Double Dare (1976 game show)

For the Nickelodeon children's game show, see Double Dare.

For other uses, see Double Dare (disambiguation).

Double Dare was an American television game show, produced by Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Producitons, that ran from December 13, 1976, to April 29, 1977, on CBS. Alex Trebek was the host, with Johnny Olson and Gene Wood at turns announcing.

Gameplay

The main game involved two contestants who sat in isolation booths. The object of the game was to correctly identify a person, place, or thing based on one-sentence clues that were given to them, one at a time, on an electronic gameboard. (The subject was given to the home audience before the first clue was given.) The clues would typically begin with obscure trivia and gradually become more direct references to the subject.

At any time, contestants could hit a lockout buzzer to guess the subject; once a player buzzed in, his or her opponent's booth was sealed off (doors closed over the front of the booth, and the sound was turned off inside) in order to prevent him or her hearing the guess. If correct, the contestant earned $50; if incorrect, that contestant’s booth was closed, and the opponent’s booth was reopened so he or she could receive a "penalty clue."

The contestant who ultimately guessed the correct answer was then shown the next clue in the sequence, and given the opportunity to "Dare" his or her opponent to guess the subject by giving them that clue. (If the correct answer was given on a penalty clue, that clue became the "dare" clue; this was the only case where a penalty clue would ever be seen by a penalized contestant.) If the contestant decided to Dare, the opponent's booth was repoened and he or she was given five seconds to study the clue before being asked for a guess. If the Dared opponent guessed the subject correctly, he or she won $50; if incorrect, the Daring player won an additional $100.

If the Dare was successful, the contestant was given a chance to "Double Dare" his or her opponent with the next clue. This worked the same as the Dare, with the dollar values doubled ($200 for the Double Daring contestant, or $100 for the Double Dared contestant).

The first player to amass $500 or more won the game. Losing players kept any money earned, and received parting gifts as well.

The Spoilers

The winner of the main game competed in a bonus round against a panel of three Ph.D.s known as "The Spoilers." Each Spoiler sat in a soundproof booth that was activated whenever a clue was read to them.

The contestant was presented with a subject and eight numbered clues that were randomly placed on a gameboard. The player selected a number to reveal the clue, and he or she had the option to give that clue to the Spoilers, whose fields of work were not metioned, or pass it for another clue. Up to four passes were allowed.

If the player elected to give the clue to the Spoilers, it was read to all three Spoilers, after which each one in turn was asked to provide an answer. (The other Spoilers' booths were turned off while each one answered.) Each time a Spoiler gave an incorrect answer, the contestant won $100. If a Spoiler guessed the subject correctly, that Spoiler won $100 and retired from the rest of the round.

The player was required to give up to four clues to the Spoilers; if at least one Spoiler failed to correctly identify the subject after being given the fourth clue, the contestant won $5,000. However, if at any time all three Spoilers guessed the subject, the round ended but the contestant got to keep his or her winnings to that point.

Like most CBS game shows at the time, champions could stay on Double Dare until they were defeated or reached the CBS winnings limit of $25,000.

Scheduling

Double Dare replaced the popular game show Gambit on CBS' daytime lineup at 11 a.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Central. Facing NBC's strong Wheel of Fortune, it did not draw the audience Gambit had. After a move to 10 a.m. Eastern (where it went up against Sanford and Son reruns on NBC), CBS canceled Double Dare and replaced it with reruns of Here's Lucy.

Trivia

• Double Dare was created by Jay Wolpert. In an unusual move for Goodson-Todman at the time, Wolpert was explicitly acknowledged as the series' creator in the closing credits.

• This series also marked the debut of Jonathan Goodson as a producer. He would later serve as both the producer and executive producer of game shows for Goodson-Todman (later Mark Goodson Productions), including Card Sharks (which he is credited with co-creating, along with Chester Feldman), Child's Play, Trivia Trap, the 1989 revival of Now You See It, and the 1990 revival of Match Game. Jonathan became vice-president and chairman of MGP following his father's death in 1992. In 1996, he formed his own production company, Jonathan Goodson Productions.

• Markie Post, later a regular on the NBC comedy Night Court, was an associate producer on Double Dare.

• Double Dare's theme music was composed by Edd Kalehoff for Score Productions. It was reused on another Goodson-Todman game show, Card Sharks, which premiered one year after Double Dare was canceled. Coincidentally, Kalehoff would later compose the theme for Nickelodeon's unrelated Double Dare game show ten years later.
• The sound effect used when opening the doors of each contestant's isolation booth and the display marquee would later appear on the syndicated version of the The Joker's Wild in the early 1980s as the sound accompanying a contestant's spin in the bonus game. This sound is also heard in the The Price Is Right's pricing game, Penny Ante.

• Double Dare was Alex Trebek's only CBS game show; all of his other shows have either aired on NBC or in syndication, not counting games he hosted in his native Canada.

Episode status

All of the episodes are believed to be intact, and the series has been shown on GSN in the past, most recently on March 24, 2007 in a two-hour Saturday evening marathon.

A clip from the series finale, where some risque clues to "a boomerang" were presented, appeared on VH1's Game Show Moments Gone Bananas in 2005.

External links

• A Double Dare fansite
• Double Dare Rule Page
• Another Double Dare Rule Page