“Charlie Charlie, come down here!” Andy Klampert screamed on a Hollywood stage, after his glorious “Wheel of Fortune” victory. “Charlie, come down here! C’mere! Charlie! I’m a little nervous. I want my friend Charlie. C’mere Charlie! Charlie c’mere. Charrrrrrlieeeee! Whoo! The broadcaster for the Washington Bullets, right here!”

And indeed, there came Charlie Slowes — then the voice of the Bullets, now the voice of the Nats — to shake hands with Pat Sajak and smile for the cameras and watch as Klampert’s adorably hyperactive celebration continued.

What in the Curly W is going on here?

Well, Klampert grew up in the same Westchester County apartment building as Slowes. He and his brother Jeff were among Slowes’s oldest and closest friends — the announcer said Andy was “like a brother” and remains “my biggest fan and promoter.”

Jeff, improbably, won on “Wheel of Fortune” in the late ’80s, and two years later — in the winter of 1989 — it was Andy’s turn. It just so happened that the Bullets were in L.A. on a West Coast swing, so Andy insisted that Slowes attend the taping.

Slowes remembered sitting through five shows until Andy finally got his chance, “and he was the worst contestant ever,” Slowes noted lovingly. “He couldn’t solve ‘Eggs Benedict Arnold’ until they showed it all.”

(Indeed, that’s in the clip. You really have to watch it. See below. Faced with this situation, Andy spun the wheel.)

Andy, at the time, was doing male burlesque and also posing in calendars, and he had incredible hair, and he won the game, and then he demanded that Slowes join him on stage. Pat Sajak talked to him, and Slowes responded, but he wasn’t miked up so you couldn’t hear him anyhow. It was quite a time.

Andy “still calls that my best television appearance,” Slowes joked.

Years later, Slowes hosted Sajak inside a broadcast booth during a game.

“Well, I’ve been on the air with you before, Pat,” Slowes said, approximately.

“Should I be aware of that?” Sajak asked.

“I was dragged out on the stage after my lunatic friend won the grand prize on ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ ” Slowes noted, which is a pretty fine summary of this situation.

(Via @misschatter, via the Jack of All Things, via Awkward Family Photos)