Marc Summers Pleads Nickelodeon For Him to Host a Reboot of Double Dare and Nickelodeon's Response

On October 6, 1986 (that's roughly 5 months after I was born), the groundbreaking and influential kids' game show simply known as Double Dare debuted on TV hosted by the one and only Marc Summers. For those too young to remember, the game show was about two teams consisting of two kids competing against one another answering questions to get the highest score to go into the Obstacle Course where they would try to win numerous prizes. Marc Summers would then ask a question to one of the teams and if they didn't know the answer, they could dare the other team for double the money. If none of them knew the answer, they would take The Physical Challenge. The Physical Challenge and Obstacle Course were some of the main highlights of the show since it consisted of the craziest, slimest, and messiest games ever! Every kid I knew growing up wanted to be in Double Dare and still do after almost 30 years later. 

But the main highlight that people still remember fondly to this day is Marc Summers. Marc Summers, alongside assistant Robin Marella and announcer John Harvey, had amazing chemistry, hilarious antics, a charming personality, and a serious, yet playful demeanor that shined whenever he interacted with the contestants, live studio audience, and the viewers who saw it on TV. Even still to this day, no other game show host from Nickelodeon could match Marc's charisma or charm and people still regard him as the best game show host Nickelodeon has ever had. 

Now that we gotten our brief history of Double Dare out of the way, now time for news. Recently, on The Huffington Post, Marc Summers is interested in rebooting Double Dare for a new generation at Nickelodeon.

"Here's the deal. I would love to do some form or fashion of it. Let's just say that right now ... the people who run the Nickelodeon network and I don't necessarily see eye to eye," Summers told host Josh Zepps. "I've been trying to make nice to those people, but they refuse to talk to me."I think they think I'm way too old to do it. I still have the energy and I think I could, So I'm putting a call out to the folks at Nick: return the phone calls, have a discussion."

To learn more about it, click on the link here. I'm very mixed about this possibility of a supposed reboot to Double Dare. On the one hand, I agree that the only person who I can see host Double Dare is Marc Summers. I don't agree with Nickelodeon saying that he's too old to host the show. Some of the most iconic actors and actresses have kept their roles at their senior years. Fred Rogers from Mister Roger's Neighborhood was 72 years old when he retired from the show. Bob Keeshan was 57 years old when he retired as Captain Kangaroo. So the whole speculation that Marc Summers is too old to host Double Dare is ridiculous. He's been a great host and executive producer at the Food Network shows Unwrapped, Dinner Impossible, Restaurant Impossible, and Rewrapped.  On his spare time, he does Double Dare games for college students and even drunk versions of the game called Dunkle Dare, sometimes alongside Robin and/or Harvey. He may be older, but he hasn't lost his touch.

With that said, this isn't the first time that Double Dare has been revived for a new generation. Almost 15 years ago, Double Dare 2000 debuted to gravitate towards the kids who never saw Double Dare the first time. However, it was critically panned by many viewers with it not being as good as the original. Eventually the show was cancelled after a few months due to poor ratings. While Jason Harris was a decent host, he was no Marc Summers. Plus, they added in a new segment called "The Triple Dare Challenge" which makes the Physical Challenge more difficult, yet if it succeeds, the team would get triple the points. This was one of the worst things they added into Double Dare 2000 that was not needed. Other than that, this revival played it way too safe being exactly the same as the original. With that, Double Dare 2000 has pretty much faded into obscurity with the original Double Dare still remembered in fondness. 

That got me thinking. If Marc Summers plans on rebooting Double Dare, what new things will he add to make the new generation intrigued? My main problem with Double Dare 2000 was that it was the same as the original. I don't think doing the same thing with having Marc Summers back is the answer. Ok, yes, it's what everyone wanted in the first place, but there has to be some new ideas implemented into this reboot to attract the people who didn't grow up with Double Dare. Maybe some new challenges, new questions, new prizes, maybe a celebrity guest here and there, and bringing back Robin and Harvey for a couple of episodes. Knowing Marc, I know he can make it work.

Here's the sad and ironic part, a few days after Marc Summers made his plea to no avail, Nickelodeon is planning with the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team to do a "90's Are All That" tribute at the stadium by having Kel Mitchell do the first pitch and have random spectators compete in a Double Dare game. To know more about this, click on the article here. 

Nickelodeon hasn't acknowledge Double Dare in a very long time, not even when it celebrated its 25th anniversary a few years ago. It's such a shame. Besides You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare was the show that put Nickelodeon on the map. It was the very reason why kids tuned into Nickelodeon other than any other channel. It would be nice if the network would acknowledge it as oppose to ignore it and bring it back in some way, shape, or form when they feel like it. Knowing Nickelodeon, they will miss on another good opportunity to bring viewers again and they'll continue to stay in their rut. Marc Summers deserves better than this and I'm glad he has moved on.

This post is brought to you by the website For Entertainment's Sake. I became one of their main bloggers for the site posting mostly Nickelodeon stuff. They also have a great new podcast called Who Loves Orange Podcasts? Please check out their stuff right here. 

-Patricia

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 32: Sonic the Hedgehog

In one of the longest episode of Casual Chats in a while, Patricia, Kevin, and special guest Comic Book Cast/PlaysStation member Tom "indexsonic" Carter discuss about one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time, Sonic the Hedgehog.

Check out Tom's links below
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PRj7afXjV70lGsf7CvxOg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjGeuwnDlxg&list=PLMpjSbEBJw6mn88KeM8okQERfTbA0Gx5m
https://www.facebook.com/dynamicwebseries
https://twitter.com/TomCarter1989

Top 5 Rejected Nickelodeon Shows or Pilots That Should Have Been Made

For the past 13 weeks, the admins at the Re-Open Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, FL Facebook page and I did a podcast miniseries called Nicksmissal. In it, we discussed about the Nickelodeon shows or pilots that were eventually rejected or scrapped completely. There were some pilots or shows that I would have absolutely loved to have seen on the network and there were some others that I'm glad never came out. So I decided to make my top 5 shows that, in my opinion, should and shouldn't have been made. Let's start with the shows I wanted to see come out.

5. Morph Sports and Slime Survivor

Around the late 80's and early 90's, game shows at Nickelodeon were fun, creative, and epic. It was either slimy and messy like Double Dare or Wild & Crazy Kids or action packed like Nickelodeon GUTS and Legends of the Hidden Temple. Around the late 90's, game shows became lackluster with Figure it Out and You're On! and pretty much died out around 2000 when game shows were mostly revivals. With that said, there was a video that Universal Studios did from 1996-2000 showcasing the programs that were featured at the time and pilots to upcoming shows. There were 4 game shows that featured in that video; Morph Sports, Tooned In, Who Knew?, and Slime Survivor. The ones that stood out to me were Morph Sports and Slime Survivor. Morph Sports would have came out in 1996 and looked like a mixture of Nickelodeon GUTS mixed with Double Dare featuring kids playing giant versions of sports games. Slime Survivor would have came out in 2000 and had 100 kids participating in things from slimy games, obstacles, and trivia until 1 was left standing. In my opinion, it would have been great if these would have came out. Maybe game shows wouldn't be as dead as they are now.

To watch the video from Universal Studios, check out the video here. To know a little bit more about our opinions of these rejected game shows, check out the video here.

4. Ned's Declassified High School Survival Guide

Around the 2000's, Dan Schneider was the king of live action shows with Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, and iCarly. Pretty much all the live action shows that weren't made by Schneider were either mediocre, overshadowed and forgotten, or abhorrent. That is except for Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide created by Weinerville actor and The Fairly OddParents writer Scott Fellows. The show became very popular. After Ned's Declassified ended its run, Fellows planned on doing a spinoff series that had the characters of Ned, Cookie, and Moze going to high school. However, due to budget issues and numerous delays, the show never came out. This makes me so mad since I absolutely loved Ned's Declassified and found it to be creative and funny and, in my opinion, was better than Drake & Josh. It was essentially The Adventures of Pete & Pete of the 2000's. Unfortunately, after Ned's Declassified ended its run, no other show that wasn't created by Schneider was able to become successful which eventually had Nickelodeon relying on Schneider shows that brings up ratings. Oh, don't worry. We'll get back to Schneider.

To learn more about Ned's Declassified High School Survival Guide, click here. To know a little bit more about our opinions of Ned's Declassified High School Survival Guide, check out the video here.

3. The Pataki's 

Hey Arnold! is not only one of the greatest Nicktoons ever made, but one of the best cartoons of all time. It's unfortunate that Nickelodeon didn't treat with the respect it deserved. I'm sure that many people already know about The Jungle Movie, but before that Craig Bartlett tried to make a spinoff series for Nick-at-Nite that focused on the Pataki family. It took place 5 years later with 13-year-old Helga being depressed all the time due to Arnold moving away to a new city with his family. Nickelodeon rejected it because they felt that it was too dark and depressing for children. While I can somewhat understand their conclusion, I still want to see this come out. It would showcase the inner struggles of Helga trying to cope with depression of a lost love which would relate to a lot of teenagers going through similar situations. Also, knowing Craig Bartlett, he would have had lighter, funny moments to off set the depressing moments since Hey Arnold! brought in so much variety in the story telling and character development. With Hey Arnold! growing in popularity ever since The 90's Are All That featured the reruns, the Hey Arnold! complete series released on DVD being sold out on my Wal-Mart, and Craig Bartlett returning to Nickelodeon to create a new show, it would be smart if Nickelodeon would let him release The Pataki's. Also The Jungle Movie as well.

To learn more about The Pataki's, click here. To know a little bit more about our opinions of The Pataki's, check out the video here.

2. Constant Payne

Anime became a huge hit in America around the late 90's with shows such as Sailor Moon, DragonBall Z, Cowboy Bebop, and Pokemon. Cartoon Network created a lineup to showcase anime called Toonami and it became hugely popular. Nickelodeon decided to cash in on the popularity with Constant Payne created by The Angry Beavers writer Micah Wright. However, there were many issues that occured. One of them included a scene in which a blimp went between 2 towers and it almost crashed that. That scene would have reminded people of the attacks of the World Trade Center of 9/11 despite the pilot being made on March 2001. But the biggest reason why it was scrapped was because Nickelodeon wasn't paying the animators and writers at Nickelodeon Animation Studios enough money and Wright decided to help unionize them. Nickelodeon dismissed the idea, cancelled Constant Payne, and fired him. It's such a shame that this never came out because it was the very first Americanized anime to have ever came out and had many things that no Nicktoon had at the time such as action, fighting scenes, and a witty style of humor. It was way ahead of its time and it would have definitely been a huge game changer for not only Nickelodeon, but for animation in general. It would have giving another reason for people to tune in to Nickelodeon since it was a fresh, new idea way different than anything they would had or have done. Anime is still popular to this day and Cartoon Network is smart enough to bring Toonami back when they did their April Fool's joke. Nickelodeon is still not.

To learn more about Constant Payne, watch the pilot here. To know a little bit more about our opinions of The Pataki's, check out the video here.

1. The Modifyers

Back in 2007, Nickelodeon was going through their slump of releasing mediocre or awful animated and live action shows. They needed something fresh and new to bring them back on top. With that, The Ren & Stimpy Show animators and writers Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor created The Modifyers which featured a secret agent named Agent Xero who disguised herself as one of the villian's henchmen to steal back an artifact named The All Seeing Eye while keeping her identity a secret. However, it was rejected because it had a female protagonist and Nickelodeon didn't want any more female protagonists since none of their programs that featured them became huge hits compared to shows that had male protagonists. That's just ridiculous. Even to this day, especially Cartoon Network, shows are rarely showcasing female protagonists due to toy sales. With the huge success of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, this mindset is outdated and irrelevant. A show can be very successful, be it male or female characters, as long as you have great writing, memorable characters, and a good story. I felt that The Modifyers would have picked up Nickelodeon from its downfall and would have probably got them back on track. Instead, they picked up The Mighty B! instead and Nickelodeon is still in their slump.

To learn more about The Modifyers, watch the pilot here. To know a little bit more about our opinions of The Modifyers, check out the video here.

That's my top 5 list. Which of these rejected Nickelodeon shows or pilots would you have loved to have seen come out? Post in the comments down below. Tune in next time as I continue with the top 5 rejected Nickelodeon shows or pilots that I'm glad never came out.

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Upcoming podcast

Hey everyone, the next podcast will be a Q&A and an update for Old School Lane. If you have any questions or comments, post in the comments down below. Thanks everyone.

-Patricia and Kevin

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 31: Ghostbusters' 30th Anniversary

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and Kevin alongside Manic Expression members James, Alexthed, Gurning Chimp, and Infamous Jak discuss about the Ghostbusters franchise in honor of its 30th anniversary. They talk about the first 2 movies, the 2 animated series, the recent video game, and their opinion on Ghostbusters 3.

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: True Jackson, VP

I had mentioned that Just Jordan was in, my opinion, the point that Nickelodeon had officially ran out of ideas with their live action shows. The Naked Brothers Band, while being Nickelodeon's attempt of copying the popularity of Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers, was a mockumentary that starred kids that actually had a bit of talent. iCarly, while being one of Dan Schnieder's worst shows he's ever made, at least was a brilliant concept that got into the popularity of online shows featuring Internet celebrities which was popular at the time. With that said, Nickelodeon started the beginning of taking concepts of their live action shows from other TV networks or movies in the form of True Jackson, VP, which debuted on November 8, 2008.



Originally called True Fashion, the show is about a young teenage girl named True Jackson (played by Keke Palmer), who becomes the vice president of a fashion company Mad Style's youth division after the founder and CEO, Max Madigan (played by Greg Proops), sees her selling sandwiches and lemonade at the fashion district in NYC. He saw her "unique" style of design with his brand of clothing. Starting off the business, True fires the old secretary and hires her best friend Lulu (played by Ashley Argotta) and has her best friend Ryan (played by Matt Shively) come by to hang around. They get involved in wacky, crazy situations while dealing with obstacles to prove her worth at Mad Style. True also develops a secret crush on Jimmy Madigan (played by Robbie Amell), the mail deliverer and Max's nephew. She also has a rivalry with her co-worker and vice president of the women's fashion division Amanda (played by Danielle Bisutti). .



The show was created by Andy Gordon, a writer and producer of shows such as Mad About You, Just Shoot Me, and D.A.G. According to an article at Hollywood Reporter, True Jackson, VP. was described as Big meets The Devil Wears Prada in which it focuses on the behind-the-scenes look of the fashion industry and corporate live while mixing in high school teenage drama. Throughout the series, True Jackson, VP had included many celebrity guests and cameos from Nickelodeon shows at the time such as Natasha Bedingfield, Justin Beiber, Willow Smith, French Stewart, John Cena, Vivica A. Fox, the cast of Yo Gabba Gabba, Tom Kenny from SpongeBob SquarePants, Jeanette McCurdy from iCarly, Cymphonique Miller from Romeo! and How To Rock, Victoria Justice from Zoey 101 and Victorious, and many more. However more infamously, the cast of True Jackson, VP. guest starred in the 3 part episode of iCarly "iGo to Japan".



The show ran until it ended its run on August 20, 2011 after 3 seasons. Some of the actors went on to other projects after True Jackson, VP. ended its run.

Keke Palmer went on to do movies and TV shows such as Rags, Single Ladies', Grey's Anatomy, Cleaner, Fashion Police, Masters of Sex, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, Animal, and Just Keke.



Ashley Argota went on to do TV shows and movies such as The Troop, Schooled, How to Build a Better Boy, and The Fosters. She's also an indie singer.



Matt Shively went on to do TV shows and movies such as Paranormal Activity 4, Teen Wolf, The Troop, and Jessie. 



Robbie Amell, who is the cousin of Stephen Amell from Arrow, went on to do movies and TV shows such as The Tomorrow People, Live with Derek, Struck by Lightning, and Max.



True Jackson, VP. went on to gain decent reviews from both critics and fans calling it a much more better alternative to shows such as Hannah Montana with a strong female character and funny moments. However, over the years, it has gotten less relevant and has nowadays pretty much faded into obscurity. Why is that? Well, the simple reason is this. True Jackson, VP. is a show that was a product of its time. 2008 already had programs that focused a lot on the concept of the behind-the-scenes-look on fashion such as America's Top Model, Project Runway, The Devil Wears Prada, and Ugly Betty. While this wasn't the first time that Nickelodeon has done this concept since Nickelodeon GUTS was based on the popularity of American Gladiators, at least they were done differently and gained a unique charm. With True Jackson, VP., it didn't feel any different than any other teen sitcom at Nickelodeon or Disney Channel at the time. At times, I felt that it was like a Dan Schneider show with the show being filmed in front of a live audience and the various celebrity cameos. It's simply a show that hasn't aged very well with its concept and cannot be rescued due to its lack of charm.

Another problem I have with this show is that it's so unrealistic and unrelatable. It's the same way I felt about iCarly's concept. The characters are in this big scenario that people dream about doing, but get it way too easy and there are little to no struggles on them getting what they want. I felt that's become irrelevant in modern Nickelodeon sitcoms nowadays and that's a real shame. There's no satisfaction or tense moments or moments to root for the characters when they achieve their goals because we know in the end, they'll get it. If True would have started out in the bottom as a secretary similar to Ugly Betty and then worked her way into being a vice president or if the boss was a mean jerk and True had to learn the ways of fashion to make herself known like The Devil Wears Prada, I can see it work a tad bit better. However, it follows the Disney and Nickelodeon teen sitcom formula on the nose for anything like that to happen.

The biggest highlights for me were the adults. Greg Proops and Danielle Bisutti did a great job with their roles and Keke Palmer was very enjoyable as True Jackson. Ashley Argotta as Lulu has got to be one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen in any live action Nickelodeon show ever. She constantly messes up all of True's plans and her personality is so ditzy and irritating. As for the other characters, I have nothing to say about them. They're just there.

Overall, True Jackson, VP. is a very average teen sitcom that plays it too safe with cliched characters, unrealistic situations, and concept that's no longer popular anymore for anyone to look back with fondness. You're not missing anything if you haven't seen this show. I don't recommend checking it out.

With that said, this would be the beginning of mediocre or bad Nickelodeon teen sitcoms following this tired trend. But next time, we're going into 2009 with a movie review. It's none other than Hotel for Dogs.



Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Nick Jukebox Episode 12: They'll Soon Discover that I'm One Step Beyond Losing You Over Sandwiches

In this episode of Nick Jukebox, Patricia goes back to basics playing Nickelodeon songs from the 80's, 90's and 00's. Expect songs from Livewire, Blue's Clues, and Naked Brothers Band.