Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune is a universe.

Current Categories

 * Around the House: Introduced on September 6, 1999 as a more specific subset of Thing. For its first season of use, its category strip had a drawing of a house.
 * Before & After: Introduced on February 27, 1989. This category consists of two phrases, names, etc., combined by a word that ends the first and starts the second (e.g., WHEEL OF FORTUNE COOKIE, which combines "Wheel of Fortune" and "fortune cookie"). Perhaps to make the answer structure more obvious, most Before & After puzzles in the 2000s have the connecting word on its own line if possible.
 * College Life: Introduced on October 24, 2005 and used only during College Weeks, resulting in extremely sporadic usage.
 * Event(s): Often includes an -ING ending, much like What Are You Doing? (see below), which is essentially a subset of this category. Some early-1990s puzzles stretched the definition, most notably UNDER HOUSE ARREST and SLIPPED ON A BANANA PEEL which are more logically Phrase instead of Event (although SLIPPING ON A BANANA PEEL would fit). The stretching continued in the 2000s, by which nearly any gerund (e.g. SCRUBBING, FROWNING, and SINGING OFF-KEY) was called Event. Of the "plural" categories, Events and Occupations (see below) are likely the least-used.
 * Family: Introduced during the nighttime week of December 18, 1989 (Family Week), and known to have been used on at least the 22nd. The puzzle is the name of two or more famous people who are closely related, or rarely the name of a well-known family (e.g., THE NEVILLE BROTHERS).
 * Fictional Character(s): A self-explanatory category, believed to be one of the original six.
 * Fictional Family: Introduced on November 30, 2007 as a subset of the above two. Probably the rarest non-plural category, to the point where Pat Sajak joked on October 27, 2011 that it had been used just eight times, only to be told after the Bonus Round that he was right.
 * Fictional Place: A subset of Place, known to have been used since at least May 30, 1995. Despite its longevity, it has been very rarely used.
 * Fun & Games: Introduced on September 6, 2004. It is the first known category to have been introduced in a Toss-Up.
 * Food & Drink: Introduced on September 10, 2003 as On the Menu, and renamed on September 11, 2006 (the Season 24 premiere) most likely to be all-inclusive for foods and drinks that would not necessarily be found on a restaurant menu. From Seasons 21-23, some food-and-drink puzzles were categorized as Thing or Around the House, or shoehorned into On the Menu (most egregiously BIG GULP on October 25, 2005).
 * Headline: Apparently introduced in Season 14, and very rarely used. Until September 2000, its category strip had a drawing of a rolled-up newspaper.
 * Husband & Wife: Debuted in Season 7, definitely by December 15, 1989. Initially, it spelled out the word AND even though the show had begun using ampersands.
 * In the Kitchen: Introduced on September 27, 2005 as a subset of Around the House, albeit very rarely used since Season 27.
 * Landmark: Used for specific buildings, monuments and other man-made structures. Despite being an original category, it is used rarely enough that Pat often mentions how rarely it is used.
 * Living Thing(s): Debuted on March 14, 2001. The category includes animals, plants, etc.
 * Movie Quote and TV Quote: Subsets of Quotation. Debuted on September 29 and October 3, 2011, respectively, although no mention was made on either episode of these being new categories.
 * Occupation(s): Known to have been used since at least March 27, 1979.
 * On the Map: Introduced on April 14, 1999 as a more specific subset of Place.
 * Person and People: Until the introduction of Proper Name in Season 14, proper names of famous people were included in this category. Previously, contestants were reminded by the host that "'Person/People' does not always mean 'proper name(s)'", something that Pat often forgot to do.
 * Phrase: Known to be one of the original six, and possibly the most frequent category.
 * Place(s): Until the introduction of On the Map in Season 17, specific geographical locations were included in this category.
 * Proper Name(s): Introduced on September 6, 1996. May also refer to the name of a sports team, college, or (far more rarely) business.
 * Quotation: Known to have been used since at least March 15, 1978. From 1992-96, players received a $1,000 bonus for identifying the work (play, book, etc.) that provided the quotation; the question was originally signaled by four low-pitched beeps and asked by Charlie O'Donnell, but by September 1995 Pat asked the question and the "$3,000 bonus" (see below) chimes were used.
 * Rhyme Time: Introduced in September 1998. The puzzle is a phrase with a rhyme in it, or far less commonly, a single word with rhyming syllables.
 * Same Letter: Introduced on September 15, 2010. At least three Same Letter answers have had ampersands in them.
 * Same Name: Introduced on September 6, 1988. This puzzle includes two names, phrases, etc. that end in the same word (e.g., ARETHA & BENJAMIN FRANKLIN or SEWING & SLOT MACHINE). Between about 1992 and 1996, it sometimes used three "names" (e.g., SEWING SLOT & VENDING MACHINE). Originally, AND was spelled out in the puzzle, but after nearly every contestant called N-D-A first, the word was replaced by an ampersand on July 18, 1989. Starting in the late 2000s, Same Name sporadically reverts to spelling AND, although there does not seem to be any sort of pattern.
 * Show Biz: Introduced in Season 14 and, until September 2000, its category strip included a drawing of two crossed spotlight beams. For the week of November 12, 2007, the category was temporarily renamed for People magazine with that magazine's logo used in the category strip, and the puzzles themselves had to do with articles found in the magazine.
 * Song/Artist: Originally Artist/Song, and known to have been used since at least April 26, 1993. The Song/Artist form (e.g., LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING BY TIM MCGRAW) has been around since at least April 30, 1996, although the show alternated between the two until December 30, 2008 before settling on Song/Artist.
 * Song Lyrics: Apparently introduced in Season 19.
 * Star & Role: Introduced on July 17, 1989 ( Bob Goen' s first daytime episode) as Person/Fictional Character, the puzzle lists an actor/actress and a character they are known for portraying (e.g., BILL COSBY AS CLIFF HUXTABLE). The original name was only used for three months, being renamed on October 16. It was most likely renamed to make it inclusive for actors/actresses portraying real-life people, as the puzzle GEORGE C SCOTT AS PATTON was categorized as People shortly before the category was renamed.
 * Thing(s): Possibly the category that has been split up the most. Around the House, Food & Drink, In the Kitchen, and Living Thing are all unarguable subsets of Thing.
 * Title: Three specific subsets (Movie Title, Song Title, and TV Title) were introduced in Season 23 ("TV" on September 12, "Movie" on September 19, "Song" on October 13). As a result, Title itself has become increasingly sporadic. On rare occasions, TV Title refers to a network instead of a TV show. Interestingly, there is only one known instance of any form of Title being pluralized.
 * Title/Author: (e.g., THE PEARL BY JOHN STEINBECK) A subset of Title, known to have been used since at least October 28, 1991 although Pat's comments there suggest it being introduced in Season 8. Similarly to Song/Artist, this was sometimes inverted as Author/Title from at least March 4, 1996 through February 25, 2008; since then, only Title/Author has been used. In both this category and Song/Artist, Pat reads the slash as an ampersand.
 * What Are You Doing?: Introduced on September 12, 2007 and guarantees that an -ING ending will be somewhere in the answer, although three puzzles in mid-Season 26 did not have one. The category was most likely created to prevent oddities, as several Event(s) puzzles in the 2000s had considerably stretched the definition.
 * What's That Song?: Introduced on September 16, 2010, it was only used four times in Season 28. The puzzle is a song lyric, and a $3,000 bonus (see below) is awarded for identifying the song's title.