To our friends up north: Has GTV started airing any eps beyond the inital dozen that they've played into the ground since adding "traditional" game shows to their lineup?

Chuck Donegan (The Curious "Chuckie Baby")

Chuck - not sure, I'll try to keep a look out for new ones. Also, if everything goes right, I might get to talk to the creator for a quick second in a couple of weeks, I'll try to ask him.

Ryan

Thanks, Ryan...incidentally, producer/creator Sidney Cohen has said he'd consider mounting a revival if he recieved enough feedback from GTV viewers. Wonder if he's still tossing the idea around...

Chuck Donegan (The Optimistic "Chuckie Baby")

Now that would be something to get excited about!

/Keeping fingers crossed...

This has been airing for a while now on GTV, since they reformatted the channel. I got a noted from Sidney a while back saying it woudl be shown. Unfortunately, as in previous discussions with him, I believe there are only a limited number of episodes available. I am not sure, but it is possible what is aired may be from his own personal library.

I know the show was done overseas for a period of time. The concept was simple and it worked, and became on of the longest running game shows in Canada.

-Ryan

Hmmmm...if this article is any indication, RyanCDN's hypothesis could have some merit:

http://thespecial.ca/ts/2008/01/canadian-n...es-a-mad-d.html

As a bonus, I'll also throw in this GameTV promo for the popular Canadian series. Enjoy, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF5CA6CIRlw

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.

Yeah, def makes you wonder...don't want it to become (rerun-wise) another Blockbusters 87 or worse, Junior Pyramid (how often can you watch the same 5 eps over and over again??). However, if a revival does come of this limited rerun cycle, would def be great.

Speaking of revival, if one does come to fruition, wonder if Cohen could get Pierre Lalonde back to host...he still looks good for his age and doesn't seem to have anything else going on.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Well I'm back from this year's Reach for the Top Ontario provincial tapings, and before we even started, one of the PA's was nice enough to give us the tour of the studio, which included a visit with one Sidney Cohen. He actually recognized me by face from last year which led to a nice conversation.

He commented that yes, those 14 episodes that GameTV is running are pretty much all that they have. He said that out of 400 that they are the only ones that still exist - he really was sad about that, but that's all he's got, everything else has been erased. He also said he has enjoyed reading the comments when some of the clips have popped up on the net. He was also flattered to hear that it has a following!

Wish I had different news but sadly I don't. He was very kind to speak and took the time to take a picture with myself and my reach team members (which I'll get around to posting at some point).

Cheers!

Ryan

That's a real shame it was erased; caught it for the first time on YouTube and really dug it. I assumed a show that aired into the mid-80s would have more existing episodes, but you know what they say about assuming...

At any rate, glad you got to meet the guy...and I hope a revival comes down the pike someday. :)

Wow...I guess this also means early years of Definition and other Canadian classics are probably gone too. Looks like the Canadian networks were worse than the American networks in saving old daytime programming :(

I'm thinking it might be according to certain shows - the Just like Mom episodes that Game TV has been airing span the end of season two and the start of season three - possibly they have more, you never know...

Oh, and I have it on a pretty reliable source that there's not going to be a season three of Inside the Box :(

R.

Don't know about "worse" but it sure sounds like "as bad as". Seems like if there really were a bunch of Definition episodes lying around somewhere, we'd have heard about them by now.

He was cool with clips being posted on youtube? That's awesome.

Does anyone want me to post more on there, now that I know I won't get banned for posting it?

Go for it; I know I'd love to see more!

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

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.

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

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