I'll add a few things to Matt's earlier post about Bob Saget's made-for-TV pledging experience at Seal & Serpent. Quick points:
One important note is that Saget was made an honorary (not actual) brother of Seal & Serpent. I assume that honorary brothers are not formally initiated and, as such, do not learn any of the secrets of the fraternity or undergo its formal initiation process. Saget's initiation essentially took place in a full room during the toga party. The producers made the War Memorial ceremony seem like some sort of secret ritual, but I'm sure that Seal's actual initiation is much more involved. Point is, I hope that viewers don't think that Saget's experience is all that is required of a pledge. The formal initiation ceremony is often one of the most difficult parts of the process. Certainly, the secrets of Seal & Serpent were not revealed in this episode.
Although the episode uses the toga party as the culminating event, and I remember that the party was talked about a lot that weekend, these types of big events were not the most memorable parts of my fraternity experience. For one, unless you have Bob Saget there, most parties attract freshmen as guests with a few sophomores and juniors thrown in. By the time I was a junior, and definitely by senior year, the only time I would party with my upperclassmen friends was when I went out in Collegetown. Moreover, during my time as president, my social chair and I came to loathe open parties. So many things can - and did - go wrong during big parties, and they really weren't too much fun when you had to talk to inspectors and police, send people to the hospital, clean up, and manage everything going on in the house.
The real fun of being in a fraternity is just the experience of living with some of your closest friends. Saget hits on this dynamic a little bit at the end, when he's sitting on the roof with a few of the brothers. These kinds of interpersonal connections are more meaningful and more lasting than open parties.
Still, this was a really cool experience for Seal & Serpent, and (unlike as was rumored) they didn't have to reveal any secrets for the episode. If Saget wants to make a sequel episode in which he receives more serious hazing, he can contact Mr. Elkin's fraternity.
