- On your mark, get set, go!
- [Narrator] During the late '80s and early '90s,
there was an epic kids' game show called "Double Dare"
where kids got rewarded for being messy.
Today, it's back on the air
and all along, there's been one guy in charge.
Meet the man that got down and dirty
for seven years straight
on the messiest game show in America.
- Actually, it was eight.
- [Offscreen Interviewer] Eight, okay.
- Okay.
(laughs)
(rock music)
My name is Marc Summers, and I was the original host
of the trivia game show
and very messy game show, "Double Dare."
"Double Dare" is a show where we ask questions.
If you don't know the answer,
you can dare the other team.
They can double dare you back.
- We'll take a physical challenge.
(cheering)
- [Marc] If you don't answer a question on our show,
you have to take the physical challenge,
which could include whipped cream, slime,
or some messy substance.
And that's how you get points.
Ultimately, what you want to do
is go to the obstacle course,
run all eight obstacles in 60 seconds or less,
and win lots of money and prizes.
(cheering)
(swiping)
So the first day I get on the set,
and I walk out and there's an obstacle course,
which I hadn't been told about,
and people are dumping whipped cream
and then this green substance
and I said, "What is that?"
And they said, "That's the slime."
(bell ringing)
(cheering)
Back in the day, it was vanilla pudding,
applesauce, and green food coloring.
Now, Nickelodeon pays some company
an exorbitant amount of money to create the slime.
It still has to be edible
because if it gets in a kid's mouth,
they have to be able to digest it without any problem.
Back in the early days, when we started in 1986,
I didn't know about the mess.
I had been diagnosed
with something called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
So from '86 until about '94 when we did the show,
there was this feeling of being uncomfortable at times
around all the mess and slime.
And that's how I found out what I had had a name.
This is the most disgusting thing.
I'm gonna step back here just a little bit.
We were referring to the slime as gak.
What we found out after the fact
was that gak was the slime term for heroin.
Nickelodeon puts out a product called Gak
and after the fact, didn't realize that,
oops, guess we should've done our homework.
- Gak is great stuff.
- Oozy.
- Ugh.
(laughing)
- [Marc] One thing that people would be surprised
to know about the show is
we would test physical challenges
and bring in kids from different schools
in the evenings afterwards,
and if we couldn't accomplish them three times,
it never made air.
We're not experimenting.
It's gotta be physically possible to accomplish.
It was every kid's dream
and almost every adult's dream now
to be on "Double Dare."
Back in the day, when we were doing the show,
I was havin' the best time of my life.
(laughing)
I've been trying to convince Nickelodeon
for the last 10 years to bring this show back
and the answer was always "No, no, no, no, no."
I got an email that said, "Call us."
And they said, "We're bringin' it back,
"but you won't be the host,
"you'll be the exec producer."
And I said, "Well, who you gonna hire?"
And they said, "We found an influencer."
And I said, "I have no idea what that means."
(record scratches)
(crickets chirping)
So they told me about this young lady
by the name of Liza Koshy.
And I went online and I went,
"Oh my gosh, she's like a 22-year-old Lucille Ball."
Passing the baton was easy,
simply because at 67,
to be on Nickelodeon and hosting a show,
would be a bit ridiculous.
And I still have a huge say-so because as exec producer,
I'm able to guide her and teach her
and she takes direction extremely well.
So it's kind of a marriage made in heaven.
(cheering)
People come up to me on a daily basis
and say, "Oh my gosh, I grew up watching you."
And the fun part here is when we're at "Double Dare"
shooting in Los Angeles,
the back two rows are grownups.
And when I walk up, I always say,
"This is my audience," and they applaud.
The weird thing is that these people
who are now in their 40s have kids the same age
they were when they started to watch the show.
I'm honored and flattered
to have brought so many good memories
to a couple of generations of people
who look back on Double Dare.
And when people come up and say nice things,
I just say, "Thank you for even remembering."
(digital bell chimes)