Rewind and Search: Conversations with the Makers and Decision-Makers of CBC Television Drama

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

At a time when morale at the CBC is at an all-time low—the result of
major cutbacks in funding and personnel—this book comes as a
bittersweet reminder of the golden years of CBC television drama.
Covering the period from 1952 to the present, the book focuses on the
corporation’s “makers and decision-makers,” not on the programs
themselves. The author, a professor of film studies and of dramatic and
visual arts at Brock University, interviewed 40 key producers,
directors, actors, writers, story editors, and executives.

Directors like Paul Almond, David Gardner, and Eric Till recall the
almost unbelievable complexities of live television. (Almond and Till
were among those CBC pioneers who went on to conquer Hollywood after a
decade of producing some of the corporation’s finest drama.) Actors
like R.H. Thomson and Kate Trotter articulate their frustration at the
lack of regular work for Canadian thespians. Decision-makers like Ivan
Fecan and Trina McQueen blame the disintegration of CBC drama on
bureaucratization, funding cuts, changing audiences, new technology, and
independent productions, among other factors.

We are left with the depressing thought that cyberspace may be the
final death knell for CBC television drama.