User:Daniel Benfield/High Rollers Video Archive

High Rollers is a great franchise that hasn't really seen the light of day in decades (the last time repeats aired was from 1988-91, and then only of the then-recent Martindale version), which is kind of a shame since it's been pretty solid throughout.

(...Well, not counting Merrill Heatter's revamp-for-the-2000s attempt Dice Fever, but I'll get to that later.)

LEGAL STUFF SO I DON'T GET SUED: I'm only linking to these videos, none of which were uploaded by me, for the purposes of research and as a public record. Footage ©1974-76/1978-80/1985-88 Merrill Heatter(-Bob Quigley) Productions and associated entities.

The Original Series (1974-76)
NBC Daytime: July 1, 1974 - June 11, 1976

The original version had hostess Ruta Lee rolling the dice for the players, and each of the nine large light-up numbers contained a prize. Two of the numbers contained halves of a car, while another held an amount of cash.

The show debuted at 11:00 AM (replacing Alex's previous series The Wizard of Odds), doing pretty well against CBS' Now You See It and later Tattletales but running into a bit of weird conflict when fellow Heatter-Quigley game Gambit got put in the slot in mid-'75 (ABC hadn't programmed anything in the slot since 1970 and wouldn't do so again until '77). On December 1, 1975, as part of a scheduling shuffle, NBC sent the show off to Noon against Let's Make a Deal on ABC and The Young & The Restless on CBS...and pretty much got beaten up by the latter.

On January 19, 1976, NBC moved the show to 10:30 AM, against the second half of The Price is Right. You can probably see where this is going.

Towards the end of the run, on April 26, the front-game format was overhauled into "Face Lifters": the numbers each still held a prize, but were now arranged like a puzzle and hid parts of a famous face. Guessing the identity of said person won the game and all the prizes remaining on the board. The show ended seven weeks later.

At least two episodes exist, both from Summer 1975 and held by Paley Center. At least a clip of the Face Lifters format exists, having been used on the 1983 Daytime Emmy Awards broadcast as part of a game show clip montage.

Original format (1974-76)
 * August? 1974 ("Fun In The Morning" promo with clips of Name That Tune, Winning Streak, High Rollers, The Hollywood Squares, Jackpot, Celebrity Sweepstakes, and Jeopardy!)
 * [Placement mainly because the Winning Streak clips are from the August 9, 1974 show...which not only didn't air due to the fallout from Watergate, but is also the only episode known to exist of the series.]

Syndicated, Weekly: September 8, 1975 - September 19, 1976

Had pretty much the same format as the daytime series (no Face Lifters here, though), except the same two contestants remained for the entire show and Elaine Stewart was the hostess.

The Return (1978-80)
NBC Daytime: April 24, 1978 - June 20, 1980

Probably the more well-known version of Trebek's era, with a lot of great changes from the original series. The players now rolled the dice themselves, and played to remove the numbers from three columns. Each column began with one prize and added another for each game, with a maximum of five prizes per column.

1978
 * April 1978 (Debut promo, with clips of the pilot!)


 * May 19, 1978 (GENE SCHNOOK {Match 2 - $10,000} vs. Daphne, continued from yesterday at Game 1 with Patti playing later {alternate copy, about 30 seconds shorter})
 * [Big Numbers awards $5,000 cash and an ~$5,000 car. Championship limit is seven matches.]

1979
 * March 27, 1979 (Pearl {Champ - $10,106} vs. Candice, continued from last time at Game 2 with Jim playing later {Parts 2, 3, 4, and 5}; taped from WNBC)
 * [Big Numbers still awards $5,000 cash and an ~$5,000 car.]

Big Numbers now awards just the ~$5,000 car; champions' total display now shows a dollar sign (began by 12/4/79)
 * December 4, 1979 (Sherry {Match 2? - $7,645} vs. Fred, continued from yesterday at the start of Game 1; taped from WNBC with commercials, reception issues from 10:50-55)
 * [Fred's mother was on another of Alex's shows.]


 * December 31, 1979 (Donna {Match 2 - $9,870} vs. Jane, continued from last Friday at the start of Game 2 with John playing later {Parts 2, 3, and 4}; taped from WCKT {alternate copies of intro and credits, same source})
 * [The car footage shows the studio doors at Burbank, which are decorated with the logos of NBC's then-current games (sign of the times: one of said shows is Mindreaders).]

1980
 * February 28, 1980 (Techla {Match 2 - $700} vs. Steven, continued from yesterday during Game 2 with Rebecca and Jacqueline playing later; taped from WKYC, with commercials {alternate copy of first segment})


 * March 25, 1980 (John {Match 3 - ~$15,000} vs. Tom, continued from yesterday at the start of Game 1 with Stephanie playing later; taped from WNBC, with commercials)


 * May 7, 1980 (Ted {Match 2? - $26,572} vs. Rich, with Cathy playing later and a question about Pink Lady & Jeff! {Parts 2, 3, 4, and 5}; taped from WNBC)
 * [Big Numbers still awards an ~$5,000 car.]

Big Numbers now awards $5,000 (began by 6/9/80)
 * June 20, 1980 (Finale: Betty {Match 2? - $10,610} vs. Richard, continued from yesterday during Game 2 with Jim playing later and Alex making some really weird comments throughout {Part 3, Part 4}; taped from WNBC)

A Not-So-Lucky Revamp (1985)
Taped May 18, 1985 (2 episodes); hosted by Alex Trebek

Lucky Numbers, using the theme of the eventual 1987 revival and having a great set, although I think Heatter may have changed too much of the format...

Something Old, Something New (1987-88)
Syndicated, Daily: September 14, 1987 - May 27 (June 10?) [September 9], 1988 (195 episodes, taped August 1987 - April 1988 at Television City)

The revamp kinda combined the first two Trebek eras: the set heavily resembled the '74 style, but players still tried to knock out numbers from the three columns (now each containing a single prize). The prizes didn't carry over from game to game, though, and some columns would have minigames attached. As before, the winner of the best-of-three match played the Big Numbers for $10,000, using the giant light-up numbers this time.

The biggest issue with this version was the pacing: some matches could take quite a while to finish, and even longer if a minigame is played. Still, USA got some good mileage out of it, airing repeats from September 19, 1988 to September 13, 1991.


 * 1987-88 (Four promos for the show, with a bunch of clips)

1987 copyright date
 * Late 1987 (WAVY promo)

1988 copyright date
 * January 1988 (WXII promo)


 * 1988 (Clip of Jerry {$1,249} at Big Numbers, then full closing credits of him vs. Patty)


 * Taped 4/88 (Intro and some other clips from the last rehearsal taping...and boy, is it weird {alternate copy of intro})

Australia (1975)
Seven Network: 1975

Hosted by Garry Meadows (who had previously hosted the 1973-74 version of The Price Is Right), with Max Rowley announcing. Delvene Delaney and Suzanne Fox were the hostesses.

As far as I know, nothing seems to exist.

Japan (1980-84)
Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS): March 3, 1980 - March 30, 1984

SuperdiceQ (or Super-dice Q), hosted by Masaru Doi. The front game is entirely different, though – two contestants face each other (one a returning champ, the other called from the audience). Before the game begins, each player secretly pushes a number on their keypad to hide a "Squid". Standard Q&A follows, but a correct answer means your opponent has to pick a number (get it wrong, you pick a number). Find a die, the game goes on; find the Squid, you lose. Last player standing gets ¥30,000 and plays the Big Numbers.

The Big Numbers is played the same as before, but with a sort of "money ladder" progression: ¥5,000 is awarded for each of the first seven numbers you remove, which jumps to ¥70,000 for the seventh number, ¥80,000 for the eighth, and ¥300,000 for clearing the board. However, two numbers hide the word "DON"; uncover both of 'em consecutively, the game ends.

(Big thanks to Greg Palmer for the above, given in the comments of the below video.)


 * 1983? (First 9:47 of an episode, beginning at what seems to be the Big Numbers; has commercials)