Broadcasting a Legend: The Canadian TV Miniseries The Arrow (1997)

Abstract

The Avro Arrow, the supersonic jet interceptor designed just outside Toronto to meet Royal Canadian Air Force specifications as the CF-105 but cancelled by Ottawa at the flight-testing stage toward the end of the 1950s, has long occupied a prominent place in the Canadian public imagination. To illustrate this phenomenon, commentators have repeatedly pointed to the range of representational forms, and individual instances therein, through which popular interest in the Arrow has manifested itself: page, stage, screen, and a myriad other means of expression. In doing so, they have often unintentionally signalled that these various manifestations are of equal relevance in demonstrating the impact of the Arrow on the national psyche. Through examining the origin, development, and broadcast aftermath of The Arrow, first aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation around forty years after the events described, this article seeks to situate this dramatic miniseries within the long-running controversy surrounding the cancellation of the aircraft, and show how and why it has had a significantly greater impact in shaping popular national awareness of, and empathy for, certain beliefs concerning the nature and meaning of the rise and fall of the Avro Arrow in Canada than any other cultural artifact over the past six decades.