UH OH! (1997 - 2003)

‘Uh Oh!’ How a show about slime left its neon green mark on millennials 

It was the strangest and slimiest game show on Canadian television but “Uh Oh!” certainly left its neon green mark on millennials.

After starting as a game show parody on YTV variety series “It’s Alive!,”  “Uh Oh!” quickly became a household hit, airing from 1997 to 2003 and becoming YTV’s third longest-running show.

With a simple premise – three teams of two gained points by spinning a big wheel and performing a specific task – the real hero of the show was the brightly coloured slime. 

If a player landed on the show’s “Uh Oh!” space on the wheel and answered the accompanying question incorrectly, his or her teammate would be doused in gooey slime, courtesy of a masked man known as The Punisher.

Created by Rick Watts and Frank Young, “Uh Oh!” was hosted by the energetic Wink Yahoo (Scott Yaphe), who sported a sky-high do’ and sequined blazers. Yaphe, who went on to do some acting and is now an energy healer in Toronto, still speaks of the show fondly. He told Vice he keeps in touch with the “Uh Oh!” cast and still gets asked about all that slime.  

The show also featured some familiar up and coming Canadian actors and comedians like Shaun Majumder and Ryan Belleville, who helped host competition segments from across the country, known as the Slime Tour.

“Uh Oh!” wasn’t the first time slime had been in the spotlight – it had become a running gag on CTV’s 80s hit “You Can’t Do That on Television,” which featured Canadian singing superstar Alanis Morissette. 

 “Uh Oh!” was filmed at Global Television studios in Toronto.