Pierre LaLonde: Farewell to Classic Canadian GS Host
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:05 am
Pierre LaLonde passed away on Tuesday at age 75.
The Canadian singer and TV personality was best known to game show audiences as the host of the long-running daytime game show 'The Mad Dash' (1978-85). Teams of two (contestants from both Canada and the US could qualify), most often couples, played against each other, alternating between answering general knowledge questions to earn rolls of a dice, and running around on a giant game board based on the rolls of said dice. They could win cash and prizes which would have been considered laughable compared to today's SyndieBAM-fed audiences ('You've won a new sewing machine!'), but for the time they had some pretty good payouts, especially when someone landed on the 'Pot of Gold' space and won a deluxe prize package worth at least $1,000. Even Wink Martindale was impressed - he uploaded a full episode to his YouTube vault (pardon the picture and sound quality).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvCRt_AykE
Another clip (better quality) featuring a nice 'Pot of Gold' win, and a couple of amusing brain-fart moments (the dog and parrot question is classic gold
And since it's a morning quizzer, not everyone stayed up late and watched Johnny and Ed back then 
).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_4nfLTBCoA
Lalonde also hosted a Canadian French language version of 'Chain Reaction' ('Action Réaction') that managed to stay on the air for five seasons (1986-1991), leaving both GSN versions in the dust.
'Action Réaction' Clip (first minute of a round)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd05vnXsKHc
More clips from both shows are just a Google/YouTube search away.
Canada just doesn't do game shows like this anymore.
The Canadian singer and TV personality was best known to game show audiences as the host of the long-running daytime game show 'The Mad Dash' (1978-85). Teams of two (contestants from both Canada and the US could qualify), most often couples, played against each other, alternating between answering general knowledge questions to earn rolls of a dice, and running around on a giant game board based on the rolls of said dice. They could win cash and prizes which would have been considered laughable compared to today's SyndieBAM-fed audiences ('You've won a new sewing machine!'), but for the time they had some pretty good payouts, especially when someone landed on the 'Pot of Gold' space and won a deluxe prize package worth at least $1,000. Even Wink Martindale was impressed - he uploaded a full episode to his YouTube vault (pardon the picture and sound quality).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvCRt_AykE
Another clip (better quality) featuring a nice 'Pot of Gold' win, and a couple of amusing brain-fart moments (the dog and parrot question is classic gold
And since it's a morning quizzer, not everyone stayed up late and watched Johnny and Ed back then ).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_4nfLTBCoA
Lalonde also hosted a Canadian French language version of 'Chain Reaction' ('Action Réaction') that managed to stay on the air for five seasons (1986-1991), leaving both GSN versions in the dust.
'Action Réaction' Clip (first minute of a round)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd05vnXsKHc
More clips from both shows are just a Google/YouTube search away.
Canada just doesn't do game shows like this anymore.