“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:
I’m going to talk a little about the process of creating the book and going to publication. This is the book and it was really funny the things I learned along the way. The people who work at the publishing company must be all in their twenties which is a lovely beautiful thing. When they searched for a picture to put on the front cover and they sent me the picture to approve, they sent me a picture with 3 of the members of the band in it. They cut out Peter Tork and I had to send back a thing and they clearly Googled images that they wanted and found a cute image and they didn’t know the difference. At one point the bad was only three members. He did quit at some point and they must have thought that was normal and so I had to call back and say “You’ll cut out one quarter of the people who will purchase this by insulting them by not putting it in” so they found another picture that included all of them. So I thought that was pretty funny. And the whole thing actually began because I am on the editorial board for Written By Magazine and I like to write about people I’d like to meet. So I met Russell T Davies from Doctor Who by interviewing him for Written By Magazine and I wanted to meet Micky Dolenz because when I was a kid I had a crush on him.
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
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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