Episode One 79

Air date: February 3, 1979 cast: Tim Douglas, Les Lye, Christine McGlade, Lisa Ruddy, Kevin Schenk, Kevin Somers, Mike Patton and Jim Johnson as the DJ writers: Geoffrey Darby, Roger Price director: Geoffrey Darby Episode One of the 1979 season. These 1979 episodes ran one hour and were live (but did contain pre-recorded sketches). These early shows were not produced by Carleton Productions but, rather, CJOH Productions. The opening animation is completely different from the 1981 and the 1982-90 intros. It features the Parliament Buildings instead of "The Children's Television Sausage Factory". These episodes featured disco dancing by local kids. The background for the dances looked similar to the link set and was full of metallic paper and disco lights. These early episodes also sported great prize giveaways like a portable television set and a Panasonic cassette tape player with a cassette of "The Best of Jim Johnson" which only ran for five seconds. (That's the best they could find of Jim Johnson.) hehe Tim Douglas' green sliming was proported to be the very first sliming of the show's infamous history. Here's the story behind that first sliming: the producers Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby came up with this idea to tell the kid in the dungeon sketch not to pull the chains. When he did, there would be the sound of a flushing toilet and it would look like sewage being dumped on him. So they went to the stage crew and ask them to fix up a bucket of gross slimey green slop. Well, Dean Carley and Paul Copping did exactly what the producers asked. They took a bucket and filled it with food left-overs, water, oatmeal, and other stuff. It set out overnight and a couple of days later, they dumped it over Tim's head in one of the dungeon scenes. Immediately afterward, the crew realized that this was not going to work. The stuff really stank and they were afraid it would make the kid sick. So the producers got with the stage crew and told them that it didn't really have to be nasty, it only had to look nasty. And so green slime was born. The basic receipe for green slime is: water, green jello, cream of wheat, and baby shampoo. And here's an example of the comedic genius of Roger Price. In the book SLIMED! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein, Roger Price talks about that first sliming: Roger Price: If I had known at the time [that the green slime had spoiled], I would not have done it. I was a professional producer! I was horrified when I found out and maybe a bit angry. We all felt sorry when we buried the kid afterward. Especially later on when we realized he was not actually dead. Now that's funny! The very first thing ever recorded for You Can't Do That On Television was an intro. It was a long burp, with Les Lye (as the announcer) saying, "You Can't Do That On Television!" On the day of this first broadcast, Geoffrey Darby said that the show was about to go on. At the last minute, he qued the tape to just past that intro and it was never used for any of the episodes. Christine and Kevin Schenk review the movie, "Watership Down" (1978). Kevin says the producer and director went to see the movie and they thought it was one hundred percent pure trash because: the producser and director had lost their taste over the years and were over the hill. hehe This episode does not feature the "Weather" sketch with Les and Jono. Geoffrey Darby reports that the "Weather" scene was the actual very first sketch that was ever taped, but it did not appear in this first episode of "You Can't Do That On Television". The "Weather" sketch appears in Episode Three. The lockers for the infamous locker joke sketches were not yet painted in the familiar YCDTOTV colors, but were still the original dark green color. There were no waterings in this episode. Performances include Peter Frampton - "I'm In You", The Village People - "Macho Man", Cat Stevens - "(Remember the Days of the) Old School Yard", and The Bee Gees - "How Deep is Your Love". green slime: Tim pie: Tim production: The ending is missing from this copy of the program, so no one knows what the production was. quality: "B" (No commercials)

Peter Frampton Non-cast member guests: