You Can't Do That on Television (partially lost Canadian TV series; 1979-1990)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
A-youcan-maint.jpg

The show's title card.

Status: Partially Lost

You Can't Do That On Television was a Canadian sketch comedy that first aired on CTV on February 3rd, 1979 and then premiered in the United States on Nickelodeon on January 2nd, 1982 until its end on May 25th, 1990 for 144 episodes and two specials. It was created by British producer Roger Price (who previously created the children's sci-fi series The Tomorrow People) and the show was the fourth iteration of the format that first debuted on the British sketch comedy series You Must Be Joking! (also created by Price).

The show mainly features comedy sketches performed by a mostly preteen cast that relate to the topic of the episode. The show would also feature the use of green slime and water dumped on the cast, the slime would go on to be a Nickelodeon trademark and continues to be the channel's trademark to this day. The cast would sometimes feature future rock musician Alanis Morissette, filmmaker Patrick Mills, and The Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady.

The show would become a ratings success in Canada and would later score even bigger ratings once the show started airing on Nickelodeon. After the show's end, the latter would rerun the show until early 1994 and would air one episode, 1986's "Enemies & Paranoia" as part of the channel's "Old School Pick" in 2004 but was pulled halfway through the airing. Similar to what happened to an episode of The TNT Show in 2009, the episode contains jokes on then-president Ronald Reagan and Reagan's death made headlines during the episode's airing and was replaced with an episode of The Fairly Oddparents[1]. The show would briefly rerun in 2015 on the TeenNick block "The Splat" before disappearing from the air altogether. A reboot of the show was announced in 2017 with Price involved[2] but was canned two years later due to rights disputes[3].

While the show is well remembered for the time it aired on Nickelodeon, many of the masters of the episodes are rumored to have been destroyed.

Like season 1, season 2 originally aired exclusively on CJOH, in Ottawa, Canada, locally, and continued the hour-long episode format. In addition to the variety sketch comedy, the hour-long episodes also featured live segments consisting of giveaways, musical guest stars, and a video game competition (which replaced the disco dancing contest from season 1).

Creator Roger Price and director Geoff Darby would go on to edit the show for syndication. The edited version was cut down to half an hour, removing the live segments and keeping only the variety-sketch comedy. This version also featured reshoots of scenes to remove Canadian references. The edited versions of the episodes would go on to be aired in both Canada and on Nickelodeon in the United States.[4]

Episodes

Season 1

# Episode Title Status Notes
1 Live! Found
2 A CJOH Shoestring Production Found
3 Nickel and Dime Found
4 Peanuts Found
5 Repeat Found
6 Ottawa Director Found
7 St. Patrick's Day Found
8 Backstage Found
9 A Staff Privvy/Executive Washrooms Production Found
10 Boring Found
11 Straitjackets Found
12 Local Show Found
13 Sore Foot Found
14 End of the Line Found

Season 2

# Episode Title Status Hour Episodes Status 30 Minute Episodes Notes
15 Work, Work, Work Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+.
16 Transportation Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
17 Strike Now Found Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
18 Dating Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
19 Fitness Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
20 Safety First Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
21 Sexual Equality Found Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
22 Personal Hygiene Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
23 Smoking Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
24 Crime and Vandalism Found Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
25 Drugs Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
26 Nutrition Lost Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+
27 Peer Pressure Found Found (Subscription Required) 30 Minute Edit Available on Paramount+

Season 3

# Episode Title Status Notes
28 Cosmetics Found (Subscription Required) Available on Paramount+.
29 Addictions Found
30 Popularity Found
31 Fads and Fashion Found
32 Vacations Found
33 Rip-Offs Found
34 Bullying Found
35 Culture Junk Found
36 Television Found
37 Sports Found
38 Heroes Found
39 The Not-So-Fair-Show Found
40 Growing Up Found

Season 4

# Episode Title Status Notes
41 Media Found
42 Pets Found
43 Medicine Found
44 Rules & Regulations Found
45 Future World Found
46 Nature Found
47 Cooking Found
48 Inequality: Kids vs. Adults Found
49 Rumors Found
50 Classical Music Found
51 Manners Found
52 Fame Found
53 Priorites Found

Season 5

# Episode Title Status Notes
54 Courage Found
55 Friends Found
56 Ambition Found
57 Hobbies Found
58 ESP, Magic and Astrology Found
59 Literature Found
60 Clubs Found
61 Foreign Countries Found
62 Marketing Found
63 History Found
64 Body Parts Found
65 Technology Found
66 Moving Found
67 Halloween Found
68 Christmas Found
69 Holidays Found
70 Colleges Found
71 Politics Found
72 Science Found
73 Divorce Found
74 Families Found
75 Malls (Hangouts) Found
76 Seasons (Weather) Found
77 War Found
78 Jealousy Found
79 Wealth Found

Season 6

# Episode Title Status Notes
80 Outer Space Found
81 Wildlife and Animals Found
82 World Records Found
83 Identity Crisis Found
84 Pessimism/Optimism Found
85 Romance and Dating Found
86 Fears, Worries, and Anxiety Found
87 Relatives Found
88 Revenge Found
89 Movies Found

Season 7

# Episode Title Status Notes
90 Fairy Tales, Myths, and Legends Found
91 Pop Music Found
92 Know-It-Alls Found
93 Parties Found
94 Garbage Found
95 TV Commercials Found
96 Country Found
97 Back to School Found
98 Illness Found
99 Enemies and Paranoia Found
100 Contests Found
101 Censorship Found
102 Poverty and Unemployment Found
103 Part-Time Jobs Found
104 Discipline Found
105 Sleep Found
106 Home Found
107 Mysteries and Crimes Found
108 Luck Found
109 Savings Found

Season 8

# Episode Title Status Notes
110 Books and Reading Found
111 Adoption Found Nickelodeon pulled this episode after two airings.[5]
112 City Life Found
113 Anniversaries Found
114 Smells Found

Season 9

# Episode Title Status Notes
115 Choice Found
116 Chores Found
117 Communication Found
118 Fitness Found
119 Malfunctions Found
120 Cleanliness Found
121 Security Found
122 Pollution Found
123 Fantasies Found
124 Time Found
125 Mistakes Found
126 Punishment Found
127 Beliefs Found
128 Age Found
129 Excess Found
130 Looking Cool Lost
131 Lost Found
132 Failure Found
133 First Times Found
134 Celebrations Found
135 Effort Found
136 Sports Found
137 Smoking Found
138 Generosity Found
139 Embarrassment Found

Season 10

# Episode Title Status Notes
140 Blame Found
141 Secrets Found
142 Learning Found
143 Privileges Found
144 Inventions Found

[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

Availability

Of the 144 episodes that were produced and aired, only under half of the show's run exists in broadcast quality. A home media release of the show never materialized due to royalties and various streaming releases have popped up in the past decade. The first season of the show is considered by many to be the hardest season to find as the season only aired in Canada and never aired on Nickelodeon, many of the season's masters are considered missing and are rumored to have been erased since it was a common practice at the time. The original hour-long versions of season 2 are also hard to find, as they, too, only ever aired in Canada and not on Nickelodeon.

In 2013, Price uploaded off-air copies of the entire first season of the show to YouTube, but were since been taken down; however, they resurfaced on Archive.org on October 10th, 2021, courtesy of Lost Media Wiki user, "Droog," who claims they have had it on their hard drive for years prior to the resurfacing. Twenty-one episodes from the show's second and third seasons were available on Amazon Prime but have since been unavailable.[18][19][20]

In March 2021, those same episodes were added to Paramount + and can be viewed with a subscription. [21] The majority of the rest of the series has resurfaced online thanks to home recordings from Nickelodeon airings, though not in master quality.

On January 17th, 2023, Internet archive user "AK.Fade" uploaded all of season 9, minus episode 129. On January 26th, the missing episode "Looking Cool" was uploaded to MEGA by user "GrigioGuy", rendering only 9 of the season 2 hour-long original airings lost.

Gallery

Poparena's Nick Knacks You Can't Do That On Television episode.

References