In fairness, Marlin Perkins was quite the dynamic individual in his day, too. Of course, he was well past his prime by the time he started hosting
Wild Kingdom.
As will probably surprise no one, I absolutely loved
Wild Kingdom as a kid. Marlin was nice enough, but Jim Fowler and (to a much lesser extent)
Stan Brock were my personal heroes. I even cited Fowler as one of my personal influences during my Master's defense.