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.
Each month I have the privilege of celebrating the female screenwriters who came before us in an article in Script Magazine. This month’s spotlight is Edna Anhalt — a screenwriter who with her husband Edward won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. Panic in the Streets (1950) was about a gang of petty criminals carrying the pneumonic plague, Sadly, as with so many women who co-wrote with spouses, there is much more published about his career than hers, though she wrote solo short stories and films as well.
To research the writing career of Oscar-winning Edna Anhalt is to be constantly sent to sites detailing her husband’s career with little note about her life outside of that partnership. Edna Thompson was born in New York City in 1914 and married Edward Anhalt in 1935. The dual partnership in marriage and career lasted 20 years. They may have met while enrolled at Columbia University since in 1936 they shared credit on the documentary the Problem Child (1936), produced by the college.
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.
Thanks to all the current MFA candidates and alums who sat for interviews so that we could create this video for the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting and thanks to the Stephens College videographer, Andrew Church, for all his work on the project. Who knew a 2-minute video could take so many hours of interviewing and editing – oh, yeah, anyone else who does this for a living.
In researching this I discovered “Scooby-Doo” has been around since 1969. So as they say you do the math. However, they would say – exactly – they would say it’s changed its iterations. There’s been “Where’s Scooby-Doo?” and “Scrappy-Doo.” So they’ve changed the shows but that set of characters has been with us all this time. This is something amazing if you think about it. In terms of live-action shows – again because an actor is not going to last 50 or 60 years – we don’t have that long longevity although “Colombo”, believe it or not, has quite a long run and they did the same thing “Doctor Who” did. They had a little hiatus where it was off the air and then after a while, the audience was still there and the network said wait a minute we could revive this and, of course, Peter Falk was thankfully still around. So they did. So really that’s an amazing run for a narrative show and just a straight show without hiatus has been 23 years the longest is Law and Order Special Victims Unit. So these are amazing things and then there’s Doctor Who.
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.
“The Simpsons” has been on the air for 30 years because they’re cartoons. Bart Simpson will never grow beyond the age of nine right? So that’s brilliant for them. Brilliant for all the actors who signed on to this and as we know this was actually a little five minute piece in the Tracy Ullman show. So again an English influence in the United States and then they moved it into being a full-on show. So these actors who were just sidekicks on Tracy Ullman and some people don’t even remember what they look like have had jobs for 30 years playing Marge and all the people. So I think that’s cool. I think it’s worth noting that “Arthur” was on the air for 25 years as a PBS show for children, which I think is adorable. My son is now 24 and when they did the finale of “Arthur”, he and all the kids in his generation were paying attention to a show they’d watched when they were eight because it was “Arthur” and it was going away and I thought how cute is that. So that kind of fan loyalty comes to you when you’ve been around a long time again which is something that “Doctor Who” has generated.
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.
During each of our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting we take our MFA candidates on field trips around Los Angeles and this January that included the screening of a silent movie – “The Social Secretary” – hosted at the Historic Women’s Club of Hollywood with a full audience. Many attendees had never watched a film shown from a projector, much less a silent film on such a large screen with live piano accompaniment. The MFA co-sponsored the event with the , a group dedicated to promoting education and enthusiasm about the art of silent film.
I was happy to be asked to deliver this introduction to the work of screenwriter and novelist Anita Loos whose work bridged the worlds of silents – where she was instrumental in creating the swashbuckling character for Douglas Fairbanks – to talkies and screenplays to novels to Broadway plays. Her Gentlemen Prefer Blondes remains a classic, never having gone out of print, and it led to several film versions including the famous one starring Marilyn Monroe. Her book for Gigi helped give the play a successful transition to the well-known film that showcased Leslie Caron.
If you don’t know much about this prolific woman writer, check out my introduction and then go watch some of her films, many of which are on YouTube. Yet the experience of seeing it on the big screen became one of this Workshop’s most appreciated events.
Transcript:
…Rosanne Welch. [Applause]
Hello everybody. I am Dr. Rosanne Welch. I run the Stevens College MFA and TV and Screenwriting where we study film with a female gaze.
So we study Anita Loos and so I’m gonna –– we’re here for an hour and a half lecture right?
Very quickly, I just want to make sure people who are here know what we’re talking about. First of all, what we do in our program is we teach the history of screenwriting because in most places they teach you the history of film and that tends to be the history of directors which becomes the history of Great Men. While we love men, women founded Hollywood and need to be remembered.
So I was really pleased when Tom said I have the Anita Loos print and I was like, oh yeah Anita Loos. We study her. We love her and it would be lovely to see it with real live accompaniment.
[Applause]
I’m gonna say a very quick things about Anita. I want people who don’t know her to know these things. First of all, we have to remember her as the first person to put wit in her title cards and today when someone writes a television or film script, in their action lines they use that technique. They use their own voice. They say funny things. They don’t just say the door opens right? They are still doing something essentially we learn from Anita. So I think that is a reason that she should stay with us. I think it’s also important to remember her as a star maker. She’s the reason you know who Douglas Fairbanks is. He was just the stumblebum actor until she made him a swashbuckler and then he became the Douglas Fairbanks –– the founder of the Academy right? She also –– I’m sure many of you can think about Carol Channing and Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. Talk about a character that lived forever in that actress. So I think that’s brilliant for Anita. She was also known for her diligent work ethic. The woman got up at five o’clock and wrote until two or three in the afternoon and then dealt with business –– that and she would tell people she didn’t work very hard. It wasn’t very hard at all. Think about that. So I think that’s really beautiful. I think it’s important to think about all the literary friends she had. She was friends with Theodore Dreiser , and H.L. Mencken – these are major names of their day. Interestingly enough her name is still a little more famous than theirs are. So there’s something about her work. Though people made fun of films and film writing clearly she survived where some of their stuff isn’t read that much anymore and also she was a brilliant friend to other women in the business and we know that that’s how everyone who moves up in the world by taking the next person below you and bringing them up right? So she was friends with the young Ruth Gordon. Y’all don’t remember when she was young but she was and Anita was someone who helped her move forward in the business. She was best friends with Helen Hayes who many people remember. So the idea that she understood that sisterhood was the way to help everybody. So those are the reasons that I still admire Anita. I always say that I met her when I was six years old – not the person but in her memoirs and so if you haven’t read A Memoir of hers you should because they’re funny and witty and teach us a lot about this time period and also we’ve written about her in this book which we will have for sale afterward. There you go. I’ll teach Tom how to sell. Which was written by the first inaugural students in our program about seven years ago and there’s a chapter on 25 different famous female screenwriters of that period. So if you’re interested we’ll have some more of those and we’ll talk afterward and we have three of the original authors of chapters right here with me tonight. So with that, I hope that everybody adores if you haven’t met Anita Loos before you will listen to her voice today and laugh. Have a great night.
![Join Dr. Rosanne Welch for a Free Web Conversation on Writing as Activism, Friday, April 7, 2023 [Online]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/WritingAsActivism.png)
![09 90210 and Baywatch from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sdwhocon-2022-dwtv-09.jpg)
![08 Going Global from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sdwhocon-2022-dwtv-08.jpg)
![07 Conventions from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/sdwhocon-2022-dwtv-07.jpg)
![06 Longevity from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/sdwhocon-2022-dwtv-06.jpg)
![Student Voices: TV + Screenwriting from the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/stephens-mfa-voices.jpg)
![05 Scooby-Doo and SVU from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/sdwhocon-2022-dwtv-05.jpg)
![04 The Simpsons and Arthur from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/sdwhocon-2022-dwtv-04.jpg)
![Anita Loos: An Introduction with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting and the Retroformat Silent Film Society [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/rmw-retroformat-loos.jpg)