'Wheel of Fortune' host Pat Sajak takes trip down memory lane in farewell interview: 'Who's cutting onions?'
Pat Sajak's daughter, Maggie, is interviewing her father all week long as part of the "Pat, Thanks For The Memories" series. Sajak will host "Wheel of Fortune" for the last time June 7.
Pat Sajak is being interviewed by his daughter to celebrate his final week as host of "Wheel of Fortune."
On Monday, the game show released the first of four videos of Maggie Sajak asking her father questions about his career, leading up to his final episode of "Wheel of Fortune" on Friday. The farewell episode was taped in April.
"Who’s cutting onions in here??" the Instagram caption read. "Today kicks off the first of Maggie’s exclusive 4-part interview series with Pat, Thanks For The Memories, in honor of her dad’s final week as host of ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ You won’t want to miss it: There are a few tears and, if you know Pat, more than a few laughs. 41 seasons and 8,000+ episodes went by just like that!"
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During the video, Maggie thanked her father for participating in the interview. "It was between you and ‘60 Minutes,'" Pat joked.
"No, I'm honored to be here. My daughter is going to interview me, so don't be too hard on me," he continued.
Maggie asked her father how he felt about his final week of "Wheel of Fortune" shows, and he replied, "Surprisingly, okay."
"This was announced a long time ago, almost a year ago, so I've had time to sort of get used to it, and it's been a little bit wistful and all that, but I'm enjoying it and taking it all in and reflecting on a great run," he continued.
Maggie and Pat took a trip down memory lane – all the way back to Pat's childhood.
"I was kind of lighthearted and made jokes and all of that kind of thing. I wasn't a class clown because that implies that I was disruptive or disrespectful. I have one yearbook existing from my high school days and I looked at the inscriptions and the word that kept coming up was ‘witty’ and not funny or any… but ‘witty,’" Pat said.
"Apparently I was a witty kid," he continued. Maggie noted that "witty" is still a word her father gets a lot.
Sajak noted that during his childhood, he never dreamed of being a game show host.
"But I did, and I don't know why, but I always wanted to be in broadcasting in some way," Sajak said.
The father-daughter duo dove into their family history, noting that no immediate family members lead a "public life."
However, Pat's great aunt was a horse racing handicap for a Chicago newspaper.
"She loved radio and television, and when I'd be at her house, I was there often because she lived down the street from us, instead of watching kids television or listening to music, she had radio talk shows on with broadcasters. But they really influenced me and I kind of grew up in that environment," Sajak said.
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Pat noted that his favorite broadcaster was Jack Paar. He hosted the "Tonight Show" for five years in the 1960s, and Pat quickly became a fan.
"I would sneak out of bed at night and turn on the television to watch, and my father would come in and yell at me, ‘Get!’ And I came to know him later in my life, and he became a real booster and friend, and that was great for me," he continued.
Pat and Maggie did a rundown of his resume beginning with his first broadcasting job during his time in college in Chicago.
"It was a 250 watt foreign language radio station and from midnight to six I did the news for five minutes every hour in English," Pat said. After this job, he took a break from his broadcasting job in Chicago and served in Vietnam.
"I decided to join the Army. It was at the buildup of the Vietnam War, and I was under the impression that if you joined, you had a better chance of getting in the area you wanted to get in. And mine was Armed Forces Radio," he said.
Pat continued, "Immediately, they made me a finance clerk and sent me to Vietnam, but I kept applying for transfers, and eventually, they moved me to Saigon and I got to do the morning show."
"Remember the movie, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ with Robin Williams?" Pat asked Maggie.
"I was in that role. I was not the guy he portrayed, I was two or three guys later, but we all had to do the same thing, which was yell, ‘Good morning, Vietnam!’"
Pat admitted that when he came back to the United States, he "begged" WSM Television in Nashville, Tennessee, for a job.
"One time I went, probably the 12th time I barged in, a half hour before one of the staff announcers had announced he was retiring, and they said, ‘Okay, go down and do a tape for us.’ And I read something, and they hired me and I worked in Nashville for five years. I did the weather, I did talk shows. I did a lot of stuff and learned a lot about television there," he said.
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Pat, 77, has been hosting "Wheel of Fortune" for over 40 years, and while he originally announced his retirement from the gig last summer, he is currently in his final week of shows.
He has two children, Maggie and a son named Patrick. Maggie recently graduated from law school and also works as a social media correspondent for "Wheel of Fortune," while Patrick is a doctor. Neither have children of their own.
In September 2022, Pat surpassed Bob Barker, former host of "The Price Is Right," as the longest-running host of any game show.
Fox News Digital's Emily Trainham contributed to this report.