INTERVIEW: Marc Summers to host Thanksgiving movie marathon … not a turkey in the bunch
Photo: Marc Summers will host Thanksgiving Movie Feast on HDNet Movies. Photo courtesy of HDNet Movies press site / Provided by press site.
The number of generations that have been touched by the affable personality and family-friendly humor of TV host Marc Summers is something to behold. Children know him from the revived Double Dare series, while their parents know him from Food Network’s Unwrapped, the original Double Dare and so many other projects over years. Heck, even longtime fans might have caught a magic performance or standup routine from the man on the 1970s comedy scene in Los Angeles.
Summers has lasted many summers on television, expanding his 15 minutes of fame to a decades-long career of engaging programming.
This Thanksgiving, the host with the most is not going anywhere. He’ll be in living rooms across the nation thanks to a turkey day movie marathon on HDNet Movies. In between screenings of modern classics like Moonstruck, Chocolat and Sideways, Summers will offer interesting tidbits of trivia for viewers as they chomp down on some cranberry sauce in their own homes.
“I’m busy juggling five balls as usual, but I have no complaints,” Summers said in a recent phone interview. “Life is pretty darn good.”
Summers was attracted to the movie marathon because he thought the format was a cool idea. However, he had some reservations on whether his particular brand of TV personality was the right fit.
“When they first called me about it, it sounded rather chef-y, and I thought, well, gee, of all the people in the world, you can call Bobby Flay or Guy Fieri or Rachael Ray or people who are super-connected with food,” he said. “And they said, ‘No, we want you.’ It was clever because they took elements of what I used to do on Unwrapped, which is still the longest running show on Food Network, and combined them with what’s going on with all these movies. … It was a marriage made in heaven. I had a ball doing it, and it was pretty clever thinking. We’re just tying it all in to the various movies that we’re showing on Thanksgiving Day, and then there’s a re-run-ish kind of thing going on the following day. So it’s 48 hours of Marc Summers and food movies.”
The so-called Thanksgiving Movie Feast not only centers on films that involve food; these flicks, such as Eat Drink Man Woman and Wheels on Meals, are also personal favorites of Summers. Sideways, in particular, is a movie that had the TV host laughing at the antics of Paul Giamatti’s character.
“Thought he was fantastic and obviously followed his career since then,” Summers said of Giamatti. “I found that restaurant where they shot, and my wife and I drove up there and had dinner. Chocolat is also one of my favorites as well, and Moonstruck you can’t forget about because of Cher and all the things that went on there. I’m actually fans of these things, and it just sort of made sense to tie me into them.”
The entire special — spoiler alert! — was pre-taped. The filming took Summers and the HDNet Movies team approximately four hours to complete. First, they talked about the movies and what commentary made the most sense. Then they booked a hotel suite in Hollywood and catered the room with turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings. Summers did his thing, all the while nibbling and drinking on the festive meal before him.
It’s appropriate that Summers is hosting Thanksgiving Movie Feast because he loves this particular holiday.
“My wife and I, who have been married 44 years, started this tradition about 100 years ago where I always do the turkey and the stuffing,” he said. “She does everything else, and we start prepping it seems like earlier and earlier because of all of the chopping. And, of course, the family has gotten bigger. My kids have gotten married, so we have wives and husbands and babies and other relatives who don’t have any place to go. So it has gotten to be maybe about 25 people in total, which is insane, so last year I think I spent more time washing dishes then doing much of anything else. It’s a good time of year, and luckily over the last several years, nobody has gotten into fights. Nobody has discussed anything political or about religion, so we all walked away friends, which isn’t easy. But it’s been good.”
Summers has kept busy this year. Besides the special on HDNet Movies, he is behind the reboot of Double Dare and also taking that interactive game show on the road with Robin Russo. It was the first time in 25 years that he performed the obstacle-course of slime in front of a live audience.
“I was a little nervous about it,” he admitted. “[But] it worked phenomenally because it’s two generations now. It’s moms and dads and their kids, and the kids are the same age they were when they grew up watching it. So there’s a certain amount of fun there. We went from Fayetteville to Charlotte to Cincinnati to Baltimore to Norfolk. I’m taking a little rest in D.C. right now. A good friend of mine, Alex Brightman, who wrote my one-man show, is starring in Beetlejuice before it goes to Broadway, so seeing him tonight. And then tomorrow we go to Milwaukee. Then we go to Indy. Then we go to Nashville. Then we go to Chicago, and then I forget where we go. … It’s crazy. The other day in Baltimore we did two shows in one day. We did a 3 and a 7, and they had to scrape me off the floor. But the audiences are loving it. It’s about a two-hour show.”
He added: “Between Double Dare, where I used to throw food at people, and then Food Network, where I used to discuss what those foods were, I sort of have been surrounded by the food world for a long time.”
Summers started his career as a magician working at the world-famous Magic Castle in Los Angeles. That was back in 1973, and a few years later, based off some career advice from Gallagher, he ditched the props and entered the stand-up comedy world.
Here’s how he remembered those years: “I was working at a club called The Laff Stop in Newport Beach, and I was opening for Gallagher. And he said, ‘You know, you’re a real jerk, Summers.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because every time you walk out with a prop, you become a novelty act, and you get paid half as much as the comedians.’ When I learned that, I stopped doing magic and started doing stand-up, and became a regular at The Comedy Store in ’76 with Dave Letterman, Jay Leno and Gary Shandling. We all started together.”
He branched out even further and started warming up live TV audiences and writing game shows. He moved into the producer’s chair and landed Double Dare. Food Network came almost as an afterthought.
“I was pitching a woman by the name of Rozanne Gold, who was a friend of mine and won several James Beard awards, and all during the meeting, they kept saying, ‘Well, why don’t you do a show,'” he said. “I thought, well, why would they want me? I knew nothing about food, but they had done research and found out that the kids who grew up watching me on Double Dare had grown up and were watching Food Network. And if they found me there, perhaps they would stay. And that’s why we were the longest running show on Food Network. That thing lasted forever.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Marc Summers hosts Thanksgiving Movie Feast Thursday, Nov. 22 on HDNet Movies. Reruns air Friday, Nov. 23. Click here for more information.
