Today Jean Powergirl takes the host reigns and welcomes her guest Rosanne Welch, PhD to the show! They’ll be discussing Roseanne’s book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture.”
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy. Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers. Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces.
Rosanne Welch, PhD has written for television (Touched by an Angel, Picket Fences) and print (Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space). In the documentary world she has written and produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS/Nightline and consulted on PBS’s A Prince Among Slaves, the story of a prince from West Africa who was enslaved in the 1780s, freed by order of President John Quincy Adams in the 1820s and returned to his homeland.
You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library
Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.
So they invented this huge chase on the tarmac where the cars come chasing after the plane, but we all know the cars will never catch the plane. It’s stupid, but in their defense, it provided the audience with that last minute feeling of tension that was true to the feelings that the hostages had even on the plane — until they took off and were in the air, they still felt it was possible that they might be captured — re-captured. So, I think that’s an interesting choice. They, of course, knew it was the big, climactic moment in the movie. They needed a big visual. What’s better than a car chase on a tarmac. So, people have to read the book to understand what was — and wasn’t — part of this operation. There’s so much inside the book as well. He talks about previous affairs that he was involved in. It’s fascinating what this man could do and to not go and get that extra information is a loss because this movie opens up a story that it can’t possibly give us the rest of.
About this talk
Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
About Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
This silent footage from behind the scenes of a real beachside Monkee romp highlights how they were working with the crew of the show – imagine being the new teen idols on hand among a bunch of cameramen, prop men and other crafts people who had had long careers. The balance actors have to strike to make sure everyone’s happy on the set and not jealous. It was easier then since actors weren’t making the outrageous money they tend to make today – but still stars were stars.
Someone laid “Saturday’s Child” over this assorted footage – some from the romp, some from behind the scenes of filming the romp – and then, for fun, at 2:48 Micky begins singing the show’s theme song in Italian.
I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus. As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch
Départ de Jérusalem en chemin de fer (translated into English as Leaving Jerusalem by Railway) is an 1897 film directed by Alexandre Promio and released by the Lumière brothers. Lasting for roughly 50 seconds, it shows the goodbyes of many passersby – first Europeans, then Palestinian Arabs, then Palestinian Jews – as a train leaves Jerusalem.
Leaving Jerusalem by Railway contains what is possibly the first depiction of camera movement in the history of film. Some instead credit The Haverstraw Tunnel with this innovation,[1] but only the year of release is available for the two; therefore it is unknown which came first. — Wikipedia
Learn more about the Lumiere Brothers with these books
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
“1960s TV Censorship and The Monkees” gives a brief overview of where censorship standards were in the era – and how The Monkees pushed the envelope with its mentions of the Vietnam War – and Sunset Strip riots – and even with the outrageous storytelling behind “Frodis Caper”, the episode that celebrated the saving of an alien plant that very closely resembled a marijuana plant…
Writer Treva Silverman said the staff got away with such jokes because the network executives were just old enough not to understand any of the references. Presented at Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting classes on Friday, August 5, 2016
Transcript:
The other thing they did that was fascinating was that at the end of several episodes they would take the last minute and interview the actual actors, “hey, what’s going on in your life? How are things?” And the actors talked about being part of demonstrations, going to anti-war events. They talked about what it was like to be a hippy, do be disrespected. How men with long hair were treated badly and not respected in public and how they felt about that. Going to restaurants which wouldn’t let them in. I mean look at Peter Tork’s hair. Nowadays that doesn’t look that long at all, but in the time this was really, really…So this ending episode interview was a fascinating thing they got away with doing. They talked about a lot of stuff — the Sunset Curfew Riots — I’m going to show you a clip from that. And they would just sit on the back lot like that — the back set — and have these little interviews. And they got away with it.
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library
Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Another change, having to do with the script, if you’ve seen the movie, of course, it’s about saving these American embassy officials who are hiding out in the Canadian Embassy during the Iranian hostage crisis. He creates this lovely — and it’s all true. He made them up to be a film crew from Canada. They were going to walk right to the airport, get on a plane and go home. In the real world, the tension that happened at the very end of the story happened inside the airport and it was because all of these embassy officials were made up to be stereotypical Hollywood people. So, the man who was one of the leading officials — who is a very straight-laced guy — who would always show up in a suit and a tie and all that, he was doing the Hollywood director bling thing with the chest hair and the gold necklace and he’s sitting at this airport. A women from another embassy, who recognized him, because she’d worked with him previously begins to approach him at the airport to say “hi” and of course she’s got this look on her face like “Why is he dressed up like this strange man? What is this Halloween or what?” And he’s sitting across [whispering] because they were afraid people would see who he was. So the women didn’t approach him. They all got on the plane and they all were safe. That moment of tension is what the screenwriter and what Affleck wanted to capture, but that is not very engaging — walking across an airport looking at a guy in an outfit. That’s not going to work.
About this talk
Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
About Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
Long hair was in, then long, long hair was out, then short-long hair was in and all the while controversies raged on about what type of hairstyle looked best—on boys and girls. This didn’t apply to the entertainers alone. Teenage hairstyles are a constant battle since now long, long hair on girls is the thing and at the same time Twiggy has made short, short hair very popular. What are you to do?The only solution for you or your friends or even for the entertainers who are constantly seen by the public is to wear your hair according to what you think looks best. This is what Micky Dolenz did and what did he run into but a rash of protests from fans. This hardly seems fair.
I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus. As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch
‘Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat’ is considered to be the first motion picture in modern history (altough more an experiment from the Lumière-brothers to use their ‘invention’ of film, it shows a train arriving at a passenger station). Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the cafe in terror, fearing being run over by the “approaching” train.
Learn more about the Lumiere Brothers with these books
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
“1960s TV Censorship and The Monkees” gives a brief overview of where censorship standards were in the era – and how The Monkees pushed the envelope with its mentions of the Vietnam War – and Sunset Strip riots – and even with the outrageous storytelling behind “Frodis Caper”, the episode that celebrated the saving of an alien plant that very closely resembled a marijuana plant…
Writer Treva Silverman said the staff got away with such jokes because the network executives were just old enough not to understand any of the references. Presented at Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting classes on Friday, August 5, 2016
Transcript:
Another episode that they have, that I like a lot is called “The Devil and Peter Tork.” It’s written by Gardener, Caruso and Kaufman. This is the Devil and Dr. Faustus and all those other versions of that story. Peter Tork wants the talent of playing the harp, because he is in love with the harp and so he sells his soul to the Devil to get that talent, but he doesn’t even understand who the devil is because he loves everybody and he’s all about peace. But eventually, the Devil shows up to take that soul and the boys won’t let him. They have a little dance sequence where they imagine what Hell might be like and theirs a lot of girls who look like Playboy bunnies. I’m not sure how we get away with that. And the whole point of it is, there’s a lovely little scene I’ll show you a clip of — they start talking about “Maybe Hell won’t be that bad.” but they bleep them every time they say the word “Hell” and eventually — well, I’ll show you that in a minute, Micky Dolenz looks at the audience and says something very funny – “You know what’s even more scary? You can’t say <cuckoo> on television.”
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library
Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.
So that was one change and that change happens all the time in movies and that’s regrettable because people need to be represented. We need to understand that we’re in a multi-cultural, diverse, country and every time we take a character that has some ethnic background — I mean imagine Vito Corelone — actually, when they went to make The Godfather, one of the people up for playing Michael Corelone was Robert Redford. As an Italian? How was that going to work? Right? But he was a big name. He was young. Whatever. So. that was one change that Affleck was forced to make or the movie wouldn’t have been made at all, which I think is interesting. He thought the story was worth getting out there.
About this talk
Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
About Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
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