Double Dare
Nickelodeon's messiest game show: take the money or take the physical challenge — and the physical challenge always meant getting slimed. Marc Summers, the giant obstacle course, and the human nose you dug through.
Double Dare was Nickelodeon's messy, gloriously chaotic game show — the one where a team could answer the trivia or take the physical challenge, and the physical challenge always meant getting slimed. Hosted by Marc Summers, it premiered in 1986 as Nickelodeon's first game show and became a cornerstone of the network's green-slime identity.
Two teams answered trivia, 'dared' each other, and 'double dared' back until someone dove into a gooey stunt; the winners then ran an eight-obstacle course in 60 seconds, passing a flag as they dug it out of a colossal human nose ('Pick It'), rode the Sundae Slide, and climbed through gak. Versions multiplied — Super Sloppy Double Dare, Family Double Dare (its Nickelodeon run stretching from 1990 to 1993), and eventually Double Dare 2000.
It remains Nickelodeon's longest-running game show and the template for a whole genre of kids-get-messy TV. Though it debuted in the '80s, its Family Double Dare run and Double Dare 2000 kept the slime flowing well into the '90s — which is where most people remember it.
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