A few days ago, I found one of the rare pilots from Wheel of Fortune that goes back to August, 1974. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x5wmlf4A_g. Here's a trivia question. Who hosted the second pilot? It was not Chuck Woolery. It was Edd Byrnes, best known as the hair combing Kookie on the hit private eye series 77 Sunset Strip.
I did watch the pilot, and to me it looked like Byrnes did not handle his hosting duties well. According to his autobiography Kookie, No More, Byrnes drank himself out of a job since he was an alcoholic at that time and it showed when he was on camera.
First of all, he goofed on mentioning the total dollar amount of the first round. He mentioned that the top dollar value on the wheel was $350. he also mentioned that the total amount for the round was $435. He didn't seemed focused at all on the figures.
Also, Byrnes lacked warmth and empathy toward the contestants. In the first round, when the contestant wanted to solve the puzzle he said "Look at all the money you can win!" and then he yelled "Solve it!" A good game show host is supposed to have good rapport with the contestants and Byrnes did not show a lot of rapport at all.
It was a good move by the show's creator Merv Griffin not to hire Byrnes as host and instead go with Woolery and co-host Susan Stafford. If Byrnes was Wheel of Fortune's permanent host, the show would have probably lasted 13 weeks or he would have been fired. There would have been no Pat Sajak and Vanna White as well as a nighttime syndicated version that still remains popular to this day, long after the passing of original announcer Charlie O'Donnell.
It's a rare find for game show fans. Click on the link and you'll see and hear why Byrnes was not qualified to be a game show host.
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