You Can't Do That on Television (1979)

Directed by

Geoffrey Darby

Genre

comedy

Country

Canada

Length

11 seasons, 145 episodes

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 24 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Canadian teens perform skits in a sketch comedy show. Each episode focuses on a topic from pop culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

playfulenergetichumorousnostalgiclightheartedchildlikewackydated

What happens

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. The series 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. It was staple on the early years of the American cable network Nickelodeon, becoming most famous for introducing the network's iconic green slime. The channel aired reruns through 1994, when they were replaced with the similarly-themed domestic sketch comedy variety program All That. The show was 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 is the subject of the 2004 documentary You Can't Do That on Film, directed by David Dillehunt. Filmed in August 2004, the documentary was released in North America by Shout! Factory in 2012 and reissued in 2022 by MVD Entertainment. The film's tour of Studio D at CJOH was the final production made in the original studio, as the space had been sealed for tax purposes by station management. The building was demolished in 2011 following a fire in February 2010. The first 21 half-hour episodes were released on iTunes and Amazon in three volumes, beginning in December 2012, but these volumes are no longer available. In 2021, the first 14 half-hour episodes were made available on Paramount+. Outside of the 1989 Worst of You Can't Do That on Television VHS from Elektra Video, the series has never been formally released on home media. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Zut!
• Siocnarf (1979)
• Let's Call the Whole Thing Orff (1971)
• Charlie Had One But He Didn't Like It, So He Gave It To Us (1966)
• Gronigo & Cie (1979)
• That's So Weird! (2009)
• Comedy Inc. (2003)
• Let's Go (1976)