Category: Television

A Clip from this longer presentation: Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers

Dr. Rosanne Welch presents Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers at the 2014 Cal Poly Pomona Provost’s Symposium on Faculty Scholarship (http://www.cpp.edu/~research/)

Transcript:

This is a particularly fun quote. Timothy Leary has a long quote I won’t read you about all the things — the silly nonsense going on — and at the very end an actor like Micky Dolenz would look right at the screen — right — so we’re doing this metatextual — I’m “fourth-walling” you — “that’s pretty good talking for a long-haired weirdo, huh, Mr and Mrs. America?” So he was right there telling them we’re laying something out here, but you don’t even notice. Shh. Don’t watch. And so I think that’s really interesting. Also, what’s interesting is look at Mr. Dolenz’ hair. It’s all afro. This was a huge new thing to show on television. First of all, long hair, but this is ethnic hair. This doesn’t belong on TV so, in fact, on the first season they had him iron his hair. They would not allow this vaguely white, although he’s actually Italian and Native American — no. no and afro? No, no, no, that;s not allowed on television. Not until the second season, when they get a little more power that they start looking like they do in normal life.

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Description:

Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.

Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.

• Dr. Rosanne Web Site and Blog
• Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter
• Follow Dr. Welch on Tumblr

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

About the Symposium:

The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.

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A Clip from this longer presentation: Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers

Dr. Rosanne Welch presents Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers at the 2014 Cal Poly Pomona Provost’s Symposium on Faculty Scholarship (http://www.cpp.edu/~research/)

Transcript:

In their film, “Head”, they wrote a song that riffs on their opening theme which was “Here we come, walking down the street…” right? They wrote, “hey, Het we’re The Monkees, We’ve said it all before, The money’s in, we;re made of tin, We’re here to give you more!” So, they were admitting their own plasticness and I think that’s their mistake. The fell for what was being said about them and forgot what they, themselves, were contributing. Right? Someone who didn’t miss out on that is Timothy Leary. He was the big, famous, so of hippy doctor and in his book, “Turn on, Tune In and Drop Out” he discussed the importance of The Monkees and this is in their very own time period. Right in the early — late Sixties, excuse me, 67. He’s discussing how important they were. In fact, he says the show is much more than a comedy. It’s all these things together. My favorite one is “A Jolly Buddha Laugh at Hypocrisy.” Which, in fact, is what is going on. These boys are commenting on hypocrisy of the parents of their customers — of their viewers — and they’re doing it right on mainstream American television.

View photos from this presentation 

Description:

Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.

Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.

• Dr. Rosanne Web Site and Blog
• Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter
• Follow Dr. Welch on Tumblr

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

About the Symposium:

The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

A Clip from this longer presentation: Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers

Dr. Rosanne Welch presents Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers at the 2014 Cal Poly Pomona Provost’s Symposium on Faculty Scholarship (http://www.cpp.edu/~research/)

Transcript:

…And their parents think the program is just a bunch of wild boys goofing around. And they are doing a lot of old vaudevillian stuff, so it seems very tame and very safe. In fact, I think, that Aniko Bodroghkozy mistakes The Monkees for being “plastic hippies” or fake hippies and brining this fake hippie culture to TV, but, in fact, the actual actors and musicians were men of their time. They were “real hippies” and so they were demonstrating their new beliefs in a new culture tot he children. So, I largely disagree with here in my book.

View photos from this presentation 

Description:

Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.

Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.

Dr. Rosanne Web Site and Bloghttps://rosannewelch.com

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/rosannewelch

Follow Dr. Welch on Tumblrhttp://drrosannewelch.tumblr.com/

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

About the Symposium:

The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

A Clip from this longer presentation: Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers

Dr. Rosanne Welch presents Why Monkees Matter: How The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Mainstream Pre-Teen Viewers at the 2014 Cal Poly Pomona Provost’s Symposium on Faculty Scholarship (http://www.cpp.edu/~research/)

Transcript:

Welcome everybody! We’re talking today about “Why Monkees matter?” Please notice the spelling. I am not talking about this kind of monkey — that’s in a different class. I’m talking about these Monkees. In case you don’t know who they are, Davie Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith who, in 1967, their albums outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined. They had more albums sales due to their exposure on television. So, what I talk about — I’m doing a book right now on them — and so I am talking about what we learned from them. Particularly, I focus on the writers of television programs and authorship. That’s my thing, because we focus on directors as auteurs of film and we don’t realize — or we forget — that writers, are just like the writers of books. A director can’t direct 20 empty pages. Somebody put these thoughts down and what are these thoughts. So, “How the writing staff of The Monkees brought the 1960’s counter-culture to mainstream pre-teen viewers.” These are the children whose older brothers and sisters already love The Beatles and they’re learning about hippy culture from The Beatles, but these kids don’t have access to buying their own albums yet, but they have access to television, because it’s free and they can watch it all the time.

View photos from this presentation 

Description:

Based on a chapter in my upcoming book The Metatextual Menagerie that was The Monkees, which includes a series of interviews conducted with surviving writers and performers of the 1960s television program, The Monkees I will discuss how the writers and actors used the show as a platform for their own emerging counter culture/anti-war messages.

Worth studying for its craft and place in television history (the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy Of 1967) the program’s true importance may come from its impact on the politics and culture of the era. Considered innocuous by the network, thepress and the parents of the era, the storylines and jokes created by the writers and the actor’s ad-libs brought the emerging counter-culture to the attention of young teens whose parents might not have appreciated the message. Cultural icons such as Timothy Leary recognized the subversive nature of the program, seen through the writing and in choices made about costuming, hair length, musical guests (Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Charlie Smalls) and songs performed by the band brought issues of Vietnam, voting and civil rights to the ‘young generation’ for whom the show clearly had ‘somethin’to say.

Dr. Rosanne Web Site and Bloghttps://rosannewelch.com

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/rosannewelch

Follow Dr. Welch on Tumblrhttp://drrosannewelch.tumblr.com/

Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel

About the Symposium:

The 2014 Provost’s Symposium is a forum to learn about each other’s scholarly work, make new friends, renew old acquaintances, and enhance our appreciation of the rich and diverse array of professional endeavors pursued by the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS