When Television Was Young: Primetime Canada, 1952-1967

Gerald J. Stortz is an assistant professor of history at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

When Television Was Young is a most timely, unusual, and excellent book.
Rutherford, who teaches at the University of Toronto, long ago
distinguished himself as one of the premier historians of print
journalism. With this history, however, he breaks new ground—for, as
he notes in the introduction, only two very specialized studies (one on
cbc-tv drama, the other on Radio-Canada) have previously dealt with the
history of Canadian television.

Although the book’s length is at first somewhat intimidating, one
quickly realizes that there are really two books in one cover. The first
of these follows very much the traditional historical style, detailing
the legislative history surrounding the medium. Part 2, on the other
hand, deals with the actual programming and its effects. Programs,
mostly Canadian and Corporation-made, are analyzed. These range from
such innocuous offerings as “Holiday Ranch” to the
often-controversial “This Hour Has Seven Days.” This section is
intriguing; it is really a superb social history of the 1950s and 1960s
that will rekindle memories in those who lived through those decades and
give an understanding of the period to those who did not. Let us hope
that Rutherford plans to build on what he has begun here.