CBC Digital Archives

Take 30 examines film censorship

It was afternoon TV for homemakers, but Take 30 assumed women's interests went beyond recipes and child rearing. The program aired from 1962 to 1984, but may be best remembered for its late '60s/early '70s era with hosts Adrienne Clarkson and Paul Soles. The CBC Digital Archives has over 60 clips from Take 30, plus 12 complete shows from 1964 to 1971 with celebrity interviews and topics including teen sex, censorship, pornography and the back-to-the-land movement.

Nudity. Cruelty to animals. Women smoking. In the 1920s, Canadian film censors deemed some things just too offensive for the eyes of the general public, and cut such scenes or banned the movies altogether. By 1968 there are still film classification boards in every province. This Take 30 discusses Warrendale, a CBC-commissioned documentary about emotionally disturbed children that was restricted to adults because of its strong language.
• Though the CBC commissioned filmmaker Allan King to make Warrendale in 1966, the broadcaster opted not to air the film upon its completion because of the language in it. Warrendale went on to play the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, winning the Prix d'art et d'essai. It also won numerous other awards in the United Kingdom and in Canada.

• In 1976 the Supreme Court ruled that film censorship was a provincial matter. The decision came after five provinces appealed a Superior Court of Nova Scotia ruling that the censorship of films was not a provincial responsibility. 

• Every province in Canada save Newfoundland and Labrador uses a classification system for flagging language, sexuality and violence in movies, DVDs, and video games. The Yukon and Saskatchewan follow British Columbia's guidelines; the Northwest Territories and Nunvut use Alberta's guidelines.

Medium: Television
Program: Take 30
Broadcast Date: Oct. 11, 1968
Guest(s): Jack Day, Elsie Little, J. Henry R. McLeod
Host: Adrienne Clarkson, Paul Soles
Reporter: Marilyn MacDonald, Colin MacLean, Roger Rolland
Duration: 26:19

Last updated: April 10, 2012

Page consulted on May 10, 2013

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