Wheel of Fortune observation

[goodboy16]

Did anyone notice that around 1990, the wheel became much heavier? Many of the female contestants could hardly get it all the way around. I wonder if this was done intentionally and if so, why?

[priceguy]

I don't think this was done intentionally.  I'm not really sure that the wheel was even changed at all.  Maybe during the 90s the show had a series of weaker contestants.

[PriceFanArmadillo]

I couldn't tell you when, but the wheel is definitely tighter than it was in the 70's.  Probably for time constraint purposes, since it really isn't all that important how hard the wheel is spun, as long as it's at least long enough to appear random.

[Garvin8r]

The flippers became much stronger in 1991, the same year the displays went from 6 to 7 digits.  If you look at episodes from the NBC years, you'll see the reinforcement bar to the right of each flipper is not there.  There was also a tension change in the move from NBC to CBS but not as big a change as the one after that.  I'm guessing that CBS had to make a new Wheel and that caused the change.  The traveling wheel, the one used on remotes through the CBS years, was just like the current wheel, as far as I can tell.