Before there was the Lady Gaga remake of A Star is Born there was the 1937 original A Star is Born, written by Dorothy Parker (see Column #3 in this series). Before that, there was What Price Hollywood? (1932), written by Jane Murfin (and Adela Rogers St. Johns) which earned a Best Writing, Original Story nomination for the two female screenwriters at that year’s Academy Award ceremony.
Few Hollywood history books ever reference the name Jane Murfin even though she wrote and co-wrote and directed over 60 produced films in a career spanning over three decades and was a founding member of the Screenwriter’s Guild. She was one of the most prolific writers of the 1920s and ’30s.
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
Transcript:
…because my argument with my friend that started all of this was that at the end of “Children of Earth” when Jack has to sacrifice his grandson, for all the good work that Russell has done with female characters my argument was, why wasn’t that his son? Because by making it his grandson – if you remember – the mother was outside the room banging on the door. So he usurped his daughter’s power as the parent of her own child and killed him as opposed to – if it was his son – I mean you shouldn’t kill your kid – you know what I am saying – that was like this one degree of separation and that made her character useless and unempowered and I don’t know why that occurred to him at all. So that was my argument and that’s actually what my article is about – why that didn’t work dramatically for me in that it dealt with that female character but it started the whole thing and caused me to be very interested in Torchwood.
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
Transcript:
…and I did want to make a quick bit about this yesterday. I mentioned this book to some folks it’s “The Writer’s Tale” where Russell talks not just about the last series with David Tennant but also he talks about writing “Children of Earth” and how the questions and the ideas were coming to him and what he worried about and then the actual watching the pilot and the different you know going to the edits. He really discusses the job of being Executive Producer and how much work it was. He was doing both of those things at the same time which is crazy but that’s how people do it when they do it in town. So to me, these are the many reasons why Torchwood is still worth talking about and I do wish they had kept to the alien of the week and done that for maybe five seasons before we went off into “Children of Earth” and then I would have done. I would have ended right?
Host: Usually the directors become the heroes of film history. What’s different between the history of screenwriters and the history of directors or actors or actresses in what gets remembered?
Rosanne: Of course. We always grant you that people go first to see an actor or an actress. They fall for that person. That’s who they are going to see the movie for. That’s just the truth. The whole writer-director thing makes me crazy. Back in the day, they recognized writers more. Writers were in “Photoplay” magazine when they had marriages or they were taking vacations. We read about people like Lorna Moon and Anita Loos, obviously. All these people and then what happens is the “Auteur Theory” shows up and the “Auteur Theory” blows us away because François Truffaut over there in France decides directors are the real author of a movie. Even though they don’t write anything unless they’re writer/directors and I always tell my students the word Writer still comes before Director in that phrase.a
The Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting is building a relationship with the Autry Museum of the American West since both organizations are devoted to bringing out more diverse and untold stories. Last year we were able to take our cohort of graduating MFA candidates to the museum’s theatre for a showing of Michael Wilson’s Salt of the Earth and we had plans to present a film of our choice this year – but of course the pandemic changed all that. Instead, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis asked me if I would sit for an interview about female screenwriters in the western genre and so “When Women Wrote Westerns” came to be a part of their “What Is a Western? Interview Series”.
I had a great time discussing so many wonderful women writers – from Jeanne MacPherson to D.C. Fontana to Edna Ferber to Emily Andras. If you love westerns I suggest you watch Josh’s other interviews covering everything from the work of Native Americans in Western movies to films in the western-horror hybrid. —
What this entire presentation
As part of a series exploring the significance of the Western genre and the ways in which the movies shape our understanding of the American West, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis interviews Professor Rosanne Welch about the women screenwriters of Hollywood and their contributions to the Western genre.
It was great to be able to attend this year’s SD WhoCon in San Diego and present this lecture on “The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years” in which I discuss how successful I think showrunner Christopher Chibnall was in making that transition.
It gave me a chance to talk about the creative work of a showrunner/screenwriter while also reconnecting to some friends we had met at this same convention some 3 years ago – and to talk about one of my favorite subjects – Doctor Who!
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
Transcript:
Writing of your own work and the rewriting of other people is a very important part of your job and I think this quote sticks with me from “Rosa” and I don’t know if Mallory Blackman wrote it or if Chibnall wrote it but “Tiny things can change the world” which is that lovely moment at the end of Rosa. So it’s not just a story about history in the United States because now there is this meteor named after her right? So the idea of the bigness of all of this right and they were all part of the same planet which really goes back to “Star Trek” again and we should all come together. I think that’s so truly a part of Doctor Who that he caught he captured in that line. I just love that moment. I think it’s so beautiful and I think amazing the way that stories we see on television affect our lives and help us make choices and ideas and think about who we are. So that to me is the biggest job that he did. Again he had to cast this room full of these people and I think he did a good job of all of those. So I really think he did a good job. I know we’re not all completely always happy with him but I think he made a promise and he came through on it and to me that’s pretty successful. When you’re handed a franchise that’s 50 years old and what new thing are you going to come up and do with it. So that’s my story on Chris Chibnall. Thank you all for coming.
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
Transcript:
So, now that we have that happening, gee whiz, Neil Gaiman is doing “Sandman” in London and he’s brought over Alan Heinberg who’s an American writer who’s been in Shondaland for many years. He’s done several of her shows and then was the writer hired to write the first “Wonder Woman” movie. So, he’s an American guy through and through but Neil Gaiman was like “That’s the guy I need on my show.” So now, Allan has moved to London for the last nine months working with Neil, and what a – just as it was an honor for Jane to want Russell to work with her, Allan felt that way about Neil Gaiman choosing him. So, we’re going to have the two sensibilities in this one piece and this stuff didn’t happen in the past either, right? This is a new idea that we can do that. Partially that’s also built up with Netflix and the idea that we’re now watching more international television. It’s not just American shows going everywhere and Americans now have this access to newer things. So I just think that’s pretty amazing. All of this to me comes from Torchwood.
…and then really in the very modern-day what I think is really interesting is there’s a show on Sci-Fi called “Wynonna Earp” and it’s out of Canada. So we have a Canadian, Emily Andrus, and so female writer. She’s taking a western icon, Wyatt Earp and she’s flipping it and giving his great-granddaughter the job of using his big rifle – which is called Peacemaker – and killing the ghosts of all the bad guys that Wyatt Earp was once up against because they come back. All right? So oh what a flip of our story, right? I think that’s a really cool and people sort of dismiss it but it also has a really lovely LGBTQ storyline because they give Wynonna a sister who’s gay and she and the sheriff – who’s a girl – are a partnership and you’re like whoa – girl Sheriff having a relationship. The whole thing is like so all this new stuff and yet there’s a really cool book called “Roaring Camp.” It’s about the Gold Rush by Susan Johnson. Using primary documents she documented all these people who truly lived in the Gold Rush and I remember this great team of two men who ran a restaurant for like 40 years together and they lived together. Of course, there’s no paperwork that says they were a couple because nobody’s going to write that down in the day but you know that’s what was going on. It’s like all these people occupied the west and we don’t talk about them and for whatever reason, maybe because women are forgotten a lot, they also like to look for those other forgotten stories and bring them to life. So I think Emily’s a pretty cool person and I’m really interested in a Canadian looking at American history. Very interesting.
The Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting is building a relationship with the Autry Museum of the American West since both organizations are devoted to bringing out more diverse and untold stories. Last year we were able to take our cohort of graduating MFA candidates to the museum’s theatre for a showing of Michael Wilson’s Salt of the Earth and we had plans to present a film of our choice this year – but of course the pandemic changed all that. Instead, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis asked me if I would sit for an interview about female screenwriters in the western genre and so “When Women Wrote Westerns” came to be a part of their “What Is a Western? Interview Series”.
I had a great time discussing so many wonderful women writers – from Jeanne MacPherson to D.C. Fontana to Edna Ferber to Emily Andras. If you love westerns I suggest you watch Josh’s other interviews covering everything from the work of Native Americans in Western movies to films in the western-horror hybrid. —
What this entire presentation
As part of a series exploring the significance of the Western genre and the ways in which the movies shape our understanding of the American West, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis interviews Professor Rosanne Welch about the women screenwriters of Hollywood and their contributions to the Western genre.
It was great to be able to attend this year’s SD WhoCon in San Diego and present this lecture on “The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years” in which I discuss how successful I think showrunner Christopher Chibnall was in making that transition.
It gave me a chance to talk about the creative work of a showrunner/screenwriter while also reconnecting to some friends we had met at this same convention some 3 years ago – and to talk about one of my favorite subjects – Doctor Who!
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
Transcript:
Right and even there’s a moment who’s discussing The Waters Of Mars” where but it’s not special enough. It’s just another episode but it’s one of these you know hour and a half ones. I got to do better. What would make it better? And then he writes, what if The Doctor knows all these people have to die and he can’t tell them? Now there are stakes. Now it means something. Now it’s a special and he literally – so it’s a really cool. It’s called “The Writer’s Tale.” Again it’s really thick but it’s great. You’re literally reading the on-time ideas coming through their head and then to the very end and some of the stuff when he’s doing “Torchwood Children of Earth” he’s talking about and then at the very end when he writes his last episode and they go to the table read and then he goes home and he’s like now what do I do? Like now what do I do?
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
Transcript:
What worked with that – at least in terms of how television is produced – is that he was producing across the pond – across the ocean. It was a cross-cultural thing, right? So he came here both to include some American actors and, for me, to include American writers which I think is really interesting right and he really wanted to do that. He actually came specifically to work with Jane Espenson who I adore brilliantly from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but she’s done many many things. Right now she’s on “The Nevers” and he talked about, when I met him, he talked about how he’d watched her work for so many years and it was his dream to come here and create a writer’s room, which is different from what they do, again, in England. They usually have their set guides. You’re all gonna write two or three episodes. Go home and do it. You and I will meet over lunch and chat but here, of course, we get together every day and sit around the table and talk and talk and talk and he wanted that experience. He wanted – that’s one of the reasons he came here and he wanted it with her, which is really kind of cool and she adored working with him. She admits that the show didn’t exactly work but adored the experience.
I think we sometimes have to think about women who wrote western novels which were then adapted by men but the core characters are going to have come from the female perspective. So for me, that’s Edna Ferber and it’s always weird that she wrote you know “So Big” and “Cimarron” and “Giant” which is a huge sprawling thing and she’s an easterner. She’s a member of the Algonquin Round Table. She hangs around with you know Harpo Marx and you know Alexander Wolcott and she’s doing all that witty New York stuff but she’s writing about this period. Which is to me reminiscent of the fact that Teddy Roosevelt right is just a straight New Yorker but he comes out here and becomes I’m the West dude and I’m gonna do all that stuff. So anyone can claim to sort of own the West because it becomes our American Myth and everybody wants to be tied to that. Which is why I think Edna Ferb is someone I think you should read.
The Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting is building a relationship with the Autry Museum of the American West since both organizations are devoted to bringing out more diverse and untold stories. Last year we were able to take our cohort of graduating MFA candidates to the museum’s theatre for a showing of Michael Wilson’s Salt of the Earth and we had plans to present a film of our choice this year – but of course the pandemic changed all that. Instead, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis asked me if I would sit for an interview about female screenwriters in the western genre and so “When Women Wrote Westerns” came to be a part of their “What Is a Western? Interview Series”.
I had a great time discussing so many wonderful women writers – from Jeanne MacPherson to D.C. Fontana to Edna Ferber to Emily Andras. If you love westerns I suggest you watch Josh’s other interviews covering everything from the work of Native Americans in Western movies to films in the western-horror hybrid. —
What this entire presentation
As part of a series exploring the significance of the Western genre and the ways in which the movies shape our understanding of the American West, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis interviews Professor Rosanne Welch about the women screenwriters of Hollywood and their contributions to the Western genre.
![24 Conclusion from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/rmw-whocon-2021-torchwood-24.jpg)
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![22 Sandman from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/rmw-whocon-2021-torchwood-22.jpg)
![12 LGBTQIA+ in The West from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/rmw-western-12.jpg)
![30 2more On From Idea to Execution from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/rmw-whocon-2021-chibnall-30.jpg)
![11 Edna Ferber from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/rmw-western-11.jpg)