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“1960s TV Censorship and The Monkees” gives a brief overview of where censorship standards were in the era – and how The Monkees pushed the envelope with its mentions of the Vietnam War – and Sunset Strip riots – and even with the outrageous storytelling behind “Frodis Caper”, the episode that celebrated the saving of an alien plant that very closely resembled a marijuana plant…
Writer Treva Silverman said the staff got away with such jokes because the network executives were just old enough not to understand any of the references.
Presented at Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting classes on Friday, August 5, 2016
Transcript:
…and Treva Silverman — in the world of looking for women writers was the first woman to write comedy on television without a male partner and a couple of years after The Monkees — yeah, I know, Yea for her!. After The Monkees she joined the Mary Tyler Moore Show where she won an Emmy for writing the episode where Lou Grant’s wife asks for a divorce and that was because, as the only female writer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show — which seems crazy, but was, in fact, true, she came to the producers and said, “You know, all my friends think Ed Asner is sexy, but they feel guilty liking him because his character is married. So, if we got rid of the wife then they wouldn’t feel so guilty.” and the guys on the show were like “Ed Asner? You’re out of your mind” but they let her write that episode and she won an Emmy for it because it was, of course, in the early 70’s and this idea of women choosing to be divorced because they’s never had a life and they didn’t want to be the side of their husband, was a really fascinating thing. So she won an Emmy — she won 2 Emmys — that year actually. So all these folks had really — these are the people I interviewed and helped me get a focus on what was going on with the show, which I think is really interesting.
Buy “Why The Monkees Matter” Today!
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
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About Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.
Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog
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