On Friday, May 5th I had the honor of delivering the commencement speech at the 2023 Stephens College Commencement Ceremony for Graduate & Continuing Studies as part of having received the Distinguished Faculty Award for the year. The full commencement ceremonies for the 2023 Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting include speeches by MFA student commencement speaker Natalie Cash Petersson and Stephens College President Dianne Lynch.
Together we covered the gamut from “How Watching 1970s TV Gave me the Female Role Models to Succeed in Life” through “How to Channel your Knowledge into Action” and “How to be a Lifelong Learner – After a Well-Deserved Break”.
You can listen to the short ceremony here (the audio is a series of slides but the audio is smooth).
Thanks to my friend and colleague, Ed Fink I was invited to join a couple of panels at this year’s BEA (Broadcast Education Association) conference in Las Vegas last weekend.
One panel involved giving feedback on student pitches for TV shows or films and the other was more of a Q&A about careers in screenwriting. On both I was joined by other friends and colleagues from the writing world and the world of academia – David Morgasen (CSUF) and Jon Vandergriff (who teaches at a couple of colleges and happily one of them is the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting).
The stories we heard in the pitches were lively and several were quite unique, as were the questions about how to gain – and then maintain – a career in writing.
Afterward, the panels ended we three stood in the hallway so long continuing to answer questions such that we invited a few of the stragglers to dinner with us. Since we landed at Benihana we were joined by a father and son from Trinidad and Tobago who were in town for the father’s 30th NAB conference. During our conversation when they heard us mention Ted Lasso they had to ask how a country that doesn’t understand soccer/futbol watches a show set in that world. The film students with us were able to explain that from their generation forward, many, many young American children play on soccer teams – largely because they are co-ed in the younger years whereas baseball and softball segregate the sexes. Amazing the way a conversation ebbs and flows over flame-grilled shrimp and steak.
I started out last week bright and early Monday morning (6 am LA time/ 1500 Paris time) giving a Zoom lecture to the Masters students of the Professeure au département Cinéma et Audiovisuel at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – yep, the Sorbonne.
Department Directrice Kira Kitsopanidou had a Ph.D. student who was using the book I edited – When Women Wrote Hollywood – so they looked me up online and found all those marvelous lecture clips that Doug posts for me and decided to ask me to deliver a lecture on Early Women Writers and Writers Rooms in the U.S.
They wanted an international focus for their students who already know some of the great French female screenwriters in history so they ask academics from other countries to speak about their industries. It was lovely and will result in having an article I wrote for them translated into French, which will be a new experience for me.
Then I capped the week off as an online guest panelist for one of the Kopenhaver Center Conversations along with my friend, colleague, and MFA mentor Rashaan Dozier-Escalante as we discussed Writing as Activism: Creating for Inclusion on the Screen. Moderated by Dr. Bethanie Irons of Stephens College we discussed the lack of representation for writers of different genders, races, ethnicities, and abilities and how writers can make the needed changes because we all recognize that Representation Matters.
The Sorbonne lecture was a private event but you can find the Kopenhaver Center Conversation here. It will be hard to top a week like that BUT then again this weekend I’ll be at the BEA (Broadcast Education Association) conference in Las Vegas on a panel about Writing as a Career and 2 weeks later I’ll be mentoring new writers at this year’s Cinestory weekend workshop in Idyllwild, California – followed by our MFA commencement at Stephens College and a weekend at the SeriesFest in Denver where I’ll have the honor of introducing this year’s Jan Marino Scholarship recipient at their annual Women Creatives Brunch.
Then the fact that you simulcast the newest Doctor. Simulcast because as we got it we always knew the show aired at this hour and you got it and then you had to wait eight hours to see it here etc. Then they realized no that audience with the internet and the explosion of the internet there’s no possible way we can keep the secret it’s going to disappear before we have the chance to enjoy it. So they literally put in the effort to simulcast that moment of changing the character – changing an actor on a show. How could that become so important because Doctor Who. I think that’s really cool. Now slowly because of Doctor Who it’s that long tail thing now other shows you’re being able to sort of jump on that bandwagon and people are saying oh let me look at that. So for instance of course there’s the new All Creatures Great and Small. What I love is all of a sudden by accident some of the shows I chose as examples they all have connections to Doctor Who right? So, for instance, this is the new All Creatures Great and Small but in the top corner I have the original All Creatures which I watched on PBS originally and that’s connected to Doctor Who because… Peter Davidson came to us from that show and then moved into Doctor Who. So I think that’s fun and actually, the bottom picture is how much fandom gets you. When we happened to be lucky enough to go to an event in Leeds we took a train to Thirsk and that is the home of James Herriot and that is the James Herriot Museum. It’s the smallest and most popular little Museum in the whole of that section of England and it was kind of fun and they had a little area where they showed you the set from the original show because we were here before the new show had started. So I’m kind of interested to know how they’ve expanded their Museum but that’s the power right of now globalizing the story.
In this presentation given at the 2022 San Diego WhoCon I had the chance to trace the many ways Doctor Who changed the TV universe. By focusing on the interesting and innovative things the many writers did with the show across the years we were able to see the Who footprint by becoming the first narrative program to reach 50 years on the air, the first to create a spin-off across the ocean, and a show alongside Star Trek that created the Con-craze that brought the world of cosplay to the mainstream. Perhaps most importantly, a love of Doctor Who lead more Americans to watch programming from other countries – from Korean dramas to Mexican telenovelas – which has so enriched our culture.
Then we rebooted “Doctor Who” and even in the David era it was getting there because David was known from “Harry Potter” so there’s a fandom there that’s bringing it together but it was this moment when they debuted Matt – they were like okay we are gonna make a push in the United States. This is going to be so important. That billboard is on Sunset Boulevard in LA. Where normally it’s just a bunch of upcoming movies right or big albums that we expect. So the idea that you could bring this billboard and expect that the people driving by in Los Angeles knew who he was and what that show was. That was an amazing Step In global television and of course Craig Ferguson down there was a Dalek because he’s from the UK anyway so he knew what it was. He was kind of insinuating his love of “Doctor Who” into – but late late night. Not everybody stayed up for the late late night but everybody drove down Sunset Boulevard.
In this presentation given at the 2022 San Diego WhoCon I had the chance to trace the many ways Doctor Who changed the TV universe. By focusing on the interesting and innovative things the many writers did with the show across the years we were able to see the Who footprint by becoming the first narrative program to reach 50 years on the air, the first to create a spin-off across the ocean, and a show alongside Star Trek that created the Con-craze that brought the world of cosplay to the mainstream. Perhaps most importantly, a love of Doctor Who lead more Americans to watch programming from other countries – from Korean dramas to Mexican telenovelas – which has so enriched our culture.
I’m pleased to have been invited as a guest panelist for a Kopenhaver Center Conversation as I share in their goal to “empower both women and non-binary professionals and academics in all the fields of communication, in order to develop visionaries and leaders who can make a difference in their communities.”
Along with my friend and colleague Rashaan Dozier-Escalante we will be discussing “Writing as Activism: Creating for Inclusion on the Screen”.
Join us for this free online event
Friday, April 7, 2023 (1:00-2:00pm Central/11am-12noon Pacific/2-3pm Eastern).
As a satellite location of the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, we share the organization’s primary mission: To empower both women professionals and academics in all the fields of communication, in order to develop visionaries and leaders who can make a difference in their communities and their profession.
So “Baywatch” and “Beverly Hills 90210” were the number one and two exports of television from America to the rest of the world and when I teach students in Los Angeles I always say so that means everybody thinks after you go to class every day you go to the beach and you have a bonfire with your friends and then you grow up to be lifeguards right? That’s a normal LA life which as we all know it’s not at all but that’s the power of Something Going Global. It brings your culture to another country.
In this presentation given at the 2022 San Diego WhoCon I had the chance to trace the many ways Doctor Who changed the TV universe. By focusing on the interesting and innovative things the many writers did with the show across the years we were able to see the Who footprint by becoming the first narrative program to reach 50 years on the air, the first to create a spin-off across the ocean, and a show alongside Star Trek that created the Con-craze that brought the world of cosplay to the mainstream. Perhaps most importantly, a love of Doctor Who lead more Americans to watch programming from other countries – from Korean dramas to Mexican telenovelas – which has so enriched our culture.
Now the other thing about “Doctor Who” that we know is it went Global and this was not something that happened to very many TV shows. When we were younger and we watched it on PBS it was because PBS took the leftover stuff from England and didn’t make a big deal out of it. There wasn’t a big marketing campaign. You landed on it accidentally and went wow this is interesting. What is this and then you got hooked right? Only shows that have gone global in the past were something like Lucille Ball who was already sort of known worldwide from her movie career right or when we get into the 80s “Baywatch” went global to the whole world. The two most exported shows from the United States and we were always the country doing the most exports. Always we went out to 89 different countries. It was much harder for other countries to spread their stuff to us. We had so much on our screens that we didn’t need to buy anything else. We filled our broadcast network time but the other countries had less production so they were buying all our stuff right.
In this presentation given at the 2022 San Diego WhoCon I had the chance to trace the many ways Doctor Who changed the TV universe. By focusing on the interesting and innovative things the many writers did with the show across the years we were able to see the Who footprint by becoming the first narrative program to reach 50 years on the air, the first to create a spin-off across the ocean, and a show alongside Star Trek that created the Con-craze that brought the world of cosplay to the mainstream. Perhaps most importantly, a love of Doctor Who lead more Americans to watch programming from other countries – from Korean dramas to Mexican telenovelas – which has so enriched our culture.
They began as these little tiny things and we know they began in the world of “Star Trek” and Trekkies getting together and all of that. It was a very tiny thing. These guys hadn’t worked in a few years. So it was like oh let’s invite them in. They were interested in doing it. It was this little – Comic-Con was this little comic book convention again mostly for – considered for nerds if you really love comic books and then “Doctor Who” showed up and the actors were willing to come to Comic-Con and the next thing you know thousands of people are flooding this place. It’s almost too big for the convention center anymore because of the power of “Doctor Who” and of course big moment Comic-Con history watching David and Jack kiss each other. We’re just like oh my gosh how is that possible? This is amazing right and now it’s become the kind of thing that every movie studio goes to Comic-Con to show off their new films. This is a huge change. They would not have gone before. They would not have assumed there was an audience there that they cared about but the “Doctor Who” audience showed how loyal it could be and was willing to be showing up and buying tickets and showing up as we know in Cosplay. I mean we kind of invented cosplay because it was harder to do a “Star Trek” uniform but it was easier to do all the various doctor outfits. So I think that’s an amazing thing and we built cons to such a place that they are so respected. Anybody know who’s standing there next to Nichelle Nichols. I know.
Mae Jemison right. The first female African-American astronaut. Sally Ride was the first American astronaut and she’s showing up in a con with Nichelle Nichols because she knew the importance of seeing that character on television made her interested in space. So to show up – like she doesn’t need to do that – she’s got stuff to do right? She’s a scientist. This is how cool it is and how wonderful.
In this presentation given at the 2022 San Diego WhoCon I had the chance to trace the many ways Doctor Who changed the TV universe. By focusing on the interesting and innovative things the many writers did with the show across the years we were able to see the Who footprint by becoming the first narrative program to reach 50 years on the air, the first to create a spin-off across the ocean, and a show alongside Star Trek that created the Con-craze that brought the world of cosplay to the mainstream. Perhaps most importantly, a love of Doctor Who lead more Americans to watch programming from other countries – from Korean dramas to Mexican telenovelas – which has so enriched our culture.
Canonically when you look at television, “Gunsmoke” was considered the longest-running show – 20 years – and you can see that’s actually Bert (Reynolds). He started on that show and then “Law and Order” was on for a good 20 years and “Supernatural.” Thinking of Science Fiction. “Supernatural” is really the longest-running that we’ve had here in the states at 15, which seems like a lot but not compared to “Doctor Who” So the thing about “Doctor Who” is that fandom that built over all these years allowed this explosion in Cons, which were not a normal thing back in the day right? They were just what geeky kids did and nobody took them seriously. Nobody looked deeply into the TV shows they were watching. I think it’s a beautiful thing to think how much the support and the fame of “Doctor Who” has expanded the world of Cons.
In this presentation given at the 2022 San Diego WhoCon I had the chance to trace the many ways Doctor Who changed the TV universe. By focusing on the interesting and innovative things the many writers did with the show across the years we were able to see the Who footprint by becoming the first narrative program to reach 50 years on the air, the first to create a spin-off across the ocean, and a show alongside Star Trek that created the Con-craze that brought the world of cosplay to the mainstream. Perhaps most importantly, a love of Doctor Who lead more Americans to watch programming from other countries – from Korean dramas to Mexican telenovelas – which has so enriched our culture.
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