The article even begins with naming the director in the first sentence. This is a ludicrous example of the unexplained contempt journalists (who are writers themselves) seem to have against screenwriters – or solid evidence that the now disproved-in-academia-but-still-mistakenly-believed-by-others auteur theory still holds sway. But directors do not write their films unless you call them ‘writer-directors’.
Wherever you go, you find Monkees fans and the Denver Popular Culture Con was no different. Amid rooms full of caped crusaders and cosplay creations, I was initially not sure how many folks would attend a talk on a TV show from the 1960s – but happily I was met by a nice, engaged audience for my talk on Why the Monkees Matter – and afterward they bought books! What more could an author ask for?
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Transcript
This is a particular moment in the show that shocks me that got on to network television at that time. They’re playing dominoes as you can see and at one point when all the dominoes fall down Davy says to Peter “What do you call this game?” and Peter says “Southeast Asia.” which if you know about Domino Theory of Communism is it — I mean — and the censors didn’t cut that and a lot of times it’s because Trevor Silverman said that Network people didn’t understand the joke. They didn’t get it because they were an older generation of men — all men — and they didn’t see what was going on. So that to me is an amazing thing who got away with what they did. Television mattered to The Monkees — both the writers and, of course, the performers. They understood that it was this giant place — this giant podium from which to send out a message to everybody and they they knew that was important.
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.
Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.
On my first day in São Paulo I was taken on a lovely walk through the downtown area near the college and here we can go fun this beautiful bookstore full of art and books and I was pleased to see many titles I recognized, though they were of course in Portuguese so I could not purchase them to read. But it was a beautiful site and a lovely way to understand the city is full of readers.
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During [the 1930’s], women gained a unique opportunity to participate both as stronger characters within these stories and, perhaps more importantly, behind the scenes. “Hollywood’s ‘red meat’ hard-boiled crime cycle during the war, seemingly targeted a masculine gendered audience. Yet, these films included surprisingly strong female femme fatale ‘love interest’ characters who redefined ‘femininity’.
Joan Harrison: Redefining Femininity in Film Noir and Hollywood by Chelsea Andes
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This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne
Transcript:
She did that, however, she wrote the first draft of the script. There’s proof and she passed away. So a script has to go through several incarnations before it’s eventually filmed. So they brought in Lawrence Kasdan who is a marvelous and wonderful writer and in the end he then writes the next movie and he writes the first draft of Return of the Jedi that you know and all that sort of thing. So he’s become the person we credit for a lot of Star Wars but she did all this groundwork and wrote this original script. So I think Leigh Brackett is a really cool name for paying attention to.
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How many streaming services will you subscribe to before streaming costs as much as that cable cord so many of us have cut?
I predict Netflix will survive based on being early to the game and how they have struck so many co-production deals in major countries all over the world so they are seeding their service with material to please a greater audience.
Yes Disney+ will do well but in my family we cut cable when my son outgrew the Disney Channel – which happens in all families eventually so I don’t think even the core of lifelong Disney fans will be enough to make the service necessary forever. Yes, they have the Marvel and Star Wars worlds now, but I own the films in those franchises already… so subscribing brings me nothing new…But we’ll see, won’t we? — Rosanne
An epic battle is brewing in the entertainment industry. In the coming months, most of the biggest media conglomerates will launch their own streaming services in a high-stakes effort to remain relevant by selling movies, TV programming and short-form videos directly to viewers.
While the much-anticipated slugfest between the Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc. is sure to garner the most attention, AT&T Inc.’s HBO Max and Comcast Corp.’s Peacock also are getting ready to enter the fray, as are Apple Inc.’s Apple TV+ and Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s Quibi.
The competition for subscription and advertising dollars has already led to disruption and anxiety. Studios are spending heavily to lock up prolific showrunners and popular older shows that they hope will get viewers to subscribe. Recently, tensions flared as Disney began rejecting Netflix ads on its TV channels.
Many, many thanks to Glaucia Davino for inviting me to Mackenzie Presbyterian Institute in Sao Paolo to speak to her conference, but especially for arranging for me to meet many of her dedicated doctoral students, including Livia, who gave me a wonderful walking tour of the campus before my talk yesterday. There is a deep and genuine interest in analyzing screenwriting among these students and of building the film and television industry here. In the years to come I believe the energy these students bring to their research will achieve that dream.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
It’s all thanks to my friend and colleague from the Screenwriting Research Network (who is actually the president of the network this year) Carmen Sofia Brenes who suggested me to the committee planning the seminar.
I’ll be speaking on “Why Researching Screenwriters (has Always) Mattered” which will be focused on the importance of storytellers in all cultures, and how screenwriters have become this last century’s most powerful storytellers thanks to the reach of technology.
It’s a daunting thing to be asked to be a keynote speaker and I’ve been writing my speech for a few weeks now, still in a bit of a fog that such a fun thing should happen – but the tickets came today so now it’s a reality. I have to finish this speech (and the Google Slides that goes with it) – and PACK!
Here is a summary of my talk. I hope to have it recorded, too. Watch this space for information on a possible live stream of this event.
SUMMARY
To understand the world we have to understand its stories and to understand the world’s stories we must understand the world’s storytellers.
A century ago and longer those people would have been the novelists of any particular country but since the invention of film, the storytellers who reach the most people with their ideas and their lessons have been the screenwriters. My teaching philosophy is that: Words matter, Writers matter and Women writers matter. Therefore women writers shall be my focus. Why? Because they have been the far less researched and yet they are over half the population. We cannot tell the stories of the people until we know what stories the mothers have passed down to their children. Those are the stories that last. Now is the time to research screenwriters of all cultures and the stories they tell because people are finally recognizing the work of writers and appreciating how their favorite stories took shape on the page long before they were cast, or filmed, or edited. But also because streaming services make the stories of many cultures now available to a much wider world than ever before.
I have arrived and met my wonderful hosts who have already taken me to lunch and walked me around to show off their city.
I’m so excited to have been invited to be the keynote speaker at the 10th Screenwriters´(hi)Stories Seminar being held on the campus of the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo, Brazil – NEXT WEEK!
It’s all thanks to my friend and colleague from the Screenwriting Research Network (who is actually the president of the network this year) Carmen Sofia Brenes who suggested me to the committee planning the seminar.
I’ll be speaking on “Why Researching Screenwriters (has Always) Mattered” which will be focused on the importance of storytellers in all cultures, and how screenwriters have become this last century’s most powerful storytellers thanks to the reach of technology.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
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