Okay, as someone who watched MG/HS just about every day when he came home from school, I do have fond memories of the show. I liked the chemistry when the panel clicked (although, as was stated earlier, maintaining that chemistry during the week was tough because of the seat-switching), and I thought the Super Match was particularly exciting, especially the handful of $30,000 wins that occurred.
However, having seen the show again years later through video trades, I can definitely see the flaws. From what I know, Jon Bauman is a great guy, and I would say he tried to be the best host he could for this show. However, I think he let the inmates take over the prison too often. Many times, it seemed like he let the celebs get long-winded and hog too much camera time, thereby wasting time in the HS portion. Just watch David L. Lander and Michael Winslow during that week that's on the trading circuit, and you'll see what I mean. (To be fair, though, the producers should have been clamping down on that, too.) In all the MG/HS episodes that I have, there are only two in which all nine stars get asked at least one question. In at least one episode I saw, only four of the stars got asked questions.
And Goodson may have been "playing it straight" when he had the writers create multiple-choice questions, but by doing so, he also robbed the stars of opportunities to give zingers. It's a lot harder to give a good joke as an answer when possible answers have already been given. I can remember one instance from the "St. Elsewhere" week when Jon asked Howie Mandel "What is the best way to keep your bathroom smelling fresh?"; Howie immediately replied, "Don't use it." Howie actually had to interrupt the question to get a decent joke in.
The MG segment clearly worked better, mainly because it was essentially the format of MG PM. But I can imagine a lot of people might have gotten put off by the stiltedness of the HS segment and changed channels during it.
Flaws and all, I do enjoy seeing the show through trades, and though I know it's a pipe dream, I still hope to see Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, and other in reruns of the game on TV one day.
Completely unrelated to gameplay: This may have been due to the fact that the show was in a late-afternoon time slot, but I like how the celebs were always dressed up. The men were usually in suits and ties, and the women often dressed in classy eveningwear and sometimes wore fancy hats. The theme and the intro, of course, rocked. I like that each celeb got his own separate introduction and cheers and applause. And I did like the set a lot, though I think the dark colors of the huge video wall and the dark-purple backdrop behind the MG set were maybe too much of a contrast from the otherwise-bright set.
Brendan
