Why did people like Charles Van Doren so much?

"A polished Eddie Haskell" -- LOL! But seriously, I thought Charles Van Doren in the movie seemed like a basically good person who just got in over his head, so to speak. The impression I got was that, although he knew very well that cheating was wrong, he was too young and emotionally immature (i.e. he was coasting on his family name and had not yet established his own identity) to continue to resist the temptation to cheat. I don't believe he was actually an "Eddie Haskell," two-faced type of guy; the fact that he was so troubled by guilt proves it.

Why were TV audiences attracted to Van Doren? I think it was because he was young and good-looking in a "blond" (i.e. non-"ethnic") way; he was educated and well-spoken, too. Girls probably thought he was sophisticated and cute.

Some of the same reasons America was in awe of John and Jackie Kennedy in the early 60's.
It was more than just politics. They even called it Camelot.
It was definitely a vibe or feel about those lifestyles verses the inner city working man.

The moral of Quiz show is how TV is (was) going to change culture. "It's going to get them."

You had to be there maybe.

We are experiencing a similar cultural change right now with hand held electronics and instant individual mass communication and you may not even realize it.

. Ephemeron.

Deference.

We *all* simp for someone, and more often than not, there's a class dynamic to it (i.e. we believe the socioeconomic elite, which was in the 1950s primarily represented by WASP/blue-blood types like Charles Van Doren are *better* than the rest of us). Also, there was a polish and charm to Van Doren that contrasted him with, say, Herb Stempel. Even if we ignore the anti-Semitic aspect (some of it internalised, as demonstrated by Richard Goodwin), the public tend to have an adverse response to arrivistes/parvanus and fellow members of the working-class who do well for themselves. They're seen as *pushy* especially if they're Jewish, or belong to some other type of ethnic minority, in contrast to blue-bloods who don't *need* to try hard to succeed, since everything has already been mostly laid out for them.

"We hate it when our friends become successful. And if they're northern, that makes it even worse."

He comes across as soft spoken and friendly, and wasn't bad looking. He was not arrogant and seemed a nice enough guy, the kind of person you might want as your college professor.