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

=== Nickelodeon ===

==== Peak years ====
In 1981, the new American youth-oriented cable network [[Nickelodeon]] took an interest in ''YCDTOTV''. Nickelodeon originally aired several episodes in the edited half-hour syndicated format as a test run. The response was positive, and in January 1982, Nickelodeon began airing the entire edited season. By 1983, ''YCDTOTV'' was the network's highest-rated show.

Production on new episodes of ''YCDTOTV'' resumed full-time in 1982 in the half-hour all-comedy format, with Nickelodeon and CJOH as production partners. Over the next few years, the series was screened nationally in Canada. [[CTV Television Network|CTV]], the network CJOH-TV was affiliated with, broadcast the show on Saturday mornings between 1982 and 1990, with little publicity. However, ''YCDTOTV'' continued to expand its audience in the United States on Nickelodeon, where it initially aired five times a week and eventually every day. The series gained broader exposure in its native Canada in 1988 when it was added by the newly established youth-oriented [[YTV (Canada)|YTV]] cable channel. It was heavily promoted and aired daily during peak viewing hours.

Viewers in the United States were given the opportunity to enter the Slime-In, a contest hosted by Nickelodeon that flew the winner to the set of ''You Can't Do That on Television'' to be slimed. The contest was later replicated by Canada's YTV as the Slime Light Sweepstakes.

In 1983 at [[WGBH-TV]] in [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]], Roger Price created a version of ''YCDTOTV'' for American public television network [[PBS]] titled [[Don't Look Now (1983 TV series)|''Don't Look Now'']] (originally to be titled ''Don't Tell Your Mother!''). The show was similar to episodes from the 1979 season of ''YCDTOTV'', including music videos and several earlier ''YCDTOTV'' sketches and motifs (including a variation on the show's trademark green slime gag called "Yellow Yuck"). Despite high ratings, the series ended after its five-episode trial run in October 1983, possibly because of complaints from parents about its content. Nickelodeon was also concerned that if ''Don't Look Now'' was successful, it could mean the end of ''YCDTOTV''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=You Can't Do that On Television |url=http://members.shaw.ca/wtyo/ycdtotv.html |access-date=2016-04-20 |website=members.shaw.ca}}</ref> The series was believed lost until all five episodes surfaced in early 2013. They have been posted on [[YouTube]], excluding the copyrighted music videos.

Price created another show for Nickelodeon in 1985, the less successful ''[[Turkey Television]]''. It featured several main cast members of ''YCDTOTV'' including Les Lye, Christine McGlade, Kevin Kubusheskie and Adam Reid. By this time, McGlade, now in her twenties and eager to move on with her life, had moved to Toronto and was flying back to Ottawa for ''YCDTOTV'' taping sessions. ''Turkey Television'' also marked McGlade's debut as a producer, a career that she continued after leaving ''YCDTOTV'' in 1986. Another Price production using ''YCDTOTV'' cast members, ''UFO Kidnapped'', was made in 1983. Although the pilot aired on Nickelodeon, the series was not picked up.

==== Changing of the guard and controversies ====
By 1987, many of the veteran cast members such as Matthew Godfrey, Douglas Ptolemy, Vanessa Lindores and [[Adam Reid]] had grown too old for the show. Longtime host Christine McGlade ("Moose") had departed the previous year, as had [[Alasdair Gillis]] (who had been promoted to co-host with McGlade in 1985 before leaving toward the end of the 1986 season). Lisa Ruddy ("Motor Mouth"), McGlade's longtime sidekick on the show, left at the end of the 1985 season. Only five episodes were filmed for the 1987 season, tying with the 1990 season as the shortest during the show's 15-year run.

The episode "Adoption,"<ref>{{Citation|title=YCDTOTV adoption episode|url=https://www.bitchute.com/video/V5FvuKZ6JFMS/|language=en|access-date=2022-01-26}}</ref> was so controversial that it was banned after being shown twice.<ref>{{Citation |title=You Can't Do That on Television |date=1979-02-03 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078714/alternateversions |access-date=2016-02-29}}</ref> A "DO NOT AIR" sticker was placed on the master tape at CJOH.<ref>{{Citation |title=You Can't Do That on Television |date=1979-02-03 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078714/trivia |access-date=2016-02-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=OLD SCHOOL NICK |url=http://oldschoolnick.tumblr.com/page/10 |access-date=2016-03-01 |website=oldschoolnick.tumblr.com}}</ref> "Adoption" is the only episode that was banned in the United States. Co-creator Geoffrey Darby has stated that he felt the episode went too far, and that the writers were unaware of the sensitive nature of the material.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Klickstein |first=Mathew |date=2012-03-26 |title=So You Think You Can't Do That on Television? |url=https://www.vulture.com/2012/03/so-you-think-you-cant-do-that-on-television.html |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=Vulture |language=en}}</ref> In Canada, the "Divorce" episode was banned. However, the "Adoption" episode was shown with edits. In the sketch in which Senator Prevert calls the adoption agency to send his son back after using him to do chores all day, the line in which he calls the adoption agency officer a "damn bureaucrat" was excised.

In addition, Nickelodeon had removed the half-hour edits of the 1981 episodes of ''You Can't Do That on Television'' from its daily rotation, along with the 1982 "Cosmetics" episode.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} The 1981 episodes were set to air for the last time during a 1985-week-long promotion called "Oldies but Moldies," with contests in which viewers could win prizes such as "tasty, fresh chocolate syrup". Instead, the episodes continued to air until the end of 1987, but not often. Reportedly, this was because Nickelodeon's six-year contract to air the 1981 season expired in 1987. As Nickelodeon was beginning to aim for a younger demographic, and many of the 1981 episodes dealt with topics more relevant to teenagers (such as smoking, drugs, [[sexual equality]] and [[peer pressure]]), the network opted not to renew the contract. Nickelodeon allegedly removed the "Cosmetics" episode from rotation for the latter reason (although the "Addictions" episode from that same season was not dropped). By contrast, when Canada's YTV began airing the series in 1989, they continued airing the 1981 season as part of the package, as well as ''Whatever Turns You On'', which was never shown in the United States.

==== Final years ====
Roger Price moved to [[France]] following production of the 1987 season after being informed that Nickelodeon was not planning to order more episodes. Production was suspended for 1988. When Price eventually returned to Canada, he wanted to resume production of ''You Can't Do That on Television'' from [[Toronto]], but was convinced by the cast and crew to return to Ottawa and CJOH. Nickelodeon ordered more ''YCDTOTV'' episodes for the 1989 season. Auditions were held at CJOH in the spring of 1988, and taping began that fall. [[Amyas Godfrey]] and Andrea Byrne were the only child cast members to transition from 1987 to 1989. However, a few minor 1986 cast members returned for episodes, including Rekha Shah and James Tung.

Opinions regarding the 1989 and 1990 episodes of ''YCDTOTV'' are mixed among longtime fans of the show, particularly regarding the new episodes' increasing reliance on [[bathroom humor]] and more slime and water gags (which was supposedly at the request of Nickelodeon executives). The show did not completely sever ties to its past, as many former cast members reappeared during the 1989 season in cameo roles, most notably in the "Age" episode, which was hosted by Vanessa Lindores (who was slimed twice during it) and also featured cameos by Doug Ptolemy, Alasdair Gillis, Christine McGlade and Kevin Kubusheskie (who by that time had become a stage producer on the show). Gillis also appeared briefly in the "locker jokes" segment during the "Fantasies" episode, and Adam Reid, who by this time had become an official writer for ''YCDTOTV'', also appeared (and was slimed) at the very end of the episode "Punishment."

The show's ratings declined throughout 1989 and 1990. The network's desire to produce more of its own shows at [[Nickelodeon Studios|its new studios]] at [[Universal Orlando Resort|Universal Studios]] in [[Orlando, Florida]], coupled with low ratings, caused production of ''You Can't Do That on Television'' to officially end in 1990 after only five episodes (tying 1990 with 1987 as the shortest season of the series). Though ratings declined, Nickelodeon continued to air [[rerun]]s until January 1994, at which point it was only aired on weekends.

On October 5, 2015, Nickelodeon's sister network [[TeenNick]] brought the show back in reruns as the first program on [[The Splat (block)|The Splat]], its expanded classic-themed block. The airings began with the first two 1981 episodes, "Work" and "Transportation," marking the first time that those episodes had aired on American television in 30 years. However, only two additional episodes ("Christmas" and "Holidays" from the 1984 season) have been aired since. As of March 23, 2021, the 1981 season has been made available to stream on [[Paramount+]].