 In
1999, we were honored to conduct an interview with Justin Cammy,
a main-stay of the show from 1983-1985. Thanks to Justin for his
contribution to the site!
How
did you get the job on You Can't Do That On Television?
Even
after all these years I'm still not exactly sure how I first became
involved with YCDTOTV. In 1982, a teacher at my local school suggested
that I might be appropriate to play the voice of a boy for a cartoon
movie they were producing in Ottawa. Something called the Care Bears.
This was way before all the Care Bear movies, before the Care Bears
became the Beanie Babies of the early '80's, nobody had ever heard
of such a thing before. The cartoon movie, to be shown on network
TV, was supposed to introduce the Care Bears to a mass market. I
recorded the voice of Kevin for this pilot called "The Care Bears
in the Land Without Feeling" in one afternoon. I still remember
months later, I was 12 at the time, gathering around to watch it.
The only problem with my performance is that the lines I was given
to read were rather contrary - all I had to say was "I don't want
to, I don't care, you can't make me." My wife now laughs about this
because she says that this was the true beginning of my ornery public
behavior that has only multiplied in its contrarian tendencies in
subsequent years.
Before the
Care Bears, I recorded a traveling advertisement for OC Transpo,
the local bus company in Ottawa. They took slides of me going all
over town at bus-stops, paying drivers to get on the bus, sitting
on the bus, sticking gum under the seats of buses, getting off the
bus. There was a recording that I did to go along with the slides.
They would show this presentation at school assemblies to teach
kids how to take the bus. So I was basically responsible for teaching
an entire generation how to take the bus -- this is a great source
of pride in my life when I think that, if not for these ads, some
kids would still be sitting at home with absolutely no idea about
how to get downtown. How sad would that be??? They would all be
adults now, just waiting for a bus -- but maybe in the wrong spot,
never to make it to their destination.
So those were
the two "professional" gigs I did as a child before YCDTOTV. As
for how I became involved with the show though, I really can't recall.
I know that just after I joined the cast, YCDTOTV started auditions
for prospective cast members which hadn't really been done before.
I never had to go through a big cattle call audition like many of
the cast members after me. Roger Price, the producer, must have
gotten my name from somebody who might have told him about this
outgoing kid who could play a smart-ass with the same grace as a
moron - whichever was called for. My range was so deep! I do remember
that there was a problem right at the beginning when Roger wanted
me to come in for a "read-through" of a script (to check me out).
He called my home and my mother answered. He told her that he wanted
me to come in on a specific day and time when they would be rehearsing.
She told him that I wouldn't be able to come in then because I had
Bar Mitzvah lessons every week at that time. And that was it! She
hung up. He called right back and told her that she didn't understand...
that this was a big show... US audience.... fame and fortune ...
dancing women ... But she stuck firm telling him that he didn't
understand - that I could come any other time except then. Don't
get in the way of Bar Mitvah lessons - Moses said that in "The Prince
of Egypt". In the end, they worked out a mutually convenient time
and I came aboard for a trial episode. "Music" was the first show
in which I appeared. I think Roger got back at me for the whole
thing by making me wear diapers in that first episode while playing
the sitar! When I think back about that episode now, all I want
to do is run to the drug store and put those pampers on again. They
were so comfy.
Describe
what it was like to be involved in such a popular TV show?
Your question shows how different the perception of us was from
our understanding of what we were doing. When I first joined the
cast in 1983, YCDTOTV was only shown once per week, on Saturday
mornings. Later, it was picked up by YTV, the Canadian channel for
kids. Not once in my entire three years as part of the cast was
I ever asked about the show or recognized on the street in Ottawa.
None of my friends watched the show, as far as I knew. Even at school,
very few people knew what I was doing since we would mainly rehearse
and film the show during summers, school breaks, weekends, or after
school. We knew that the show was very popular in the US because
we used to get bags full of fan mail at the station which we occasionally
would read when we were between scenes or bored. I remember one
fan's mother inviting me to her daughter's birthday party in Florida,
and several other fun pieces of fan mail which, when I had the chance,
I would try to answer.
It's only
later that I really became aware of how popular the show was for
an entire generation of kids. For instance, two years ago several
of my students who were aware of my days on YCDTOTV asked if I would
publically show a few of my old tapes of the show. They organized
the whole thing and wanted me to come down, say a few words to introduce
it, answer some questions. They organized it in one of the university's
colleges. I expected ten or twenty people. But 100 students showed
up! This is on a school night, with little advertising, and more
than a decade after I had had anything to do with the show. They
stayed for over two hours, asking questions and laughing ridiculously.
It was really only then that I realized that although YCDTOTV may
not have meant very much to audiences up in Canada, it remains one
of three or four programs that Americans growing up in the 1980's
remember about their childhood. Since that time, two local papers
have done little pieces about YCDTOV - more press than I got during
my entire three years as part of the show!
What
is your first memory of YCDTOTV? Your worst?
Those are tough questions. I think my first memory of YCDTOTV would
have to be when I went up for my first read-through. I knew nothing
about the show, I had never even seen the famous lockers or link
set. I arrived at the CJOH studios where the cast rehearsed and
filmed and was led through a long hallway which was lined with pictures
of actors or newspeople associated with the show. When I made it
up to the YCDTOTV offices which were way in a corner of the building
on the second floor, the cast was already gathering around the table.
As kids, they were friendly but you know kids - they weren't going
to go out of their way in those first few minutes for this new face.
We gathered around a big round table; Roger and Geoffrey Darby would
sit at either end. I was given a scene to read and asked to try
it a few different ways. I didn't know if that meant I was good
or bad. That's really the first memory I have of the entire process.
That and going into the studio for the first time and seeing all
of the equipment, bright lights, the sets, the lockers. In retrospect,
it was really quite exciting even though, at the time, it was very
matter of fact for us all.
I'm not sure
if I have any "worst" memories of YCDTOTV. Certainly leaving the
show was troubling because it was always done under such strange
circumstances. I was aware that whenever a cast member reached puberty
and started looking more manly or womanly than boyish or girlish,
his days would be numbered. And I expected this going into the 1985
season since my looks and voice had changed dramatically. If you
look at one of my first shows like Literature and compare it with
one of my last such as Identity Crisis, it looks like an identity
crisis. I began as a chubby, mouthy kid with (in retrospect) really
ill fitting, tight clothes and a boofy haircut. But by 1985, my
voice had dropped, my hair was way cooler, and I was much thinner.
If Titanic had been made in the 1980's, I for sure could have done
Leo's role. I regret that after cast members left the show, many
of them lost touch with each other. If anyone ever organized a reunion,
I would definitely attend. But that was really part of the cycle
of the show - kids left and came all the time. With the exception
of Alasdair who I saw quite often when we were undergraduates at
McGill in Montreal, Abby (who played Mom) who I ran into at a Billy
Joel concert, and Alanis who I accidentally met with her mother
when she was preparing to sing at a local exhibition in 1986 or
1987, the last time I ever saw the producers, director other cast
members was the final day I worked as part of the cast in 1985.
And it becomes very final when you know that this is your last scene
as part of a show that you've had such fun doing, even if - in the
greater scheme of life - the show doesn't mean very much.
Let's
try some name association. What comes to mind in relation to Christine?
Les? Alasdair?
Christine
was by far the best actor in the cast. Not only was she the most
experienced but, when I watch tapes now, she remains the most believable.
The rest of us looked like we were acting - which was, of course,
part of the charm of the show. But Christine looked natural up there.
When I joined the cast, Christine had already been there for some
time and she was significantly older than the rest of us. Because
of that, I did not hang out with her as much as I did with those
cast members more my age. But Christine really was the glue of consistency
that kept things together, she was that professional.
Les was wonderful
to work with. Since he was "Dad" to all of us on the show - and
there was more than 100 of us over the years - we would joke that
this Dad had led a full adult life. Les' range was quite impressive
and I always had to try not to laugh when doing scenes with him.
He reminds me a bit of Jerry Lewis, in that he would crack himself
up trying to crack everyone else up. He was very kind to me personally
in that he had another show of his own at the time in which he asked
me to do a guest part. I always looked forward to the scenes with
him, and when I got a little more daring, I would change my lines
around to try and confuse him a bit! Most of my best memories of
the show took place in scenes in which Les appeared - especially
as El Capitano or Dad. It was just so ridiculous - a shooting squad,
and this consistently drunk father who is an ex-Senator with the
last name of Prevert!
Alasdair was
my closest friend in the cast. He was closest to me in age, he had
a year more experience in the cast than me so he was able to teach
me the ropes. I remember spending most of my time between scenes
hanging out with either Alasdair, Doug, and Vanessa. We would go
almost daily to the Dairy Queen across the street, and then come
back and hang out with the crew members who had stacks of magazines
that ought to have been off-limits to young men our age. If Christine
was the most believable actor on the show, Alasdair was its most
authentic, both on and off camera. Although he was the heartthrob
of America, appearing frequently in teen magazines and receiving
bags full of fan mail, he was the most grounded kid I have ever
met - generous with his advice, completely unassuming, and genuinely
friendly.
Any
final thoughts about YCDTOTV's place in television history?
In
an interview done with me last year for the university paper, I
explained that You Can't Do That on Televison, in retrospect, was
the first post-modern children's television program of my generation.
It subverted all accepted forms and deconstructed the pre-teen's
understanding of such important institutions as the family, the
classroom, detention, and the video arcade. When the school teacher
did not know any better than to call Milton's masterpiece "Pair
of Dice Lost", I saw teachers and parents squirming across the land.
When he asked the class to name three types of rocks, and Alasdair
was chastised for providing the geological differences between rocks
rather than the "correct" answer of Hard Rock, Punk Rock, and Classic
Rock, the program functioned as a generational clarion to viewers
who, as they grew older and entered college, grew to demand the
displacement of the canon with more relevant investigations of low
culture. Anyone who now possesses a nauseating air of entitlement
and complete disrespect for authority could have learned their lessons
from YCDTOTV. It was that bad an influence. But funny!
What
are you up to now?
I
got married a couple of years ago to a wonderful woman. Although
YCDTOTV was not a significant element in our courtship, she did
watch the show as a girl growing up - but didn't remember me! How
utterly humiliating. We are both finishing PhD's in literature and
teaching at a university in the United States, although I go home
to Ottawa quite a bit to be with my family.
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