Thousands of contestants would never have spun the "Wheel of Fortune" were it not for Ed Flesh.
Mr. Flesh, an art director who brought garish set design to game shows and created the horizontal spinner that revolves at the center of "Wheel of Fortune," died Friday in Mission Hills, Calif. He was 79.
Mr. Flesh, who lived in Sylmar, Calif., died in a hospital of congestive heart failure brought on by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his agent, Fred Wostbrock, said.
Mr. Flesh used eye-catching details like enormous light bulbs, Mylar surfaces, pastel color schemes and shag carpeting in his game-show décor of the 1960s and 1970s. His large, bright sets lent shows a sense of luxury that the utilitarian designs of the 1950s and early 1960s lacked.
Mr. Flesh worked on game shows like "The $25,000 Pyramid," "Name That Tune" and "Jeopardy!" He also designed sets for talk shows like "The Montel Williams Show," David Letterman's short-lived daytime series and three special episodes of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
But Mr. Flesh's most lasting creation may be the blinking carnival wheel that eventually mesmerized the nation. In the pilot for "Wheel of Fortune," the wheel stood upright and was rather small, making it difficult to see on screen. Mr. Flesh laid it flat and made it big enough so that home viewers could clearly discern its markings.
The first wheel he created, in 1975, was a humble affair of cardboard, paint and light bulbs; the current incarnation is steel and Plexiglas and weighs more than 2,400 pounds.
"Wheel of Fortune" eventually became the most popular game show in syndication, and now reaches approximately 26 million viewers per week.
Edwin Albert Flesh Jr. was born in Philadelphia on Dec. 4, 1931. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and received a master's degree in scenic design from the Yale School of Drama.
Mr. Flesh then moved to New York, where he designed sets for Off Broadway productions. In the late 1960s he became supervisor of set design for NBC. He continued working for NBC until the late 1970s, when he began freelancing.
He is survived by his partner, David Powers.
Mr. Flesh was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his last design, the set of a Lifetime channel version of "Supermarket Sweep," in 1993.
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1 comment:
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