What We Saw: The Mad Dash (Canadian game show)

In our Facebook group, our pal Charlie posted this bonkers clip from 1979 Canadian game show The Mad Dash. Everything about this amazes me--the graphics, the music, the way you feel right away, "Yes, this is quality low-rent television."

I will say that this is a loop, designed to be mesmerizing, and while it certainly works on me, the actual show is not quite as bonkers. It's still a tremendous watch, or at least this full episode is. Even the thumbnail makes me laugh:

First, let's get the disappointment out of the way. In this episode, there was very little of the random back and forth you see in the first clip. Contestants do dash around a giant track like a real-life Candyland, but they do it with purpose and deliberation, unlike the clip that shows a man and woman just prancing around with no evident direction, often on the verge of falling.

That said, this show is a riot. The host is Pierre Lalonde. Pierre Lalonde! We get two mixed-gender teams (Can we call them couples? The actual people seem to be both coy and not coy about that at the same time when Pierre asks) who compete for cash--not much of ii--and prizes. One representative of each team stands around a simulated dice table and answers questions, then rolls a die that dictates the movement of their partners on that goofy track. Each space has some associated prize or action. Oh, and you had better believe that everyone is dressed like the late Seventies, baby!

This episode seems like a debut or a very early episode. The direction is amateurish at times. At the beginning, when we meet the players, their backs are mostly to the camera, and we barely see one of them. The main gimmick of the game is seeing someone frolic on that track, yet each time it happens, the show cuts late and we miss the first step. Even Pierre Lalonde--it pains me to say this--forgets a few things. Plus, near the end, when he is counting out the whopping total of $110 in cash to the winners, there is an awkward moment when he says something like, "Let me take this 20 back and give you this." You never see Jim Lange making change on Name That Tune.

The questions are basic trivia material, but the contestants go for it with gusto, especially the ladies. Loretta in this clip seems right out of game show contestant casting, making a running commentary the whole time and reacting to everything. In the beginning, her hapless partner Jim rolls a 3, which means she has to go tot eh "Back 3 Spaces" square and return to the starting point. She pouts in a friendly sort of way that she actually has to go through the motions of walking it out. 

There are multiple awkward moments like this that you don't often see in more polished game shows. Sure, you get bloopers all the time on, say, Family Feud, but you don't see ill-conceived spots like when the woman on the track, after choosing "Brawn" over "Brains," attempts the physical challenge of...peeling two oranges with her bare hands in 15 seconds? Not only is it not even captured well visually, there isn't any kind of timer on the screen. The whole thing just ends, and everyone laughs it off and goes back to the trivia, die rolling, and dashing.

Is the dashing MAD? No, but it sure is goofy, and that is good enough for me to want to see more examples of this. The book TV North calls it a syndicated show from 1979, but the credits clearly show it was on CTV, and Wikipedia says it ran from 1978-1981. A few full episodes are on YouTube. Someone salvage the rest and put them up!