Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
Sarah Jane Adventures — very interesting. I wills say — it was a child’s program — a child’d version of Doctor Who. It was quite fun. I will say, from a feminist perspective, we do still need a man in her life, but it’s her son. She adopts an alien boy who is a humanoid, yes, she becomes the mother of an alien kid and together they solve the crises happening to Earth. So, it’s interesting, but of course, being the mother of the child she is always the one in control. So, there’s that change going on there. So Sarah Jane might just be the most feminist companion The Doctor has ever had. She might be. We’re not sure yet.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
A short update on various university-related news in the Orange County Register mentions Dr. Rosanne Welch this week.
(Dr.) Rosanne Welch, adjunct communications lecturer in radio, TV and film, spoke about student-centered pedagogy (teaching theory) and using art in adaptation in education at the Critical Questions in Education conferences presented by the Academy for Educational Studies in San Diego. — “Bravo: University Accomplishments”, Orange County Register, February 24, 2015
You can watch Dr. Welch’s portion of this talk in this YouTube Video
Ok, so what do I say about The Monkees and the Counter Culture? What did they bring to TV? — I love the little pyramid — their anti-ware themes appear in the show. Anti-authority, so those are tied together. Anti-materialism which is very much hippie. It’s about what you do not what own, what you have. Eastern philosophies. The fact that middle America in Kansa kids are going to learn about Buddha while watching this TV show. That’s an amazing concept and then, just in general, their androgynous, hippie clothing. The boys are wearing girls clothes. How is this possible? So all the stuff appears on this TV show. Peter Tork himself — and this is a picture of him at the Monterey Pop Festival with Janis Joplin in the background. They were friends. She was going to appear on the show in the third season. It never got a third season. Peter Tork is famous for saying that The Monkees “probably garnered a large audience for that point than the Beatles did” because of their weekly exposure on television. it was free entertainment for these kids. So they got he point across. One of his points was, these boys, these men from this period had gone through a time when Eisenhower was god. he saved us in World War II. The men in charge were always smart, but then the Vietnam War showed up and the men who used to be, who are now taking over, they didn’t know what was going on and that was a new thought for young Americans. I can’t trust my leaders. They don’t get it. They’re getting involved with something I don’t want to be part of. So that’s a huge new message to put out on television.
View photos from this presentation
Description:
Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.
Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.
The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
…and this particular episode is a really lovely look at a feminist idea. She has spent some time after she lost track of The Doctor for a little period there. She;s been a little upset about that. She re-encounters him in his other regeneration. What’s sweet about this and important is that she come to realize, waiting for a man was not the way to spend her life. That she has other things to do. And her life, now that she has missed starting a relationship with the person. He makes the comment about “she can tell her grandchildren about her adventures” and she says “Oh, I think they’ll be someone else’s grandchildren,” because she has lost that chance. That’s because she’s been so focused on one man, she didn’t find another one when that one left. And this experience in this episode makes her realize “I’m in charge of my life. I need to go do what’s good for me and move on.” And so, in fact, she does. She moves on to her own program! .
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
Sarah Jane follows Jon Pertwee into the Tom Baker era, so she is one of the longest running female companions we have, going along the way. We can see her getting older on screen. She gets more serious. Although. all of these women have their screaming moments — it is part of the job, but Sarah Jane gets to do more and more, which is fun and she and Tom make a good pair. She also comes back in the David Tennant era — an episode called “School Reunion” — which I love dearly. So, she’s met the most, different versions of The Doctor possible, which is kind of fun.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
This is a particularly fun quote. Timothy Leary has a long quote I won’t read you about all the things — the silly nonsense going on — and at the very end an actor like Micky Dolenz would look right at the screen — right — so we’re doing this metatextual — I’m “fourth-walling” you — “that’s pretty good talking for a long-haired weirdo, huh, Mr and Mrs. America?” So he was right there telling them we’re laying something out here, but you don’t even notice. Shh. Don’t watch. And so I think that’s really interesting. Also, what’s interesting is look at Mr. Dolenz’ hair. It’s all afro. This was a huge new thing to show on television. First of all, long hair, but this is ethnic hair. This doesn’t belong on TV so, in fact, on the first season they had him iron his hair. They would not allow this vaguely white, although he’s actually Italian and Native American — no. no and afro? No, no, no, that;s not allowed on television. Not until the second season, when they get a little more power that they start looking like they do in normal life.
View photos from this presentation
Description:
Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.
Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.
The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
Sarah Jane — look at the — oooo– she was such a cutey pie when she got — they were looking for that cutesy pie little girl, but Sarah Jane is possibly one of the most feminist characters. She’s an investigative journalist. So, now daddy’s not the journalist. I am. It’s not sports or entertainment. It’s investigations — social justice. Let’s go out in the world and find problems and solve them, right. So, she comes in there, but you know, we got the whole fresh faced, cutey pie girl look. You can’t get away from that. It is television. All right? They do want somebody pretty, but Sarah Jane is a pretty fascinating character. I just like that picture because they’re cute together. They’re just very sweet. You can tell that they’re having a good time working together.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
On Tuesday February 24th, I had the great pleasure of moderating a Talkback Tuesday panel at the Pasadena Playhouse that followed a performance of The Whipping Man by Matt Lopez.
Joining me for the discussion “Writing Race for Television and the Stage” were Walter Allen Bennett, Jr., whose credits include writing for The Cosby Show and 704 Hauser Street, and executive producing The Steve Harvey Show and Ralph Remington, a director-producer who has served as a Director at the National Endowment for the Arts and an Assistant Executive Director of Actors’ Equity who also founded the Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis where he staged such shows as The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (by Lorraine Hansberry) and Streetcar Named Desire (by Tennessee Williams).
(L-R: Victor Vasquez, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Walter Allen Bennett, Jr, Ralph Remington)
We discussed the lack of variety in the types of African American characters who populate our stages and screens and the need for more and more unique stories to be told so that the stereotypes can be broken in the next generation. We also tried to address the ways writers of all colors can write about characters of all colors respectfully. The audience was highly moved by the spirituality of the play and wanted to know more about the small number of Jewish slaveholders in the south –what happened to their slaves and their faith after the Civil War ended and, particularly, why people who praised Moses for bringing their ancestors out of slavery would ever maintain the practice themselves. That’s when I knew that our education system is failing in this area because no one realized the deep financial need for accepting and adapting to that labor system if one wanted to be wealthy as a Southerner.
Later in the discussion the cast joined us on stage as well. With Charlie Robinson, who played Simon (and once guest starred on Touched by an Angel) we discussed the deep research he conducted to create the role of a slave steeped in Judaism and the quality of roles available to African Americans and the difficulty in choosing well to build a career. He made some jokes about his earlier work in Night Court and we ran out of time before I could remind him that on that program all the characters were equally comical so his clerk was not merely there to create laughs. I then asked Adam Hass Hunter, who played Caleb the Jewish Confederate soldier dying of gangrene how much true history of slavery had been taught to him in his K-12 public school education as a child in Kentucky. As expected, he had no real memories of ever being taught the truth about slavery and had to conduct similar research.
(L-R: Walter Allen Bennett, Jr, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Ralph Remington, Victor Vazquez)
Before the play we all met with the Associate Artistic Director of the Playhouse, Seema Sueko and had a great time discussing the status of the industry (television) and our individual histories of involvement with the play A Raisin in the Sun, which we had all worked on at some point in our careers. We also chatted about how ‘white’ writers can avoid knowing anything about African American history and still survive in an artistic world but African Americans must know about mainstream history in order to work. I was reminded of the TED Talk by Chimimanda Adiche on “The Dangers of a Single Story” that I share with my MFA screenwriting students.
Thanks to Victor Vasquez, the Community Organizer, for inviting me and to my various students who came out to attend the show and join in the discussion.
