Glenside Couple on 'Wheel of Fortune' Tonight

Tonight, Abington will have a rooting interest in a national game show.

Newlyweds Cara and Howard Tyson, of Glenside, will be appearing on the “Wheel of Fortune.”

“I know, right?!” Cara Tyson said incredulously. “I sign up for everything and I saw that there were auditions for the “Newlywed Wheel of Fortune” Feb. 1 in Manhattan. We went up, and thought we’d only be there for a couple of minutes. Three hours later, they started letting people go.

She said her husband was skeptical about their chances of being selected … but she did call him a “trooper” for putting in the hours.

The “Wheel of Fortune” folks were to be in touch with the Tysons in a couple of weeks to tell them whether or not they would be buying vowels for real in Los Angeles. Cara Tyson said she didn’t think that call was going to come.

They got the call the first weekend of March, and headed to Los Angeles for a March 9 taping

While not a super-fan, Cara Tyson said she watched the program a lot as a kid. But she said she’s a teacher now — at Willow Dale elementary school in Warminster — so she doesn’t have a lot of time to watch it.

In fact, she and her husband had to brush up on some of the rules, so they bought the “Wheel of Fortune” app to help them out. 

Tyson said the first thing she noticed when she got to the studio was that Vanna White is very normal, nice and pretty in person. And instead of meeting the contestants wearing the normal ballroom gown, she showed up wearing sweatpants.

“She said that we could ask her anything and she said she’s just a mom that carts her kids around all day when she’s not working,” Cara Tyson said.

And Pat Sajak was down-to-earth as well.

“They were both really helpful,” she said. “Pat told us that it’s only house money — you’re not going to lose your house, your car — it’s just a game and you can only come out ahead.”

Also of note: the time flies by (each show is about 20 minutes); you get to practice before the taping; the puzzles were difficult; and the wheel is very heavy.

“It’s so heavy, and the spokes get caught on jewelry,” Cara Tyson said. And it’s a right-handed wheel. I’m left handed. Howard’s right handed. I didn’t want to mess up on National TV!”

All of the week’s shows are taped in one day, so the Tysons met several different couples, essentially spending the whole day with them. And that clapping you see when the other contestants are spinning the wheel? 

It’s genuine, Cara Tyson said.

“There’s really good camaraderie there,” she said. “Everyone wants everyone else to do well.”

Well … how did they do? The Tysons can’t say.

“They hold your prizes hostage for 120 days,” Cara Tyson said with a laugh, “making sure that you don’t tell anybody." 

She can’t talk about the puzzles either, which is killing her because she wants to talk about them with her friends. They were harder than she thought, though.

“I told all my friends, and they’re all going to watch. They were anxiously awaiting the date, and I haven’t been able to talk about it. I told my students to watch too.

“I would do this again in a heartbeat,” she said. “You can’t beat the experience.”