On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Writing, Film, Television and More!
Why The Monkees Mattered: Chapter 4: The Kind of Girl I could Love: Feminism, Gender and Sexuality in The Monkees
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Monkees Question of the Moment: What did The Monkees Teach You About Dating and Relationships?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Came across this in my Internet travels and I hadn’t seen it before. This is a very funky, caricature-style of the 4 lads and quite unlike anything else I have ever seen.
Click for larger image
In her coverage of a day at the set of The Monkees, Gloria Malerba was able to show her (largely teen) readers how much hard work goes into filming a television show – and how many people are employed by such a hit show.
I particularly like the photo on the lower left of Davy Jones in costume taking “a last minute look at the script’ – a nice reminder that as often as we hear the show as ‘all ad-libbed’ – it was not. Writers conceived the characters and conflicts and then wrote dialogue for each of the regular stars.
Image: Big Glee: The Albert Bryan Bigley Archives – Click for larger image
Keeping my focus on the television program it’s nice to post this cast and crew photo – traditionally taken at the end of each season. (Found at The Monkees Live Almanac. A great resource for tons of Monkees info) This offers fans and students the chance to see just how many skilled and talented craftsmen and women are required to create television.
In Why The Monkees Matter I discuss the work of several of these folks and how it contributed to the magic of The Monkees.
#14 is of particular interest as property master Jack Williams actually appeared on the program and was referenced in a couple of episodes. And many of these folks were invited in front of the camera in the Tag for the Christmas episode, reminding the audience of their contributions.
The pity is that, since writers work in offices elsewhere on the lot, they often don’t appear in such photos – as has happened here.
Link: The Monkees Live Almanac
Who Wrote The Monkees? – “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” by Dave Evans Part 3 of an on-going series
This week’s Antenna offering for The Monkees – “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” – was written by Dave Evans who is one of the nicest, kindest, men I have ever had the pleasure of interviewing.
Mr. Evans remembered being asked by Davy’s manager, Ward Sylvester, to write something that would highlight Davy’s ability with horses and hence this episode was born. Mr. Evans also remembered being asked by Bob Rafaelson to be on set for rewrites as needed, which gave him the chance to get to know the actors early on – an opportunity not all the other writers shared. After his two-season, nine episode run on the show he moved on to Laugh-in and Love, American Style, but told me no other job ever gave him the pleasure The Monkees did, so he eventually quit writing and went into conflict resolution, where he won awards for his ability to bring deeply distant parties together in compromise.
A 2014 article in the Los Angeles Times tells you all you need to know about him:
A tale of two churches — and a persistent racial divide, The Los Angeles Time
After the 1992 Los Angeles Riots Evans, the son of a minister, was a member of an all white Presbyterian church that created a cross town friendship with an all black Presbyterian church. Members of each began to visit the other church to create community. Twenty years later, Evans is the only member of his church still visiting the other church.
More information on The Monkees:
Previously in Who Wrote The Monkees?:
Why The Monkees Mattered: Chapter 3: Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow: Counter-Culture Comes to Television and Middle America via The Monkees
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Monkees Question of the Moment: What did you learn about the counter-culture from The Monkees?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
So exciting to share the cover art that the McFarland graphics team has put together for my book! It makes everything start to feel more and more real.
Even though it won’t be available until Fall (the better to coordinate with the premiere of the show!) I enjoy seeing each step in the process.
Guess it’s time to make up some bookmarks with this to hand out at events!
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture by Rosanne Welch
Read more about “Why The Monkees Matter”, including chapter titles and more
In honor of Micky Dolenz 71st birthday here’s my opinion of his best natural smile, displayed in a moment from Monkee Mother (written by Peter Meyerson and Bob Schlitt).
The episode involves guest star Rose Marie (from the recently ended Dick Van Dyke Show) as Millie, a woman who moves into the Monkees’ beach house when they can’t pay rent. As a way of highlighting each Monkees’ niceness (in a time when all long-haired boys were bad ones) Millie has a moment with each boy where she asks him to do a household chore and then declares each ‘a nice boy’.
From 7:40-8:09 she asks Micky to fix a leaky faucet.
Another highlight is at 9:06 when Peter asks Millie if she likes music and then they go into Micky’s lead vocals on “Sometime in the Morning”, perhaps the finest of Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s songs written for the show.
We all know he’s done great work behind the cameras and on the Broadway stage since the show – but today we’re wishing Happy Birthday to the Voice of The Monkees.
Who wrote The Monkees? – “Monkees in a Ghost Town” by Robert Schlitt and Peter Meyerson Part 2 of an on-going series
The second Monkees episode Antenna TV is airing this weekend is “Monkees in a Ghost Town”, by the writing team of Robert Schlitt and Peter Meyerson. The partnership ended shortly after their work on The Monkees with Schmitt moving into one-hour dramas such as The Father Dowling Mysteries and, eventually, Matlock while Meyerson teamed up with fellow Monkees writer Treva Silverman on an episode of That Girl and a Buck Henry series called Captain Nice before eventually co-creating Welcome Back, Kotter.
I was lucky enough to interview Mr. Meyerson several months before he passed away and he regaled me with several stories about his time on the show and socializing with the actors, particularly at parties at Peter’s house, as Meyerson himself was quite the hippie, so their philosophies were well matched.
A few of the other writers I interviewed kept referring to Mr. Meyerson as their ‘college guy’ and in “Ghost Town” we see his homage to that perennial of literature courses – Of Mice and Men.
Yes, that is veteran actor, Lon Chaney, Jr. on the right.
More information on The Monkees:
Previously in Who Write The Monkees?:
Who wrote The Monkees? – “Success Story” by Bernie Orenstein Part 1 of an on-going series
The Monkees episode Antenna TV will air this weekend is “Success Story” – written by Bernie Orenstein, a freelancer who wrote two other episodes: “Dance, Monkee, Dance” and “Monkees à la Carte”.
This 5 minute interview focuses on his memories of writing for The Monkees .
His more full time writing was on the variety show The Hollywood Palace which showcased Hollywood talent such as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. He later produced Sanford and Son. In our interview I asked Mr. Orenstein if he was part of the youth culture and he said with a laugh, “My wife accuses me of missing the sixties entirely, and I’m afraid she’s right. I avoided the ‘emerging counter-culture scene’ mostly because I didn’t know there was one going on.” He has taught in the MFA program for Writing and Producing Television at Long Island University in Brooklyn.
