“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:
So I wanted to focus on a little TV history and a little bit on censorship. So, I’m looking at them and the whole part of their story that makes them interesting is that they got away with doing and saying things on television in the 1960’s that other people — like The Smother’s Brothers — were cancelled for saying. So, my question was, “How did they do that? What’s the story?” And part of it comes from having interviewed the writers and one of them said, “Network executives didn’t understand what we were saying. So we got by with a lot.” They were referencing marijuana and all these things that the older executives had no idea. So, I thought that was kind of funny. Now, I always talk about writers. I love The Monkees as actors, but these are the people whose words I fell in love with as a kid and these are the people who I met when I wrote the article. Dave Evans, he’s a marvelous, lovely guy. He had written for Bullwinkle and then he moved to The Monkees. Gerald Gardener had been a speech writer for Robert Kennedy when he ran for the senatorship in New York. He’d been friends with the Kennedy family and then he went into television — started on Get Smart and when the folks were putting together The Monkees they wanted hip, flip, new, young kids and the guys on Get Smart recommended him and his partner Dee Caruso. So I got to interview him. Fascinating guy.
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.”
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.
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.”
For this presentation to my international colleagues at the the Screenwriting Research Network conference (held in Leeds September 7-10, 2016) (http://screenwritingresearch.com/) blended two of my talks on The Monkees in order to address the conference themes of “Screenwriting between Artistic Freedom and Norms”.
I have always felt that The Monkees television program was and is still a significant moment in American television because of the way they were “Challenging Norms” so that is the title I chose to include a bit about the way the show addressed burgeoning feminism as well as how they skirted Censorship rules by including jokes about drug use and an anti-war attitude which, through the use of the newer slang language and comedic parody.
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
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.”
“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:
How many people have never heard of The Monkees? Few bodies, Ok. 1960s from ’66 when they did the pilot till 1968 they were on the air. Some people call them the original boy band. They are 4 men — actors and musicians — who were hired for a sitcom about rock and rollers in the 60’s and they also all could actually play their own instruments although there were rumors they could not and the first album other people played the instruments and they sang, but later they did everything on all their other albums. They became this huge sensation. In 1967 their albums outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined. They were that huge. They played in Japan and Australia — all over the world. It was huge. And in like 2 years, it disappeared. Which happens a lot. But in 1986, which was the 20th Anniversary of the show, MTV ran a marathon of all the episodes ever and it hooked a whole new generation of people. They started a reunion concert tour that was the highest grossing tour of 1986. Above any other rock and roll band and they were 20 years older than they had been when the shows was on the air. and from that point on, every 5-6 years, they run another reunion tour, which they’re running right now since it’s the 50th Anniversary of their show.
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.”
“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:
…And I wanted to meet Micky Dolenz because, when I was a kid, I had a crush on him. So, I, (laughter), but Written By is not a celebrity magazine. It’s a magazine of writers. So, I pitched, what if I interview all the writers of The Monkees? All the people who are in their 80’s who once wrote for The Monkees who are still alive. And their like “Oooo, what a cool idea.” So I met wth the writers of the show and it was fascinating. They had also written for many other things — Get Smart, Laugh-In. They’d won Emys for The Mary Tyler Moore Show later in their career. They were all very accomplished people and then I wrote this article and I used the article as the proposal for the book and, obviously, that’s how it all happened. So, I think it is really interesting, the process, but to create something for this conference, the conference theme is censorship. So, I thought “Ok, let me adjust to this.”
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.”
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.
It takes Time Burton to come back and finally use the real story in the book and make a film that is much more honest and loyally covering the story. The problem is, it’s not as popular because we fell in love with the softer, milder, gentler version of it and the people who liked that film didn’t find themselves liking the film that is actually much more based on the real book. So that’s a trap. If you allow your book to be adapted, it’s going to grow and change and you might not appreciate where it goes, if you’re Truman Capote or Roald Dahl. I always think that’s very interesting. I didn’t like this version. I like Johnny Depp. I saw it. My kid saw it. I have a copy of the Gene Wilder DVD and we keep playing that one. That works for me. So, this is — a piece becomes a new thing when it becomes a film and writers have to be able to let it go.
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.”
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