Since Mexican-Americans were not yet a prominent stereotype in middle America, the writers weren’t used to relying on them for humor, whereas most of the largely Jewish writing staff knew the standard jokes associated with other ethnicities, especially Italians since the two immigrant-based ethnic groups often shared neighborhoods in urban centers around the country.
You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library
Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.
It all takes place in New York City, because that’s where the therapist lives and where the girl has gone. When we turn it into a movie Barbra Streisand and the staff completely took out the second brother. He’s already dead when the book starts. Instead of flashbacking to him, she just said “Nevermind. We don’t care” and the title of book “Prince of Tides” is Luke Wingo. by kicking him out of the story she turns that into being Tom, the main character. So many people who adored the book and adored this character Luke were angry because not only did she erase him, but they reconfigured where his nickname went. That’s a huge change from the original mention in the book, but it tightened the movie, because the movie, in the end, is a love story between the guy and the therapist. That is part of the novel, but not the focus of the novel. So, her she’s going to star in the thing. She’s going to play the therapist. Guess who’s going to be the more important character? Sorry. You want Barbra Streisand to make your move, that’s what you are going to get.
About this talk
Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
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.”
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I MAKE THE MONKEES CLOTHES BY GENE ASHMAN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gene Ashman was born in Los Angeles. At the age of ten he moved to New York City, where he studied classical piano for Eye years. At 15, he returned to LA, and while studying history at the University of Southern California he became interested in designing costumes. Since then Gene has become one of the most sought after costume designers in the movie and television industry. His credits include The Eddie Bodin Story, The Harder They Fall, Who Was That lady?, Circus Boy (yes. Gene designed the outfit Micky wore on the show), Bewitched and The Monkets. Currently, Gene is designing the costumes for Funny Girl.
WHEN I was designing costumes for Bewitched. Bert Schneider called me in for an interview. One of the first things he asked was, “How do you feel about young people?’ I thought for a minute and then I said. “The kids of today are very interesting and exciting and. clothe…wise arc into something quite different from anything that has ever been done before.” Mr. Schneider seemed pleased with my response and told Mt all about his upcoming TV pilot, The Afonkeer. After describ-ing the wonderful and zany idea to rne, he told me he would make arrangements for me to meet Davy /ones. Micky [Mena. Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith—the four boys whom he and his partner, Bob Rakhon. had chosen to be the Monkees. To tell the truth. when I first met the boys I was shocked by their long hair and uninhibited mannerisms. but as I sat and talked with them I soon saw their separate personalities emerg-ing. Here. in a nutshell. is what I saw then: Davy—young: energetic: fantastic ideas. Afike—a little reticent: serious-minded: artistic. Afkky (whom I had known from CIMIT Boyl—totally inven-tive; no one can know how great he will be—even himself—until he channels his energies. Poser—very sensitive: great humanitarian qualities: excellent singer and guitarist.
FIRST MEETING
My first meeting with the Monkees was at night, after they had spent all day rehearsing for the show. We sat around and discussed their likes and dislikes. We decided that we definitely wanted the Monkee: clothes to reflect their individual taste. style and personalities. We wanted to avoid the Camaby Street look. the “Mod” look, or any other wellsestablished look. Ultis 6 stately. I decided that although all of the Monkees’ clothes would he derived from basically the same design. their afore-mentioned personalities were to emerge through their clothes. All of Mike’s things would have a definite Weller”, flavor. For instance. he would have terrinch tide vents on all his jackets, like the Western gamblers used to wear. Micky’s jackets would be a oncsbutton, doublesbreasted, rolled collar cut—reflecting his casualness. Peter’s jackets would be a very slim. twabutton, double-breasted cut—form-fining with lots of freedom of move-ment. And Day (who was the most style-conscious of all the boys) would have two-button. double-breasted jackets with a slight English flavor.
Now, all I had to do was find a shop to give me the inspiration and basic design patterns that I needed. Firm. I went all over L.A. and. believe me. that’s a great big city. I was shocked to find nothing that was right for the Monkees. I headed for San Francisco. and after several days of searching through the wens’ shops there I came hack to the studio tired and dejected. I don’t believe in Fate. but I really think she way watching over me at this moment. I was almost ready to give up when—on the way to grab a sandwich at the Copper Skillet. a block from the studio-il passed a little more which sold vets’ hip clothing for mien. I looked at the sign. It said: 1.enny’s Boot Parlor.
I thought—hhor o sooner nome for o store—and I wandered inside. The first thing I discovered was that Lennyi was nor just a hoot parlor. It was one of the grooviest men’s stores I’d ever been in. I was fascinated by everything I saw—shirts of endless design and pattern, pants in every fabric and cut imaginable—plus an array of the most beautiful boots ever.
“Hi, a friendly voice greeted me. “I’m Lenny Able. Can I help your
“You sure Can.” I said, and I sat down and told Lenny my story. He. like me, became fascinated by the idea of creating clothes for the Monkem. He could share my enthusiasm. dig-ging the whole idea as the grooviest chalknge ever. “What’s the budget”‘ he asked at one point. “$700.” I said sheepishly, and he looked at me as though I were crazy and didn’t say a word. He just went right on raving about the clothes that could he created for the Monkees. (Usu-ally. “wardrobe” for a TV pilot is scaled at about $2,000. The entire production cost for the Monkees’ pilot was originally scaled at $100.000 and ended up at 5300,000, but 1 exceeded my wardrobe budget by only a few hundred dollars—quite a feat.)
THE MONKEE LOOK The first innovation I came up with was a plasterion; in cos-tuming tern, that means patch. This technique was used on what in now known as the Monkee shin. I didn’t want to design lregular double-breasted shirt, and though the Monkee shins ook as though they’re double-breasted. actually they’re not. As you know, there are two rows of four buttons down the
My book on The Monkees — Why The Monkees Matter — brought great joy into my life this year – allowing me to host a few book signings, attend a few concerts, meet a few of the more fabulous members of the Zilch Podcast Nation and even resulted in my being invited into the (marvelous and mind-blowing to my inner nine-year-old) St. Louis concert VIP photo op line where I had this lovely photo taken with Micky and Peter (and saw to it that they both had copies of the book).
In 2017 I’m looking forward to seeing these projects published:
PERFORM: Succeeding as a Creative Professional. Chapter 5 Essay. Starting Over: “Everything I Need To Know About A Career In Hollywood I Learned From Writing Scripts” Editor: Anna Weinstein. January 2017
Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color Chapter: “Hidden Behind Hoopskirts: The Many Women of Hollywood’s Civil War Sagas”, “ Doug Brode, editor, 2018.
“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:
This particular episode called “Monkee Mother” — which starred Rose Marie who you can’t not love, right, from The Dick Van Dyke show. Written by Peter Meyerson his partner Bob Schmidt, yeah, Robert Schmidt. They had a scene which I do have a clip of later when I get to it. They’re playing dominos and in the middle of playing they knock down all the dominos. Davy says to Peter, “What do you call this game?” and he says “Southeast Asia.” And if you know your American history the Domino Theory of Communism was we had to stop it where it existed so that wouldn’t go and domino all over the world. The Smother Brothers get cancelled for mentioning the war and these guys just did it. They did a lot of stuff like that.
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.”
On this 1976 episode of The Dinah Shore Show Micky and Davy introduce their new group – Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart. They begin by singing a medley of Monkees tunes with Dinah, then move to the couch and chat about Micky and Davy’s participation in a recent charity tennis tournament in Africa where they played tennis with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and Dean Paul (Dino) Martin Jr. Finally the guests participate in an impromptu spelling bee in honor of the other young guest on the show who had won that year’s spelling bee.
The conversation is vintage Hollywood celebrity of the 1970s. It wraps up with DJB&H admittedly lip synching to their new song – so that sound quality is low since the onstage microphones could not pick up the music that was piping in to the audience. It’s interesting to see that the more impromptu singing of the earlier medley – with Micky playing guitar for Pleasant Valley Sunday – was live and the full song at the end was not. Micky makes several jokes about how Hollywood works, again representing the fact that he was a child of the town moreso than any of the others.
It was not possible to look at The Monkees through the prism of Ethnic Studies during its initial run on television, but it is possible – and is also enlightening – to do so now.
The Monkees run on NBC came at the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement that urged the expansion of Ethnic Studies and in the midst of the Red Power Movement that would culminate in the occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969.
You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library
Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Here’s one of the most controversial adaptations over the last 15 years. Pat Conroy and The Prince of Tides which was purchased by Barbra Streisand’s company to be turned into a film. People who read Conroy’s stuff — and particularly this novel — they were so in love with this book and I must say, I read it after I saw the movie, so it was a very unique experience. Had I read it first, I might have been on their side and angry with how the movie came out, but I didn’t. So, I didn’t understand and the movies, I thought, was quite well done. It got many Oscar nominations and whatnot. The story here is about a southern family — Tome Wingo is our lead character — the sister, Savannah, the brother Luke — who has committed suicide in the course of the novel and this therapist, Susan Lowenstein, who is played by Barbra Streisand who also directed the film. So, in the book, we have the family and the therapist and the therapist is working with the girl, Savannah, because she has tried to commit suicide and so we have to understand that it all traces back to this dark day in the family where this awful thing happened and the mother covered it up.
About this talk
Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
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.”
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