9/20/99 - Present
Let 'em Roll is a game played for a car. The contestant earns a roll of five dice to start the game and can earn two more rolls by pricing three grocery items. The price of a first grocery item is shown and the contestant must guess if the next grocery item is higher or lower than the first. S/he subsequently guesses if the third grocery item is higher or lower than the second. For each correct guess, s/he wins another roll, for a maximum possibility of three rolls of the dice. The five dice are exactly the same; each has a car picture on three sides of the dice, $500 on the fourth side, $1000 on the fifth side, and $1500 on the sixth side. If the contestant should roll cars on all five dice, s/he wins the car. Should the roll have at least one die not showing a car, the contestant can take the money shown on the cash die/dice and leave the game, or "freeze" the car die/dice and roll the remaining dice (should s/he have one or two rolls remaining). If the contestant obtains five dice with cars by the end of his rolls, s/he wins the car; if not, s/he wins the dollar amount(s) shown on the dice on the last turn. A win of at least $500 is guaranteed.
This should be a cool game, but something about it left a bad taste in my mouth on the first playing of the game. First off, the set looks like it shrunk in the wash. It could have been a big, glitzy setup, but instead it's quite tiny. The camera shot on the dice bin should be a ceiling shot (like the wheel on Wheel of Fortune, or, more appropriately, the dice shot on Yahtzee). But according to Tony Harrison, TPiR is dead set against a ceiling cam. Third off, the pricing game on the grocery items seems like a total gimme. On the first playing of the game, the price of the second item was *3* times lower than the price of the first item, and the price of the third item was *4* times higher than the price of the second item. Why don't they just give the contestant the rolls??
Set Changes: During the $1,000,000 Spectaculars in 2003, our prayers for a better set were answered when the entire Let 'em Roll rolling platform doubled in size to a Plinko-esque format, in which the contestant steps up to roll down a longer ramp. Neon lights were added around the stairs, and a Vegas-esque dice stick was added to allow the model to push the frozen dice towards Bob.
|
|
| Here's Let 'em Roll from the first playing. If you look closely, you can see the set. | Here's a good shot of the dice cylinder. Note the cash values and car pictures. |
 |
 |
| Oooh. This was a toughie. The contestant had to guess if the juice was less than the conditioner. Yes, he got it. | Ditto. Only an idiot would have thought the softener was less than that small juice bottle. Yeesh! |
 |
 |
| We want this! | Let 'em Roll! Janice is there as always to root the contestant on, 28 years running now! |
 |
 |
| Wow! Four cars on his first roll! Surely he can get a car on his next two rolls! | Nope, just $1,000. Not that bad of a parting gift. |
 |
 |
| Honey, I doubled the size of the game. From the $1,000,000 Spectacular in 2003. | This is more like it! |
 |
 |
| Brandy pushes the car dice towards Bob... | ...and two more cars means she wins the $30,000 Ford Thunderbird! |