The Whiteoaks of Jalna

The Whiteoaks of Jalna
Starring	Paul Harding Kate Reid
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producers	John Trent Richard Gilbert
Running time	60 min (time slow)
Original release
Network	CBC
Release	23 January (1972-01-23) – 30 April 1972 (1972-04-30)

The Whiteoaks of Jalna was a 1972 Canadian television drama miniseries based on the Jalna novels by Mazo de la Roche. At CA$2 million, it set a record expense at the time for a Canadian television miniseries. The series was exported internationally including the United Kingdom and France. Scriptwriting was led by Timothy Findley, supported by Claude Harz and Grahame Woods.

Production

• Due to the convoluted nature of the storyline, which jumped back and forth between the 1850s to the 1970s, CBC published a family tree of the characters in the miniseries, so viewers could follow the story.
• The miniseries was originally planned to extend beyond 13 episodes, but production was curtailed by a CBC technicians' strike that year.
• Despite this being a CBC production, the original run of the mini-series was blacked out on CKLW-TV in Windsor, Ontario (then partially owned by the CBC), as the CBC originally planned to sell the series to an American network or syndicator. Such a sale did not materialize.
• The miniseries was rebroadcast in 1974, but was re-edited with extra footage added and some scenes (especially those taking place in the modern day) cut.

Sources

• TV North: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Canadian Television, by Peter Kenter and Martin Levin

External links

• Queen's University Directory of CBC Television Series: The Whiteoaks of Jalna, accessed 10 September 2006
• The Whiteoaks of Jalna at IMDb