CBC Digital Archives

This Hour has Seven Days: New math, movie stars, and war

In just two seasons between 1964 and 1966, This Hour has Seven Days staked its claim as the most defiant and controversial program in Canadian broadcasting history.~ Created by Douglas Leiterman and Patrick Watson, Seven Days launched a new era of public affairs television, actively taking on the role of the nation's ombudsman and interrogator. Some — including certain members of the CBC brass in Ottawa — called it "sensationalism," "arrogant" and a breach of journalistic neutrality. But Canadians loved it. Millions tuned in every Sunday night at 10 p.m. to watch the show everyone would be talking about the next day. The CBC Digital Archives presents nine complete episodes here, selected from the 50 programs made before the show was cancelled. Due to copyright issues, satirical sketches and songs that originally aired between news segments have been edited out.

It's sweeping elementary school curriculums across the country, but with this 1965 Seven Days feature report on the "new math," some folks worry that parents won't be able help their kids with their homework. Seven Days also takes to the skies this episode. First, it's an exclusive on a stunt skydiver who jumps without a parachute. Later, Seven Days tags along with a planeload of press on a Hollywood movie junket to Europe. Meanwhile and a world away, a grisly war unfolds in Vietnam, and in Indonesia, President Sukarno's rule faces fresh and potentially deadly challenges.
• The "new math" was introduced in schools across North America beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Predominantly a teaching technique, the new math abandoned rote learning in favour of child-initiated discovery of numbers. Focused on set theory and number bases in addition to 10, the new math taught advanced abstract math theory to school age children through the use of objects, diagrams and puzzles. • The stops on the 20th Century Fox press junket included visiting Julie Andrews on the set of The Sound of Music and meeting with Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston while filming Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy. Both Andrews and Harrison were fresh from Oscar victories; they each won an Academy Award in 1965 for their roles in My Fair Lady.

• At least one million Vietnamese civilians died in the war with the United States. A total of 58,193 U.S. military personnel died in the hostilities, which the U.S. formally recognizes as a conflict rather than as a war. In August 1964, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to pursue an aggressive action in Vietnam without a declaration of war from Congress.

Medium: Television
Program: This Hour has Seven Days
Broadcast Date: Jan. 10, 1965
Guest(s): Julie Andrews, Bernard Fall, James Fox, Rex Harrison, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Kilgallen, Lee Kuan Yew, Charles Lynch, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, I.F. Stone, Ahmed Sukarno, Terry Thomas, Daryl F. Zanuck
Announcer: Warren Davis
Host: John Drainie, Laurier LaPierre
Interviewer: Douglas Leiterman
Duration: 46:18
Vietnam footage courtesy Granada Media
Photo: Photos of Rod Pack courtesy Toronto Sun

Last updated: January 26, 2012

Page consulted on March 22, 2013

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