History Trivia / YouCantDoThatOnTelevision

* WrittenByCastMember: The writers for the 1989-90 episodes included Kevin Ward, a member of the cast at the time, and Adam Reid, a member of the cast from 1984-87 who appeared in the 1989 episode "Punishment" in his capacity as a writer.

** However, Bill Prady, a writer on the series during the 1986 season, went on to co-create ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' and Alanis Morissette was a musical guest on ''Saturday Night Live''[[note]]once on the season 21 episode hosted by Gabriel Byrne and again in season 24 on an episode hosted by former cast member Creator/BenStiller[[/note]] and cameoed on an episode of ''[=MADtv=]'' in a parody of ''MTV Diary''[[note]]season 10, episode 4[[/note]].

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: For the longest time, there was a rumor that the master tapes were destroyed in a fire at CTV Ottawa (CJOH no longer identifies with its call letters) Studios in 2009, a rumor which thankfully proved untrue as those tapes were located in another part of CJOH's building that was unaffected by it.

** Christine [=McGlade's=] father appeared as himself in the 1981 episode "Work, Work, Work". Her sister, Lisa, played Christine as a child in the 1982 episode "Cosmetics", while her brother, Michael, appeared as both himself and as Ross as a kid in the same episode. Lisa [=McGlade=] was also an extra in various classroom scenes.
** Several sibling pairs appeared in the series: Matthew and Amyas Godfrey (1986-87 and 1986-89, respectively), Roddy and Eugene Contreras (1982 and 1982-85, respectively), Vikram and Sidharth Sahay (1986-87 and 1989, respectively), Jill and Amy Stanley (1989-90), and identical twins Kyle and Korbett Matthews (1984).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Christine McGlade's younger sister, Lisa, looked markedly like Christine, and even had a speaking role in the "Cosmetics" episode playing a younger version of her big sister, as well as appearing in various episodes as an extra (without speaking parts). At one point, Les Lye suggested to Roger Price that Lisa McGlade be groomed to take over from Christine, but Roger shot the idea down.

** Richard Cooper, a screenwriter for the series, is a member of the popular late 1970s Ottawa band The Cooper Brothers, whose 1978 hit "The Dream Never Dies" was honored by ASCAP as one of the most-played songs on U.S. radio that year. Interestingly, The Cooper Brothers previously appeared on the ''YCDTOTV'' spin-off ''Whatever Turns You On'' in 1979, performing their hit "I'll Know Her When I See Her."

** Finally averted when the series was added to Creator/ParamountPlus on March 24, 2021.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: A DVD release has been imminent since at least 2003, but hasn't come to fruition due to issues with the cast members' royalties. The first 27 episodes are available for download on Amazon in three 7-episode volumes, however.

** However, one 1989-90 cast member, Ted Wilson (who now goes by Teddy Wilson), has gone on to a career as a presenter on several Canadian TV shows, and castmate Patrick Mills (who now goes by Pat Mills) is a playwright and actor in Toronto.

* Christine "Moose" [=McGlade=] hadn't planned to try out for ''YCDTOTV'', and only tagged along to support a friend. She was forced to give one herself after being told by Roger Price to either audition or leave. Despite having no prior acting experience, her charisma and quick sense of humor led to her being cast on the show over her friend. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE7Dqxb_NZY Here it is straight from the Moose's mouth, along with the audition tape.]]

** However, Bill Prady, a writer on the series during the 1986 season, went on to co-create ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' and Alanis Morrissette was a musical guest on ''Saturday Night Live''[[note]]once on the season 21 episode hosted by Gabriel Byrne and again in season 24 on an episode hosted by former cast member Creator/BenStiller[[/note]] and cameoed on an episode of ''[=MADtv=]'' in a parody of ''MTV Diary''[[note]]season 10, episode 4[[/note]].

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: For the longest time, there was a rumor that the master tapes were destroyed in a fire at CJOH Studios in 2009, a rumor which thankfully proved untrue as those tapes were located in another part of CJOH's building that was unaffected by it.

** However, Bill Prady, a writer on the series during the 1986 season, went on to co-create ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''.

** A few kids already had professional acting roles to their credit ''before'' their time on the show. Justin Cammy (cast member from 1983 to 1985) had voiced "Kevin" in the ''WesternAnimation/CareBears'' special ''The Land Without Feelings'', which also starred Les Lye and Abby Hagyard. Jill Stanley (cast member in 1989 and 1990) played "Nancy" in the 1988 Canadian children's film ''Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller'' (which was hinted at in her debut episode, "Chores," with Jill pouting that she was above doing chores because she was ''an actress'').

** To top it off, Nickelodeon's airing of the 1986 episode "Enemies and Paranoia" in 2004 (as an "Old School Pick", the last time the show was aired before [[Series/The90sAreAllThat The Splat]] was introduced in 2015) was cut short and replaced with an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''. Why? Because the episode had a lot of jokes about UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan as President of the United States and [[TooSoon the episode just happened to air shortly after Reagan's death made the news]] (why the channel did not opt to just air another episode is anyone's guess).

** According to 1984-87 series director Brenda Mason, no other "lost footage" of the series exists today, as whatever was shot and not used was destroyed. Some still photos do remain as evidence of the "lost footage," however, including a second Creator/AlanisMorissette sliming shot for the 1986 episode "TV Commercials" but never used.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: For the longest time, there was a rumor that the master tapes were destroyed in a fire at CJOH Studios, a rumor which thankfully proved untrue.

* Strangely enough, none of the cast members of ''YCDTOTV'' went on to become cast members on adult-oriented sketch shows, particularly ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. This might not be significant if it wasn't for the fact that two former Nickelodeon sketch show actors (Kenan Thompson from ''Series/AllThat'' and Taran Killam from ''Series/TheAmandaShow'') actually became cast members on that show (and Killam is also notable for being on ''Saturday Night Live'''s [[DuelingShows rival show]] ''MADtv'', another sketch show that the ''You Can't Do That On Television'' cast could have joined either as writers or cast members). You'd think Creator/LorneMichaels or Quincy Jones would've at least considered the possibility.

* DawsonCasting: Subverted then played straight with Christine [=McGlade=]. In the earliest seasons she was acknowledged as being older than the other kids and she even pointed out she was now an adult in one episode. However, by the 1983 season she was being called a kid and was lumped in with the other kids in terms of whatever child laws or rules needed to be followed.

* DawsonCasting: Subverted then played straight with Christine [=McGlade=]. In the earliest seasons she was acknowledged as being older than the other kids and she even pointed out she was now an adult in one episode. However, by the 1984 season she was being called a kid and was lumped in with the other kids in terms of whatever child laws or rules needed to be followed.

** A few kids already had professional acting roles to their credit ''before'' their time on the show. Justin Cammy (cast member from 1983 to 1985) had voiced "Kevin" in the ''WesternAnimation/CareBears'' special ''The Land Without Feelings'', which also starred Abby Hagyard. Jill Stanley (cast member in 1989 and 1990) played "Nancy" in the 1988 Canadian children's film ''Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller'' (which was hinted at in her debut episode, "Chores," with Jill pouting that she was above doing chores because she was ''an actress'').

* UrbanLegends: For the longest time, there was a rumor that the master tapes were destroyed in a fire at CJOH Studios, a rumor which thankfully proved untrue.

** In America, the 1987 episode "Adoption" was banned due to fears that adopted children would find some of the sketches offensive (despite a very clear warning at the beginning stating that the jokes weren't meant to hurt anyone), as a lot of the sketches depicted adopted kids being used as [[AdoptAServant slave labor]] and pets, which would rightfully make a lot of American viewers cry out, "DudeNotFunny." In Canada, this episode was allowed to air, but the part where Lance Prevert tries to give his adopted kid (Adam) back to the agency, only to learn that "adoption is forever"[[note]]even though, with the way Senator Prevert treated Adam, the agency still should have taken him away[[/note]] had the line "You get over here, right away, you damn bureaucrat!" cut to remove "...damn bureaucrat!".

* MissingEpisode: For many years, only three episodes from the 1979 season, which aired live in the Ottawa area only, were known to circulate (ostensibly from home-video recordings made off CJOH-TV on the days the episodes aired). However, when various ''YCDTOTV'' and 1980s Nickelodeon fans contacted producer Roger Price, he revealed that he had a full set of tapes of the 1979 season, all of which were until recently available on Website/YouTube (though with the music videos and disco segments cut for copyright reasons).

** The 1981 series was shot in a similar format to the 1979 live series, running for an hour and featuring musical guests and viewer contests. The Nickelodeon versions of the episodes were edited down to half an hour, preserving only the sketches and link segments.