Move over drunk weatherman, it's time for Wheel! Of! Fortune!
Sometimes it was two and sometimes it was six, but the magic bullet seemed to be "cuatro," four margaritas tossed back mid-shift for Wheel of Fortune hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White.
Mr. Sajak gleefully confessed to years of liquid lunches with his leggy co-host, telling ESPN2 that the early days of the show involved lengthy stretches to set up piles of "cheesy prizes," which conveniently left the hosts with a 2½-hour dinner break.
"At NBC in Burbank we had a place called Los Arcos across the street ... and they served great margaritas," said Mr. Sajak. "Vanna and I would go across and have two or three or six and then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet."
"I had a great time," Mr. Sajak continued. "I have no idea if the shows were any good, but no one said anything, so I guess I did OK."
Those days are long gone, he noted: "Now, if I were to inhale the cork in a bottle of wine, I'd probably keel over."
With the three-martini lunch long dead and replaced by wheatgrass shots, the blogosphere is cheering Mr. Sajak's heady eighties irreverence, with TV buffs now scouring for that vintage footage, hoping for a glimpse of the bleary-eyed hosts.
"With his Confucius-like knowledge of wordplay and a physique like an aging Ken doll, Sajak has been a constant source of entertainment on Wheel since 1983," gushed Entertainment Weekly's Marc Snetiker.
"I can only imagine how much more wonderful the viewing experience would be if I had known that Sajak and Vanna were absolutely wasted."
"Thank you, Pat, for confirming what most of us already knew in our hearts," teased Cassie Murdoch over at Jezebel.
Do you imbibe with colleagues at lunch, or is that the domain of Europeans and 80s TV show hosts? How does it impact your performance?
