Fun House vs. Double Dare

[TheInquisitiveOne]

Hello to all again!

As I was watching (Super Sloppy) Double Dare on Nick GAS for the last few weeks, I have seen Marc Summers and the crew make some stabs at the alleged clone, Fun House...

(a) Before a Physical Challenge, Robin and Dave rolled onstage on skateboards,  telling Marc that they were at Fun House, " the show that looks like Double Dare." (Soundbite availible at Joey's Double Dare Site)

(b) One Physical Challenge, "Pushing Up Daisies," had a tombstone with J.D. Roth's name on it (Perhaps I am pushing this particular one quite a bit...)

© On an Super Sloppy episode, Marc had the Cable ACE Award on his podium, bragging, "We have one, and Fun House doesn't."

(d) In another episode, "strange occurrences" took place, and Marc blamed J.D. Roth for it.

You got the idea. From looking at these episodes, one could guess how intense the Double Dare/Fun House rivalry was. However, was it blown out of proportion a bit? Did FH make any retaliatory comments about the show, or was the flak one-sided?

I only brought this up because I have very, very little recollections about Fun House, so I thank you for the advanced help.

The Inquisitive One

[whewfan]

To my recollection, Fun House never took any stabs at Double Dare. I think Fun House was just trying to establish its own identity and not be a total ripoff of Double Dare. (Of course we could also argue that Double Dare looked a lot like Beat the Clock)

Fun House definitely put more emphasis on getting messy and physical stunts, and didn't have as much Q&A as a typical ep. of Double Dare would. Also, I don't believe anyone has ever "cleaned house" and gotten every single tag. Also, every stunt on Fun House was one team vs. another, while stunts on DD (except for the toss up) was one team vs. the clock.

[kidsplash]

I was a big fan of FH and DD as a kid and still am now. I can never forget 1988-1989 when "Fun House" would air weekdays at 6:30AM, followed by "(Super Sloppy) Double Dare" at 7AM on KPLR Channel 11 St. Louis (now renamed WB 11). Then, when the second season of "Fun House" began, it moved to a new time and new channel, weekdays at 7:30AM on KDNL Channel 30 (back then the station had Fox until 1995 when they got ABC. Now it's renamed ABC 30).

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Sep 24 2004, 02:12 AM\'] On an Super Sloppy episode, Marc had the Cable ACE Award on his podium, bragging, "We have one, and Fun House doesn't." [/quote]
 IMO, Marc's jab was comparing apples to oranges.  While DD originated on cable, FH was made for syndication and never intended to win CableACEs.

"Sit down on that tricycle...that could be painful!"

[quote name=\'whewfan @ Sep 24 2004\' date=\' 05:33 AM\']Also, I don't believe anyone has ever "cleaned house" and gotten every single tag.[/quote]
I doubt this was ever intended either, since there are usually sixteen tags in the Fun House (early episodes had twelve, but a few had only ten!  And in one ep is the latter, a team got eight of those!) and the objective was just to get as many tags as you can in two minutes (and look for the Power Prize while you're at it).

Two of Matt's above points were reversed for FH spinoff College Mad House: While the stunt round remained the same, the race was replaced by a question round (with pies); and in the Mad House, the object was to clean house.

[johnnya2k3]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Sep 25 2004, 11:08 AM\'] [quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Sep 24 2004, 02:12 AM\'] On an Super Sloppy episode, Marc had the Cable ACE Award on his podium, bragging, "We have one, and Fun House doesn't." [/quote]
IMO, Marc's jab was comparing apples to oranges.  While DD originated on cable, FH was made for syndication and never intended to win CableACEs. [/quote]
 Or Daytime Emmys, for that matter (it would be long before the Emmys began acknowledging cable (*cough*HBO*cough*) and the CableACEs would finally fold in the mid-'90s).

But back to the topic: I seem to remember a 2001 Brad Francini post on ATGS about Harvey writing "I will NOT watch Fun House" on a chalkboard a few times during a Super Sloppy episode.

[uncamark]

"Double Dare" may've been the superior show in terms of game play and raw entertainment value (at least for adults who'd get Marc Summers' references that went right over the kids' heads), but it still looked like a cable show, while "Fun House" was undoubtedly a much slicker production (one of the few times we could ever say that about Stone-Stanley).  The kids watching broadcast TV after school decided to pick slick production over game play and entertainment value.  (It also didn't help that "DD" only made 20 new shows in that fall season of 1998 to cover the November sweeps while the production team was turning out the syndie "Finders Keepers" shows in LA.)  Basically, Viacom told the "DD" staff to ramp things up and gave them the money to do so, hence "Super Sloppy Double Dare," the somewhat hopped-up set and  several new stunts and obstacles (I had personally always found it odd that "DD" repeated stunts, something that "BTC" seemingly never did--at least without doing a tweak)--and I would guess that on a competitive level the staff wanted to beat the show that had blind-sided them in the ratings.  It helped for competition's sake that "DD" was on Fox-owned stations while "FH" was on Tribune-owned stations, as well.

[SplitSecond]

A peripherally-related anecdote: several recent Nickelodeon execs have praised JD Roth in all he'd done in helping to build their network.

Chew on that one for a bit.

[johnnya2k3]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Sep 25 2004, 09:14 PM\']"Double Dare" may've been the superior show in terms of game play and raw entertainment value (at least for adults who'd get Marc Summers' references that went right over the kids' heads), but it still looked like a cable show, while "Fun House" was undoubtedly a much slicker production (one of the few times we could ever say that about Stone-Stanley).  The kids watching broadcast TV after school decided to pick slick production over game play and entertainment value.
[/quote]

Which probably explains why Fun House was taped in Los Angeles while Double Dare originated in Philadelphia before moving to Orlando.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'johnnya2k3\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 02:35 AM\'][quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Sep 25 2004, 09:14 PM\']"Double Dare" may've been the superior show in terms of game play and raw entertainment value (at least for adults who'd get Marc Summers' references that went right over the kids' heads), but it still looked like a cable show, while "Fun House" was undoubtedly a much slicker production (one of the few times we could ever say that about Stone-Stanley).  The kids watching broadcast TV after school decided to pick slick production over game play and entertainment value.
[/quote]

Which probably explains why Fun House was taped in Los Angeles while Double Dare originated in Philadelphia before moving to Orlando.

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[/quote]

Where a show is taped doesn't have a dang thing to do with it. There are professional tv studios everywhere. LA does not make a show slicker.

And I seriously doubt that a shows preteen audience gives a crap about slick production when it comes to their tv viewing choices.

[reason1024]

Heh... does anyone remember the competitor that looked like almost a public access kids' show?  I think it was called "Slime Time".  I'd be curious to know if it debuted before Fun House, and if it even lasted long enough to be a competitor.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'reason1024\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 09:13 PM\']
Heh... does anyone remember the competitor that looked like almost a public access kids' show?  I think it was called "Slime Time".  I'd be curious to know if it debuted before Fun House, and if it even lasted long enough to be a competitor.

It aired weekends in syndication from June-August 1988, packaged with another kidvid game show, Treasure Mall. Comedian Marty Cohen(who appeared on SOlid Gold and as a guest on several game shows in the 80s) hosted. Two teams of contestants played a Q&A and stunt show which was a blatant DD ripoff. The winning team slimed the losing team IIRC.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 06:26 AM\']
And I seriously doubt that a shows preteen audience gives a crap about slick production when it comes to their tv viewing choices.

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[/quote]

Not outwardly, maybe--but there was something in "Fun House" that kids were responding to more than they were to "Double Dare" at that point--and it was because to them, it seemed bigger, brighter and louder than the other show.  You don't necessarily need money to make those things possible, but "Fun House" was the slicker show of the two.

Of course, as I've said, the fact that "DD" was in reruns for much of the fall didn't help--and maybe it was all of those pre-pubescent boys slobbering over Jackie and Sammi more than they did Robin.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 10:34 PM\']It aired weekends in syndication from June-August 1988, packaged with another kidvid game show, Treasure Mall.

[snapback]60250[/snapback]

[/quote]And the host of Treasure Mall was Hal Sparks, now an actor and comic of some note.