Wheel of Fortune (1952 game show)

The show's theme was Kay Starr's version of the song "Wheel of Fortune", which was released in the first two months of 1952 and beginning on February 8 ran 22 weeks on Billboard's best-seller chart, with a nine-week stretch (March 14 to May 9) at #1.

Her version shared the charts with two other renditions during the same period (Bobby Wayne with Joe Reisman's orchestra; the second Eddie Wilcox & Sunny Gale), however the latter two were not as popular.

The show's popularity spawned a nighttime version on July 7, 1953, at 8:30 PM, but quickly folded on September 15 against Break the Bank on NBC and local programs elsewhere.

A further (and far more explicit) connection arrived in 1981, when Grundy debuted his adaptation of Griffin's Wheel which (like its American counterpart) also had a very long and successful run on the Seven Network until 2006.

A short-lived remake and revival called Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune hosted by Tim Campbell and Kelly Landry ran on the Nine Network for a brief period in 2008.