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You Can't Do That on Television

You Can't Do That on Television is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that aired locally in 1979 before airing in the United States in 1981. It featured adolescent and teenage actors performing in a sketch comedy format similar to America's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Canada's Second City Television. Each episode had a specific theme, typically relating to the popular culture of the time.

You Can't Do That on Television

Sketch comedy

Roger Price

William Tell Overture (Dixieland arrangement)

Canada

English

10

144 (plus 2 compilations) (list of episodes)

  • Roger Price
  • Geoffrey Darby
  • Brenda Mason

  • 60 minutes (1979–80)
  • 30 minutes (1981–90)

February 3, 1979 (1979-02-03) –
May 25, 1990 (1990-05-25)

During its original US run, the show was associated closely with the early years of the cable network Nickelodeon. It achieved high ratings, and is most famous for introducing the network's iconic green slime. The show was also notable for launching the careers of many performers, including alternative rock musician Alanis Morissette, filmmaker Patrick Mills, and television producer and screenwriter Bill Prady.


The show was produced by and aired on Ottawa's CTV station CJOH-TV. Initially a local program, it was marketed specifically for a North American-wide audience from its third season on. After production ended in 1990, Nickelodeon aired reruns in the United States through 1994, when they were replaced with the similarly-themed domestic sketch comedy variety program All That.


The show is the subject of the 2004 feature-length documentary You Can't Do That on Film,[1] directed by David Dillehunt. The film was released in North America by Shout! Factory in 2012 and reissued in 2022 by MVD Entertainment Group. In 2021, the second season was available to watch on Paramount+, however, has since been removed.[2] The series has also never formally been released on any home media to date.

The of the Canadian Parliament complex was used in the first season and in the original hour-long versions of the 1981 season episodes. In this animation sequence, a person pulls the roof off one side of the building, releasing three balloons bearing the likenesses of the three party leaders at the time: Pierre Trudeau (Liberal), Joe Clark (Progressive Conservative) and Ed Broadbent (NDP). A hand from off-screen then ignites the bottom of the Peace Tower with a match and it launches like a rocket. The start of the animation features a likeness of 1979 cast member David Helpin.

Centre Block

There are two versions of the "Children's Television Sausage Factory" animation. In this sequence, children are "processed" in the "sausage factory" and deposited onto a at the bottom of the factory that transports them to the TV studio (a likeness of the CJOH studios on Merivale Road in Nepean, Ontario). The first version was created for the half-hour, internationally syndicated versions of the 1981 episodes. The second version, which featured larger images and cleaner (albeit less fluid) scene animation than the first version, was introduced in the 1982 season and was used for both the U.S. and Canadian broadcasts of You Can't Do That on Television until the end of the show in 1990.

school bus

Both versions of the "Children's Television Sausage Factory" animation feature likenesses of Jonothan Gebert, Kevin Somers, Marc Baillon and Christine McGlade exiting the school bus, as well as a likeness of Les Lye as the security guard at the door of the TV studio. This footage was reused from the opening sequence of 1979's short-lived Whatever Turns You On.

The ending of the introduction shows Lye's face with his mouth opening, and his face is stamped "You Can't Do That on Television." The screen is then cracked and splits, and the show begins.

Conway, Kyle (Spring 2005). "Heading South to Make It Big: The American Success of Canada's You Can't Do That on Television". American Review of Canadian Studies. 35 (1): 45–65. :10.1080/02722010509481249. S2CID 143524591. (subscription required)

doi

Hagyard, Abby (Winter 2016). "FAME: The Collectors' Edition". Features behind-the-scenes photos and interviews with the cast of "You Can't Do That on Television".  978-1541023345

ISBN