Podcast – Page 85 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A Movie Not Really About Steve Jobs from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:57)

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.

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Transcript:

Hey, guess what’s in the theaters right now that’s an adaptation? We have the Steve Jobs film which comes originally from the book by Walter Isaacson. Being made into the film now which just opened. Aaron Sorkin is the screenwriter here and Aaron Sorkin fully admits in all interviews “I want you to get the feel of his life, not the facts of his life.” So he made up a bunch of stuff and added it to the movie because he thought it made a more interesting scene. It doesn’t even come from the book. It’s things he imagined maybe Jobs might have done when he was visiting with friends or having a private conversation with this daughter. And Sorkin fully admits that he was interested in studying the relationship between the father and the daughter because in his own life he has a dysfunctional relationship with his daughter and so in a couple of interviews I heard recently on NPR he came out and said, “I really just wrote a movie about me and my daughter and I threw Steve Jobs name on it.” That’s how far from the book he has taken that particular story.

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.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

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Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

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Dr. Rosanne Welch at Golden Leaves Presentation 2017, Cal Poly Pomona [Video]

We had a great time on Friday April 14th as the Cal Poly Pomona Library celebrated all the professors who published books this year.

People laughed at the fact that I had two books to discuss – the encyclopedia I co-edited with my friend and colleague Peg Lamphier – Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia — and, of course, my book about The Monkees – Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture.

Each author was asked to describe their book. The encyclopedia came first (since Peg’s last name is Lamphier and the practice of alphabetical discrimination lives on). I let her have the honors since I knew I would speak about The Monkees’ book last. Going last I also had to keep in mind that the rest of the audience had already received their awards and were anxious to get back to the delightful dessert table – so humor came to the rescue as I commented on how odd it was to be speaking about my favorite television show when I was six after other professors had spoken of Immanuel Kant and architectural digs in South America and Mass Spectatorship in Modern France.

Here’s how I closed out the show…

Thanks to Doug for taking all the photos and video – and to Peg for being such a great collaborator – and to all the friends and fans who have read the book and enjoyed learning more about the 1967 Emmy Winner for Best New Comedy Series.

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More Percy Jackson from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:25)

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.

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

So, because of simply changing his age by a few years they totally tweaked how the book turned into a film and it failed, miserably. They were going to make all 5 films, but they only ended up making two. Which is really kind of amazing when you think about it because it came after Harry Potter. They had a lesson in how to do it properly and they ignored every single moment, which shocks me.

About this talk

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Monkees and the 50 Year Charm from Why The Monkees Matter Book Signing, Book Soup, Hollywood [Video] (0:57)

This book signing at Book Soup was wonderful – good people, good conversation (before and after the signing). Just another example of the kind of quality positive people who have been drawn to The Monkees across generations – I even met a former head of publicity for ScreenGems who had some fun stories to tell. — Rosanne

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Transcript:

Now, a deep study into anything can teach us much about everything. it’s why we teach critical studies in television in the first place and that’s why I wrote the book for my students, but I also wrote it in honor of — and to honor — all the fans who have loved the show hoping to see these people in concert again when they grow up and that dream was actually realized in the last so many generations and so that is pretty amazing. What’s interesting about The Monkees to me is anything that reaches the 50-year mark tends to get a little bit more respect finally. The Hula Hoop went from a kids craze to a staple in physical education classes. Today, it’s considered a very important thing. War surplus spam has become hip because people in Hawaii started to eat it and then it was cool because that’s where it came from. Now Spam. you can go eat at restaurants. I don’t know why you would, but people do. This book, it tends to show how the 50-year charm has proven true for The Monkees.

Buy “Why The Monkees Matter” Today!

Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

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Adapting Percy Jackson from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:54)

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.

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

Now, the excellent work adapting Harry Potter was tossed away when they adapted the Rick Riordan series that my son loved — Percy Jackson. Loved these books and in many ways, they are ripoffs of Harry Potter. They just really are. I’m sorry. Kid finds out he’s a Greek god instead of the wizard. What’s the difference? All right, I going to be powerful and save the world. The problem is when they went to make these into movies they didn’t trust the source material. In the film version, this boy is 17. In the book, he’s 12. The thing that a child can say to his parents at 12 sound ridiculous and whiny if a 17-year-old says them. So they destroyed the support for that character by making him older and they only did that so that his best friend — his Hermoine — in the books can actually be the hot chick he wants to have a relationship with in the older books. So we don’t care about 12-year-olds having it we want the 16-year-old to have a girlfriend.

About this talk

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Monkees as Cultural Touchstone from Why The Monkees Matter Book Signing, Book Soup, Hollywood [Video] (1:04)

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Transcript:

What I’m not sure that I should admit — in such an august work of academia — is that I concocted the entire pitch for the original piece in Written By magazine partly for an excuse to interview Micky Dolenz. I’m sorry, but he was the teen idol of my childhood. So, I guess I won’t admit that to anybody. But I can tell you, the mere fact that I, a 50-year-old professional writer and academic, squealed when I hung up the phone that day after the interview and immediately called 3 or 4 of my oldest and best chick friends to say that I had just hung up on Micky Dolenz tells you something about the cultural touchstone that this group was for my generation and interestingly enough, for the next generation and the next generation, thanks to reruns on MTV and today the reruns on Antenna television, which I think is really something special.

Rachel Maddow stated during an interview with Peter Tork that “the teenagers of the 80’s learned what it was like to be a teenager in the 60’s from watching The Monkees reruns on MTV.” And that tells you something important about the show and how it’s resonated across time.

Buy “Why The Monkees Matter” Today!

Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Rosanne Guests on Zilch #84 Top 10 Monkees Guest Appearances

I had a blast as a guest talking head in this Zilch round table discussion of the Top Ten guest acting spots made by the lead’ actors before and after their time on The Monkees. Producers Melanie Mitchell and Sarah Clark invited me, Cindy Large and Richard Woloski to vote on and then discuss (ala Casey Kasem’s American Top 40) a variety of shows such as Micky’s early work on Peyton Place, Peter’s stop off on California Dreamin’ and the all-famous, iconic Davy taking Marcia to the prom on The Brady Bunch.

Zilch #84 Top 10 Monkees Guest Appearances & Jeffrey Sherman of Boy Meets World!

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It’s a double-header! First, The Gang (including Rosanne Welch) rates their favorite Monkees TV Guest Appearances from Ed Sullivan to Portlandia—and beyond. Then, Melanie and Sarah talk with Boy Meets World Writer and Producer Jeffrey Sherman about the Monkees’ guest appearance, his musical heritage, and his amazing Hollywood memories.PS–Stay tuned all the way to the end for an update from Casey Kasem!

I had a blast as a guest talking head in this Zilch round table discussion of the Top Ten guest acting spots made by the lead’ actors before and after their time on The Monkees. Producers Melanie Mitchell and Sarah Clark invited me, Cindy Large and Richard Woloski to vote on and then discuss (ala Casey Kasem’s American Top 40) a variety of shows such as Micky’s early work on Peyton Place, Peter’s stop off on California Dreamin’ and the all-famous, iconic Davy taking Marcia to the prom on The Brady Bunch.

Harry Potter and What To Leave Out from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (1:02)

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.

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

So, when we come around to Harry Potter coming of age, that’s the same book that has all the elf stuff going on with Hermoine and she’s going to unionize the elves and all that stuff. That doesn’t appear in the movie at all. That has nothing to do with Harry Potter and his growing. So that storyline disappears. So, it’s and interesting choice. it’s a difficult choice. it’s why they then chose to split the last book in two, not just to make a lot more money, but because they did, but because they didn’t want to throw too much away and they had gained enough power and enough cache at that point that they could do that. It’s one of the more successful adaptations really of all time and in contrast little tiny things change like, for instance, you have to remember — you have to read the books again — when it’s time to get the gilly weed in the movie it gets given to him by Neville because we have to keep the Neville character alive. In the book, Dobby gives it to him, but Dobby is — we can’t waste time on him. Also, he costs money to put on-screen because he’s all fake, right? Little things like that along the way and generally fans weren’t too upset because they understood the reasons for it.

About this talk

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Harry Potter and Theme from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:55)

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.

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

This is a huge thing to adapt and what I think is fascinating is This guy over here, Steve Kloves, he did 6 of the 7 Harry Potter movies. He actually quit after the 3rd movie. He’s like “Well I have to go focus on my own work” and his son said — his son was 10-years-old — “Dad, there’s no cachet in being the son of the guy who used to write the Harry Potter movies.” So he took on the next one and he did all the rest of them. He created a great friendship with J. K. Rowling to the point where they could talk often about things she hadn’t released yet. He was privy to new things coming up and books that had yet to be published and it was a very deep secret — you can’t tell anybody, blah, blah, blah. Really kind of fascinating, but to study the work they did — and one of the great things he said in several interviews — was that they had to look at these giant books and think of the theme. Which is what we teach people to do when their writing films. It’s all about theme. Start with a theme and any storyline that is tangential to that theme has to be thrown away. We can’t waste our time on that.

About this talk

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

How It All Began from Why The Monkees Matter Book Signing, Book Soup, Hollywood [Video] (1:07)

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Transcript:

I started by writing an article for Written By Magazine which is the magazine of the Writers Guild and I’m on their board and I wanted a chance to meet some people so I recommended this idea and from that article, I then used that as the proposal for the book company and that’s what they chose to let me continue it. So that was what was fun. Here’s the beginning part.
I was a fan from the beginning. At the age of 6 when the show debuted on NBC and caused what I often teased was the first great choice of a childhood lived without the benefit of DVR. Should I watch The Monkees or Gilligan’s Island? Both aired at the same non-Bat Time on the same non-Bat Channel. I used that question as the thesis to an essay when many years later I applied to film school and I’m amazed how it still resonates with others of my generation. For my students, that choice harkens back to an unimagined time before VCRs, DVRs or iPads. When one had to choose between two favorite programs and wait for summer reruns to see if the one they hadn’t chosen was going to re-run and you could finally see that story.