Editing You Can't Do That on Television (section)

=== Local television ===
''You Can't Do That on Television'' premiered on February 3, 1979, on CJOH-TV in [[Ottawa]]. It was a locally produced, one-hour, low-budget variety program with some segments performed live. The show consisted of [[Sketch comedy|comedy sketches]], [[music video]]s, and live phone-in contests in which the viewer could win prizes such as [[transistor radio]]s, [[record album]]s, [[model kit]]s, etc. The format also included performances by local [[disco]] dancers and special guests such as Ottawa-based cartoonist [[Jim Unger]]. Each week, the show took its "roving camera" to hangouts around town, recording kids' jokes or complaints about life, which were played on the following week's broadcast. The show also benefited from links with popular [[Top 40]] Ottawa radio station [[CFGO]]. For example, station personality Jim Johnson emceed the disco-dance segments and shared tidbits about the artists featured in music videos.

Veteran comedy actor [[Les Lye]] played numerous recurring characters and was initially the only adult to perform in the show's sketches. He was the only actor to appear for the entire series' run. Actress [[Abby Hagyard]], who played the maternal character "Valerie" opposite Lye's paternal role "Lance," joined the series in 1982. Occasionally, the older children in the cast (including [[Christine McGlade]], Sarah West or Cyndi Kennedy) played adult characters.

The show offered programming for children on Saturday mornings that made no attempt to be an [[educational television|educational program]]. The idea was successful, as (according to one episode) the show scored a 32 share of the ratings for CJOH in its 10:30&nbsp;a.m. Saturday time slot. The studio masters for the first-season episodes no longer exist, and all but three of the episodes from the first season were believed lost until early 2013, when copies of the missing episodes from off-air recordings were contributed by Roger Price and posted on [[YouTube]].

The format was similar to ''You Must Be Joking!'' and ''You Can't Be Serious'', children's sketch variety shows that Price created and produced for [[Thames Television]] in Britain from 1974 to 1978.