In the Bonus Round, the competition is eliminated and the rules change. Rubush had come through them smoothly, moving into the Bonus Round with $16,500. Rubush had made it through the initial competitive rounds, where three contestants try to spell out words against each other. Or so contestant Charlene Rubush thought. What matters most in Wheel of Fortune, beyond getting good spins, is extrapolating full words and phrases from a few scattered letters.

Originally spun out from creator Merv Griffin’s games of Hangman on the road as a kid, it’s a word-guessing game broken down into individual letters. Wheel of Fortune is a relatively simple game, which is likely why it’s been on TV in one form or another since 1975.