High Rollers

***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 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's retirement in 1981, teamed with Orion Television and its subsidiary Century Towers Productions to revive *High Rollers* with Wink Martindale 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.

In 2017, Buena Vista announced plans of reviving the series in working with Orion Television, the holders of the Heatter-Quigley Production library. Orion itself is the subsidiary of MGM Television. Heatter was asked to be a producer and consultant of the revival, but he was too sick to do it. Heatter died of cancer on Oct. 8, 2017, six weeks after the revival debuted in syndication. Jeff Foxworthy was named the host of the revival with Edd Hall as the announcer.

## Gameplay

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. Contestants banked prizes by removing individual numbers or combinations of them, depending on the rules.

A "bad roll" occurred if the total showing on the dice did not correspond with any combination of the digits still in play. A contestant making a bad roll immediately lost the game unless he/she had an insurance marker (see below). A contestant clearing the last digit from the board won the game. The winner of each game received any prizes that were banked, or $100 if no prizes had been banked. The first contestant to win two games won the match and advanced to the Big Numbers bonus round.

### The Big Numbers

The champion rolled the dice and attempted to remove the digits 1 through 9 from the board, with a large prize awarded for clearing them all. A larger game board was used. Insurance markers were awarded for rolling doubles, with each marker giving the contestant another roll of the dice after making a bad roll. These markers did not carry over to the main game.

Contestants were awarded $100 for each digit removed from the board. Eliminating all nine numbers from the board wins the contestant $20,000, and if the champion retires undefeated (after five matches), they win a new car.