Greg: How did you get involved with Whatever
Turns You On?
Rodney: I did a commercial for CJOH
which was a local channel and some people knew
Roger Price who was going to produce the sister
show You Can't Do That On
Television and gave them my name and were
only interested in my older brother and sister as
they thought I was too young. I was only ten
years of age at the time. After 2 or 3 hrs of
auditions then they asked why not come to the
audition and I was the youngest kid in the show
after I won the role and then in May they made a
pilot to Whatever Turns You On as
YCDTOTV was only a local show in Ottawa
and they wanted to do a primetime network for the
show so the next season it was WTYO and aired every Tuesday
night at 7:30 pm instead of it being on Saturday
mornings when it was YCDTOTV and CTV
bought 16 eps including the pilot of WTYO but cancelled after the
12th episode.
Greg:
Was
there any episodes taped that were not shown?
Rodney: All 12 were released 16
purchased after 12 shows it was cancelled and the
4 were never shot.
Greg: Why did the show get
axed? It was quite an entertaining kids show.
Rodney: Poor ratings. Tuesday
7:30 is not good time for a kids show and it
would've better if it aired during afterschool or
Saturday mornings. 
Greg: There was
a rumour that in some provinces like in
Saskatchewan that the show was aired Saturday
mornings like YCDTOTV in 1979
is that true?
Rodney: No, it
was aired Tuesday nighta at 7:30pm everywhere.
Greg:
What was it like making the show?
Rodney:
It was alot of fun. They did shot
sequences of the same skits for each show all in
one day like for example the introductions,
living room or cafeteria skits all were shot in
one day and used for different epiodes each week
and so was everything else.
Greg:
Do you still talk to the cast
members these days?
Rodney: No, I
haven't been in touch with them but the last time
I talked to them was at the YCDTOTV
SlimeCon 2002 Reunion.
Greg: Were you
happy to see them?
R0dney:
It's nice to see them that they are
all doing well as I haven't seen them in years
and have different lives with their own families.
Greg:
Whatever happened to the producer
Roger Price?
Rodney: Last time
I heard he's living in Malta where I think is
where they filmed that greek tragedy movie Troy.
Greg: Is he
still making shows? I also enjoyed his other TV
series The Tomorrow People when
I watched WTYO and YCDTOTV as well.
Rodney: Nobody
knows. Not even the director Geoffrey Darby as he
even hasn't spoken to him since two or three
years ago.
Greg: What do
you remember most of doing the show?
Rodney:
Spending the whole summer shooting
it, working with the cast members, making money,
most of the time playing pinball and I had fun
being around people like Kevin Schenk whom I was
close friends with on set and of course Ruth
Buzzi as she was alot of fun too and close to
Christmas she took Kevin and I to her home in Los
Angeles, California after the plug was pulled on
the show.
Greg:
Do you see Kevin around?
Rodney:
No but I do know he lives in
Kanata, Ontario.
Greg:
Who did you get along with most in
the series?
Rodney:
Kevin Schenk and Jono Gebert.
Greg:
What's Jono up to?
Rodney: Last time
I heard is that he's a tax accountant.
Greg:
How come he never did anymore
acting gigs along with Somers and Schenk as they
were quite characters in the show?
Rodney: Ottawa was not the hub of
productions. Later it was used for movie
productions but they usually used other known
actors. There was not alot of work for actors in
79 and we were all young too.
Greg: You and Lisa Ruddy were always
having battles as characters in the show. Did you
used to tease one another off set?
Rodney:
No
not really, we always got along. She was also at
the SlimeCon 2002 Reunion and she also runs a
funeral home and is making alot of money out of
that.
Greg:
Did
she ever do any other acting projects?
Rodney:
I
don't think so.
 Greg: What was
the green slime made of?
Rodney:
Jello and food coloring.
Greg:
Did you feel it was alot of fun
getting slimed?
Rodney: Not
really cause it's alot of clean up work and the
slime would leave a stain on the skin and it
would take like 3 showers to get it all off.
Greg: I understand that there
was no audience for the show and it was canned
laughter. Why was that?
Rodney:
Studio
audience was too expensive and it would take up
too much time. Plus, we'd need larger facilities
and alot of funding.
Greg:
There
was an audience during the dome skits and during
the musical guests. Was that a different set for
the musical guests?
Rodney: No same one, just
converted.
Greg: Did you feel a better
reaction performing with an audience?
Rodney:
Not
really. We were not used to having them there as
there was too much noise and smart remarks. There
was alot of distraction. Imagine having a row
full of teenagers on a short attention span.
Greg: How did you get the neat
light effects for the musical guests? It was so
different than the regular dome as there was even
lighting on the floor stage.
Rodney: It was a different stage
rolled in altogether. We set the lighting stage
brought in for the guests and brought in the
regualar one back.
Greg:
Now
the Kevin Page Band never made
it big as they performed their song "I
Could Never Love Someone" on the
"Boss Helal" episode. Were
they trying to get their name out there?
Rodney: I have no clue what
happened to them and only Canadian bands were
shown as the musical guests and couldn't afford
to bring in alot of big bands as the show had a
tight budget and only one song from a big band
that was a hit was performed on the show.
Greg: Did they ever release an
album only availble to locals in Ottawa?
Rodney: He wasn't from Ottawa but
somewhere else in Canada I don't know if he
released a local album. Must've had something.
Greg:
That
song from Kevin Page was so good and it reminded
me of 70's artists like Barry Manilow,
Eric Carmen, Shaun
Cassidy and Andy Gibb.
Rodney:
I
think that's where he borrowed his style was from
artists like those.
Greg: Were you a big fan of any
of the musical guests on the show?
Rodney: I enjoyed Trooper,
Ian Thomas and of course Max
Webster. I met them all while they
played on the show.
Greg:
Was it an exciting experience for
you?
Rodney:
I was too young to know who they
were at the time and only heard their songs play
on the radio. But for the older kids it was a big
deal for them to meet them all.
Greg: What was
your favourite episode that you did?
 Rodney: Boss
Helal was the best one of mine just because it was fun to
shoot and be president for a day boss people
around. The scene where Ruth Buzzi sat on my lap
to take a memo I was really in pain.
Greg: (Laughs) So when you were
in pain that was for real as well as in the scene
when she sat on your lap?
Rodney:
Yes,
so that painful groan was for real and when she
wrote Ah ha! for my memo when I groaned in pain
was something she made up.
Greg:
That's
interesting. When the plug was pulled on WTYO did any of you wonder
what would happen next?
Rodney:
No,
we waited a little while and then there was
another season of the sister show YCDTOTV
that
was going to be aired again on Saturday mornings
this time on the network like WTYO.
Greg:
Was Roger Price thinking of having WTYO air on
Saturday mornings again instead of YCDTOTV?
Rodney: I don't think so. It was
an odd combination for young kids and they didn't
know who Ruth Buzzi was. Also, Rock n roll and 11
year olds don't seem to match. It was a little
out of synch.
Greg:
Was
Ruth asked to be in the series?
Rodney: No they were finished
with her as they couldn't afford to keep her on.
Greg: YCDTOTV started getting gross
when it aired again in 1981 as there was skits
like Barths Burger's where kids were eating
maggots and other gross skits. Why did it get to
be like that?
Rodney:
The
show was being Americanised and that's what the
kids liked in the States was subjects like that.
Greg:
Gebert
and Somers were only in certain skits like the
dungeon and execution ones in the 1981 season why
weren't they in the others?
Rodney:
They
were getting too old.
Greg: Weren't they only 15
years of age at that time?
 Rodney: They were but the
producers decided to have a younger cast of kids
this time. And Schenk and I left after the 81
season was finished with them was because we were
getting older as well. The show was demographic
of their users.
Greg:
Moose
and Lisa were older than you and stayed on the
show though.
Rodney:
Yes
that's true but I think they were the key members
of the show.
Greg: Did they ever do anything
else afterwards?
Rodney:
None
of them did because they probably didn't want to
as they were getting older and wanted to pursue
different stuff. They didn't know what they were
going to do at 15 and up except stay in school.
Making transitions to child actors to adult
actors there's not many out there.
Greg: What have you been doing
since then?
Rodney:
For
work right now I do info tech selling software.
Greg: I understand you have
done some other acting too.
Rodney:
Yes,
I've guested in an episode called Rescue
911 in 1992 as well as acting in TV
commercials for Red Cross and Canada
Post and an industrial for Nortel but
acting is just a side project.
Greg:
Do
you think there'd ever be a SlimeCon
Reunion for WTYO?
Rodney:
Doubtful
as it's hard to bring people even to the YCDTOTV reunions but it would be
nice to everyone again.
Greg: If WTYO
did
a grown up version of their show today would you
participate in it?
Rodney: Yes
Greg:
Alriiight!!!
Rodney I want to thank you so much for your time
doing this interview.
Rodney: No problem. Good luck
with it.
This
was great info by Rodney and I'm planning to
interview others. Hopefully Les Lye,
Christine McGlade, Kevin
Schenk, Jono Gebert and
maybe Ruth Buzzi as Rodney told
me where to go to write to her. There's also a
possible interview I may have of the former band Cooper
Brothers as they performed "I'll
Know Her When I see Her" on the show since Rodney
gave me a contact email to someone he works with
that knows the former group.
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