Your
Name?
Were
you a contestant or an audience member?
I was an audience member.
Did
you have to fill out an application? If so, do you remember any of the
questions?
I don't remember having to
fill out anything, though having been only 8 years old at the time, I'm not
sure if my parents had to fill out anything or not.
Did
the show require you to be a certain age to participate?
I don't think there were age
restrictions on audience members, but I think you had to be at least 8 or 9 to
be on the show.
Did
you get to officially meet Marc Summers? If so what was he like?
I did manage to have a few
words with Marc during one of the commercials. He was friendly and down to
earth. Also, I don't know if this counts for anything, but I had a direct, one
to one phone call with him back in 2010.
How
did it feel walking into the studio for the first time? Had you been there
before?
Walking into the studio was a
surreal, magical experience. I had never been there before.
What
is your best memory of being there?
My best memory of being
there, besides talking to Marc, was watching the father from the Reilly team
get his bald head almost completely covered in a white, batter-like substance,
and watching Pick-It sneeze.
Do
you have any behind the scenes stories you can share with us?
As only an audience member
and not a contestant, I can't really say anything about what goes on behind the
scenes.
Any
last thoughts?
I do get a tremendous feeling
of nostalgia from watching any version of this show, but most especially shows
that were taped in Philly, since I've always lived only about 10 miles away
from the WHYY studios.
Going
back to question five, tell us about this phone call you had with Marc? How is
it that you got to talk to him?
Well, I had always hoped to meet him on a more
personal level than the fleeting encounter I had with him on the show, since he
was one of my most favorite TV people growing up. So, anyway, back when I
turned 30, my mom wanted to do something special for my birthday, and she got
the idea to try to track down Marc (he was actually in the phone book, believe
it or not) and have him as a surprise guest for the big party we had.
Unfortunately, with him being very busy with his Food Network show at that
time, he wasn't quite able to fulfill that wish, but he did call me on my
birthday, and we talked for about 20 minutes. I told him how DD was still
something I loved after so many years and told him that I had been to a taping
of FDD in 1988, though I don't think he specifically remembered exactly who I
was. I also told him about my other game show passion, The Price Is Right, and
he mentioned that, back in the early and/or mid-70s, he had been a page or done
some type of entry level work behind the scenes for that show.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Your
Name:
Stephanie Hoffman..as a contestant my last
name was Gonzales
Were you a contestant or an audience
member?
Contestant
Did you have to fill out an
application? If so, do you remember any of the questions?
No application, but we did go through this
"interview process" along with other candidates.
Some of the questions: what President head is
on the penny? How many crayons in a box of 16 count Crayola crayons (seriously
that was the question). I can't remember some of the others🤔
Did the show require you to be a
certain age to participate?
Yes, 13 was the age.
Did you get to officially meet Marc Summers? If so what was he like?
Just when he first came on the set when we
were pre-recording. He came out and action was called, something happened
during sound check and he was not happy
he threw the mic
and told the crew to get it together before he walks out again, kind of weird
but after all was set he was happy-go lucky.
How did it feel walking into the
studio for the first time? Had you been there before?
Walking into studio was a DREAM come true,
actually it was amazing when they handed us the famous tees and Reeboks (I
wanted the British Knights). We had never been to the set, there were 11 of us
on a family vacation, and when we went through the tour they were showing some
potential new obstacles and physical challenges, then that is when they finally
asked and announced to everybody that was on the studio tour that they were
looking for contestants to film the next day. They were going to hold tryouts
the very next day, contestants had to be related because they were shooting for
a Celebrity Family Double Dare segment. My cousin and I fit the criteria, so we
went ahead and signed up.
What is your best memory of being
there?
When they were asking us the interview questions,
I remember telling my cousin that we just had to keep smiling no matter what.
We had the biggest cheesiest smiles the entire time when they were asking us
questions.
Do you have any behind the scenes
stories you can share with us?
Apparently, they were expecting 2 celebrities
for each team and they ended up asking if there was another family member that
could join because they were down to only one celebrity per team, good thing my
uncle came to the rescue. Another thing was that all that slime was made of
applesauce that had coloring added to it, pretty much everything was edible.
Any last thoughts?
I wish there could be a Double Dare traveling
tour haha, Across the state of Texas with a stop in San Antonio at my school
campus where I teach.
