I realize this comes about four years or so late, but I havent had much access to Oxygen Network till about the last 6 months so. I havent had a chance to see their version of IGAS till now. I have been PVR'ing episodes for the last month or so (Monday-Friday 7:30-8:30 AM ET) for the express purpose of catching the Steve Allen/Betsy Palmer guest appearance which aired today. My thoughts
Host: Stephanie Miller She seems well suited for the faster pace of the program..Has the general nuances of game hosting down pretty good. I thought the comedy segments were a bit overdone.
Panel:
Amy Yasbeck-Very good game player. Of all the panelists she seems to get 98% of the secrets that are guessed.
Chris Hogan and Jason Kravitz..Not terribly good game players..Kravitz seems a bit on the Henry Morgan side of Crabby.
Teri Garr.."Our own personal movie star" very attractive (as is Ms. Yasbeck) Very competetive..seems to get especially upset over not guessing secrets
JM J Bullock..comedy relief..His antics get over the top at times (as they always have over the years)
I have to mention John Ritter, who was an occasional guest panelist. He would have been excellent as a regular panelist. He had a good time but took the gameplay seriously.
The set..Supposedly Ms Miller's Apartment..interesting to have occasional people "drop in" on the show.(Pat Morita, Charo, Phyllis Diller)
I thought I would hate this show. All in all it really is'nt bad The Gameplay is about the same as the original show with higher prizes. The secrets themselves would have been done on the original series. I recognized similar secrets with different people that were done on the original show.
Summary: If you can get past the 1990's/2000's feel of the show and some of the somewhat risque jokes (most had nothing to do with the game anyway) Not a bad way to spend a half hour..
Tim Lones
P.S. The show today was great..saved it to VHS..It was great to see Steve despite his age being as sharp as ever .And Betsy though being noticeably older still sweet loveable Betsy. The Panel very much respected them and enjoyed having them on..Steve in talking about the show..gave ample credit to Garry Moore as the original host which I thought was classy. Very much a keeper.
