A "High Rollers" revival would work for ABC's Summer fun of Games. The only tweak would be the Big numbers. Instead of $10,000, it would be $25,000 or $50,000 in cash
Kristin Dell Yeah. So did the original version with Alex Trebek (along with every other game show replaced by that stupid David Letterman show that didn't even last more than 90 episodes).
Only had it removed the car mini-games which killed time for the main rounds and bonus rounds, this version would have lasted longer than the first two incarnations combined.
As soon as the producers saw Lucky Numbers and figured out that this was what Alex Trebek wanted to bring back, they put this together instead. Good choice.
I shall never understand why THIS incarnation of HR with the "Winker" lasted such a short time. He was a WAY BETTER host for HR than Alex Trebek!! :) :)
I think the reason why this incarnation of "High Rollers" lasted a year was because, by this point, talk shows were getting to be the rage, and by 1989 and 1991 they put a lot of game shows in both daytime and syndication (with the exception of "The Price Is Right, Jeopardy, and "Wheel of Fortune") out of business.
If I had it my way, I would suggest that they would revive High Rollers for ABC's prime time game show block and have all the mini-games be available for play if one person wins a main 2 out of 3 game match instead of having the mini-games be in columns that players would have to take down numbers for. Also, for the Big Numbers round, I would have the cash prizes be $250 for each number taken down and $25,000 for all nine of them.
It's decent for a pilot though. For most pilots, they want to show stations an idea of what the show will be like, even if it's not exactly to the detail of what viewers will see once it's on the air.
Where was this pilot taped? I know the series taped at CBS Television City; this has an "ABC" feel to it, though. Or possibly Hollywood Center Studios.
This was at the ABC Television Center in HOLLYWOOD the home to All-Star Blitz with Peter Marshall, Family Feud with the late great Richard Dawson and of course, Dick Clark's American Bandstand
Bryce Lozier That's correct, it was INDEED Videotaped at the ABC Television Center in Hollywood which was not only the home to Dick Clark's American Bandstand and Family Feud w/the late Richard Dawson, it was also the home of Merrill Heatter's All-Star Blitz w/the Master of the Hollywood Squares and Wink's Buddy Peter Marshall It was also the home to The NEW Hollywood Squares with Former Square Himself John Davidson and it was also the home to That's Incredible
+Bryce Lozier Yes indeed, I wish that it was Videotaped @ ABC Television Center instead of CBS Television City, but also, I wish that abc had picked this show up instead of Bargain Hunters
Would have fit nicely between The $25,000 Pyramid and The Price is Right on CBS Daytime (even though it would have been at Card Sharks expense unless they replace the Bold and the Beautiful with an extra game). Or between Sale of the Century and Wheel of Fortune or Wheel of Fortune and Super Password on NBC (move Classic Concentration to 11:30AM if it's on after $OTC).
Well just so ya know, 1986 was the year that Winker finished off his 1 year stint as host of his own creation Headline Chasers, but in 1987, Winker had a Heavy Schedule as he pulled Triple Duties that year While hosting High Rollers, he was also busy in Canada producing 2 Game Shows: 2nd Honeymoon which aired in the USA on Pat Robertson's CBN (1 year before it became The Family Channel) and Bumper Stumpers for USA Network (Co-Produced by Barry & Enright Productions of Tic Tac Dough, The Joker's Wild, BULLSEYE and Hot Potato among others) Alex Trebek who hosted the show in the 70's was busy pulling Double Duties as host of JEOPARDY! (which he still does to this day) and Classic Concentration for NBC Daytime I can understand if Winker had a Heavy Schedule b/c going back to forth from L.A. to Canada was tough Plus, the show didn't last long b/c of Heavy Competition against other Syndicated Shows like Nighttime Wheel of Fortune, the revived JEOPARDY!, The People's Court, Superior Court, Entertainment Tonight, Star Search, Donahue, Sally, Geraldo, Oprah, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other cartoons, Soul Train, It's Showtime at the Apollo and America's Top 10 w/Winker's Late Friend Casey Kasem among others Plus, another problem with this version is that the Dice on Wink's Version were not as round as the 70's Version, plus the mini games took up too much time, however, the Golden Dice was a great concept for the Big Numbers, plus K.C. Winkler was a Great Model for the show and finally, this marked the final collaboration between Orion Television and Century Towers Productions who Co-Produced Just Men! w/Betty White and THE NEW Hollywood Squares w/John Davidson (both produced by "CHiPs" Creator Rick Rosner) and Merrill Heatter who produced HR had NOTHING to do with the John Davidson version of Squares as he called it a circus
Most noticeable change for the series was on the Big Numbers-the "2" became darker red, and the "4" was changed to yellow. Also changed was the sequence of the flashing numbers at the opening: here, it was 8-6-4-7-2-9-3-5-1; for the series, it was 4-7-1-9-2-8-5-3-6.
Also, a big change was no holdover of prizes from previous games. There would be new prizes in each game & only one for each column. I am guessing once this could only get syndicated, without the larger network budget, they had to scale back.
