Area residents have a 'Wheel' good time
Just as she was about to solve the puzzle, Rachel Naval-Cruz choked.
She said the wrong word, and because of that, a different "Wheel of Fortune" contestant got to give the correct answer and win the round.
"Uggg!" groaned the 38-year-old Round Lake resident afterward, jokingly pounding her forehead on the table. "It's going to haunt me. They'll put that word on my casket."
Naval-Cruz was among the 45 local contestants -- many from the suburbs -- who are getting a chance to spin the wheel and win big money this weekend on "Wheel of Fortune."
The legendary dinnertime game show is in town to tape three weeks worth of shows at Navy Pier before a live studio audience. The contestants have already been selected, and tickets to the studio audience are sold out.
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The Chicago shows will air at 6:30 p.m. on ABC7 in early May.
Local residents who got to play the game agreed on several points: the wheel is unexpectedly heavy; hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White are very nice in person; and it's a lot harder to play as a contestant than as a spectator.
"When you spin that wheel, and you hear that click, click, click sound, it's just exhilarating," said contestant Carlos Rosado, of Addison. "You want to look down and watch where it's going to land, but you need to be looking at the puzzle so you can solve it."
Rosado played as a team with his brother, Ruben, and it had special meaning to them. "Wheel of Fortune" was their late father's favorite show and they knew this would have meant the world to him. Ruben even visited his father's grave the night before the taping.
"I knew he was with us as we played. That was the main thing, to make our dad proud," Ruben said.
Another contestant team was Janet Bradley, 47, of Downers Grove, and her 19-year-old daughter, Lisa. Janet found the game to be surprisingly fast-paced.
"It seems like the game went a lot faster in person than when you're watching it home," she said. "At home it seems like you have so much time to solve it."
"You have to be clapping and smiling and you can't talk out loud. You're kind of performing while you're trying to play," added Rebecca Gegler, a 32-year-old mother of three from Big Oak who played with her father, Duane Tutaj, of Addison.
"Wheel" producers asked that the show outcomes be kept secret, but it's safe to say that suburbanites fared pretty well.
"This is like a dream," added Carlos Rosado. "It ranks up there with the day I got married. That's how fun it is."