I deeply appreciate folks like Sarah Clark and Ken Mills and Tom O’Keefe for inviting me into their pre-show photo op at Saturday’s 50th Anniversary Monkees Concert in St. Louis.
While I’ve always enjoyed The Monkees concerts (from my first in 1986 to those in the 90s, and 2013/14 and at the Pantages earlier this year) this one impressed me. Their level of showmanship, vocal and instrumental prowess and the overall sense of fun and brotherhood that emanated off the stage made it one to remember.
“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:
In the Star Trek episode you are seeing this woman with this very interesting outfit. There was a censor on the set when they filmed it to make sure that it didn’t move so that you would never saw the bottom of her breast. It was illegal to show the bottom of a female’s breast on television. So the side was OK. You get a little side picture there. and you may or may not know agin from Star Trek that this is the first interracial kiss ever on television and the censors did not want to allow it. the only way to do it was they did not want to be kissing. They were forced to do it by some Greek gods who were having fun with the humans.
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.”
A couple of photographs from my “Why The Monkees Matter” book signing in St. Louis today. It has been a busy week as I was at the Citizen Jane Film Festival in Columbia, MO where my Stephen College MFA in Screenwriting students were presenting a panel of papers on historic women screenwriters. it was well received and one of the most well-attended of all the panels. I look forward to doing this in future years, too.
After that, and a series of meetings with Stephens College folk, it was time to head off to St. Louis for a 1 pm signing of “Why the Monkees Matter” at a local Barnes and Noble. I worked hard to set up this signing when I heard that the Monkees would be performing in St. Louis tonight.
After meeting some great people at the signing it was time for some dinner with a collection of fans from the Zilch Podcast, where I’ve been interviewed about the book, and then off to the concert.
After this whirlwind, I’ll be heading back to work in California on Sunday.
Thanks for all who turned out and bough the book at Barnes and Noble and elsewhere. It is great to be able to share my feelings on The Monkees and find the others are just as interested — if not more so — than I am.
The Kind of Girl I Could Love: Feminism in The Monkees
In 58 episodes none of the fictional Monkees ever ended up in bed with a girl, they never mistreated a girl and almost never chased the skirt of a bimbo. Only once did a lead character make a sexually provocative joke.
“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:
Now we think about censorship and the timeframe we’re in. Let’s think about what’s going on in television right now. Ok? We have codes about what you can and can’t do. The Smothers Brothers are going to get cancelled because they talk too much about the Vietname War and The Monkees talked about it before The Smothers Brothers showed up. Pete Seeger is not going to be allowed to sing “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” because that’s about the Vietnam War and so he will not be allowed to sing that on television for a couple of years. Barbara Eden — who knows what was censored about Barbara Eden? (Audience) “Belly Button!” Her belly button. Her outfit, her harem outfit could not go below the belly button. You can’t show women’s belly button. On That Girl, Marlo Thomas had — any time she dated her boyfriend, Donald, we had to see Donald leave her apartment and her shut the door behind him. You could not assume that he had spent the night with her. She was a single woman living alone and you had to know that she was stilla virgin to make her acceptable to television. Right? This is what we’re talking about here in 1966.
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.”
They decided Mike would represent ‘us’, the leader, the one with his feet on the ground; Micky was meant to be the crazy off-the-wall type; Davy was a heartthrob, and then they came to the decision whether Peter would play a genius or a total idiot. “It was like voting on deciding the Pope. Sadly Peter was so smart and so perceptive and so insightful and yet we decided to make his character a total idiot for the sake of the comedy.”
![Dr. Rosanne Welch with The Monkees, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz, Family Arena, St. Louis, MO, November 5, 2016 [Photo]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/rmw-tork-dolenz.jpg)
![Star Trek, Sex, and Race from 1960’s TV Censorship and The Monkees with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (0:50)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/monkees-censorship-09-star-trek.jpeg)
![More on the The Monkees Influence on Popular Culture from An Interview with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author of “Why The Monkees Matter” on the Zilch Podcast [Audio]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Zilch48-940x198.jpg)
![Censorship in 1960’s Television from 1960’s TV Censorship and The Monkees with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (1:05)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/monkees-censorship-08-1960s-tv.jpeg)
