Encyclopedia
Patrick Leonard Sajak , recognized as
Pat Sajak, is best known as the current host of the popular and long-running
American television game show,
Wheel of Fortune.
Early life
Sajak, son of a
Polish-
American trucking foreman, was born and raised in
Chicago. During his elementary years, he attended Goethe
Elementary School, as well as Gary Elementary School. He graduated Farragut High School in 1964 and then went on to
Columbia College Chicago.
Career
Sajak won a random contest on WLS radio's
Dick Biondi Show to be a guest "teen deejay". While at Columbia College Chicago, his broadcasting instructor Al Parker told him that a local radio station was looking for a newsman. Pat applied for the job and was hired to work from midnight to 6:00 AM. In 1968, Sajak joined the
U.S. Army, and was sent to
Vietnam, where he deejayed on
Armed Forces Radio. Later in 1977, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles was looking for a weatherman, and spotted Sajak working for NBC affiliate
WSM-TV in
Nashville. Sajak accepted KNBC's request for him to be a full-time weatherman for the station. He also had a small role as a
Buffalo, New York newscaster in the 1982 spoof film
.
In 1981,
Merv Griffin, the designer of
Jeopardy! is a well-known international television [i] quiz game show [i], originally devised by Merv Griffin [i] ...
and
Wheel of Fortune, asked Pat if he would be interested in taking over the duties as host of
Wheel of Fortune from
Chuck Woolery. Pat, who already had hosted a few game show pilots, accepted the position. From 1983 to 1989, Sajak hosted both the daytime and nighttime versions of
Wheel of Fortune. He still hosts the syndicated nighttime version of the show. When his late-night talk show on
CBS premiered in January 1989, he left the daytime version of "Wheel," and was replaced by former San Diego Chargers place-kicker Rolf Benirschke.
In July 1989, the daytime version moved from NBC to CBS, and production of both versions of the show moved from NBC Studios in
Burbank, California to
CBS Television City in Hollywood. Bob Goen replaced Benirschke as host of the daytime show at that time. The daytime show moved back to NBC in 1991 and ended several months later. Since 1995, "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" have been produced at Sony Pictures Studios in
Culver City.
In 1997, as part of an April Fool's joke, Sajak and
Alex Trebek switched jobs. Sajak hosted
Jeopardy! and became a contestant along with the hostess
Vanna White on
Wheel of Fortune, which Trebek hosted. Both Sajak and White played for charity, he for the
Boy Scouts of America and she for the
American Cancer Society.
Sajak hosted a late-night talk show on
CBS in 1989-1990 that failed to make ratings headway against
Johnny Carson). He has since been a frequent guest host for CNN's
Larry King Live is a nightly CNN [i] interview program hosted by broadcaster and writer Larry King [i] ...
when King himself was unable to attend. Sajak is also a regular substitute host for
Regis Philbin on the syndicated
Live With Regis and Kelly is a syndicated [i] American television [i] talk show [i] ...
. Sajak has also hosted a program,
Pat Sajak Weekend, on the
Fox News Channel. Sajak also currently hosts
The Pat Sajak Baseball Hour, a syndicated radio sports talk show.
Sajak also is an External Director of
conservative publishing house
Regnery and is on the Board of Trustees at
Hillsdale College in southern
Michigan. He also has written for Human Events and served on the Board of Directors for the Claremont Institute. Pat was a major donor to the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and sometimes posts political commentary on his official website.
One of Sajak's philanthropies is an expansion of the Anne Arundel Medical Center in
Annapolis, Maryland; it is named the
Sajak Pavilion in honor of his donations. He is also part-owner of Annapolis radio station WNAV 1430, which broadcasts
Naval Academy events and other local items of interest. He has also donated $100,000 for
Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
Pat is married to his second wife, Lesly, and has a son named Patrick and a daughter named Maggie. The couple lives in
Severna Park, Maryland.
References in popular culture
Pat Sajak has been referenced and parodied in many TV shows, movies, and animated television series.
In one episode of
Rugrats is an American [i] animated series [i], produced by...
, in which Chaz,
Chuckie Finster's father, won $10 billion, he was outside his house holding up a check for that amount of money. Chaz asked, "Where's
Vanna?" after he exclaimed who he was.
In episode 2 of
The Weird Al Show was a short-lived television show [i] starring "Weird Al" Yankovic [i]....
, Al suggested making
lima bean cookies in various shapes, one of which is Pat Sajak's head.
In the
Kevin Smith film
Mallrats, Jason Lee's character calls the host of a local dating show "Pat Sajak" as an insult.
Sajak was also the idol of "
Ed Grimley, Jr.," an eccentric character played by
Martin Short on
Saturday Night Live is a weekly late night 90-minute American [i] comedy [i]-variety show [i] ...
. Short's character famously had a large framed black-and-white photo of Sajak hanging in his apartment.
On an episode of
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American [i] late night [i] ...
, Pat Sajak was referenced as a part of the feature "Conan's Celebrity Survey." In this segment, O'Brien pretended that he had sent out surveys for celebrities to fill in, and that a part of this was to fill in the blanks of some phrases. It was said that
John Edwards completed the phrase "Most people don't know that I'm actually..." with the name "Pat Sajak", toying with Pat Sajak's physical similarities with John Edwards.
Some people have noticed Pat Sajak resembles former Vice President
Dan Quayle. Sajak joked about this in song on his short lived talk show.
A muppet by the name of Pat Playjacks was created on the children's show
Sesame Street. The muppet, which looks very much like Pat Sajak, is a television game show host.
Tom Hanks played Pat Sajak in a skit on
SNL on May 6, 2006. In it, Sajak quits the show after the contestants exhibit immense stupidity.
Pat Sajak is mentioned in a lyric of "The Kill," a currently unreleased song by
The Dresden Dolls. "Put Pat Sajak back in office!"
External links
