DAY 3 - YOUR FAVORITE TELEVISION PROGRAM

Again, I'm assuming that this is an all-time thing. For me, it would have to be You Can't Do That on Television during the heyday of Nickelodeon. No matter how many times I had seen a particular episode, I would cheerfully watch it and all its repeats whenever and however many times they aired.

The show also ties into one of my very few direct memories of Grandma. She was babysitting my Brother and me downstairs in my childhood home when the show came on. She was unaware of the running gag of various absurd shows being pre-empted so that YCDTonTV could be shown instead. That day happened to be one where the show was pre-empted by itself. ("You Can't Do That on Television will not be seen today...") I remember explaining to Grandma that they always did something like that when she remarked that Brother and I would have to watch something else.

I remember having a slight crush on Stephanie Chow, an ongoing theme perhaps of my early childhood seeing as how in third grade, I had a boyhood crush on a Japanese girl.

I was happy that Nickelodeon, for its 20th birthday, back in 1999 decided to air many of its old shows including YCDTonTV throughout the weekend. They were focusing on "Nickelodeon Knew Them Then" so the two episodes featured Alannis Morrisette. I wish there were more but that would have to wait for µTorrent :-)

Truly, it is a show that could not be done on television these days for children. One of the episodes featured in 1999 showed kids in the school hallways with guns and later the principal breaking into one of the kid's homes with an automatic weapon (the parents wouldn't believe that the principal was out to get him). There were no muzzle flashes, just sound effects; all in good fun, but impossible to do today not to mention the obviously Nazi dungeon warden and El Capitano and his incompetent firing squad. I highly doubt that even the choir boy scenes would go over well today either. Since the show is not available on DVD, torrent it and enjoy it all over again or just YouTube whatever you can find. It's well worth it!

On a sad note, earlier this year, Les Lye passed away at 84. He was the man behind the show as well as every adult male character.

Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/arts/television/24lye.html

There's also the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Do_That_on_Television


You Can't Do That on Television intro
(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 20, 2009)