Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
Category: Television
America’s Never-ending Conversation About Race: Telecasting The Civil Rights Movement by Rosanne Welch, Written By, January 2018
America’s Never-ending Conversation About Race: Telecasting The Civil Rights Movement by Rosanne Welch
Written By Magazine, January 2018
I have an article about how the Civil Rights Movement was reflected on the TV shows of the 1960s and 70s – “America’s Neverending Conversation” in the current issue (January 2018) of Written By which is out today with revolving covers (like TV Guide does with special issues) featuring Lena Waite and/or Jordan Peele.
I had the wonderful experience of interviewing Jim Brooks about Room 222, a show I watched incessantly in my childhood before I knew what an ‘ideology’ was and that I was being offered one – and I spoke at length with Nancy Miller at length about Any Day Now – a show that relished highlighting the brave men and women who worked in the Civil Rights Movement – and still do.
You can read the whole issue digitally at this link.
By 1968, the Civil Rights Movement had celebrated many accomplishments, among them the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruling in 1954, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those milestones were discussed often on the evening news then and are common topics in history classrooms today.
Less common was mention of the movement or evidence of its existence on fictional television shows. While big movies such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967, written by William Rose) appeared at the height of the movement, in many cases they were preaching to the choir since audiences had to choose to pay to see the films.
That left the small screen to bring the conversation about civil rights into American living rooms—in places where the message might not be wanted…often without warning. This made the exposure to the message that much more potent. Viewers could be confronted with issues they’d otherwise avoided in their daily lives. Unlike today, with social media’s virulent “fake news” and insular websites bolstering extremist interpretations, there was no sane way to deny documented reality other than turning off the set—then, as now, a difficult choice for most people.
From The Research Vault: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture by Grant David McCracken
Quotes from “Why The Monkees Matter” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 83 in a series – Greatest Teen Idol?
** Buy “Why The Monkees Matter” Today **
Why is Jones, and not Sherman or Jackson or Cassidy, considered the greatest Teen Idol? It could be the existence of that The Brady Bunch episode, which enshrined him to the television audience as the ultimate teen idol. While other programs starring teen idols fell out of rerun favor, The Brady Bunch continued, which meant Jones kept showing up as Marcia’s dream date over and over again.
from Why The Monkees Matter by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Buy your Copy today!
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
From The Research Vault: The Monkees still have plenty to say. by Jeff Marcus, Goldmine: The Music Collector’s Magazine.
From The Research Vault: Blacks and White TV: African Americans in Television Since 1948 by Fred J. MacDonald
Writing the Pilot by William Rabkin | Gifts for the Screenwriter #6
Writing the Pilot by William Rabkin | Gifts for the Screenwriter #6
Bill Rabkin understands what makes writing a pilots different from writing regular episodes of a continuing series and explains that all in this clear, concise book. Having worked in television for a solid couple of decades on many fan favorites, Rabkin should know. – Rosanne
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Quotes from “Why The Monkees Matter” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 82 in a series – Davy Remembered
** Buy “Why The Monkees Matter” Today **
A measure of Jones’ standing also comes from considering the massive amount of international news outlets, from Australia to Japan that covered his death in 2012. The evening news on all three American broadcast channels covered the story, with Diane Sawyer announcing that a “startling bulletin came across in the newsroom”. She then proclaimed “He is still that forever young and sunny singer from The Monkees who made more than one generation want to sing along.”
from Why The Monkees Matter by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Buy your Copy today!
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
Screenplay: Building Story Through Character | Gifts for the Screenwriter #5
Screenplay: Building Story Through Character | Gifts for the Screenwriter #5
Screenwriter Jule Selbo created Building Story Through Character after years of writing on successful television shows and films and then creating the MFA in Screenwriting at California State University, Fullerton where she teaches those skills to up and coming writers. Her focus on character and her 11 Steps of Story Structure streamlines ideas from other screenwriting gurus whose lists are longer and (to my mind) more contrived. You can take Selbo’s 11 Steps and apply them to stories as old as Gilgamesh and as modern as Wonder Woman – as she does in the book so that the reader can see the pattern repeat itself over and over again.- Rosanne
