My rating of "eight" refers to the Bud Collyer-hosted version from the '60s which I've been watching lately on Buzzr. I haven't really kept up with the show in its recent permutations.
I watched the show back in the day and loved it. I really like the re-runs today of the old programs; they're irresistible in terms of audience participation. Collyer is one of the two or three greatest game show hosts ever IMO - good-natured, disciplined, absolutely real. I believe he was quite a spiritual man and wrote a book or two about his faith. The go-to panel for me was (from left) Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean (who veered in his lifetime from being a disciple of Wilhelm Reich to being a fundamentalist Christian), and Kitty Carlisle; this panel got locked into place at some point in about '65 after a fair amount of experimentation and quite a few not-so-good panelists. (Buzzr rarely plays a show from 1964-65-66 - is it because they have trouble getting clearances from companies who sponsored the show then but don't want their old-fashioned ads shown today?) Don Ameche was a frequent panelist circa 1962; he often became Mr. Inquisitor, with a harsh tone to his questioning - Don, baby, it's a game show! Polly Bergen made a bit too much of her ditziness (ironically, she later became a strong feminist). Johnny Carson was still mastering the art of being magnetic on camera; he literally never looks at the camera on TTTT and comes across as your basic leering smart-ass (which of course he was; he later learned to ameliorate the smart-ass thing with greater approachability). Tom Poston was superb much of the time but occasionally seemed Tommy Smothers-like in his inability to speak a coherent sentence; long, long seconds of air time would pass as Poston tried to think of something to say. The most drop-dead gorgeous panelist in the history of the show was Dina Merrill who virtually glowed. (And was fabulously rich.)
The quality of the guests - well, it varies, but I'd say seven out of ten are interesting. Lots of guests from the Kennedy Administration, like for example a kid who joined the Peace Corps - everyone on the show just has huge admiration for this guy and for the idea of the corps. This is fascinating, historically - hard to remember, now, just how treasured the Peace Corps concept was circa 1961-63. Ancel Keys made an appearance - in the early '60s he was a supremely confident (in fact arrogant) researcher on nutrition, a hugely influential guy, but his reputation has taken major hits since then around the topic of fat. Science marches on.
One thing I'm confused about is the truth-telling of guests. In very early shows, Bud tells us that only the real person needs to tell the truth. Later on, this caveat is dropped completely.
