Turkey Television Bio Courtesy of www.ycdtotv.com

Turkey Television, a sketch comedy for youth, was ordered by Nickelodeon as a result of the popularity of You Can't Do That On Television. Created by Roger Price and Geraldine Laybourne, this series could be described as "You Can't Do That On Television without a linkset and messiness." But, the series had more sketches and more situations than YCDTOTV.

The series began production around 1985 as a one-hour series to be aired on Nickelodeon and Nick-At-Nite. It was later edited into a half-hour format. Turkey Television was taped in Ontario as well as New York and Kentucky. Among the "Turkey Performers" were Les Lye and Christine McGlade from Whatever Turns You On. Each were limited to one character which much weakened their potential for the show. The other cast members were kids and a few adults of whom were previously unknown. Turkey Television also had at its disposal an archive of comedy material (such as very old comedy movies as well as some of Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon's first stand up routines). The sketches being produced with the Turkey Performers along with this archive footage was put together in a unique way.

With a video camera, "Thurman T. Turkey", an animated turkey, would tour the world filming television shows being seen in other countries and then would return to Hollywood with short sketches from these various shows. The "various shows" aspect was only apparent in the lyrics of the show's theme and in the opening animation as the sketches merely looked like regular YCDTOTV fast-paced sketches. Some of these included a girl talking to her dog (who's thoughts could be heard by the audience), a dentist's office, a principal's office, the school hallway, the first date, the Russian newscast (hosted by Ivan Tellalie), and many others.

As for Les and Christine their characters were as follows. Les Lye was Gramps. He was seen tinkering on a car in his garage while talking to his grandson. Christine McGlade played Katie, a nerdy, nasal talking girl who was always on the phone or at the mall with her very cool and attractive friend Hillary.

Turkey Television's peak was when it was being rerun at 3:30 p.m. ET in 1987, a half hour before YCDTOTV's timeslot on Nickelodeon. While Turkey Television was fun, the series was not the quality of YCDTOTV by any means. However, the show worked very well in the aforementioned capacity, as an "opener" for the day's upcoming YCDTOTV episode. Turkey Television's greatest significance was that in addition to performing on the show, Christine McGlade also served as a director and producer of the series.