Whatever Turns You On (1979)

The success of a local Saturday morning TV show titled "You Can't Do That On Television"--which only aired in Ottawa on CJOH-TV in early 1979 and had a cast of kids acting in comedy skits and adult actor Les Lye playing the adult roles--prompted creators Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby to air a prime-time TV series shown all across Canada. First a pilot episode aired on Saturday morning, May 12, 1979 with Ruth Buzzi as the female adult roles and Vancouver rock band Trooper as the musical guest. The pilot was successful, so in the fall starting on September 18, 1979 the series aired every Tuesday night at 7:30 on CTV as 16 episodes were purchased. The skits had certain topics like Union Fees, Fan Letters/Summer Camp, Superstitions, and Educational Programming, and like its sister show it was about kids being kids. There were also musical guests like Ian Thomas, Max Webster, Cooper Brothers, and Alma Faye. Because the series appealed to kids 11 and under, it was an odd combination as kids couldn't related to rock bands and didn't know who Ruth Buzzi was. Not only that, a prime-time slot wasn't right for such a series. After the 12th episode in December 1979 the series was canceled, but its sister show You Can't Do That On Television re-aired in early 1981 on Saturday mornings nationwide, using some of the characters fresh off the other series. Whatever Turns You On reruns aired when Canadian station YTV was created in 1988, but it only aired for one season.