High Rollers- 1st version ruleset better than 2nd version ruleset?

[Sodboy13]

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.

[Bob Zager]

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.

[Ian Wallis]

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!

[Jimmy Owen]

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.

[chrisholland03]

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.

[brianhenke]

 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

[Jimmy Owen]

Heatter-Quigley used that format a number of times.  Double Exposure, Battlestars, etc.

[BillCullen1]

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 . . .

[weaklink75]

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.

[MikeK]

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.