Fill in the blanks and you might solve the puzzle of whether a South Park woman was a big winner on the "Wheel of Fortune" television game show.

Otherwise, you have to wait until at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 to watch the episode on WPXI-TV.

Peggy Scherbanic, 48, has kept even her friends in the dark about the outcome of the already-taped show in which she was a contestant. She has invited them to join her to watch it that day, probably at a favorite watering hole.

"I want them to share in the excitement of it all," Ms. Scherbanic said.

Because the experience is "all a blur," she said, the Sept. 22 telecast will be like her first time seeing it all put together.

"Wheel of Future," devised by producer Merv Griffin, has been on the air since January 1975 and has been seen daily in one form or another since then, making it the second-longest-running game show in American television history.

It involves three contestants competing against one another to solve a word puzzle. The name of the show comes from the large wheel that determines the prizes won or lost by the contestants.

Mrs. Scherbanic said her experiences began in July 2005, when she visited the show's Web site, www.wheeloffortune.com.

On a whim, she filled out a contestant application online. Then she forgot about it all until three months later, when she got a return e-mail inviting her to a contestant audition at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center.

There, she and 47 other hopefuls took written tests in which they had five minutes to solve up to 16 puzzles. Mrs. Scherbanic solved eight.

The coordinators narrowed the field to 16 people who then played the game on a model of the set, complete with a wheel to spin.

"We were told to yell out letters, smile, clap for everyone, just like you see on TV," Mrs. Scherbanic said.

A week later, she was notified she had been selected and that, within the next 18 months, she would be asked to travel to Los Angeles to compete.

She was contacted nine months later, in July, to come for a taping within two weeks. Mrs. Scherbanic had to make her own reservations and use her own money to travel.

Mrs. Scherbanic, a Whitehall police dispatcher, and her husband, Mike, along with her sister, Lauren Farkosh, and her son, Andy Farkosh, of West Mifflin, flew to Los Angeles on July 22. After five days of sightseeing at places such as Universal Studios, Rodeo Drive and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the foursome arrived at the studio July 27.

Contestants for the six shows to be taped that day were told not to wear red, black, white or any busy patterns, because those colors do not photograph well.

That most famous of all letter-turners, Vanna White, show hostess since 1982, greeted the group wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt, and without makeup.

"I wanted you to see the real me," she laughed as she put them at ease.

Mr. Scherbanic, who is an Allegheny County sheriff's deputy, said he was surprised the letter board was not as large as it appears on television.

The audience also learned that the wheel weighs two tons and travels with the show when it broadcasts from other cities.

Mrs. Scherbanic said Pat Sajak, who has hosted the show since 1981, was friendly and personable, and kept players relaxed by joking with them during commercial breaks.

Her biggest amazement was how difficult the game is to play when standing under the lights and before cameras and an audience.

The Scherbanics, parents of two teenage sons, said they enjoyed their first visit to Los Angeles, despite a heat wave that, on some days, had temperatures reaching more than 100 degrees.

The couple estimated their expenses for the trip at $2,000.

Time will tell, at least the rest of us will find out, if the investment paid off.