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Our PBS Documentaries> The People and the Power GamePress / Viewer Reaction"What makes [this series] work are the interviews. Smith has a great ear, a cold eye, and scores of sources who are happy to oblige...He displays his prodigious talents as a journalist and storyteller...rich in texture, detail and anecdotes...which the audience will find riveting."
"...an endlessly fascinating look inside the various power centers of Washington, from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other....The series puts a sharp focus on the nature of power and the way it's used in Washington....Must viewing."
"Smith understands how the capital really works and why, at times, it barely works at all. The Power Game is most riveting when it shows rather than tells - no easy trick when the game's cardinal rule is to operate out of public view.."
"Smith couples an insider's fascination with process and the outsider's ability not to get sucked into arcana. Like every good journalist, he imparts knowledge rather than shows it off....does a superb job in contrasting the Carter and Reagan presidencies... offers clear-sighted reasons for their report card that will come as a surprise to most."
"....sophisticated series....Like Hedrick Smith's knowing book from which it is derived, The Power Game is a shrewd observer's account of the movings and shakings of Washington shakers and movers....The program succeeds in getting close to the day-to-day doings of the representatives, especially in personality pieces..."
"Politically illuminating....keeps the viewer intrigued with the political game. You become a willing armchair player in this high stakes contest for power, taking place in the nation's capital."
"It's a great start for Public TV's brave new year. If President-elect George Bush is watching, even he mind learn some finer points on the game he'll soon be joining in progress."
"A remarkably candid new series...Smith is narrator, interviewer, and genial whipper-in for the series. He approaches Washington as if it were a foreign country. He probes, he dissects, he turns back the Congressional carpets and finds the death-watch beetle."
"In the four hours of this excellent series, you will get a nuts-and-bolts education that helps make sense out of those subcommitees and chiefs of staff and photo-ops and all the other buzz words that dominate the news of the nation."
"The 'Congress' [show] is loaded with facts and figures, most of which are perfectly appalling....As the host of these proceedings, Smith is a welcome contrast to the smoothies who usually narrate these things....The effect is ingratiating. You become as intent on listening as Smith is on holding forth....valuable and vividly conveyed..."
"The Power Game peels back the layers of a hidden Washington to explain who really runs our government and how politicians get along with each other.... On camera, Smith is expert at framing concise, evocative questions, a television presence who, while clearly there, never intrudes." 
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