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Livermore native Tammi Barker Neilsen arrived inside Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City not even sure if she’d make it on the air and was just “there for the experience”.
Lo and behold, the married mother of three who has been watching “Wheel of Fortune” since she was a child playing alongside her great-grandmother soon found out she would be among three contestants etched forever into game show history.
Barker Neilsen’s episode is being broadcast nationwide this Friday (June 7) — which just so happens to be the final time Pat Sajak serves as host after 41 years. Talk about the experience of a lifetime.
“When you arrive on set, you do not know if you will make it on to the live show, but I was hopeful … They invite more contestants than are aired,” she told me by email this week.
“I was just hoping to make it to the live taping, but being selected for Pat’s final show was such an honor. They did mention that the Friday taping was Pat’s final show and has a few fun surprises in store – you will have to watch to see what I mean!”
As you can tell, Barker Neilsen couldn’t reveal any game details and spoil the episode before it airs (at 7:30 p.m. Friday night on ABC7 for us in the Bay Area), but she was able to talk about how she got selected for the show that has been beloved by five generations of her family — and what it was like to be on the sound stage for Sajak’s final taping.
“Wheel of Fortune” has been part of Barker Neilsen’s life for as long as she can remember, and is part of her regular routine to this day. She and husband Shawn Neilsen play nightly with their kids Adam, Ava and Jacob.
“My memories range from sitting on the carpet watching with my great-grandmother during the day when the winners ‘shopped the showroom’, to sitting with my grandma nightly watching her solve faster than anyone I’ve seen, to playing with my parent and now in current days competing with my own children to see who will solve the puzzle first,” recalled the Granada High School alumnae.
Her love of the game show — and of Livermore — may have really helped her come audition time.
“I made a quick introduction video … and may have mentioned that (we have) the oldest continuously running winery and that ‘Livermore makes wine; Napa makes auto parts”, plus that it’s the only show my family can all agree on and watch nightly. Then I submitted it in online,” she said.
Barker Neilsen, 50, who works as a construction specialist in the utility industry, said she got the call back in November while standing in line at Disneyland and had to complete her video audition from their hotel room on her son’s Chromebook. The show contacted her in late March to come to the studio in April for a taping.
Without divulging any spoilers, she said in general competing on “Wheel of Fortune” for real “is not like playing from your couch! I am an ace at home, but nerves, bright lights, filming, being awestruck and adrenaline make it a completely different experience in person.”
“I loved my fellow contestants and was really rooting for them too,” she added. “It was a blast but not as easy as you might think. The entire day was a whirlwind of excitement and dream come true!”
Barker Neilsen was so complimentary of Sajak and his longtime co-host Vanna White, calling them “TV icons” who were “both very friendly and charming”.
As for the surprise that she was appearing on what would be Sajak’s final episode before he hands the reins to Ryan Seacrest next season, Barker Neilsen told me, “You could feel something special happening in the air — I realize this sounds cliche, but it was palpable. It was the obvious bittersweet final day at ‘the office’ for the legendary Pat Sajak and their extraordinarily kind and supportive crew.”
“Having the opportunity to be a tiny part of this incredible milestone in TV history and share in Pat’s retirement celebration was bigger than I could dream,” she said. “It’s a huge honor that I am immensely grateful for and something that I will never forget, in addition to being a ton of fun.”
To find out how she performed, well I guess we’ll all have to tune in. Regardless, she’ll always look back fondly. “To sum up the experience,” Barker Neilsen said, echoing the show’s theme all week long, “‘Wheel of Fortune, thanks for the memories!”
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
