Nickelodeon’s Double Dare 30th anniversary special debuts tonight on Nick at Nite, bringing America back to a more innocent time when the youths spent their days crawling up enormous, cream-filled noses and diving headfirst into gigantic ice cream sundaes, instead of twerking and sexting all over the Instagrams.
The show aired a whopping 525 episodes on Nickelodeon from 1986-1993 in its original run, seeing kids and parents running through slime-filled obstacle courses and competing in physical challenges to the harrowing tune of synth guitars. Double Dare boasted some truly enviable prizes back in the day, ranging from deluxe NES bundles (yep, the 8-bit one with R.O.B. the Robot), Sega Game Gear portable consoles and (of course!) trips to Space Camp.
The half-hour anniversary special contains archival footage from the show’s original run during the 80s and 90s, as well as scenes from new games recorded earlier in 2016. The show’s original host, Marc Summers, will return for the special, along with crew members John Harvey and Robin Russo.
On Monday, The A.V. Club posted an oral history of Double Dare that’s well worth a read for fans of the show. There’s some great behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how the stunts and challenges were constructed. Most of the show’s crew shares not-so-fond memories of a set that stunk to high heaven, and wasn’t a particularly sanitary environment.
“They didn’t clean that blue, shiny floor particularly well. So when they unrolled it, anybody who touched that floor broke out in the most disgusting blisters. It was like everybody had leprosy. It was the most bizarre thing in the world,” said Summers. “Anybody who touched anything on that floor who then touched their face would break out in horrible stuff.”
The article also reveals some interesting tidbits about stunt ideas the kid-first network wouldn’t permit. Double Dare co-creator Mike Klinghoffer reveals “We tried [to do poop-related obstacles] but they were not allowed. We couldn’t show a butt, but we could do a mouth.”
You check out a preview for the Double Dare reunion special below:
The Double Dare 30th special will air Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 9 p.m. EST on Nick at Nite, with a special encore on The Splat (Nickelodeon’s 90s nostalgia hub) at 10 p.m. EST.
Unfortunately, there will not be an online live stream, so you’ll have to tune in the old-fashioned way. Party like it’s 1992! If you’re hard up for that nostalgia factor, you can always purchase one of three seasons for $5.99 from Amazon Video.
