Most of us have a passing familiarity with the Press Your Lucks and $25,000 Pyramids of game-show history, but there are countless other gems that, for whatever reason, have faded from memory.

Since the game show is TV’s most ephemeral genre, its fans have an especially active community on YouTube. The uploaders—a mix of hardcore tape traders and casual fans who happened upon an old VHS trove—have brought back to light shows that, in some cases, haven’t aired anywhere for decades. In this series, I’ll take a look at a few forgotten would-be classics that I think hold up well.

Double Dare (Alex Trebek)

Originally aired: Dec. 1976 to April 1977.

Forgotten because: It didn’t last very long, and both the host and the title are better known for other shows.

What makes it great: One way to identify a dedicated observer of game shows is to start talking about Double Dare. If he stops you to ask, “Which Double Dare, Summers or Trebek?” then you have an aficionado on your hands. Marc Summers’ sloppy Nickelodeon classic is beloved by children of the 1980s, but it shouldn’t overshadow Trebek’s early emcee gig on this completely different show.

In the main game, contestants tried to guess a given person, place, or thing with as few clues as possible, gaining the opportunity to “dare” and “double dare” their opponents if they answered correctly. Whoever won the game went on to stump the Spoilers—a bunch of eggheads who tried to guess an answer based on the clues the contestant chose for them.

It’s a fairly good concept made better by inspired production decisions. From the “every day is Christmas!” color scheme to the warbling isolation booths to the shifty-eyed PhDs in the “SPOILERS” box (the contestants were usually oddballs as well), this was a show that knew how to have fun. Most only know Trebek from his longtime gig on Jeopardy! and thus peg him as something of a stiff, but that’s misleading. Trebek is the master of adjusting his style to suit the show, so while he effects an erudite air for Jeopardy!, on Double Dare he settled into a mix of serious and silly that matched a quirky format.

Double Dare was never remade, but it was thoroughly recycled. As mentioned, the host and title saw plenty of exposure in later years. The theme song and intro sequence, right down to the flashy-four-square “special effects,” were used on the ultimately more successful Card Sharks starting in 1978. Even the brrrrrrup! sound of opening isolation booth shutters had an illustrious post-DD career: It became the distinctive sound of the Penny Ante game on The Price is Right.

Further viewing: Double Dare airs on GSN every Sunday night (Monday morning) at 1:00 and 1:30 a.m. Eastern time. Set your DVR.

On YouTube:

• A couple of good spoiler rounds.
• A main game round that uses all ten clues.