History Series / YouCantDoThatOnTelevision

* TransAtlanticEquivalent: The 1979 incarnation of the series was itself the Trans-Atlantic Equivalent of the [[Creator/{{ITV}} Thames Television]] children's series ''You Must Be Joking!'' (1975-76) and ''You Can't Be Serious!'' (1978), which also featured casts of (mostly untrained) child actors with special celebrity guests and musical guests, used CoveredInGunge as a comedy device, and were created by ''YCDTOTV'' co-creator Roger Price. The cast of ''You Must Be Joking!'' included lifelong friends and acting partners Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson (then in their teens), most well-known as the co-stars of the sitcom ''Series/BirdsOfAFeather''.

* {{Blackmail}}: Christine, while looking through the "Magic Mirror" in the ''Whatever Turns You On'' episode "Educational Programming":

[[quoteright:328:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/YCDToT_7029.jpg Even ''the title'' is a faceful.]]

->''Hi, and welcome to sort of a... musty episode of You Can't Do That on Television. The show that makes modern history every week by continually appalling its viewers.''

** Even when the show became 100% pre-recorded, flubs sometimes were kept in the final product, since they didn't have time or money to redo the scene.

** In real life, from 1984 to 1990, Nickelodeon held a contest known as the Slime-In, which offered the winner an all expenses paid trip to the Ottawa set of ''YCDTOTV'' to be slimed. Of the six winners of this contest, four were girls.

Brought CoveredInGunge to North America (and associated it with Nickelodeon). And Music/AlanisMorissette. No, really. The proof is [[http://www.ycdtotv.com/cast/cast.php?cmi=70 here]]. Also, the show was an early writing job for Bill Prady, who went on to create ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' and [[Series/TheMuppets the 2015 reboot series]] (on Creator/{{ABC}}) for Franchise/TheMuppets, [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Bill_Prady which he is no stranger to]].

* MeaningfulName: Most of Les Lye's characters.
* {{Meganekko}}: Vanessa Lindores, on and off for most of her time on the show.
** Also, Deidre McIsaac, a minor cast member in the initial 1979 season.

* PantyShot: Christine in 1983's "Medicine" episode where, while in a tennis dress, she suffers a broken leg and is in a leg cast. During one link, she develops a terrible headache and asks for aspirin plus some water to wash it down, and ends up getting soaked ''three times''. Her tennis panties become visible through her soaked dress.

** Most of the Barth sketches involve disgusting revelations about what goes into the burgers the kids are halfway through eating (mouse heads and tails, used kitty litter, maggots, dead human bodies, etc.).
--->'''Barth''': Duuuuuuh...I ''heard'' that!
*** In "Sexual Equality" (1981), Rodney, who has been eating Barth's burgers and enjoying them, asks for the recipe so his mom can make them at home. Barth writes down the recipe, which includes ingredients like stale breakfast cereal, spit, and cigarette ash, and involves spilling the mixture on the floor, cooking it on an unwashed griddle, and serving it on moldy stale buns. As if Rodney weren't already grossed out enough, Barth then tells him he forgot the most important ingredient: rat snot. Cue Rodney doubling over to be sick, followed by Lisa on the link set commenting that now she knows why Barth's food always seemed to to taste "a little different."

*** A significantly less revolting example, also involving Mr. Prevert, was mistaking drink coasters for Melba toast.
*** Two other episodes included similar skits which stopped just short of the payoff of Mr. Prevert realizing what he had just eaten. In "Cosmetics" (1982), he puts Elizabeth's bright red nail polish on his ham and eggs, mistaking it for ketchup. And in "Smells" (1987), due to a mixup in putting the groceries away, Vanessa washes her hair with what turns out to be Bleu Cheese salad dressing while Lance puts shampoo on his salad.

* LeavingFoodForSanta: A skit from the 1984 "Christmas" episode has Valerie and Lance arguing over what kind of snack Vanessa should leave for Santa. Lance suggests pizza and beer, while Valerie informs him that Santa should be on a diet, "or else they'll have to [[UsefulNotes/Airships write 'Goodyear' on him and float him over the football stadium.]]" Vanessa suggests a coin toss, which Lance loses.

** "Culture Junk" (1982): Christine is soaked simply because, as Ross tells her, the cue cards says she was ''supposed'' to say "water", [[{{Railroading}} even though she did not.]]

** The show itself has often been considered a Spiritual Successor of ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''. ''Laugh-In'' star Ruth Buzzi even starred on ''Whatever Turns You On'' and made a guest appearance on the first local season of ''YCDTOTV'' itself. And coincidentally, ''Laugh-In'' and ''YCDTOTV'' shared the same network for a time when ''Laugh-In'' was part of the Nick at Nite lineup in the late 1980s.

* OfCourseISmoke: Touched on in the (first) "Smoking" episode. At the end of the show, Moose gives special thanks to Les Lye, a nonsmoker who, being the only adult on the show, had to do all the smoking required for the sketches. Les steps out of character as Ross the floor manager to directly address the camera. Looking slightly ill, he bluntly states "I can't believe that people actually ''pay'' to smoke cigarettes, and I will ''never'' do it again".

* LanguageBarrier: Often played with in the first, Ottawa-only season and in ''Whatever Turns You On'', which featured Marc Baillon as the Francophone kid kid who occasionally misunderstood what his Anglophone castmates were saying. This was TruthInTelevision as well, as during one live phone-in competition, Marc referred to a radio being given away as a prize as a "record," necessitating an explanation that Marc had used the wrong English word once the show came back from commercial.

** In real life, Eugene and Roddy Contreras were chosen for the show after Roger Price overheard them speaking Spanish, since Price was specifically looking for Hispanic kids.

** In real life, this was how Eugene and Roddy Contreras, who were of partial Colombian descent, were cast on the show. The boys had failed their general auditions, but Roger Price then overheard them speaking Spanish to their mother and immediately called them back, since he had been looking for Spanish-speaking kids for the show.

** "Culture Junk" (1982): Christine is soaked simply because, as Ross tells her, the cue cards says she was ''suppposed'' to say "water", [[{{Railroading}} even though she did not.]]

* ThePlague: Anyone who gets green-slimed in the 1986 "Illness" episode is stricken with "the green slime flu," which makes bright-green spots break out all over the afflicted person's body. Naturally, since no one is able to keep from saying "I don't know," it strikes all the kids and Ross, but fortunately it only lasts as long as the show.

!!''You Can't Do That on Television'' provides examples of:

* LossOfIdentity: PlayedForLaughs in a 1985 season episode "Identity Crisis," in which Alasdair searches for "the real me."

** In-universe again in the opening of "Inequality: Kids vs Adults" (1983). The episode opens with Chrstine out of focus in the foreground while Ross is in focus. Ross says that [[HollywoodHomely the cameras wouldn't be able to handle looking at a focused Christine]]. Sure enough, as soon as Christine convinces the camera man to put her in focus the lens cracks.

* LossOfIdentity: PlayedForLaughs in a 1985 season episode on identity crises, in which Alasdair searches for "the real me."

* IdentityCrisis: It's the theme of a 1985 season episode, in which Alasdair searches for "the real me."

* LossOfIdentity: PlayedForLaughs in a 1985 season episode on identity crises.

** The 1989 episode "First Times" and the 1990 episode "Privileges" both featured cameo appearances by 1981-84 cast member Kevin Kubusheskie (by then an associate producer for the series) and 1984-87 cast member Adam Reid (by then a writer for the series); in both episodes, they played upperclassmen being hazed by the regular cast members in opposite sketches set in the school corridor. Adam also had a cameo (and was slimed) in the 1989 episode "Punishment."

** Played with in the 1987 "Books and Reading" episode. Stephanie Chow asks Matthew Godfrey about mirages in the desert in an attempt to get him to say "Water", but he doesn't cave. Then Matthew says "Water" and gets drenched anyway while explaining Stephanie's trick to Adam Reid afterward.

* LetsSeeYOUDoBetter: In a meta example, Adam Reid was invited to audition for the series after writing in to criticise the acting by the child performers. He was immediately cast as a regular performer, and went on to write for the series in its final two seasons.

** So were some of the other boys. One sketch in the 1986 episode "Back to School" has Adam Reid strip down to his briefs to get out of going to school after Mom tells him he can't go to school without any clothes on. Adam later recalled that experience as being rather traumatic for a boy just starting to go through puberty.

** The 1985 and 1986 series featured appearances by Adam Kalbfleisch and Adam Reid (though never in the same episode).

** "Enemies and Paranoia" from 1986 ties up the "B-plot" of Adam Reid's wrestling bout with the Masked Destroyer by having Adam unmask the Destroyer to reveal... Mrs. Prevert, who drags him home by his ear. As she forces him to sit down to a huge plate of Brussels sprouts and recites further punishments, Adam groans, "With a mom like this, who needs enemies?"

*** The same episode features a reluctant Kevin Somers as the Don't Bee, whose entrances are always signaled by the words "Don't be" in the script and accompanied by the battle cry, "Nobody expects the Don't Bee!" This doubles as a combination shout-out and TakeThat to ''Series/RomperRoom'' (parodied in this episode as ''Rumpus Room'').

* SaturdayMorningKidsShow: Literally, as the local-only 1979 and 1981 episodes aired Saturday mornings on CJOH, and the ''Whatever Turns You On'' pilot was broadcast nationwide on a Saturday morning as well (although the series aired on Tuesday evenings when it was picked up). Once ''YCDTOTV'' was established as a hit on Nickelodeon, CTV would give the show another try on the network in the fall of 1982 - on Saturday mornings.