There was a time before artificial intelligence slop filled our timelines that actual slop was the lifeblood of children’s television. It was the job of Marc Summers, a former magician and smoked salmon salesman, to tell you about it.
He was the host of “Double Dare” the show that changed the course of cable television by helping turn the children’s channel Nickelodeon into an institution.
“Double Dare” was a quiz show that also included messy “physical challenges” on an obstacle course, like wading through tubs of Jell-O and traversing a human hamster wheel. It became an unexpected success, turning Summers into a celebrity and spawning “Super Sloppy Double Dare” and later “Family Double Dare” on Fox.
The original debuted 40 years ago, on Oct. 6, 1986.
“It was a show that put them on the map. It was the show that gave them their own game,” Summers, referring to Nickelodeon, said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Barbara, Calif.
The audience “didn’t have to watch grown-ups play,” he added, which gave Nickelodeon, “sort of got a monopoly on children and games.”
But the anniversary feels a bit rueful for Summers. Nickelodeon is not the cultural force it used to be, and the network declined Summers’s entreaties to celebrate the show’s anniversary. (In its place, Summers headlined a reunion event at City Winery in Philadelphia on Saturday with co-host Robin Russo.)
Summers, 74, said he now keeps busy through paid appearances two years after a one-man show called “The Life & Slimes of Marc Summers” had an Off Broadway run in 2024.
“I’m in a fortunate situation that I don’t really kind of have to do anything,” he said. “So if something intrigues me I do it and if I don’t, I don’t.”
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What do you remember about your audition for the show?
My show business career was not going anywhere. I was working at Magic Castle because I started my career as a professional magician. And a friend of mine had this amazing smoked salmon business and I called him up one day and I said, “Let me see if I can sell this stuff.” And the next thing I know we’re doing 80,000 pounds a month at Price Club.
A friend of mine, Dave Garrison, was a ventriloquist in Wilton, Calif. He called me up and said, “I just got a call for an audition for some game show at a network I’d never heard of called Nickelodeon, so why don’t you go instead of me?”
So I went and I walked in and I said, “Dave Garrison was supposed to be here but he couldn’t make it. My name is Mark.” And I do the audition. They said, “Sure.”
How long did you think you were going to do the gig for?
Thirteen weeks and out. That’s how television was back then. And I figured, “Well, I’ll get lucky and do 13,” and then look for the next job. But the thing exploded.
What did you think of the concept for the show?
I just wanted a job. I was a game show nut. My first job was writing “Truth or Consequences” the last year Bob Barker did it. So I kept going to auditions and they kept saying, “Come back when you have gray hair and wrinkles,” because back in the day, it was Barker and Tom Kennedy and all those kinds of folks and they didn’t want a kid. At the time, although I was 33, I looked like I was 23.
It worked in my favor this time because they wanted somebody they thought the kids could relate to.
I read somewhere that you used to get 5,000 letters a week suggesting new obstacles.
There was actually more than that. We stayed at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia and at the end of episodes, it said, “Members of our team stayed at the Four Seasons hotel.” And the kids would call the number and just flood the lines and they made us take it off because there were so many kids thinking that I lived at the Four Seasons hotel.
Why was the show successful?
Right place, right time. We were on at 5:30 in the afternoon. Moms would often say, “Go watch your show while I finish dinner.”
I never did it as a kid’s show. I didn’t want to do a kid’s show. So I didn’t talk to the kids in a squeaky voice. To me, I was doing “Jeopardy” or “Wheel Of Fortune” or “The Price Is Right” or whatever. I just talked to them like they were grown-ups.
Your age was a secret when you hosted. How did you navigate that?
They told me I wasn’t allowed to be married. I wasn’t allowed to have kids. I wasn’t allowed to even talk about any of that stuff.
I was being interviewed by The Los Angeles Times. And they said, “Are you married and do you have kids?” I said, “I’m not allowed to discuss my personal life.” And they say, “How do you feel about the fact that you can’t even go into a restaurant and order a beer?
I said, “What?”
I went and called Geoffrey Darby, who was our executive producer. I said: “This reporter just said I’m not allowed to drink a beer. Is that true?” And he said: “No. Why would you not be able to drink beer?” “Well he said I’m a kids show host and I can’t do that.” And he said, “Well that’s not true.” He said, “I wouldn’t want you in an airport store looking at Playboy.”
How did hosting the show change your perception of children?
When we went on the air, it was when moms all of a sudden had to go back to work because things were too expensive. When you think about what we’re paying now, that seems ridiculous. But mom had to get a job. And they weren’t, through our research, able to read bedtime stories as much.
So we would ask questions: “Jack and Jill went up the hill and what did Jack fetch?” And the children didn’t know because the time that moms and dads were able to spend with the kids was less and less.
So it sort of depressed me that life was changing at the time seemingly dramatically. So you notice these social things, and it made you scratch your head from time to time.
How do you think about the show 40 years later?
It was the best job. It put me on the map, number one. I had free reign. They let me do whatever I wanted to do. They never once slapped my hand and said, “Marc, you can’t do that.” We toured it for years. We would go out and sell out The Palace of Auburn Hills, Mich. — 20,000 people on a weekend. So I don’t have any negative feelings at all in any way, shape or form.
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