Marc Summers Reveals What That Slime Was Really Made of as He Reflects on “Double Dare”’s 40th Anniversary (Exclusive)
Marc Summers Reveals What That Slime Was Really Made of as He Reflects on “Double Dare”’s 40th Anniversary (Exclusive)
Gillian Telling, Angela AndaloroMon, October 5, 2026 at 4:07 PM UTC
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Marc Summers with a ‘Double Dare’ contestant, covered in slimeCredit: Nickelodeon -
Marc Summers has hosted many iterations of Double Dare over the years, beginning with the original series, which ran from 1986 to 1989
Speaking with PEOPLE, Summers shared the story behind securing the hosting gig and the atmosphere of ‘90s Nickelodeon
Summers also revealed the network’s original slime recipe
Marc Summers has nothing but warm memories of Double Dare, 40 years later.
Summers was an up-and-coming stand-up comedian with some hosting experience when the Nickelodeon game show opportunity came up. The 74-year-old tells PEOPLE that the opportunity actually wasn’t his own.
“The Double Dare job all happened by mistake. A friend of mine, Dave Garrison, who was a ventriloquist from Indianapolis, had moved to Los Angeles, and we were both trying to grow our careers. I get a phone call one day and Dave says, ‘You know what? I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to move behind the scenes and become a producer. I got a call from a network I’d never heard of called Nickelodeon. They’re doing a kid’s game show. Do you want to go instead of me?’ ” Summers tells PEOPLE.
“I said, ‘Of course. I want to host a game show.’ So when I got there, they say, ‘Dave Garrison?’ I said, ‘Dave’s not here. My name is Marc. Can I go instead of him?’ ” he continued. Not only did the network agree to let him audition, but Summers left feeling like “I’ve nailed this.”
Summers called his agent to convey his excitement, only to be told to temper himself as the agent had “about 10 other clients going” to audition. After three callbacks, Summers was anxious to learn whether he’d gotten the gig. He called one of the creators to ask for an update. Creator Mike Klinghoffer admitted he had reservations about Summers’ lack of experience working with kids, even though he was already a dad.
Summers suggested testing each host with kids and “let the best man win.” Some phone calls and an hour later, Klinghoffer said the idea was a-go.
“So they flew me and this other person — to this day, I don’t know who it is — to New York and we shot. I went first, then they threw me out of the studio, brought the other guy in, and two days later they called me and they said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the host of Double Dare,’ ” he shared.
The job was life-changing for Summers, who said, “There was never a bad day on the set of Double Dare, whether it was real-life kids who we picked up from Philly or New Jersey or then we shot in New York for a while, and then we shot down in Orlando, but every day was a good day.”
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Summers even got used to the network’s signature slime, which was heavily featured in the show’s physical challenges. He explained, “People always want to know what the slime was. Well, the insurance people back in the day said if the slime gets in the kids’ mouths, it has to be edible.”
“The original recipe was vanilla pudding, applesauce, green food coloring, and a little oatmeal to thicken it up,” he revealed. “When we brought it back the last time, when I was exec producing and a sidekick to another host, they had a new formula to slime, and when we went in there, you could build the viscosity, the thickness, the thinness. Do you want it to sort of slowly drip down? Do you want it to drip down fast? And I’m assuming it’s still edible, ‘cause if the kids got it in their mouth, it had to be edible, but it just didn’t look the same and it didn’t smell as good.”
Summers hosted Double Dare from 1986 to 1989, followed by Family Double Dare from 1990 to 1993, with various specials and reinventions that followed. Altogether, he hosted over 500 episodes of the show and admitted that he has a favorite that stands out.
“Favorite show I ever did on Double Dare, and we did originally 525 and then there’s been other versions that I’ve done, [was when] we did Super Slop-a-Mania and we had Bobby the Brain Heenan with Gorilla Monsoon. And they were huge performers with the WWF at the time, before it became the WWE, and they just were good,” he recalled. “They were entertaining, they were fun, they were funny, the kids loved them, and it stands in my mind as perhaps the best show we ever did.”
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Marc Summers in Aug. 2025Credit: Olga Onate/Getty
The memories are as sweet as ever as Summers prepares to host a special celebration this month, honoring 40 years of Double Dare.
“I cannot believe that we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of Double Dare. I mean, I was 34 years old, 35 when we started this thing, and here we are making a celebration. I figure this is the last time we’re going to be doing this. In 10 years, if I’m still around, I’ll be 85. I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk at that point. I mean, I try to look after myself, take care of myself... but who knows what the future brings,” he shared.
“I figured this is the last time we get the whole gang together, so all of our producers or most of them. Harvey, our announcer, Robin, my sidekick on the air, we’re all getting together, and we’re going to have an audience of 300 people at City Winery,” he said of the Philadelphia-based reunion. “And we’re going to play physical challenges, we’re going to have slime, we’re going to show them clips that they probably have never seen or don’t remember seeing, and I think it’s going to be a fun 90-minute show of going back in time and reliving your childhood.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
