 It's
not everyday that you are able to pick up the phone and talk to
the person that you have watched and admired on your favorite television
show for most of your life. Some say that it's impossible, but not
for The Slime Society. Society Member Thomas Hendricks caught up
with Les Lye in 1995, and we got this exclusive interview for you.
What
were you doing before You Can't Do That On Television?
I
began in radio. I went to radio school with... I guess you know
Leslie Nielson. Who doesn't know Leslie Nielson? He was in the year
ahead of me, and he went down to New York on a scholarship. With
Leslie Nielson, the rest is history when he started doing comedy,
but we were in the same one year course. I worked five years in
radio in Toronto in the mid 1950's, and I came back to Ottawa and
never left again.
I then did
a show called Uncle Willy and Floyd, a local kid's show that went
syndicated here in Canada, and that went on for twenty-two or twenty-three
years. It was a really fun show, because I wrote it along with my
partner. It ended up as a half hour sitcom for kids.
I missed radio
for a long time and had done a few guest things. I used to do a
two man radio show for years, but the other voice was me also. In
the less sophisticated days, I used to pre-tape some of his dialogue
and then talk on top of it, and then we'd sing a song together.
Anybody who didn't understand tape would get into big arguments,
and I'd get a phone call, "I just bet my friend ten bucks that there
are two people." Then I'd say, "Well I'm sorry, but you lose." Then
they'd say, "Yeah, but you were singing a song together.
So in a nutshell,
that was my career. I was a movie critic for thirteen years on television,
but it was the kid shows that really demanded most of my attention
in the last twenty years.
In
your own words, how did YCDTOTV begin?
Well,
Roger Price had done a show very similar in Britain, and he came
to Canada because like a lot of people in Britain, they feel they
want to get to North America. He arrived at our station (CJOH) in
1978, and he liked what he saw as far as the set-up was concerned.
He happened to be there when were doing a telethon for a local hospital,
and I was in doing a character that I had been doing for years with
another buddy of mine (on Uncle Willy and Floyd). He saw us in action
and asked if he could speak with me after we got off the air, and
that's how I got associated with the show
Roger had
decided that he was going to do a program very much like the one
he had done in England, and it was very successful over there. It
was somewhat like the show we did over here - sort of based on Laugh-In.
He showed a few excerpts from the show, and when I saw it, I said
that I'd love to do a show like that where I'd be the adult and
the rest would be all kids. After he showed me the excerpts, I said,
'Well, wait a minute; the only adult on the show you did in Britain
was twenty-five years old, he was Black, and obviously a ballet
dancer.' I laughed and said that I didn't fit into any of those
headings, and he laughed and said that he wanted me to be the adult
and the show and you're going to play a father, a teacher, a bad
chef, and all of the characters were created for the show. That's
how it began, and we taped our first inserts for the show back in
January 1979.
There is a
tape that Nickelodeon had made showing some of the highlights and
bloopers from the show, and in one occasion they show the main characters
that I played in various fast flashes and a lot of the kids that
were on the show from the beginning. They show the first time I
did anything in the studio as Ross - a name that I gave the to character
(Ross Ewich = Raw Sewage), and he wasn't the Ross that everybody
knows. I had no mustache, and my hair was gray. I guess after we
did that, we decided he should look younger, so I began to have
my hair dyed every month. They slapped on a mustache, and that was
the beginning of Ross. Most of the characters that I did were supposed
to be younger than I was at the time which was about 54 when it
began. It was a local show when it first began, and it was only
seen in Ottawa. Then it went to network in Canada.
Is
that when it was Whatever Turns You On?
No,
actually, that was a different show. We used a number of kids from
that show, and it was basically the same show. Whatever Turns You
On had a bit more of a plot, and it had Ruth Buzzi.
None of original
episodes of You Can't Do That On Television exist, because it was
a live show back then. In fact, one very sad story - about eight
years ago, I got a letter from a woman, and then I phoned her. You
see, in the first year when we were a local show, we used to go
out and do things in restaurants. One of them was a pizza eating
contest, and she had written to tell me that her son was one of
the featured guests found in the restaurant for the contest, and
she said that the kid was killed six months later and she wondered
if we had the tapes of it. We looked all over, but none of the inserts
from the early days were saved.
That's
very sad, and a lot of people in the United States have questions
about the pre-1981 shows, because they were never shown here.
Well
what we did was tape a lot of inserts and then we did the show live.
It included a guest...a band or some dancers. Then they'd have a
contest and open the phone lines, but most of it was pre-taped.
The first thing I ever did we don't have copy of, but I was a bus
inspector down at a real bus stop in the snow in January of 1979.
I did an old guy who belittled the kids, but I was dressed as a
bus inspector, and none of that was saved which is unfortunate.
Did
you create any of your own characters or were they all written for
you?
That's
a very good question, because Roger was the ideal producer. He left
a lot up to the people involved in every aspect. The camera men
were willing and often eager to contribute little gags, and he was
always open to suggestions. When it came to characters, he would
often give me a rough idea. He'd say, 'Now Barth is a cook. He's
got to be a slob. He's got to be the worst looking mess, and his
food is terrible.' Then he left it up to me and very good make-up
person to develop the character physically. He was unshaven, and
being a cook, he had cut himself and had bandages on hands and his
arm. He was just the worst thing we could think of. Of course his
apron was a classic, and we used it throughout the entire series.
Actually, Barth was a cook in a summer camp on the local show, but
then he got his own restaurant for network.
He preferred
that I didn't do any impersonations. The doctor, of course, wound
up as a Groucho Marx, but strangely enough, he did disappear in
the last series of shows, and we created a dentist. They were just
running out of doctor jokes and decided to just do dentist jokes,
but for characters, Roger gave me a general idea. Then he'd leave
it up to me, and I'd do the voices and characters. We very seldom
had conflicts.
Were
there any controversies regarding any of the characters that you
played?
Well,
when we first did Snake Eyes, we had done about ten bus scenes,
and at the end of each one, Roger got me to take a gun out and fire
it through the roof of the bus. (laughing) Nickelodeon said that
we couldn't use them, because it was too close to the truth. I'm
a little in the dark as far as editing is concerned with Nickelodeon,
but they were always very good.
We made a
number of personal appearance tours for Nickelodeon, and the most
memorable one is an Easter egg weekend in Washington. Reagan was
President, so I guess it was back that far - mid 80s. Anyway, we
were there the whole weekend, and there were about 10,000 people
on the White House lawn. I just couldn't get over how all the kids
were astound and knew who we were. It was Alasdair, Vanessa, and
Adam, and I was dressed as the dad, and only one group of kids didn't
recognize us because they didn't get cable in the area they lived
in.
What
was the hardest part for you to play and why?
I
guess Peter Cockroach was a bit difficult because of the length
of the sketches. I had some of the phrases written on the counter,
because there were no cue cards like a lot of other shows used,
and by the way, there is a food critic here in Ottawa, and his name
is Peter Cockrin, so that's where Peter Cockroach came from. After
I had done the bit, I showed it to him and he laughed and laughed.
That was one of the most difficult, because the rest of them just
fell into place. One of them that disappeared was Blip, and that
was simply because the video arcades were slowly disappearing.
How
did Abby Hagyard come on to the show, and what was it like working
with her?
I
can't remember exactly when, but it wasn't long after we had gone
network on Nickelodeon. I guess Roger decided that we really did
need a female adult...especially for Dad to have a wife that he
could be kicked around by. There were other instances where we did
some fake commercial for a couple of seasons, but her biggest role
was Mother - Valerie. It was interesting how we got names, because
earlier none of them had names. It was Dad, Teacher, Principle;
I don't think we ever gave Principle a name. With Dad, we just sat
down one day, so I landed on Lance, because we had to find a name
that would be farthest removed from a guy that looked like that.
We just pick Valerie out of a hat sort of. Lance was a character
that we sort of softened a little. They wanted him to ease off on
drinking beer, but he still appeared to slightly drunk sometimes.
What
did you do in 1988? A lot of people have wondered about what happened
in 1988 when there were no shows.
Roger
moved very suddenly to Toronto, and he phoned me as soon as he got
there the next day, because when I went into the station they said,
'Roger's gone!' Anyway, he phoned me and said, 'Look. It may come
to where we would have to do the show in Toronto. We'll get a whole
bunch of new kids and do the show here. Will you come down to do
it?' I said absolutely, but while he was waiting to make that decision
and battling with the people in Ottawa, he did a some inserts for
Turkey Television. I went down and did some things for Turkey Television,
but then they got together and finally agreed that the show would
be resumed. He came back to Ottawa, and the show went back into
production as I recall with a whole new group of kids.
Yeah.
We had a trivia contest where you had to guess which four kids did
the 1986 season but also came to 1989 because they weren't too old,
and I believe Stephanie Chow was asked to stay but refused.
Stephanie
was very good. They didn't use her a lot, but she was very good.
She was very small and looked a lot younger than she actually was.
She went to the high school not far from where I am, but the story
as to why she left is because she wanted to concentrate more on
her piano. She was a very good pianist.
They (the
1989-90 shows) were very good shows - certainly different from before.
I lost track with a lot of the kids, but I ran into Elizabeth Richardson
recently. She took a television course here in Ottawa after she
had gone elsewhere and done other things. She and Klea Scott were
pals and were on a lot of the same shows.
So
was the Adoption show actually banned?
That's
the only one besides Divorce that I heard had any repercussion.
You haven't
mentioned Alanis yet...
I
know that everyone would kill me if I didn't ask about any sort
of anything about Alanis.
That
reminds me, and it's been said by others not as a put down. After
she had been on the show for a while, I said to Roger, 'You're not
using Alanis very much,' and he said, 'No, no, that's a thirty-five
year old in the body and mind of a twelve year old.' I thought,
'Geez, he's right. She's really mentally mature.' And even then
she knew what she wanted to do. She used to sing at a few of our
little 'good-bye' parties which were fairly regular, because as
soon as a boy's voice changed or a girl developed, they'd be gone.
We'd have little parties to say good-bye to them, and Alanis would
bring along her tape machine and sing. She was very good. To work
with, she was fine. I had no problems with Alanis.
About three
years ago, I was in the station, and I was walking down the hall.
Alanis walked by, and I didn't acknowledge. I just wondered what
would happen with my white hair and my white mustache - I looked
a little different. She did walk by and I stopped and turned around,
and she stopped and turned around and let a yell out of her, 'Les,
oh my God!' She rushes up, throws her arms around me, and gives
me a big hug. I complemented here one what she had been doing. She
had been doing a lot in Canada...especially in Ottawa, so that was
the last time I saw her.
Oh and after
she left You Can't Do That On Television a year or two later, I
phoned her and asked her if she would like to appear on my kids'
show, Uncle Willy and Floyd. My partner and I did sort of Laurel
and Hardy; we didn't look like them, but we did that sort of a show.
We were the owners of a hotel, so I wrote a script for her, and
she came and did a very good acting job, and she sang a couple of
songs. That was last time that we worked together.
Just last
night or the night before at the Canadian JUNO awards, she swept
them, but she's off. She has a permanent residence in Los Angeles,
so we all wished her well.
If
YCDTOTV ever came back, would you do it?
I
talked to Roger around Christmas, but the subject has never come
up, but I would be interested in doing a show especially with some
of the originals like Christine who was without a doubt the best
of them all. She was with us the longest, because she stayed sort
of short and was able to play sixteen when she was twenty. Anyway,
I would definitely be interested in doing a show - just a special
with the teacher now with white hair and retired in an old person's
home. That reminds me off a great gag on the show that I really
loved when they were taking pictures in the classroom, and I said
(in Mr. Shidler's voice) 'There's Lisa Ruddy; she's a brain surgeon
now. Fashion designer, Christine,' and Dougie Ptolemy said, 'Yeah,
and there's the teacher - he's dead!' That was a great line, but
no, I don't think they would even consider using me if they were
to do the show again with new kids. Well, I don't know. I just don't
think I could pass for anything other than what I am which is an
elderly gentleman, but as I say, it would be great to do a special
with characters as they are and now and what they're doing now and
the kids all grown up. The possibilities are endless.
When I talked
to Roger this Christmas, he down in Florida, doing something for
Nickelodeon with Adam Reid, but what it was, I don't know.
It's
amazing to think that with the exception of one person, the cast
members are all adults now.
My
guess at the youngest would be Amy Stanley. She was one of the youngest
we had ever used, and I thought that if the show had continued on
she'd be a star.
They wrote
Christine's younger sister into one scene, and it was when Christine
was shackled to the wall in the detention room. There was a puff
of smoke, and what you saw was her sister. It looked exactly like
her but ten years younger, and I said to Roger, 'You've got to use
her. As soon as Christine leaves, we've got another Christine.'
He didn't seem to buy it or wasn't that interested, so the little
girl disappeared from our lives very quickly, but she was a dead
ringer for her sister.
A
part of my job includes checking facts of lists that people try
to put up. That's sort of how I got into this whole thing. I would
say, "No, no, Marjorie Silcoff never got slimed, and she was on
the show for two years and did about ten episodes."
(Laughing)
Oh, Tom, you've got to get a life.
(Laughing)
I do have a life; I try to say that when I talk to former cast members.
I just have a good memory. There are actually a couple of other
people out there that know a lot more about the show than I do,
so that makes me feel a whole lot better.
(Laughing)
I was a little surprised that some adults...especially university
students that I had met in the States who were fans. There were
nineteen and twenty year olds who watched the show faithfully. I
don't think it's showing anywhere now, but it might be in New Zealand
or Australia. About a year and a half ago, my youngest daughter
talked to her friend who is a nurse in Saudi Arabia, and she says
that she never watches television there because it's all in Arabic,
but she tuned in one day and saw me on a kid show in Arabic. I called
the station to see if it was true, because I didn't see why she
would lie. They had pirated the show since it was on in England
and just added their own dialogue. We won't get any money from them,
but it was sold at one time to Finland, Spain, Australia...it was
pretty popular in Australia. The biggest success, of course, was
in the States with Nickelodeon.
This
has been fascinating, and we wanted to get this interview done some
time this year, because it has been fifteen years since the show
was first seen in the States.
It
will be a number of chapters in my book. I don't know when I'll
ever get around to it. I've got a lot of loose notes lying around
about my lengthy career in radio and television. I guess You Can't
Do That On Television would be one of the biggest highlights, because
it was the only show that I was ever on that was seen all over the
world. I'll make some notes just as soon as I get off the phone
on some stuff that I had forgotten about...this will help me.
I
certainly wish you luck on your book. I will really be interested
in seeing that.
Well,
it may happen. I just got to get going...get it down on paper. I'm
not the computer or word processor type. I'll do it on my own electric
typewriter.
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