I remember that there was one, but, at the time, I wasn’t sufficiently interested to watch it. I had read a few Straight Dope books, but I guess I never put two and two together that they were from the same source.
What was it like? Does A&E ever show reruns?
There are a few pictures of Mike Lukas on the set of the show here.
IIRC, it was sort of along the lines of MythBusters, MailCall, or Tactical to Practical. Viewers sent in questions, and Lukas would go on location to interview experts to get the Straight Dope.
I hated it. Thought it was unbearably cutesy-pie and self-concsiously wacky. Was glad when it got axed.
That good, eh?
Did they ever make mention of Cecil (who is also unbearably cutesy-pie)?
I think they did, quite often, and it was usually just by his name (reverentially, houwever), not by the “Unca Cecil” or “Perfect Master” variations you see on the boards.
The show has been off the air for at least 10-15 years, maybe, and A&E has not shown a repeated episode in nearly as long.
Did you like the show, Casey?
I thought it was similar to Mythbusters, too. I liked it, but it came on at some insane time like four in the morning, so I could never get anybody to watch it with me.
I never liked Jello anyway, but after learning more than I wanted to know about it, there’s no chance I’ll ever eat it again!
I did. I recall it being on in the early afternoons, though, like from 2PM-3PM on Tuesdays or something like that. And there were back-to-back episodes (previous week followed by current week, I think). But yeah, I liked it. Took me a while to realize it was off the air though.
They spent an excessive amount of time just trying to be quirky. It wasn’t a very nutritions half-hour - I always wanted it to have more real content.