Christine McGlade

A journey behind the scenes of the Nickelodeon television network to chronicle its unprecedented success, from its humble origins as a small local channel to its status as an international phenomenon that helped shape an entire generation of children.

What happens when you travel to the birthplace of green slime? For an entire generation of classic Nickelodeon fans, it's like finding the Holy Grail.

You Can't Do That on Television is a Canadian television program that first aired locally in 1979 before airing internationally in 1981. It featured pre-teen and teenaged actors in a sketch comedy format. Each episode had a theme. The show was notable for launching the careers of many performers, including Alanis Morissette, and writer Bill Prady, who would write and produce shows like The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Dharma and Greg. The show was produced by and aired on Ottawa's CTV station CJOH-TV. After production ended in 1990, the show continued in reruns on Nickelodeon through 1994, when it was replaced with the similar All That. The show is synonymous with Nick, and was at that time extremely popular, with the highest ratings overall on the channel. The show is also well known for introducing the network's iconic slime. The program is the subject of the 2004 feature-length documentary, You Can't Do That on Film, directed by David Dillehunt.

A kid-based sketch comedy, aimed at 9-16 year olds. It was a national spinoff of the already popular local show You Can't Do That on Television (YCDTOTV), which had debuted a few months earlier. Whatever Turns You On (WTYO) featured seven of the 22 kids used on the first season of YCDTOTV and was shot on the same sets. Essentially they were the same show, only WTYO had comedy and musical guests, and YCDTOTV had those plus local, call-in features, and local contests. Unfortunately, WTYO did not earn high network ratings and was cancelled after only one season. After WTYO's cancellation, YCDTOTV returned to it's local, live format in January, 1981.