You Can’t Do That On Film

Classic Nick Wed. - You Can't Do That On Film

August 28, 2013

Weather you’re an 80’s Child or a 90’s Kid there is one show that both groups of Classic Nickelodeon fans can agree on and that’s “You Can’t Do That On Television!”

David Dillehunt not only spent his youth watching 80’s Nickelodeon but as a child he appeared in commercials for the network itself. Now as an adult he steps back into his childhood to bring us “You Can’t Do That On Film,” a documentary on one of Nick’s highest rated shows in the 80’s and 90’s.

Diehard fans who have never delve too deeply into the show’s history will revel in nostalgia as Dillehunt compares the difference between the show’s popularity in both Canada and the United States. He also gives us insights as to how the show was cast, and how Les Lye’s value to the show was easily overlooked.

Fans should also keep in mind that while this documentary was recorded in Dolby Digital 2.0 this is still (very much) a low-budget, independent film that results in the soundtrack being a bit rough in places with the volume of the different interviews at different levels. But what it lacks in consistent volume it makes up for in the extras!

In addition to the many interviews Dillehunt doesn’t forget about the fans and throws in such fun things as the Slime-Con events from both 2002 (22:52 mins) and 2004 (22:48 mins). They include Q&A with the cast, a trip to a local burger joint who provided the burgers for all of the Barth sketches, a visit to the capital building in Ottawa and a return to studio where the show was filmed.

There are also four extended interviews including an all-new 24:53 minute chat with the show's creator Roger Price (who also created The (OS) Tomorrow People), Les Lye (11:20 mins), Adam Reid (7:56 mins), and director/producer Geoff Darby (6:02mins). Also included is the trailer for the documentary and an automatic slideshow of images from the set of the show (3:53 mins), which are presented at about half the screen's size.

 

The bottom line is that “You Can't Do That on Television” was a rather impressive kids sketch show for its time that never talked down to its audience. For those of us who would like the opportunity to wallow in the nostalgia of fond memories of the show having this oral history available is quite appreciated and well worth checking out, but ownership is probably best left to show's diehard fans.

Shout Factory

Unrated

October 16, 2012

List Price: $19.99 

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/61115/you-cant-do-that-on-film/

Chapi Chapo

Classic Nick Wed. – Chapi Chapo

August 21, 2013

Fans of Pinwheel are sure to remember this delightful French stop-motion series, which was created, by Italo Bettiol and Stephano Lonati with the wonderful music of François de Roubaix.

The name of the series is a play-on-words since the French word for hats is "chapeaux " which reflected in the costuming of the two lead characters. Chapi, the girl, was dressed in red and Chapo, the boy, wore blue, both wore oversized hats.

Premiering in 1974 on R(T)F Television the show consisted of the two main characters speaking running around a set which was a white background with colored blocks. In each episode there was a simple problem for the characters to solve and at the end of each 60 5-minute episodes the boy and girl would always end with a little dance.

This charming animated short ran on both Nickelodeon's Pinwheel in the 1980s and later on Boomerang.

Charles Level wrote the lyrics to the shows opening and closing credits, which were a combination of nonsense words that accompanied François de Roubaix’s delightful musical stylings.

>>>Theme Song Lyrics<<<

Chapi Chapo patapo

Chapo Chapi patapi

Piripipi rabada dada

Dada dada

Pacha pacho pitipo

Pacho pacha pitipa

Piripipi rabada dida

Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age

Classic Nick Wednesday

Slimed! An Oral History of 

Nickelodeon's Golden Age

August 14, 2013

Welcome back everyone! Autumn is just around the corner and I know I’m looking forward to hanging out with you guys again. As some of you may know I chose to take the summer off from my Classic Nickelodeon Wednesdays, and blog postings, but now I’m back with what I’m calling my “Season 2”. So to start off the new season I’d like to tell you about a new book called “Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age” by Matt Klickstein.

Matt has interviewed over 250 creative VIPs involved with the creation of Nickelodeon and tells us the story of how the network began “as a DIY startup in the late 70s” to their struggles in the early eighties as they gathered together young artists and filmmakers who set out to change everything about cable television, television in general, animation, and children's entertainment.

On August 2^nd their Facebook page announced a chance to win a free, autographed copy of Slimed by telling them your favorite Nickelodeon memory. The person with the "best memory" will win a free copy of SLIMED!

According to their Facebook page: “The author of the best story gets a FREE copy of SLIMED! (autographed by the author and special guests). And don't worry: Those of you who have already participated are still in the running!”

With the book scheduled to be released on September 24, 2013 Matt has decided to make this offer to the fans one more time, “especially for the MANY new folks checking in on the site and on SLIMED! these days.”

So if you think you have a winning memory check out the “Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age” Facebook page and add your memory to the list!

https://www.facebook.com/NickOralHistory

Basic Information

Release Date – Fall 2013, Sept. 24th

Genre – Oral History; Non Fiction

Publisher – Plume, an imprint of Penguin Book Group USA

Saturday Meeting

Our meeting is this Saturday the 17th at 5:30 at the café (1117 N. Jackson).

Last time only one person showed up and this time that person isn’t able to make it. So if no one shows up I don’t know that I’ll keep this group open. I’ll just have to think about it b/c I’m not going to kill myself if no one’s going to show up for the meetings.

Sorry for being harsh but I don’t know what else to do. My dream is to write and make films and it’s hard to sit back and watch that dream die b/c everyone just looses interest.

I don’t know. Perhaps we should put the Doctor Who / Tomorrow People film on hold for now and work on something else? Something smaller and more suited for our small group but still keep working on B/O behind the scenes? You know, set and costume ideas and so forth?

The café is thinking about hosting a WhoviCon, not specifically for us just b/c the owners are huge Who fans. What do you guys think, is that something we would like to get involved in? Personally I think it will be good for us but we, as a group, would need to help the owners think of activities and so for to do at the Con. I thought of a costume contest and Tiffany, one of the owners, thought of a TARDIS building contest – which I love the idea of but we’d have to have more than just those two things to do. They can’t show episodes there b/c they don’t have a commercial license so we’d need to have other things to do.

Well anyway, if anyone has any ideas, other than we need to change our name, then let me know at the meeting on Saturday. 580-477-0625

***ON TONIGHT***

For those of you who have the Teen Nick channel you’re in for a treat. Tonight they will be showing two episodes of “Legends of the Hidden Temple”!!! Then every night next week they will be showing for Classic 90’s game shows including Temple and “Double Dare”!!!