You all know my affinity for the good Doctor so I was happy to see today’s review of season 9 by Los Angeles Times reviewer Robert Lloyd (because if we don’t start including the names of writers of things we like, how can we expect anyone to include our names?) found the new season to be back on track for fun and frolic! (also I think much can be learned about writing from reading reviews of other people’s writing and trying not to make the same mistakes they make!). Watch the film or movie, then read the review and see whether you agree or not. Wildly educational exercise for writers!
Thanks to Dan Kammer, the Library Director at Stephens College, for including a display of my publications in an exhibition of work by various faculty members this month. It looks great – and hopefully the students will be intrigued enough to stop by and read some of the books – or use them for research in their own academic adventures!
These are the archetypes of masculinity in general literature and stories, right. So, Adventurer, Gentleman, Statesman, Warrior, Lone Wolf and Family Man. which seems to, sort of, argue with each other right there, but we’ll see how they play out on all of our different men. I would say that all of them have these qualities. there you go. End of lecture. But, I think the first three –and as I was picking through all of The Doctors and what I had to say about them — the first three are reflected more largely in our original 8 Doctors. So, we have this set right here as we know. So, they show us Adventurers — because they escape with the TARDIS and off into the world and time and space. They’re all Gentlemen and they’re all pretty much Statesmen. As are these four. Peter Davison being my favorite, but they all — and also we very much get the Clown with Sylvester McCoy down at the bottom.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
To me, Martha is the most feminist character that has ever travelled with The Doctor. I believe based on her job choice. Based on the way she handled The Doctor. She did, in fact, save his life at a certain point, which is akin to the earlier episodes. She made the choice to not to have her heart broken. Not to sit around and wait and beg and plead for something she couldn’t have and then she built a life without the firt person she wanted. For me, those are very, very powerful statements being made by that character. And I think it’s important to pay attention to that. Now, that’s my personal choice. Obviously people have many other choices.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
So, in this scale they pick Donna. I have a problem with that. Donna ends her life with The Doctor married to a guy. That is the ultimate goal in her life and she’s not going to have a job. How’s she going to make money for the rest of her life. (Crowd: She’s married) Well, she’s married, sure, she’s married a guy, but she does it get something handed to her. Who remembers how we get rid of Donna? Lottery ticket. The Doctor hands her a lottery ticket, because traveling in space and time he goes to the future, figures out what lottery ticket’s going to win, then buys it in the past and hands it to her. So, there’s not — she talked to women more in her scenes but I’m getting the whole feminist vibe of Donna. Frankly, if it’s up to me…Martha.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions” at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
Transcript:
These are the archetypes of masculinity in general literature and stories, right. So, Adventurer, Gentleman, Statesman, Warrior, Lone Wolf and Family Man. which seems to, sort of, argue with each other right there, but we’ll see how they play out on all of our different men. I would say that all of them have these qualities. there you go. End of lecture. But, I think the first three –and as I was picking through all of The Doctors and what I had to say about them — the first three are reflected more largely in our original 8 Doctors. So, we have this set right here as we know. So, they show us Adventurers — because they escape with the TARDIS and off into the world and time and space. They’re all Gentlemen and they’re all pretty much Statesmen. As are these four. Peter Davison being my favorite, but they all — and also we very much get the Clown with Sylvester McCoy down at the bottom.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
The other thing they tested, when they did this, was the two male writers of the program of the last generation of it. Russell Davies, who I mentioned already is an out-of-the-closet gay man in England, has a better scale of passing this feminist Bechdel Test then does Steven Moffat, a heterosexual, married guy. A man who spends his life with a woman does think about how women are represented in his work, nearly as much as the gay man.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
From 1966-1968 NBC aired The Monkees on Mondays at 7:30pm, opposite Gilligan’s Island on CBS and Iron Horse on ABC. During that time Raybert Productions, headed by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, produced 58 half-hours of what Time Magazine contributor James Poniewozik recently described as “far better TV than it had to be.
During an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor, and unusual story structure that was commercial, wholesome, and yet impressively weird.”
Originally, the producers conceived The Monkees as a response to the youth and music movement of the early 60s, a time when every young person seemed to be slinging a guitar on their back and hoping to change the world. In the shadow of Hard Day’s Night the producers cast four relative unknowns who could act, sing and play instruments – Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith – and hired Jim Frawley to teach them improvisation and become their in-house director. Beyond mere fame, The Monkees deserves ranking as a TV Cultural and Comedy Classic because, according to Micky Dolenz, “It brought long hair into the living room and changed the way teenagers were portrayed on television. It made it okay to have long hair in the same way Henry Winkler as the Fonz late made it okay to wear a black leather jacket and Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air made it okay to be to be young, black and like rap.”
From an artistic standpoint the show introduced a new generation of viewers to the kind of fourth-wall-breaking, slapstick comedy created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers as well as to the idea of friends in their late teens living on their own without adult advice or supervision, a powerful idea at the height of the Vietnam war.
While there is continued controversy over the fact that the musical group has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, time has shown that the television show deserves the accolades it earned. Now it deserves a deeper reading and that is exactly what The Metatexual Menagerie That Was The Monkees will provide.
Go beyond the fandom and delve deeply into what The Monkees meant to “the young generation” and to our current world.
Chapters will include:
Introduction: I’m (Still) a Believer
Sweet Young Thing: Contextualizing The Monkees with a Short History of Teenagers on Television
Authorship on The Monkees: Who Wrote The Monkees and what was that Something They Had to Say?
Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow: Counter-Culture Comes to Television and Middle America via The Monkees
The Kind of Girl I Could Love: Feminism, Gender and Sexuality in The Monkees
Shades of Grey: An Ethnic Studies look at Minority Representation on The Monkees
We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality
We Were Made for Each Other: The Sequel: Nascent Television Aesthetic Techniques on The Monkees
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You Identity Construction and Confusion on The Monkees
9 Theme(s) from The Monkees: Narrative Structure, Literary References and Themes on The Monkees
Salesman / What am I Doing Hangin’ Round? The Cultural Collateral of The Monkees
Music Innovation and the seeds of MTV
I’ll Be True To You: Fandom and The Monkees
Dr. Rosanne Welch teaches screenwriting in the RTVF Department at California State University, Fullerton and for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting. As a television writer/producer her credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences and Touched by an Angel. She has been published a chapter in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television (I.B.Tauris); and an essay in Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology and co-edited The Encyclopedia of Women in American History (ABC-CLIO). Her fondness for The Monkees began while sitting in front of a small, black-and-white kitchen television at the age of five.
Why Monkees Matter: The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Pre-Teens
Presented at the Cal Poly Pomona President’s Symposium
Dr. Welch is available for interviewa on Why The Monkees Mattered and The Monkees in general. She is a long-time fan of The Monkees and extremely knowledgeable on both The Monkees television show and their music. She has given several presentations on The Monkees in college classrooms across Southern California at the Cal Poly Pomona President’s Symposium.
Update (July 3, 2016): Why The Monkees Matter Now Available on Kindle Reader, Smartphones and Tablets! –
Checking Amazon.com just now, I see that “Why The Monkees Matter” is available for purchase in Kindle format.
You can read the book immediately on your Kindle device OR on your smartphone, tablet or personal computer using the free Kindle App or web site.
(The print edition is still marked “Pre-Order” on Amazon, but I expect that to change after the July 4th holiday).
You can buy your copy of “Why The Monkees Matter” and start reading in seconds — perhaps while you enjoy some holiday hammock time on your own “Pleasant Valley Sunday”!
Update (June 30, 2016): I have received reports that people who pre-ordered directly from the publishers have started to receive their books. Yea! The book is also currently available as an Amazon Kindle Editon for your immediate purchase and download. Amazon still shows the Print Edition as Pre-Order but I expect that to change any minute.
Update (April 8, 2016): Our first level of pre-orders are open today! You can pre-order “Why The Monkees Matter” directly from the publishers, MacFarland, on their web site. — Pre-Order “Why The Monkees Matter” today!
Update (March 7,2016): The “final” title has been approved and, unfortunately, the publication date has been moved back to Fall 2016. That said, this still allows you to make it a great Holiday gift for all your Monkee Fan friends and family — Rosanne
Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions” at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
Transcript:
But now, our generation is starting to look also at how do they parent? Will this person make a good father to the children I might have and we’re going to see that reflected in Doctor Who. Then, of course, all of them mentioned good hygiene, which we all know is a code word for hot looking and I think that’s true of most of our Doctors. Then ambition and honesty is a pretty basic one. Of course, if you flip that, it’s really all the stuff that men are looking for in women, as well. So, it’s just really what makes a quality human being and I think that’s really of interest to us. The other thing I would say is that that, as I said, is reflected in all of our guys.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
![Gentlemen Doctors from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video Clip]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/dw-masculinity-06-gentlemen-anim-480x198.gif)
![Gentlemen Doctors from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video Clip]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/dw-masculinity-06-gentlemen-anim.gif)
![The Most Feminist Companion – Martha Jones from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse [Video Clip]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/dw-feminism-40-most-feminist-jones-anim-480x198.gif)
![The Most Feminist Companion - Martha Jones from Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse [Video Clip]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/dw-feminism-40-most-feminist-jones-anim.gif)
