The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: weaklink75 on November 02, 2015, 05:00:37 PM
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So I was on vacation in NYC last week, and went to the Paley Center. There were a few 70's shows in the collection that I was able to see (The Moneymaze, Gambit, and Celebrity Sweepstakes, among others), but one I thought was interesting was a High Rollers episode from 1975. This was from the first version of the series, so the rules were different from the one later in the 70's and the 80's versions. The two main rule changes were:
- no insurance markers for doubles, except in the Big Numbers, and
- instead of the numbers in the front game being in prize columns, each number individually had a prize (two numbers had a half of a big prize behind them such as a car and if the players got one each, the prize was out of play).
I thought this ruleset was interesting; I don't know if I'd prefer it to the one used later on though. Having each number have a prize changes the strategy up a little- if you get a 10 in the first roll of a round, do you play it safe with a 9/1, take a risk with an 8/2 (since snake-eyes on a later roll would be a bust), or try to go for the prizes with a 5/3/2 or even 4/3/2/1?
Though from a budget point of view, the columns made more sense- even in the later 70's version where a prize was added to a column each game up to 5, there was more of a chance a round would be won with just the $100 minimum because no columns would be cleared (and once a column hit the max, there could be games where only 2, 1, or in rare cases no prizes would be added ot the board). The insurance markers in the front game in the later version seems to be a little fairer too- it meant snake-eyes was always safe; either you took the 2 if if it was available, or got another roll.
Any Thoughts?
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The way to get people to actually roll the dice is to incentivize the risk. It seems that having a prize behind each number would make it more likely that someone would have a go even if there were no insurance talismans to protect them.
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I've seen the Paley Center episodes plus one other episode from the original run. What I found interesting was that contestants almost never went for a single number. In the main game, a contestant who rolls a 9 ALWAYS goes for something like 2/3/4. Combined with, as you pointed out, the absence of insurance markers in the main game, and there's just very very little meat on those bones. They whiz through each game really fast. And actually, you talked about things from a budget standpoint, but watching the episodes play out, I'm not sure the "columns" format was cheaper. Two players split the most valuable prize, so that's not given away, and then one player knocks out three prizes on a big play, creating a lot of bad rolls, and the game ends on the next question.
Also, the "doubles" sound effect in the end game is the single most irritating noise I've ever heard on a TV game show.
What's interesting about being exposed to the original run is that it now gives me an odd feeling about "High Rollers." I like the show, but there's no version of it that I'm totally happy with. 1974-76 had a beautiful set and music, a pretty good game, but very barebones execution. 1978-80 was played better but had a fugly set. 1987-88 was a good game, but it moved too slowly.
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What I found interesting was that contestants almost never went for a single number. In the main game, a contestant who rolls a 9 ALWAYS goes for something like 2/3/4. ... They whiz through each game really fast.
Also, the "doubles" sound effect in the end game is the single most irritating noise I've ever heard on a TV game show.
I recall the same thing with all the low numbers going away pretty much instantly on the first roll. Also remember it feeling a little unfair that Ruta Lee did all the rolling. You always feel more comfortable with the dice in your own hands, I'd think.
The doubles sound was irritating? It's been too long since I've heard it, I need a reference point. And I know if I heard them I can think of some others. That's a whole new thread in itself.
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The doubles sound was irritating? It's been too long since I've heard it, I need a reference point.
I can hear it in my head, but damned if I can name something more commonly heard that even remotely sounds like it.
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It started out like one of the show's buzzers and then denigrated into an electronic version of an English ambulance horn, but with very short, sharp beeps. If I had to spell it out, it would probably go fweeeeeeeeee-ing-ong-ing-ong-ing-ong-ing-ong. (Four ing-ongs.) And they used the old Baffle "bonus win" cue if anyone completed the Big Numbers.
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The doubles sound was irritating? It's been too long since I've heard it, I need a reference point.
Have you ever had a dog with a squeaky toy that it really liked a whole lot?
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1974-76 had a beautiful set and music, a pretty good game, but very barebones execution. 1978-80 was played better but had a fugly set. 1987-88 was a good game, but it moved too slowly.
Is Wink's version slow compared to the whip-cracking that Alex would do, or just slow in general? Because watching the 1987 version it doesn't go at a breakneck pace (and there's always a prize in every column), but it doesn't seem to plod. The things I like about Alex's version are the fact that Alex is hosting capably, the atmosphere and the creative and lavish prizes.
For the original version how were the prizes revealed behind the numbers that were removed from play?
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For the original version how were the prizes revealed behind the numbers that were removed from play?
Trilons (or similar) that turn on the X axis (like Feud). Alex would name them off as they were revealed. "Behind the 2...[DING!] a stereo! Under the 3...[DING!] half a car!"
-Jason
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Hope he doesn't mind, but here's a screencap, courtesy Adam Nedeff.
(https://scontent.forf1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1187011_10152680432978102_1921008594_n.jpg?oh=d8e18ff2a00f1e96ae61f40a1837143a&oe=56C90B40)
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For the original version how were the prizes revealed behind the numbers that were removed from play?
Trilons (or similar) that turn on the X axis (like Feud). Alex would name them off as they were revealed. "Behind the 2...[DING!] a stereo! Under the 3...[DING!] half a car!"
-Jason
See, that was another thing that didn't sit right with me about the original series. The prize attached to the number isn't revealed until the number is knocked off. I realize reading copy for 7 prizes (one prize is split between two numbers, and one number is always hiding cash, so 7 prizes), but my thinking is, if they revealed what the prizes were ahead of time as on the later versions, it might affect contestants' decisions and create more dilemmas.
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If it's mine to do I would put this spin on it: the numbers 1-5 have a middling prize revealed to all--because they're the easy numbers to pick off, the prize would be relatively small. The numbers 6 through 9 would have two halves of a major prize hidden, one would have a mystery amount of money and the last one would have an apple core. You can't knock out more than one of those numbers at a time and you don't know what you're going to get.
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1974-76 had a beautiful set and music, a pretty good game, but very barebones execution. 1978-80 was played better but had a fugly set. 1987-88 was a good game, but it moved too slowly.
Is Wink's version slow compared to the whip-cracking that Alex would do, or just slow in general? Because watching the 1987 version it doesn't go at a breakneck pace (and there's always a prize in every column), but it doesn't seem to plod.
What would bring Winks version to a crawl were those "side games" that the prize winner would play between the regular games in the match. Take out the side game factor, and I think Alex still had the faster gameplay, but not by much.
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What would bring Winks version to a crawl were those "side games" that the prize winner would play between the regular games in the match. Take out the side game factor, and I think Alex still had the faster gameplay, but not by much.
Except that they didn't bring the show to a crawl. Lots of those games were just a single die roll to determine the prize, trip or car won.
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What would bring Winks version to a crawl were those "side games" that the prize winner would play between the regular games in the match. Take out the side game factor, and I think Alex still had the faster gameplay, but not by much.
Except that they didn't bring the show to a crawl. Lots of those games were just a single die roll to determine the prize, trip or car won.
Sometimes it was a single die roll. And sometimes they placed Love Letters. But that only took two minutes to play, and was only part of a larger slowness.
It was frequently the case that they moved at a pace of less than a match per show. That's a sign of a show that's moving too slow.
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Yeah, count me among those who found Wink's version "slow," first when I watched it as a kid, and moreso after I saw Trebek's a couple decades later.
In addition to the mini-games and general pacing of the show, I wonder if the feeling of "drag" comes from three new prizes - oftentimes prize packages - getting introduced for every single game. I just picked out a random episode on YouTube, and from when Wink tosses over to the board to start the prize intros, to when they start popping up numbers, it was two solid minutes of prize reads. And one of the columns in this particular example was just cash.
Oh, and Chyrons. Looked cheap then, look worse now.
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One thing not mentioned is that the last two or three months featured the "Face Lifters" format for the main-game; that was where nine numbered jigsaw puzzle pieces would be removed at contestants selection, and to win the game, you had to identify the famous celebrity pictured.
I often felt that the only reason the contestant chose combinations of numbers more often on original HR, was to try to win more prizes.
Sometimes, on the second version of HR, Alex would mention how if he were playing, he might've taken the multi-number combination that would help make a particular column more likely to be cleared on a future roll.
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It's strange...I have a great memory for details of these shows I saw growing up (as a lot of us here do), but I have absolutely no memory of the format change on the first High Rollers. I must have seen it...I guess it didn't leave much of an impression on me!
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It's strange...I have a great memory for details of these shows I saw growing up (as a lot of us here do), but I have absolutely no memory of the format change on the first High Rollers. I must have seen it...I guess it didn't leave much of an impression on me!
June 11th of 76 was the last show. If you were like me, you were in class during the format change. I think I may have seen it once or twice.
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Add another vote for 'Wink's version plodded along'. Some of the side games were interesting, some were painfully slow. I don't know whether it was direction or Wink that was driving the pace, but there seemed to be more contestant interaction/reaction time. Without watching some episodes to compare, there may not be any basis for that perception.
I prefer Alex version 2 overall -- version 1 was interesting, Wink version just felt over-the-top.
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The Picture Puzzle...I know that during that format, there was one where they guessed the names of all four Beatles until a contestant came up with the correct answer (Paul McCartney).
Brian
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Heatter-Quigley used that format a number of times. Double Exposure, Battlestars, etc.
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I liked the '78 version of HR better than the '74 version because the contestants are rolling the dice themselves instead of Ruta Lee or Elaine Stewart. Granted, they were nice to look at but . . .
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One other thing I noticed- I don't think I ever saw a "no roll" situation in Wink's version (though I think they were just edited out), but there were a ton of them shown in Alex's- the dice in the 70's versions seemed a lot lighter than the 80's dice- they were just flying all over the place, and of course they had the rounded corners.
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One other thing I noticed- I don't think I ever saw a "no roll" situation in Wink's version (though I think they were just edited out), but there were a ton of them shown in Alex's- the dice in the 70's versions seemed a lot lighter than the 80's dice- they were just flying all over the place, and of course they had the rounded corners.
Correct. Bad rolls were edited out and something to the effect of "X incomplete roll(s) was/were edited from the program" was shown during the credits.