Pat Sajak was DR_NK! Wanna buy a vowel?
- 'Wheel' host says he and Vanna had margaritas between shows
- Hosted the show while drunk in its early days, Pat Sajak says
"Can I buy a 'U'?" Yes, there is one 'U.'
"I'd like to solve the puzzle." Go ahead.
"Pat Sajak was drunk."
Correct! And yes he was, according to the host himself, who admits tipping back a few too many margaritas with Vanna White before some tapings of "Wheel of Fortune."
Sajak made the admission on ESPN 2's "Dan LeBatard Is Highly Questionable," answering very honestly when asked if he ever hosted the show while drunk.
He told LeBatard that back in the early days, "We had a place called Los Arcos across the street. They serve great margaritas."
"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," he said.
Which is an important component of hosting a game show which revolves around the alphabet.
"They're really good tapes to get hold of," Sajak added. I bet.
If there are any old episodes where Sajak berates a contestant for insisting that 'Y' is always a vowel, this may be an explanation. Or perhaps you know you have one of those tapes the host is referencing if he begins the Bonus Round by spotting the contestant the vowels plus the letters R, S, T, L, N and Zzzzzzzzzzz.
Sajak pointed out the show was different back then, with contestants competing for "cheesy prizes" instead of cash, and it would take a long time between shows to swap out the display of prizes. So during those lengthy breaks, he and Vanna hit up Los Arcos.
Asked how many drinks he'd have on these mid-taping outings, Sajak estimated "the average number was cuatro."
But those days are long gone, he says. "Now if I were to inhale the cork on a bottle of wine I’d probably keel over, I’m getting a little older."
Watch a completely lucid Sajak explain the whole thing right here:
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