explaining the rules, Sidoni & Lucy simply give the player "The Big 'L'" with their arms or hands & skips their turn.
 * 250/Physical Game - Three double-wide 250-point spaces contained the name of that day's physical game. The physical game was where the player that landed on it got to play the game for 60 seconds (75 seconds on one stunt, other times less times, and on those stunts, the player had to answer true/false questions for 15 seconds each) to earn up to three letters selected from a randomizer. When the stunt was over, the player went back to the wheel and then decided to either use those letters and see if they're in the puzzle for 250 points each, or spin the wheel and choose a letter of his/her own. If none of the letters appeared in the puzzle, or if he/she didn't earn any letters at all, that player automatically loses his/her turn. Here is a list of the physical games featured on Wheel 2000:
 * Call Waiting - the contestant would have to pick up telephones and figure out who is calling them.
 * Feed the Raptor - the contestant had to dig meat out of a pit with a giant spoon and put it into the raptor's mouth.
 * Monster Heads - the contestant is given an apron, gloves, and goggles to put on. He/she must grab pieces of famous heads and stick them on the monster out of a slimey basket.
 * Letter Launch - the contestant must put alien ships on a catapult and launch it into a spinning pod.
 * Smell-O-Letter - the contestant is given a mask with a smelling tube. He/she had to identify what the smell was inside the four tubes by sticking the tube in the hole.
 * Chutes and Letters - the contestant had to stick a ball down a tube towards a spinning wheel, and predict what color the ball will land in.
 * Remote Rally - the contestant must control a remote-controlled car through an obstacle course, and cross each line until they get to the end. One line allowed the player to win a Wheel 2000 cap.
 * Cube Roll- the contestant had to toss pairs of cubes into a air, and match a pair of symbols to earn a letter.
 * 100/Prize Box - Where the player can earn 100 points a letter plus a special small prize win or lose.
 * 500/Double Up - Where host Sidoni asked the player a multiple choice question under the category in play. If the contestant was correct, then the value of the consonant was worth 1,000 points, but if he/she got it wrong, the value was worth 500 points.
 * 750/WWW.WHEEL2000.COM - The website space where not only the contestant would play for 750 points a letter, but would also try to win a Wheel 2000 t-shirt & hat for an at-home studio player who already registered on the site.

With the exception of the top point space and physical game wedges (when landed on), the wheel was completely isolated, for none of the other spaces changed; the adult version adapted this structure starting in Season 14 in Fall 1996.

Speed-Up Round
When time ran out in the middle of a round, a factory whistle would sound and the game shifted into a Speed-Up round which was played the same way as the grown-up show. To start, host David gave the wheel the final spin, then the player in control gave a letter. A correct letter won the number of points landed on (nothing for vowels), and five seconds to solve the puzzle.

If the Final Spin lands on any of these specific spaces, here's what happens:
 * The Creature & Loser - Spin again (no sounds or effects when landed)
 * Prize Box / 100 - First person to get a correct letter wins the prize in the box, then it becomes a regular 100 per letter.
 * Double Up / 500 - Regular 500 point space (no question involved)
 * WWW.WHEEL2000.COM / 750 - Regular 750 point space (no home viewers involved)

The player with the most points won the game; if the game ended in a tie, a (second) speed-up round puzzle was played to determine the winner. The winner of the game won a chance to play the bonus round for a grand prize.

Bonus Round
To start, the winning contestant chose one of two envelopes A or B consisting of a grand prize. Then the bonus puzzle with the adult categories was revealed. Just like in the grown-up show, The player was given six letters to start (R, S, T, L, N, E). Instances of those letters appear, then the contestant had to choose three more consonants & one more vowel. Instances of those letters then appear, then the winning player had 10 seconds to solve the puzzle, and if he/she solved it, the winning contestant won the selected grand prize. The prize was only revealed when it was won, unlike the regular show where the prize was revealed regardless.

Music
Dan Sawyer

Inventor
Based on Wheel of Fortune by Merv Griffin

International Versions
The German kids version of Wheel of Fortune before Wheel 2000 was called Kinder-Glucksrad running on Sat.1 for a brief period from 1992-1993 hosted by Petra Hausberg. Since this was the only international kids version of WOF that didn't need a letter-turner/toucher, the "Ferranti-Packard" styled small mounted puzzleboard automatically plays by itself.

There was also a a time when Wheel of Fortune in Vietnam (Chiếc nón kỳ diệu) adopted the Wheel 2000 format, but for adults in Vietnam

There was also a version of Wheel 2000 in Turkey called Cark 2000.

Additional Pages
Wheel 2000/Catchphrases

Wheel 2000/Video Gallery

Other Versions
Shopper's Bazaar - The original unaired 1973 pilot

Wheel of Fortune (2) - The show's original and long-running adult counterpart

Links
Official website (via Internet Archive)

Wheel 2000 virtual contestant sweepstakes rules

Josh Rebich's Wheel 2000 Rule Sheet

Game Show Garbage's induction of Wheel 2000

Videos
Episode of the Turkish Version

YouTube
Series Premiere Show

Part 1

Part 2

Wheel 2000 Tour

Foreign Versions
Episode of the Vietnamese Version

German Wheel 2000

Kids Wheel of Fortune in Germany Part 1

Kids Wheel of Fortune in Germany Part 2