On October 17, 1994, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno welcomed Burt Reynolds and the host of Nickelodeon’s Double Dare, Marc Summers. Reynolds was going through a divorce with Loni Anderson at the time, and was reportedly unhappy that Leno had made light of the situation. For whatever reason, when Summers was brought on toward the end of the episode, Reynolds decided to take his frustration out on him, of all people. Though the pair’s exchanges were amusing enough at first, things quickly escalated when Summers refused to back down from Reynolds’s taunts.
Summers started off by revealing that, despite all the messy stunts featured on Double Dare, he was actually a neatness fanatic. He then described a segment he’d previously put together for the show, telling Leno and Reynolds, “We once filled a container with 4,000 pounds of baked beans and made kids dive into it, which was great.” But before he could finish, Reynolds sarcastically replied, “Gee, I wish I’d seen that.” Apparently, in Summers’s mind, the gloves were off at that point.
Burt Reynolds Once Got Into a Bizarre On-Air Fight With ‘Double Dare’ Host Marc Summers
After Reynolds asked Summers who told him he was a neatness freak, Summers replied, “My wife tells me that often,” adding, “I’m still married, as a matter of fact.” Reynolds then proceeded to pour the water from his coffee mug into Summers’s lap. Summers attempted to retaliate with his own drink, but Reynolds just smacked the mug out of his hand, soaking Summers even further. “You’re not a neatness freak anymore,” Reynolds quipped.
Some other uncomfortable moments followed, and Summers eventually got his revenge by dousing Reynolds with water when he wasn’t expecting it. This all culminated in the staff bringing out pies for the two to settle their score with. However, Reynolds had the upper hand there, too, and hit Summers so hard with a pie that he nearly knocked him off of his feet. According to Summers, the legendary incident wasn’t staged, and ultimately resulted in Leno tying Letterman in the ratings for the first time.
You can check out the full segment for yourself below.
The post 32 Years Ago, Burt Reynolds Got Into a Real On-Air Fight With a Nickelodeon Host on ‘The Tonight Show’ appeared first on VICE.
