Anybody remember watching any episodes? Apparently the series aired on the A&E channel in 1996.
What was the format? Did Cecil make an appearance? The host was some guy called Mike Lucas; the fact that his only other credit on IMDB was in Some Kinda Joke as Bald Guy with Frog on Head doesn’t inspire confidence.
Was it deservedly canned?
I watched most (if not all) the episodes. Given the fact that I was 19-20 at the time the show was on, I thought it was pretty good.
It was a standard one-guy-in-front-of-a-green-screen affair…answering questions that would typically appear in the column.
I don’t really remember any specific mentions of Cecil, let alone pictures of him.
Mike Lucas is kinda goofy, but actually a pretty funny guy. I’ve seen him doing standup a couple of times, and really enjoyed myself.
I remember liking it quite a bit. It’s actually how I ended up here (reading and lurking for a long time before finally registering in 2000). From what I remember the content and sarcastic goofiness was basically the same as the columns. I was a teenager then as well, so it’s possible it was crap and I just didn’t know better.
I caught one episode. It was basically just Lucas reading a Cecil column word-for-word.
I enjoyed it. It introduced my to Cecil’s books, which introduced me to the website, which introduced me to this message board.
It’s how I ended up here too! Hell, that show would still be just as good (if not better) than half the A&E-type shite I watch now…
This. I see the Straight Dope as more of an interaction between Cecil Adams and “the outside” so it should be more of a Mythbusters sort of thing. More action-packed and “well they didn’t like that so let’s try this,” etc.
I had all the Straight Dope books and was an avid member of the AOL board at the time and don’t think I watched all the episodes of the show. If I did it was because I forced myself to. Wasn’t it also on a Saturday night at 10PM or some horrible time slot? I worked in a movie theater and was never home on a Saturday anyway, so I taped it and never got around to watching it.
Wow. That’s the least complete IMDB page I have ever seen. I’m guessing the show’s demise was not lamented much.
That’s how I remember the series. I was disappointed because I already had all the books that were available, and I was hoping for some new material. Instead, I just got a visual presentation of a column I’d already read. Since I usually absorb information better if I read it, rather than have it read to me, the show didn’t do anything for me.
This was my reaction, also. It was like they were trying to add a “Saved by the Bell” approach to it, on top of just reading the column. I’m wanting to say dorky sound effects, but I can’t remember clearly enough. Pretty disappointing after having memorized the books.
I watched all the episodes, but it wasn’t very good. It was done on the cheap and the host was OK, but overall, meh.
According to this link, there was supposed to be commentary by experts, and man on the street interviews. Neither of those made it to air? It also said the pilot was shot for $7K, so it apparently it was done on a rather modest budget.
I watched it every week. I already had the books. As others have mentioned, it deserved not to last. Well, actually, it deserved a better format.
I watched and liked it; but it was my first exposure to the SD - I had not ever seen the column nor books. When the show went off the air I went looking for Straight Dope online, which led me here.
Not much out there, but here is a clip.
This. And then I lurked. And lurked. And then I couldn’t resist the call of the Death Pool any longer. So I registered. And mostly lurk. 
It doesn’t look that bad.
But I don’t like how they call him “Cee-cil.” In my mind it’s pronounced “Ceh-cil.”
Me too. TV show to books to here.
From what I recall the host could be described as a minor league version of what Mike Rowe was eventually on Dirty Jobs
Yeah, and now that I’ve seen the whole episode. . .
a) It wasn’t just the host reading SD columns and responses, and did in fact contain man-on-the-street and expert interviews.
b) They made the most of what they could with the budget they had.
When it started out, I thought, 'Oh, this is bad." After I watched the whole ep, I just thought it wasn’t very good (refer to ‘b’ above).
Doesn’t seem too awful. If they killed the porn music and added some animations to illustrate what he was talking about - so we’re not just looking at his face - I think it would have been a reasonable show.