“Just Like Mom”: The Bad Touch Uncle of Canadian Game Shows of the Eighties

Yesterday, I posted a video of an old Family Feud episode featuring the casts of The Love Boat and WKRP in Cincinnati. Seeing this old game show reminded me of another game show from the same era: the Canadian game show Just Like Mom. In Just Like Mom, the goal was to see which of the mother-child contestant teams knew each other the best through matching answers (in a way similar to The Newlywed Game) and in a finale bake-off in which mothers try to identify the dish their child prepared.

Just Like Mom’s second season was hosted by the show’s creator Catherine Swing and her then-husband Fergie Olver. I have vague memories of being creeped out by Fergie, and the video compilation above confirms them: he got way too kissy-kissy with the girl contestants. Watch and squirm as he plants on-the-lips smooches on reluctant girls not even in their teens, in what Encyclopedia Dramatica calls “an alchemical mixture of creepy that remains unmatched today on broadcast television” and “a group think experiment gone awry”.

(I’m surprised that when attempting to silence critics of the online snooping bill, Bill C-30, Vic Toews didn’t say “You can stand with us or stand with Fergie Olver”.)

If he didn’t break statutes on the show, he certainly bent them. It’s tempting to bend the statute of limitations (if it applies) and call the cops on this creep.