YCDtoTV

You Can’t Do that on Television was certainly an enigmatic show. By all accounts, kids in Ottawa, Canada, where the show was produced and first aired, couldn’t have cared less about it. Almost certainly, Nickelodeon picked it up thinking, “cheap filler”. Yet, it became the program that defined Nickelodeon, and a major kid-culture reference of the period (in the US).

I think what captured the imagination of the American audience was YCDtoTV’s total lack educational value. If you stop and think about it, every kid’s program of the period had a moral (even GI Joe -and knowing is half the battle) or lesson. Optimus Prime felt a need to instruct as well as entertain. What producers didn’t understand was that kids needed escapism too. After 7 hours at school plus homework, having Duke remind you not to pet a strange dog was a downer.

YCDtoTV was just fun for the sake of fun. Even when they did toss out a polemic episode, like “Smoking,” it was still fun because the message was part of the humor and not just a “now what did we learn today, class” at the end.

Having recently watched several of the episodes, I think I’ve discovered another reason why the show was so popular: It really captured the feel of the 1980’s from a kid in the 80’s perspective. I’m not sure how Roger Price managed that. Maybe he was a really good observer. Maybe his relationship with the kids was more collaborative than one would expect. Children’s shows necessarily tend to be what adults *think* kids will like, or worse, what adults *want* kids to like.

Thanks to the internet, I’ve been able to rewatch all the old YCDtoTV episodes that I saw over and over again as a kid. It is a very nostalgic experience, and one I would recommend to anyone who was a fan in the 80’s. I had forgotten how we used to play with realistic toy guns, go to arcades prior to the NES, and wear football socks and indecently short shorts.

I think sometimes adults assume that all childhoods are the same, that kids today are having the same experience as kids in the 90’s, 80’s, 70’s. Watching the old YCDtoTV episodes has reminded me of my childhood, and, surprisingly, it doesn’t look as much like the kids I see today’s.

Ah, nostalgia.