This rapid rise from 'Rascals' to riches is largely the result of the astonishing success of 'Wheel of Fortune' - a show loosely based on the childhood game of Hangman, with contestants taking turns spinning a giant cash wheel for the right to guess the letters that make up the hidden word or phrase. 10 at $10 a share, closed yesterday at $17. It distributes 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy!' - two of television's top-rated game shows - and is coming off a lucrative public offering that turned the King family into multimillionaires and the company into a Wall Street wheel of fortune. Today, King World is indisputably the hottest company around in the cutthroat $1.2 billion market for syndicated television programs.
was a tiny, family-run New Jersey company that eked out its existence by selling 'Little Rascals' reruns to television stations. Two years ago, King World Productions Inc.
