Game show appearing in the 80s (or 80's) (and maybe a bit into the 90s, although my memory fails me on that detail) on the Nickelodeon cable channel. Along with You Can't Do That On Television, popularized green slime.
The show was hosted by Marc Summers. Two opposing teams (originally each team was a boy-girl pair; later on Family Double Dare, entire four-person families got into the act) would be posed trivia questions in turn. The first team could either answer the question for the base amount of money, or dare the other team to answer. The other team could answer (for double the bucks), or double-dare the first team. The first team was then left with the option of answering (quadruple money) or performing some sort of stunt.
The stunts were, of course, the more interesting route. The team was given some challenge to perform. This was almost always incredibly messy. The stunts were varied and included things such as:
- Person 1, in a giant bin, stomps on liquid-filled balloons. The liquid drains into a cup held on person 2's head. The goal is to fill the cup before time runs out. Obviously, person 2 does not stay dry.
- Person 1 attempts to toss liquid-soaked sponges at person 2, knocking some various items off of person 2's head. Once again, person 2 does not stay dry.
- More stunts, generally involving some sort of liquid or green slime or something, and one or more of the team members getting very wet and/or messy.
Such things were taken to an extreme with a later incarnation, Super Sloppy Double Dare.
So when the questions and stunts were over, what happened? The team with the most money was awarded the lovely privilege of running the Double Dare obstacle course. By now you should be able to figure out what the obstacles consisted of. There was a large set of recurring obstacles that the show mixed and matched to produce a different course for each episode. The team members took turns running the ten (?) obstacles and getting extremely messy in the process (which, of course, made it even more difficult to complete later obstacles!). If they could make it through the entire course in the allotted time, they won a nice trip or something.
Since most kids like getting messy anyway, the trip and the cash were just icing on the cake (or on the contestants, as the case may be). All in all, Double Dare was quite the popular kid's show, and definitely responsible in part for Nickelodeon's emergence as the definitive children's network.