High Rollers
| High Rollers | |
|---|---|
High Rollers 1987 title card
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| Genre | Game Show |
| Based on | Shut the Box |
| Directed by | Jerome Shaw |
| Presented by |
Alex Trebek (1974–80) Wink Martindale (1987–88) |
| Narrated by |
Kenny Williams (1974–80) Dean Goss (1987–88) |
| Theme music composer | Stan Worth (1974–80) Score Productions (1987–88) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 559 (1978–80 version) 185 (1987–88 version) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Merrill Heatter Bob Quigley |
| Location(s) |
NBC Studios Burbank, California (1974–80) CBS Television City Hollywood, California (1987–88) |
| Running time | approx. 26 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Heatter-Quigley Productions (1974–80) Merrill Heatter Productions (1987–88) Century Towers Productions (1987–88) |
| Distributor | Rhodes Productions (1975–76) Orion Television Syndication (1987–88) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
NBC (1974–80) Syndicated (weekly, 1975–76; daily, 1987–88) |
| Original release | July 1, 1974 – June 11, 1976 April 24, 1978 – June 20, 1980 September 14, 1987 – September 9, 1988 |
High Rollers is an American television game show that involved contestants trying to win prizes by rolling dice. The format was based on the dice game Shut the Box.
High Rollers debuted on July 1, 1974, as part of NBC's daytime lineup. In September 1975, an accompanying series was launched in syndication and aired once weekly on local stations. Both of these series ended in 1976, with the daytime series ending on June 11, 1976. Alex Trebek, referred to on air as "the man with the action", was the host for these series. On April 24, 1978, NBC brought High Rollers back with Trebek hosting and aired it until June 20, 1980, when it was one of three series cancelled to make room for The David Letterman Show. The series was produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions.
In 1987 Merrill Heatter, working solo since his production partner Bob Quigley retired, teamed with Orion Television and its subsidiary Century Towers Productions to revive High Rollers with Wink Martindale, this time referred to as "the man with all the action", as host. This series premiered in daily syndication on September 14, 1987, and aired new episodes until May 27, 1988. Reruns aired until September 9, 1988.
Two contestants competed. The object was to remove the digits 1 through 9 from a game board by rolling an oversized pair of dice. In order to determine who gained control of the dice, the host asked a toss-up question. The answers were usually multiple choice, true/false, or yes/no. The first contestant to buzz in received the chance to answer, and answering correctly won control. If that contestant did not answer correctly, control went to the opponent.
Once in control, a contestant could either roll the dice himself/herself or pass them to the opponent. After rolling, the contestant had to remove one or more digits from the board that added up to the total on the dice. For example, if a 10 was rolled, the contestant could remove any available combination that added up to that number: 1-9, 2–8, 3–7, 4–6, 1–2–7, 1–3–6, 1–4–5, 2–3–5, or 1–2–3–4, providing that none of the digits within the combination had already been removed.
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