Network: CBC Television Network
Broadcast Run: 2006
Broadcast Medium: Television
Aired weekly, on Sunday nights from September 17, 2006 to October 15, 2006.
[Ten episodes; two parts each week]
This documentary series was 3 years in the making by creators of Canada: A People’s History, one of the most successful and important programs on CBC television. This series was specifically about hockey, Canada’s national sport and pastime whose unique qualities have always crossed cultural and economic boundaries from coast to coast to coast. Taken in chronological order, the series started in the mid-19th Century,and continued up to 2002 when Canada won the gold medal at the Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Archival footage from many sources, from collectors to the CBC, was included to tell the story, with dramatic re-enactments an important part of the coverage of the early years. Each episode was supplemented with interviews with many of the men and women involved in the gase, from Ken Dryden to Wayne Gretzky. It was a series that not only told the technical history of the game and its economic growth but the social aspects of the sport that defined the country.
Mark Starowicz, who created such CBC staples as The Journal, As It Happens and Canada: A People’s History, was the Executive Producer. Different writers and directors produced each episode separately.
Episodes:
[1] Creation Myths
[2] The Money Game
[3] Empires on Ice
[4] The People’s Game
[5] A National Obsession
[6] The Golden Age
[7] Soul of a Nation
[8] Hope and Betrayal
[9] Winter of Discontent
[10] Reclaiming the Game
Written by John Corcelli – November, 2006