The Mad Dash on GTV

[RyanCDN]

I htink that Sidney is a great guy.  I have never met him personally, but he was more than willing to help me out when I wanted to dedicate a page to this classic show.

Way back in the late 90's, when I had contacted him, he had told me basically the information Ryan relayed, in that the episodes were mostly destroyed, except for a few in his personal library.

I guess the difficult is trying to build on the limited runnings that are shown.  It really is a true Canadian classic, and regardless of 1 episode, 20 or 200, it's great to see it back on TV.



As for Definition, that is somewhat a funny story Matt.  Some years ago I had done some research into the show and was trying to get some information out of CFTO-TV.  As with anything, it seems when you are the "little guy" they often shrug you off.  They passed the buck off to it being up to Jim whether or not episodes could ever be shown or released.  A conversation with Jim's daughter, Erin, sort of said the opposite, where he really had no say in whether or not they could be shown.  I know that a representative of CFTO never denied the existance of Definition episode, nor did they outright confirm their existance.

It just seemed as though the response I got was that of they exist, but that is all we can do for you.

Who knows, it would be interesting to see.

-Ryan

[Ian Wallis]

They passed the buck off to it being up to Jim whether or not episodes could ever be shown or released. A conversation with Jim's daughter, Erin, sort of said the opposite, where he really had no say in whether or not they could be shown. I know that a representative of CFTO never denied the existance of Definition episode, nor did they outright confirm their existance.

Hmmm...the only thing I can add to that is Definition was produced at CFTO in Toronto, while Mad Dash came out of CFCF in Montreal.  Maybe CFTO was more careful about saving things actually done at that station(?)

If any others do exist, hopefully we'll find out at some point in the future.

[RyanCDN]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'186174\' date=\'May 16 2008, 04:20 PM\']

They passed the buck off to it being up to Jim whether or not episodes could ever be shown or released. A conversation with Jim's daughter, Erin, sort of said the opposite, where he really had no say in whether or not they could be shown. I know that a representative of CFTO never denied the existance of Definition episode, nor did they outright confirm their existance.

Hmmm...the only thing I can add to that is Definition was produced at CFTO in Toronto, while Mad Dash came out of CFCF in Montreal.  Maybe CFTO was more careful about saving things actually done at that station(?)

If any others do exist, hopefully we'll find out at some point in the future.
[/quote]


Be sure to contact Game TV, and give them your input.  I certainly put forth a question on Definition or Talkabout, and they said they would send it off to the right department.  Who knows, maybe they can get a little more information out of them.

-Ryan

[RyanCDN]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'185769\' date=\'May 10 2008, 11:03 AM\']
I read the article but I don't know why they just don't go to CTV and see what they have.  Since the show ran into the mid-80s, I'd be shocked if it was completely wiped.  I wonder if GTV is on a tight budget and might be running the eps Cohen has for free - or for a small leasing fee.  Maybe he just wanted the exposure of the show again to see if he could mount a revival; but with only 12 episodes you get into the famous GSN "rerun abuse" syndrome which will likely put a ceiling on the ratings.
[/quote]

Not to sound like I know it all, because I certainly don't, but I believe I know some information about TMD.  In previous conversations with Sidney, what you see is what you get, the only existing episodes were from his personal collection.  I believe everything else was destroyed.  The rights, as far as I know, are still that of Mr. Cohen's and his production company.

I certainly think that in the past, nobody could have imagined there would be renewed interest in old TV shows . . but, there has been.

It is funny, because for a smalled network, like Game TV or even GSN, I think the format of The Mad Dash is great.  We all know that Canadian shows relative to their US counterpart, have been lower in prize value.  I think given teh difficulty of Dash though, prizes and winnings are appropriate, it's just a good old fun game.

Time will tell what happens!

-Ryan