Avengers Endgame, Mission Impossible and Game of Thrones themed videos. School administration members mocked and seniors dancing as Moana characters. The legacy of the show Mr. Green Hope ended on a dark night in 2019; however, the comedy show lives on in the hearts and minds of Green Hope’s revered. Produced by GOB Productions for 11 years, the show is remembered by many, including Ms. Filipowski, “as a really funny and genuine experience.”

Mr. O’Brien, the mastermind behind Mr. Green Hope, remembers that the show was so popular, all of the seats in the auditorium would be filled. What was Mr. Green Hope and how did it get so popular? The format of the show was key.

Ten senior boys were selected to put on the show, each handpicked by Mr. O’Brien. “I knew they could handle a large crowd of over 700 people,” Mr. O’Brien attests to the boys he selected, “they could speak to a large crowd. They had to dance in front of a large crowd. And they had to commit to practicing for six weeks every day after school.”

Ms. Filipowski favored the selection process for the senior boys, “it brought multiple groups of students to an extracurricular that typically wouldn’t be there [for them].”

The show was split into three parts: a question and answer, senior skits and the dance. All performed in the auditorium.

For the question and answer portion, students answered questions given by two hosts surrounding themselves and Green Hope. The boys attempted to make light of the questions and receive the greatest uproar from the crowd. In the 2018 Mr. Green Hope competition for instance, a contestant asked what three wishes he wanted answered: 10 million dollars, immortality, and singing as good as an artist.

The next portion of the competition were the senior skits, where students impersonated faculty at Green Hope in creative and clever scenes. Mr. O’Brien made it so every skit was  approved by the teachers. “The teachers knew exactly what was going to happen,” he shared.

Ms. Ibanescu, a student at the time of Mr. Green Hope, loved the skits. “I remember being very impressed with all of the skits and all of the creativity that the boys displayed,” Ms. Ibanescu praised, “[I] was really impressed with all the effort that they all put in.”

One year in Green Hope history an AP United States history exam went missing. Coinciding with the event, Mr. Green Hope did a skit on the missing exam. Ms. Filipowski recalls the skit favorably, describing how, “at the very end someone was impersonating Murdock the janitor. And so they walked off stage with a trash can and they held up the AP exam, like a pretend obviously AP exam, and they were like ‘little do they know I’ve had it the whole time.’” The crowd erupted in laughter at this and it is an example of how the skits connected with the affairs of the school at the time.

The last part of the show was the dance. The performance was not a simple 5-minute show, but a longer routine with every boy taking turns receiving a key lead role. The dance team captains choreographed the dance and worked with the boys to master the routine. As part of the requirement for participation in the event, Mr O’Brien notes that the boys “had to commit to practicing for six weeks every day after school. That’s how long it took to get that dance down, six weeks.” The dance was the main part of the show and engaged the crowd in many ways.

While fun motivated the boys to compete in the show, there also was a winner and only one student was crowned Mr. Green Hope per year. All of the contestants played for a charity. Mr. O’Brien notes, “the school got 70% of the money and [the winner’s] charity got 30%.” The money for the school went to pay for senior affairs. Boys also received recognitions including, “first place runner-up. And then [there was a] Mr. Congeniality, in terms of the young man that everybody else loved working with for those six weeks,” Mr. O’Brien recalls.

To open Mr. Green Hope shows a high-quality edited video played to introduce the boys and get the crowd excited. In 2019 the introduction was Avenger’s themed with Mr. O’Brien starred as Thanos. The 2018 Mr. Green Hope theme was Game of Thrones and the 2012 Mr. Green Hope featured a Mission Impossible introduction. Many of these introductions appear to rest on a topic popular at the time.

As mentioned previously, the last time the show ran was in 2019. However, six years later, people still want it back. If it came back, Ms. Ibasenscu expressed, “I would love to witness all the skits and see the process again…I would love to be a judge.”

Ms. Filopowski shared Ms. Ibanescu’s sentiment noting that the show “brought more good than bad.” Ms. Filopowski also expressed a desire to judge a future show to crown the winner of Mr. Green Hope.

When asked about bringing it back, Mr. O’Brien stated, “I don’t think it can be brought back. Well, like the way it was before, and if it is brought back, I have nothing to do with it.”

Mr. Green Hope is a hallmark in Green Hope history and brought together the school for more than a decade. While it is no longer alive, the show lives on in the hearts of faculty and alumni alike.