Double Dare (1976 game show)
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| Double Dare | |
|---|---|
 Double Dare title card |
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| Format | Game show |
| Created by | Jay Wolpert (For Mark Goodson-Bill Todman productions) |
| Starring | Alex Trebek (host) Johnny Olson, Gene Wood (announcers) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 96 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | 13 December 1976 – 29 April 1977 |
Double Dare was an American television game show, produced by Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Productions, that ran from 1976 to 1977 on CBS. Alex Trebek was the host, with Johnny Olson and later Gene Wood announcing. The show was created by Jay Wolpert. Double Dare was Alex Trebek's only CBS game show, with all others originally airing either on NBC, in syndication or in Canada (he also only hosted one show for ABC, the Super Jeopardy! special tournament in 1990).
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[edit] 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 correct response was shown 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. A maximum of ten clues were given on one subject. If nobody gives the correct answer after ten clues, the host would reveal the subject and a new subject was played.
At any time, contestants could hit a lockout buzzer to guess the subject. When 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 from hearing the guess. If correct, the contestant earned $50. If incorrect, that contestant’s booth was closed, and the opponent’s booth was reopened in order for him or her to see and hear 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" the opponent to guess the subject based on that clue or to decline (If the correct answer was given on a penalty clue, that clue became the "dare" clue). If the contestant declined to "dare", the opponent’s booth was reopened and a new subject was played. If the contestant took the Dare, the opponent's booth was re-opened and he or she had five seconds to study the clue before Trebek asked him or her for a guess. A correct guess by the dared opponent earned $50 and a new subject was played. If incorrect, the player who made the Dare won an additional $100.
If the Dare was successful, the contestant was given a chance to "Double Dare" the opponent with the next clue. This worked the same as the Dare, with the dollar values doubled ($100 if the double-dared opponent then gets the right answer, or a further $200 was won, and a total of $350 won on the question, by the player who made the Double Dare).
The first player to win $500 or more won the game. Losing players kept any money earned, and received parting gifts as well.
[edit] Beat 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 clues were read to him or her.
The contestant was presented with a subject and eight numbered clues randomly placed on a game board. The player selected a number to reveal a clue, and had the option to give that clue to the Spoilers, whose fields of expertise were not mentioned, or pass it on for another clue. Up to four passes were allowed. As in the main game, clues varied from trivial to fairly direct references.
When the player elected to give a 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 had guessed the subject, the round ended but the contestant kept all 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. However, the limit was enforced as soon as a contestant won a game that put their winnings over $20,000 (following in line with the ABC winnings limit of the time), as a victory against the Spoilers would put him or her over $25,000, but the contestant was still retired even if the Spoilers beat him or her.
[edit] Scheduling/Ratings
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.
[edit] Production
Jay Wolpert was explicitly acknowledged as the series' creator in the closing credits; Wolpert would later on create his own production company. 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.
[edit] Theme and other sounds
Virtually all of Double Dare's music and sound effects were recycled for other Goodson-Todman shows; most notably, the show's theme music, composed by Edd Kalehoff for Score Productions, was reused one year later for Card Sharks. The unique sound effect used when opening the doors of each contestant's isolation booth and clue board would go on to be used in multiple places: on the syndicated version of The Joker's Wild in the early 1980s (as the sound for a contestant's bonus round spin) and in The Price Is Right's now retired pricing game, Penny Ante. The buzzer used to signify incorrect answers from the Spoilers was later used on The Better Sex. The buzzer and losing horns heard when all three spoilers had correctly guessed the subject are still used today (and better known for their use) on The Price Is Right (albeit in an abbreviated form; this version of the Losing Horns would be used on the 1978-1981 run of Card Sharks), as is the correct answer "ding", which was used almost universally on Goodson-Todman shows which aired on CBS.
[edit] Episode status
The series is currently shown on GSN. The show returned to the lineup in September 2007 and currently airs at 1:00 AM and 1:30 AM Monday Eastern Time. It had been assumed that all episodes were intact, but recent observations by members of Invision's Game Show Forum show that five weeks' worth of episodes may be unaccounted for. [1] Whether they were destroyed by CBS after the show went off the air in 1977, were not kept, or just lost by GSN after their last run on the network remains to be seen.
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.
