If AI were ever asked to generate an avatar of a game show host, the result would certainly be Pat Sajak.
After four decades on the air, Mr. Sajak, 77, will chair his final episode of “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday. And his departure – Mr Sajak has suggested in a series exit interviews on television with Maggie Sajak, his daughter, that this will be a welcome retirement – offered an opportunity to reassess what made him such an enduring part of the American cultural landscape.
It’s probably worth remembering that Mr. Sajak has seen viewers live through seven presidents, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both the AIDS and Covid pandemics, the September 11 terrorist attacks, the 2008 financial crash and , oh, the Kardashians. It’s no coincidence that he survived the Internet’s invasion of television’s long-held primacy.
Through all this he has visited the American game show audience and unperturbedly urged the participants to choose a consonant or buy a vowel. He calmed the participants down as they guessed Hangman-style word puzzles. He innocently joked with the unflappable Vanna White in her parade of sparkling dresses. He casually exchanged jokes with a rotating selection of celebrity guests as they spun a carnival-style wheel, preparing to clatter past “Lose a Turn” and “Bankrupt” to land on big money.
And for 41 seasons, this paternal figure in jacket and tie hovered nightly in millions of homes, a permanently tanned deity ruling over a peaceful exalted realm.
Against a backdrop of lives full of stress and debt at work, the Wheel of Fortune was a refuge, less as a game of chance than as a bulwark against the daily grind. How strangely easy it is to forget about that overdue electric bill when Mr. Sajak asks in his cheerful tone, “What do you think about ampersands?”
In voice and other ways, Mr. Sajak seemed born for the role. For starters, there are his generally pleasing features: a symmetrical face with apple cheeks, a broad forehead, deep-set eyes and stark white teeth, displayed in a smile that resembles a quarter moon hanging to the side. During his tenure as host of the Emmy Award-winning show for 41 seasons, he and Ms. White were two of the longest-serving faces of any television program in game show history (and somehow he retained his modified, feathered ’80s show). haircut everywhere).
Viewed up close, Mr. Sajak’s movements also appear so stylized and restricted as to appear Kabuki-like. Did it mean anything when he held his hands in front of him, fingers clasped lightly, or raised his arms in a preacher’s pose? It’s hard to know. Yet the symbolism of his defining pose – the body tilted in a slight contrapposto, the arms spread wide – is clear: welcome.
In a world dominated by images, it is of course important to note that neutrality of clothing is not a matter of chance. Few jobs require jackets and ties anymore, but Mr. Sajak was rarely photographed in anything casual on Wheel of Fortune. His suits varied over time, as did their styles and colors: wider trousers, broader shoulders, although almost always single-breasted. The fits and lapels became smaller or wider depending on the prevailing fashion, but the overarching image was of steadfastness. He was the image of a witness, a deacon, the archetypal neighbor.
In this way too, Mr. Sajak proved that he was a master of optics. In reality, his off-screen life may not always have aligned with that of the centrist character he portrayed, as became clear when a photo surfaced in 2022 of the Wheel of Fortune host with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump-affiliated connected Georgia. Republican, and went viral on X. “Pat Sajak has always been a far-right lunatic. I’m not surprised at all,” one user wrote.
Whatever his beliefs in practice, Mr. Sajak cultivated a neutral and reassuring image that fell somewhere between a used-car dealer and a regional weatherman. The most important thing to remember about him as he leaves is that no matter how chaotic the world outside “Wheel of Fortune” is, Pat Sajak could be relied on to show up every night cool and unflappable, a host who was also the ideal, not was a demanding guest. .
