Network: CBC Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1967 to 1968
Broadcast Medium: Television
Aired Wednesday nights from May 24 to June 7, 1967. Repeated in September 1967 and again in July of 1968.
Canada’s 100th birthday celebrations offered the CBC the opportunity to produce historical and cultural programs for television beyond the scope of its regular schedule. This 3 part series considered the future of the country and the planet.
The first program was called The Earth is a Very Small Spaceship, which looked at ecological and environmental issues while speculating on the future of civilization. The program was produced by Vincent Tovell and written and directed by William Whitehead.
The second program, Therefore Choose Life, offered a more cynical look at technology and its effect on people, places and institutions. Produced and directed by Tom Koch, it was a mid-sixties, cold war treatise on the human species. Could technology be used to our benefit or downfall?
The third program went a little further as a dramatic metaphor for the future. It was called 1999 starring John Colicos. The tele-play, written by Eric Koch and directed by Melwyn Breen, was set in Canada on New Year’s Eve 1999. Colicos played Prime Minister Robert Ghiberti whose biggest problem was a student revolt that threatened a four-way arms control agreement.
Executive Producer: Vincent Tovell
Written by John Corcelli – May, 2005