The YCDTOTV.com FAQ was first assembled in March 1995 and last edited in January 2006 by Ric de Barros and Chris Gough. All information was compiled by The Slime Society.

HOW MANY EPISODES OF YCDTOTV WERE PRODUCED?
There were 143 official episodes of YCDTOTV made, as outlined in the Episode Guide. The spin-off show, Whatever Turns You On, featured the same cast (as well as Ruth Buzzi) as YCDTOTV, but it was an entirely different show and, therefore, those episodes aren't reflected in the official YCDTOTV episode count.

WAS YCDTOTV AIRED BEFORE IT STARTED ON NICKELODEON IN 1981?
Yes. YCDTOTV made its debut on February 3, 1979, as a very low budget hour-long series on CJOH-TV in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Most of the show was pre-taped, but the show was termed "live" because many of the shows included a call-in contest segment where viewers could call and answer questions to win prizes. Music was also a major part of the show, and although some shows featured an in-house musical guest, including Kim Mitchell and Jeff Healy, many of the shows just featured rock videos. Even though airchecks were made, some of these episodes no longer exist in any form that we know of.

WERE THERE ANY SPIN-OFF SERIES OF YCDTOTV?
Yes. Whatever Turns You On was created by both Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby during the Fall of 1979. It followed the same format as YCDTOTV, but because it wasn't coined a "live" series, they decided to change the name. Whatever Turns You On was in the 30 minute, all-comedy format, except it also included an in-studio musical guest. It aired every Tuesday night in a primetime slot and included Laugh-In veteran, Ruth Buzzi. Also, many of the cast members carried over from YCDTOTV to Whatever Turns You On. The program only lasted one season, and 13 episodes were produced.

Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby made a clone of YCDTOTV for PBS in the Fall of 1983. It was called Don't Look Now, and was a live, one-hour show on six Sundays in October of that year. It was very highly rated (second highest rated kids show on PBS up to that time). It also made Nickelodeon very angry, but PBS decided not to pick up additional episodes.

Another spin-off from YCDTOTV is the short-lived Some Thing Else, which was a show produced by CJOH-TV in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, stricting for CJOH. It starred the YCDTOTV cast in skits that weren't used in YCDTOTV production. Production dates are not exactly known, but thanks to this picture, we figure it began shooting in 1981.

WHO EXACTLY OWNS YCDTOTV?
Carleton Productions, Inc., which is the production company owned by CJOH-TV in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

WILL OLD EPISODES OF YCDTOTV EVER BE SHOWN AGAIN?
As of July 1995, CJOH-TV had no plans to release reruns of YCDTOTV nor are there any plans to produce new episodes.

On Wednesday, September 4, 1996, Nickelodeon aired one episode of YCDTOTV during the U PICK segment of Nick in the Afternoon.

During Nickelodeon's 20th Anniversary, CJOH allowed Nickelodeon to rerun three episodes of YCDTOTV. On June 26, 1999, the Music and Enemies and Paranoia episodes from 1986 aired, and on June 27, 1999, the Parties episode aired. Nickelodeon chose to feature only episodes that featured Alanis Morissette because of their "Nickelodeon Knew Them Before They Were Stars" theme.

At 5:30 p.m. EST on June 2, 2004, in celebration of Nickelodeon's 25th Anniversary, Nickelodeon once again aired Music from the 1986 season during a U PICK segment. Then, at 5:30 p.m. EST on June 8, 2004, 1986's Enemies and Paranoia also played during a U PICK segment, although it was cut-off halfway through.

CAN I BUY COPIES OF YCDTOTV ON DVD?
In late 2005, Nickelodeon announced that it would be adding YCDTOTV to its Rewind DVD series. Since 2005, Nickelodeon has been issuing full seasons of former network shows on DVD, such as Clarissa Explains It All and The Adventures of Pete & Pete. The 1981 season of YCDTOTV is listed to be released sometime during 2006.

WHY ARE THERE SUCH SLOW UPDATES ON THE WEB SITE?
You have to understand that the show is no longer on the air which means that new information is very difficult to come by.

IS THERE GOING TO BE A YCDTOTV REUNION?
On July 12-14, 2002, the first-ever YCDTOTV convention was held in at CJOH-TV in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada -- the birthplace of YCDTOTV. The convention was titled, SlimeCon, and it featured Les Lye and many of the original kids.

On July 16-18, 2004, the second SlimeCon took place, once again at CJOH-TV. During the event, Brodie Osome, Vanessa Lindores and Marjorie Silcoff took part in the filming of Project 131, which was a convention video done in homage to the show. Alasdair Gillis and Justin Cammy also had cameos in the project.

At the close of the event, the doors to the studio were sealed for good.

HOW WERE THE CAST MEMBERS PICKED?
Well, every season there would be auditions. Roger Price hand-picked all of the cast members and tended to stick with kids living near the studio to avoid them having to relocate. Most of the kids had no prior acting experience.

WHO IS ROGER PRICE?
Roger Price is the person responsible for creating the show. He not only created it, but he also wrote, produced and often directed the series. You may remember some of his previous works, such as The Tomorrow People, Turkey Television, UFO Kidnapped, Bear Rapids and other British-produced programs.

WHY WEREN'T THERE ANY EPISODES PRODUCED IN 1988?
Roger Price moved to France and CJOH-TV refused to produce the show without him.

DID ROSS PLAY ALL OF THOSE ADULT MALE CHARACTERS?
No, Ross didn't play all of those parts. Ross and all of the other adult male characters were played by veteran stage actor, Les Lye. Ross Ewich is a fictitious character.

WHAT ARE THE CAST MEMBERS UP TO NOW?
The majority of them returned to normal lives after YCDTOTV. Check out our Where Are They Now? area for recent updates on the cast members.

ALANIS MORISSETTE USED TO BE ON YCDTOTV?
Alanis Morissette was one of the main cast members in the 1986 season of YCDTOTV. Most people believe that Alanis was being groomed to take Christine McGlade's place, but she left the show prematurely to focus on her music career.

HOW DID CHRISTINE GET THE NICKNAME, "MOOSE?"
Christine had received the nickname when she was in grade school. One day, she made the mistake of telling Roger Price, so for the next seven years, she never lived it down.

WAS THERE A STUDIO AUDIENCE ON THE SET?
YCDTOTV never had a live studio audience. However, the pilot of Whatever Turns You On did, in fact, have a studio audience. The rest of the comedy sketches of Whatever Turns You On were done on a closed set, but the music segments did indeed have a live audience in the studio.

WHAT WAS THAT SLIME MADE OF?
There have been many recipes for slime. To see the entire list, go to our recipe page.

I JUST READ THAT SCENES FROM YCDTOTV WERE FEATURED IN THE MOTION PICTURE FATAL ATTRACTION. IS THAT TRUE?
It's true. The infamous multi-colored slime scene from the 1982 Television episode was featured during the opening credits of the blockbuster hit, Fatal Attraction. That just shows how popular YCDTOTV was in the U.S.!

WHY DID CHRISTINE WEAR A WIG IN THE 1982 SEASON FOR THE SLIME, WATER AND PIE SCENES?
Christine actually wore a wig in *every* scene, because she had her hair chopped at the end of the 1981 season and dyed it very punk. A human hair wig was made for her for the series, but that meant that it couldn't get slime or water on it. A pretty awful synthetic wig was used for scenes containing slime, water, and/or pies. It had nothing to do with her liking or not liking getting slimed.

WHAT IS A "SLIME-IN"?
A Slime-In is the title of the the annual contests that Nickelodeon held that would fly winners to the set of YCDTOTV where they would get slimed. The winners' slimings would air during the commercial breaks during the Nickelodeon line-up. YTV had a similar contest called YTV's Slimelight Sweepstakes.

WASN'T THERE ANOTHER CONTEST ON NICK?
Yes, in 1985 Nick held the Oldies But Moldies contest where a week of old 1981 episodes were played for the contest. The contest wasn't a marathon, but rather a 13 weekday period in which all 13 1981 episodes were played. Winners didn't get slimed, however. They won VCRs, chocolate syrup and other assorted things.

WASN'T THERE A VHS TAPE RELEASED OF YCDTOTV?
Elektra Video released Nickelodeon Presents The Worst of YCDTOTV, but unfortunately, they no longer market this video. The video featured the best slime scenes, bloopers, etc. from the show's run, and was hosted by three of the 1989-90 cast members -- Chris Bickford, Christian Tessier and Jennifer Brackenbury. Based on the release date, but although never confirmed, the video was released just in time to celebrate the show's 10th Anniversary. Perhaps you can still find copies in music and video stores.

There was also a 1987 Worst Of YCDTOTV special taped in Canada, hosted by Doug Ptolemy, Vanessa Lindores and Adam Reid in their last regular performance. Unfortunately, by the time the special was done, Nickelodeon had lost interest in YCDTOTV and the special was never released on video. Nickelodeon once again gained interest in 1989, so Nickelodeon, with Elektra Video, cut all the scenes with Ptolemy, Lindores and Reid, and re-shot scenes with Bickford, Tessier and Brackenbury. Other 1989 segments were added as well. It was also cut down to a half hour, as opposed to the original hour format. There are copies of the 1987 video floating around, but they are copies made directly from the original master tapes, as it was never released commercially.

WASN'T THERE A COMIC BOOK OF YCDTOTV?
Actually, it was a comic strip and not a book, featured monthly in The Cable Guide. It was very much like the television show and was hosted by Christine and Alasdair with all of the other most popular cast members featured. It was complete with slime, Barth burgers and more.

WERE SCENES EVER CUT?
All 13 1981 episodes were originally broadcast live on CJOH for one-hour, having the 1979 YCDTOTV format. However, these were edited to 30-minute versions containing only (but not all) of the comedy sketches for airing on Nickelodeon and YTV. Nickelodeon cut the episodes from 28 minutes to roughly 24 minutes beginning in late 1983, when Nickelodeon added commercials during their programs. Some very good scenes from the 1981 and 1982 episodes, including slime scenes, were cut to make room for commercials, but the scenes cut were different depending on which side of the border you watched YCDTOTV.

Of course, extra sketches for each show were always shot, but the final running order wasn't decided until post-production.

ACTUALLY, I WAS REFERRING TO SCENES CUT BECAUSE OF CONTENT.
We're not sure if any were cut because of content, but the 1985 Fears, Worries and Anxieties episode featured a slight modification in a scene with Alasdair talking about a bully at school. The name Killer Curtis was changed to Crusher Willis because Nickelodeon had found out about a real murderer named "Killer Curtis" and didn't want to risk the possible legal entanglements involved with leaving the sketch as it originally was. However, the later dubbing was done very poorly because when they decided to modify it, Alasdair's voice had changed, so little Alasdair had a grown-up Alasdair's voice.

Also, the 1984 Body Parts episode was edited as there was originally an opposite sketch in which the class was about to be shown a porno. This was soon replaced with two other extra sketches. Two other sketches in the same episode were cut for the same reason, but YTV aired the episode with two of the three sketches. Did you have your VCR running?

An interesting sidenote is that a scene in 1989's Celebrations episode, which featured kids sneaking into a XXX-rated movie, was not edited out.

HAVE ANY OF THE EPISODES BEEN BANNED?
The 1987 Adoption episode was banned on Nickelodeon because of content. If you missed it when it originally aired, then you missed it for good, because it was only aired once. Director Geoffrey Darby has mentioned that he never thought the episode aired, so it was obviously aired without the knowledge of YCDTOTV executives. In any case, it was a network executive decision, not audience response, that led to the episode only airing once. Adoption, however, was not banned in Canada, as ASN (part of CTV) and YTV both had it in their regular rotations.

It has also been reported that the 1984 Divorce episode wasn't in the YTV rotation.

I REMEMBER YCDTOTV MENTIONING THAT, AM I RIGHT?
The 1989 Age episode poked fun at the banning of the Adoption episode. As part of the plot, Vanessa Lindores was invited to come back and host the show, because her contract was still good for one more episode since the Adoption episode was banned. Many other former cast members were also on the show, but they only had small cameos.

WHAT KIND OF MERCHANDISE WAS MADE BASED ON YCDTOTV?
Back during the show's popularity peak, a whole line of merchandise was to made including toys, greeting cards, and watches but never was. Aside from Elektra Video's Nickelodeon Presents The Worst of YCDTOTV, there was Green Slime Shampoo and Green Slime Soap. Mattel also released a substance called Nickelodeon Green Slime, but the only thing that resembled Green Slime was the color. Also, in 2003, General Mills came out with a limited edition Nickelodeon Green Slime Cereal.

WERE THERE EVER TWO EPISODES WITH THE SAME TOPIC?
While there were many shows with similar topics, the only episodes with the exact the same topics were the Smoking episodes from 1981 and 1989, the Sports episodes from 1982 and 1989, the Music episodes from 1983 and 1986, and the Fitness episodes from 1981 and 1989.

WERE THOSE JUST REMAKES OF THE OLDER VERSION?
No.

WHO WERE THE LONGEST SERVING CAST MEMBERS OF YCDTOTV?
Les Lye leads the pack, being a part of the cast from very beginning. Abby Hagyard comes in a close second, being a member of the cast from 1982-1990. Christine McGlade hosted the show from the very beginning until 1986. Doug Ptolemy and Vanessa Lindores both started doing the show in 1982 and finished in 1987. Lisa Ruddy was also on for quite a while, starting in 1979 and finishing in 1985.

WHY WAS THE SLOBBISH DAD, MR. PREVERT, A SENATOR?
Contempt for politicians crosses all borders, but in Canada, where the show was made, Lance Prevert being a Senator has a special meaning. The Canadian Senate, unlike its United States counterpart, has virtually no power and is appointed by the government, not elected. Therefore, Senate seats are given by the party in power to its longest-serving cronies, and the stereotypical Canadian senator is a lewd, slobbish party politician who is years past his prime and whose Senate attendance record is shaky to say the least. Except for the age, this description fits Lance Prevert like a glove.

WHICH SETS WERE USED FOR YCDTOTV SKETCHES?
There were a LOT of different backgrounds used in episodes over the show's lengthy run.

HOW WAS GREEN SLIME STARTED?
In the dungeon (then it was detention), the principal told the prisoner, Tim Douglas, not to yank on the chains which held him to the wall. Of course, he did the exact opposite and SPLAT! This happened during Episode Six of the 1979 season.

WHEN DID I DON'T KNOW TRIGGER THE SLIME?
The first time "I don't know!" triggered green slime was during Episode Seven of the 1979 season, when Jim Stechyson uttered the phrase.

HOW WAS WATER STARTED?
During the early seasons of the show, whenever someone said something pretaining to water, a bucket of water was dumped from above. Beginning in 1983, the word "water" became the sole trigger for the downpour from the sky.

SHOULD I WATCH FOR EVIL MESSAGES IN THE CLOSING CREDITS?
If you watch the credits from some of the 1979, 1981 and 89-90 episodes, you may find something that you'll get a kick out of. Also, both the 1987 Worst Of YCDTOTV special and the 1989 Nickelodeon Presents The Worst of YCDTOTV video contained these messages as well.

WHAT'S LOCATED AT ROUTE 12, KING SIDE ROAD?
According to the 1985 World Records episode, Ross' Egg-O-Rama is there. Check for yourself. In the Ontario county of Ottawa-Carleton, there is a Route 12. It runs from Route 15 all the way west to Route 3 in rural Nepean. It can be accessed by taking the Queensway West from downtown Ottawa, exiting at Route 15 south (Woodroffe Street) and driving down past Merivale Station to Route 12. Turn right onto Route 12, and it goes west for about 15 miles. It should get you there.