Bob Sajak

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Vanna White and Bob Mackie are teaming up for a 'Wheel of. She made headlines at the end of last year after stepping in to host the show for three weeks while Pat Sajak was out for emergency. A young Pat Sajak pictured his days as DJ army and his military service. A Vietnam war veteran, Sajak works closely with the USO and is also a USO tour veteran. Sajak, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, admits to accidentally cutting off a holiday speech by then-President Richard Nixon back when he was a radio DJ in Saigon during the war. Pat Sajak is getting back to the wheel after a life-threatening health scare. The 73-year-old 'Wheel of Fortune' host was rushed into emergency surgery last month for a blocked intestine.

By/Sept. 1, 2016 5:22 pm EST/Updated: Feb. 27, 2018 12:48 pm EST

The Chicago native born in 1946 as Patrick Sajdak has been a reliable presence on TV screens every night for more than 30 years. We know him as Pat Sajak, host of the ever-popular game show Wheel of Fortune, but there's much more to his story than telling contestants how many Cs are in a puzzle or facilitating the purchase of vowels. Here's a look at Sajak's interesting life outside the Wheel.

He started out in radio

Sajak studied broadcasting at Columbia College Chicago in the late 1960s, and before he even graduated, he got a job at a small Chicago station called WEDC. It operated out of a Cadillac showroom..and he didn't know until he reported for work that it was a Spanish-language station, because it broadcast with such low wattage that he'd never heard it on the air. Fortunately, he wasn't hired for his Spanish—he worked as an English-language newsreader, reporting on the day's events for a few minutes every hour between midnight and 6 a.m.

He was an Armed Forces Radio DJ…and made a gigantic mistake

Sajak joined the army voluntarily in 1968, hoping to avoid a dangerous combat position in Vietnam. He was trained as a clerk typist, but was eventually stationed in Saigon to utilize his radio skills as a disc jockey for Armed Services Radio. (Like many morning DJs who worked at the station in the years after famed AFVN jockey Adrian Cronauer, he started his broadcasts by shouting 'good morning, Vietnam!') His tenure went smoothly until Christmas 1969. He was in his studio supervising the feed of President Richard Nixon's Christmas address to the nation. After what sounded like concluding remarks, Nixon went silent. Sajak thought the address was over, turned off the feed, and started playing a record—'1,2,3 Red Light' by the 1910 Fruitgum Company. But then, to his horror, he heard Nixon start talking again, now delivering an address directly to the troops serving in Vietnam. It was too late to cut back to the feed, so none of Sajak's fellow soldiers heard Nixon's message. 'Very belatedly,' he wrote years later, 'I want you all to know that Richard M. Nixon wishes you a very merry Christmas.'

He was a wacky weatherman

After his discharge, Sajak returned to radio and got a job as a DJ on a Nashville pop station, which led to a job at Nashville NBC affiliate WSM, where he did voiceovers and anchored five-minute local newscasts that aired in the middle of The Today Show. Viewers liked him so much that he was promoted to weatherman on local news broadcasts. An executive from KNBC, a powerful Los Angeles station, caught Sajak on TV while in Nashville and hired him to be a weatherman in Los Angeles. Since he was a weatherman—not a trained, legitimate meteorologist—he filled his broadcast segments with comedy bits, pranks, and stunts such as predicting snowstorms. Sajak's future boss Merv Griffin recalled seeing him wore a bandage over one eye, cut to commercial, and switched eyes during a commercial break—and he never mention why he'd been wearing the bandage in the first place.

An executive really didn't want him to host Wheel of Fortune

While Sajak was doing his schtick on the air in Los Angeles in 1981, game show producer Merv Griffin spotted him in action. Griffin needed a new host for his Hangman-inspired game show Wheel of Fortune, which had been airing on NBC daytime since 1975. Due to a contract dispute, host Chuck Woolery was leaving the show, and Griffin approached Sajak. But NBC president Fred Silverman reportedly opposed Griffin's choice, thinking the weatherman was too green for the job. Griffin so strongly believed he had the right man for the job that he threatened to halt production unless Sajak got the gig.

'I wasn't aware of it at the time, and I'm not really sure if the resistance came from Silverman or another executive,' Sajak told the Daily Caller in 2014. 'But there was no halt in taping prior to the issue being resolved, though he may have threatened it. In any event, it was very gratifying to learn of Merv's tough stand. When he believed in someone or something, that's the way he was.'

Wheel of Fortune wasn't his first game show

It's a little humorous that Silverman thought Sajak wasn't ready to host, because by the time he signed on for Wheel of Fortune, he'd already had several other game show gigs—they all just happened to be pilot episodes that were never developed into a regular series. Among them were a show called Puzzlers and an early, unsuccessful take on Press Your Luck.

He was drunk during some early episodes

Today, Wheel of Fortune contestants win money. In the early '80s, they took the money won in games and 'bought' prizes with it, which were displayed on gigantic rotating turntables. It took a long time to set up and reset those moving showrooms, which left plenty of downtime for Sajak and longtime Wheel letter-turner Vanna White. So what did they do to kill time? During a 2012 appearance on the ESPN2 show Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable, Sajak said they'd sneak over to a Mexican restaurant across the street from the studio and have 'two or three or six' margaritas. He quipped that by the end of the day they'd 'have trouble recognizing the alphabet.'

He hosted one of the biggest talk show flops of all time

Sajak is affable and funny on air and well known to millions, so it's logical that he'd at least be considered to host a talk show. In 1989, CBS tapped him to host a late night series to directly compete against the undisputed king of late night, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The network spent $4 million to build a new studio for The Pat Sajak Show, paid the host $60,000 a week, and heavily promoted it in the weeks leading up to its January 1989 debut. But Carson simply could not be touched—and Sajak also had to compete with the newer, edgier The Arsenio Hall Show. Ratings for The Pat Sajak Show were usually about half of The Tonight Show's. After briefly removing Sajak in favor of a rotating group of guest hosts (but continuing to call it The Pat Sajak Show), CBS pulled the plug entirely in April 1990. Sajak was at least well compensated: His contract was for two years, so he got paid to host The Pat Sajak Show until early 1991, nearly a year after it went off the air.

He was once a contestant on Wheel of Fortune

On a 1997 episode of Wheel of Fortune, appropriately broadcast on April Fool's Day, Sajak didn't come out to host at the top of the show. Instead, Alex Trebek of Jeopardy! came out in Sajak's stead—and then the contestants were introduced: Sajak and Vanna White, playing for charity. (Subbing in for Vanna White on letter-turning duties: Lesly Sajak, Pat's wife.) Sajak returned the favor by hosting the April 1, 1997 episode of Jeopardy!

He really likes word games

Wheel of Fortune has a very collaborative environment. The show requires so many different word puzzles each day that everyone on staff is encouraged to contribute, and Vanna White and Pat Sajak have both come up with plenty of puzzles during their tenure on the show. Sajak must genuinely enjoy the work, because he's also the creator of a newspaper and digital game called 'Lucky Letters.'

When we're not worrying about going bald, gray, or getting lice, it seems that we're fascinated about everyone else going bald, turning gray or getting lice. One of the most commonly asked questions on Google is, 'Does [Insert Celebrity] wear a toupee?' With everyone from Seth Macfarlane to Pat Sajak being thrust into the spotlight.

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We're already discussed bald actors, and that article generated a lot of interest. So, now it's time for toupees as we dive into the rumor mill.

Does Pat Sajak Wear a Toupee?

Everyone's favorite grandfather figure, Pat Sajak, was the host of Wheel of Fortune and while he is no longer a common feature on prime time TV, he has earned himself legendary status in this industry.

If you punch his name into Google you'll see suggestions raising from, 'Does Pat Sajak have a tattoo?' to 'does Pat Sajak wear a toupee?'. We can't comment on the former, and we're not really bothered either way, but we can offer some insight into the latter.

In a 2008 episode of Wheel of Fortune, Pat Sajak pulled off a toupee and revealed his bald head, thereby kickstarting this speculation that would follow him around in the years that followed. This was an April fool though, and believe it or not, that's his real hair.

That might be hard to believe for a 70 year old as he probably has better hair than half of the younger men reading this article. But that doesn't mean he's bald. It just means that he knows how to take care of himself. And he's probably using finasteride like every other man his age.

Sajak Bob Marley

Seth MacFarlane Toupee

It's fair to say that Seth Macfarlane polarizes opinion. The Family Guy creator has as many haters as he has fans, and we're guessing that the questions of, 'Does Seth Macfarlane wear a toupee' littering Google come from the former and not the latter.

This rumor started after before-and-after pictures began circulating showing a receding hairline one year and a full head of hair the next. It's hard to say for certain and we're not going to comment either way. We would have thought that he would sooner opt for a hair transplant than a wig, but the majority of celeb watchers out there are convinced that Seth Macfarlane does wear a toupee.

Pat Sajak's Son Died

Ken Burns Toupee

The public are divided on this. But the same has been said for Ken Burns that has been said for Trump: if it is a toupee, then it's a really bad one.

Ken Burns' hair might look like it's not real, but that has more to do with a really bad hairstyle than a wig. Or so we like to think. Because there is a good chance he just bought a really shitty wig and is getting his money's worth regardless of how stupid it looks.

Does Lt Joe Kenda Wear a Toupee?

On the subject of bad hair/terrible toupee…this one actually seems to be a wig. The rumor mill is very confident of that, even though it looks like a loose fitting mop that was thrown at him from a great height.

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It seems that the Homicide Hunter Lt Joe Kenda does Boeing 777 engine cost. wear a toupee, even if it's a little hard to believe.

Does Rand Paul Wear a Toupee?

With an exception of the president, who has few hair problems of his own, politicians rarely find themselves the subject of such aesthetic curiosity. Most of the time the public is only interested in whether or not they are secretly having an affair and whether their mouth moves when they talk, or if they are actually speaking out of their asses.

In Rand Paul's case, it seems all of the attention is on his hairpiece, or lack thereof. So does Rand Paul wear a toupee?

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This one is actually very easy to answer. Many people have gotten close enough to confirm and have openly stated that he doesn't wear a wig. It may not look like it, but it seems that that's his own hair.

Does William Shatner Wear a Toupee?

Depending on which site or publication you read, Shatner has either worn a wig all of his life or has never worn one. The truth is probably the latter. William Shatner plays on the myth that he wears or has worn a toupee, but he doesn't actually wear one.

In fact, for much of his life William Shatner has had great hair, with only light thinning on top. In his later years he began to developing a receding hairline, but he has still steered clear of wearing a wig.

Kevin Spacey Toupee

Bob sajak wheel of fortune

Kevin Spacey is a living legend, one of the true greats of Hollywood. But as much as we respect him and admire him, his hair clearly isn't on the same page. Spacey has been progressively going bald over the last decade or so and seems to have taken to wearing a toupee to cover up lately.

Which Other Celebs Wear a Toupee?

The 'do they wear a toupee' question has also been asked about many other stars. Here is a quick rundown of the ones who seem to get the most attention:

  • Ted Danson: In Cheers Danson played a bar owner who was very proud of his looks and his hair in particular. But in later years Ted Danson would admit to wearing a toupee. At least he's not trying to hide it.
  • John Travolta: We have asked does John Travolta wear a toupee before, and we arrived at the conclusion that he almost certainly has something going on, but has most likely had a hair transplant.
  • Sean Connery: Rumor is, SeaN Connery has been bald since he made his name as the secret agent with the license to kill and a collection of STDs that are just as deadly. Most of that time he has embraced his baldness, but in the times you've seen him with hair there is a good chance it was a wig.
  • Karl Ravech: We're almost certain that Karl Ravech wears a toupee, and the internet seems to agree with us on that one.
  • Steve Harvey: It seems the internet is more concerned with whether or not Steve Harvey has veneers than whether he wears a toupee. But this is still question that makes regular appearances. No one can answer this with 100% certainty as no one close to him has come forward to make a definite statement either way. But if you study his TV appearances it certainly looks like Steve Harvey a toupee.

One More Note

It's worth mentioning that in many cases we can't say for sure whether any of these people actually wear a toupee or not. This was all written in jest and we did less research than your Facebook friends do when they begin sharing articles about cancer cures and Elvis sightings.

So, in the unlikely event that anyone mentioned in this article actually reads this and gets offended by it, we sincerely apologize. And….please don't sue us.

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