Comments on: We even got turned down for an armpit at one point in time.

We even got turned down for an armpit at one point in time.

palindromic — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:48:34 -0800

"It smelled like death": An oral history of the Double Dare obstacle course:

This Wednesday night, Nickelodeon will air a special commemorative episode of Double Dare celebrating the show's 30th anniversary year. Summers will return, along with announcer John Harvey and production assistant Robin Russo. In the spirit of that super sloppy reunion, The A.V. Club set out to discover the origins of the obstacle course, the show's most memorable and popular segment.

By: palindromic

palindromic — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:54:34 -0800

More on children's game shows of the era (previously):

Wretches of the Hidden Temple: Cruelest game show, played by worst children Carmen Sandiego's Africa map: television's invisible, impossible shuttle run

By: RolandOfEld

RolandOfEld — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:09:20 -0800

"Yes, sir, you want that TV? That's your TV. No problem." And that was the end of that. A good writeup, thanks for the post. Plenty of neat tidbits in there for folks like me who really enjoyed getting to watch Double Dare whenever I went to visit my grandparents since we didn't have cable and they did.

By: xingcat

xingcat — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:33:11 -0800

That show was on when I was in college, and in the theater department, and I still think the giant obstacles are what got me interested in set and prop design. The design on some of those were brilliant.

By: k5.user

k5.user — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:33:40 -0800

former viewers, now in their 30s or middle-aged HEY. uh. I see what you did there

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:50:19 -0800

Double Dare began airing during the sweet spot of me learning how to build simple structures, learning how to draw with one-, two-, and three-point perspective, recognizing the differences between and effects of typefaces, and having a stable after-school structure that included certain cartoons and TV shows reliably every day. For a year there, sooooo many of my drawings were of gameshow stages, Sundae Slides, and One-Ton Human Hamster Wheels. Just now, I drew the double-D logo from memory, complete with long-tailed R and two different Es and all.

By: Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:03:02 -0800

I remember being one of those annoying know-it-all kids who always got impatient with the dumb, dumb children (and their dumb, dumb families) on Double Dare who would immediately Dare/Double Dare even the simplest questions so they could take the physical challenges. I'd watched enough DD to realize that the physical challenges, rife with flimsy, unusable props and deliberately chaos-enhancing slippery substances, were absolutely rigged against the contestants. The real money was in being smart and just answering the questions.

By: poffin boffin

poffin boffin — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:09:36 -0800

honestly the best part of the article so far was the reminder that in the 80s, loft space in downtown new york was the LOW BUDGET OPTION

By: rp

rp — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:10:59 -0800

Carmen Sandiego's Africa map: television's invisible, impossible shuttle run Funny how, after seeing that this was a link to SBNation, my first thought was "This must have been written by Jon Bois and now I have to go read it." No regrets.

By: Servo5678

Servo5678 — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:12:04 -0800

"I'd like to thank everybody who contributed to Krusty's Canned Food Drive. Your generous donations have made this our slipperiest, slimiest slobstacle course ever! Our contestants will drop out of my nose and blurp into a tub of refried beans. From there, they'll stumble down a sluice of rich, eggy béarnaise sauce. How can we afford it? It's rancid! And at the finish line a scrumptious parfait of pudding, pickle brine, and detergent where a writhing pile of kids will grope blindly for hot dogs!"

By: leotrotsky

leotrotsky — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:27:08 -0800

Marc Summers is a Hoosier from Indianapolis. We're very proud of this.

By: leotrotsky

leotrotsky — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:28:17 -0800

...so is Jessamyn West, BTW. No, the other one.

By: poffin boffin

poffin boffin — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:41:56 -0800

update i have reached the bean hose part of the article and it is the new best part

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 12:43:26 -0800

So I only now learn that those of us who grew up in Canada and just had Fun House were getting second-rate kids-obstacle-course game show knockoffs. We gave you You Can't Do That on Television and this is the thanks we get.

By: asperity

asperity — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:00:24 -0800

From that point, they always looked at the kids' applications, and if any kid had a parent who was an attorney, they never got on the show after that.

By: prize bull octorok

prize bull octorok — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:01:17 -0800

that got delightfully horrifying with the plague blisters and the compound fracture kid! I always preferred Finders Keepers though, I thought it'd be more fun to ransack a house than muck about in fake snot

By: fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit

fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:07:19 -0800

I remember reading somewhere that Mark Summers really hates germs and messes, so hosting that show must have been his own, private hell. Lynne Thigpen as The Chief is one of the greatest roles on television ever.

By: chimpsonfilm

chimpsonfilm — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:14:03 -0800

In 1994, Marc Summers and Burt Reynolds feuded on The Tonight Show

By: poffin boffin

poffin boffin — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:19:46 -0800

i like their innocent confusion that the networks wouldn't allow kids to dive headfirst into a butthole full of poop but fisting an immense nose for snot treasures was ok

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:39:03 -0800

I love that their main design inspiration was Memphis-Milano.

By: dr_dank

dr_dank — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 14:59:33 -0800

Metafilter: dive headfirst into a butthole full of poop

By: NoxAeternum

NoxAeternum — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:06:15 -0800

I remember reading somewhere that Mark Summers really hates germs and messes, so hosting that show must have been his own, private hell. It's well known that Summers suffers from OCD, and only really got treatment when he was a morning talk show host, after his time on Double Dare.

By: Mchelly

Mchelly — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:07:36 -0800

."..they didn't clean that blue, shiny floor particularly well. So when they unrolled it, anybody who touched that floor broke out in the most disgusting blisters. It was like everybody had leprosy. It was the most bizarre thing in the world. Anybody who touched anything on that floor who then touched their face would break out in horrible stuff" This is simultaneously the best and the worst thing I have read today.

By: dame

dame — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:47:17 -0800

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego was always my jam. The computer game and the show. It is the only time my geographic nerdery has been helpful and also why I know what spelunking is.

By: Countess Elena

Countess Elena — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:29:46 -0800

So all week, we got 25 episodes out of the baked beans. The end of the week comes, and they've been under the lights all week long, sitting there at night stewing away. Forget broken bones, this was the real health hazard: a vat of Campylobacter waiting for kids. I'm amazed no one got sick. Honestly, though, that kid with the glass bones (osteogenesis imperfecta?) whose parents lied for him sounds like someone whose life would be a novel. Today, I bet there would be special accommodations for him, maybe even an episode for kids with special needs. I wanted to be on Nickelodeon very badly, of course, for any reason, but I knew I was too squeamish to reach into a giant ear or nose. It wouldn't surprise me if Metafilter has some former DD kids among its members.

By: Countess Elena

Countess Elena — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:35:10 -0800

update to clarify from the above that I think an episode like that for special needs kids would be awesome

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:36:04 -0800

We went from obstacle one to obstacle two, he slipped and fell, and the bone went right through his arm. I left the studio, because I thought I was going to throw up. Robin [Russo] was like a nurse and amazing. Ends up that the kid had glass bones, and he had broken 17 bones in his body. He couldn't go up a staircase without breaking a bone. So there was that. I would just like to repeat that last sentence once more: "So there was that."

By: Splunge

Splunge — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 17:16:51 -0800

Anyone here remember Beat the Clock? My brother and I actually had the home version of the game.

By: nevercalm

nevercalm — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 17:32:11 -0800

As a stagehand, I can't even begin to imagine the hell that was cleaning that place up. Just so, so incredibly gross.

By: Eyebrows McGee

Eyebrows McGee — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 18:43:02 -0800

"I remember being one of those annoying know-it-all kids who always got impatient with the dumb, dumb children" Did you grow up to shout at people on TV doing Final Jeopardy! wrong? Because I grew up to shout at people on TV doing Final Jeopardy! wrong.

By: Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 19:27:28 -0800

I did. The money was rightfully mine.

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 22:18:04 -0800

The AV Club seems to be on a Nickelodeon nostalgia kick: Legends Of The Hidden Temple producer Scott Stone reveals the secrets of Olmec

By: k5.user

k5.user — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 06:27:57 -0800

I remember when there was a double-dare casting call in the DC metro area. It was at one of the malls in Maryland, with only a small blurb in the Washington Post about it. As much as I begged my parents to take me, we didn't go. There was a followup story about how families had lined up the night before inside the mall, and nowhere near everyone got an audition.

By: Etrigan

Etrigan — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 07:03:27 -0800

Did you grow up to shout at people on TV doing Final Jeopardy! wrong? Because I grew up to shout at people on TV doing Final Jeopardy! wrong. Hell, I grew up to shout at people on TV doing Daily Doubles wrong. Final Jeopardy is fucking torture. "Why are you betting it all? If he gets it right, you can't win, and if you both get it wrong, that other idiot will beat you arrrghghghgh..."

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 13:24:44 -0800

I loved Double Dare back in the day. I'd forgotten just how awful some of those obstacles were. The Wringer just seems like it would be downright painful.