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Dr. Peg Lamphier and Dr. Rosanne Welch before presenting their talk, “Why this should be the last lecture you should sit through!” as part of the Last Lecture Series at Cal Poly Pomona.
29: Writers, Producers, and The Monkees : “Why The Monkees Matter” Interview with Jean Power [Video]
Rosanne Welch talks about “Why The Monkees Matter” with Jean Hopkins Power
Watch this entire presentation (45 mins)
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.”
![29: Writers, Producers, and The Monkees : “Why The Monkees Matter” Interview with Jean Power [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/rmw-power-29-writers-producers.jpeg)
Transcript:
Jean: So here they are like this so at least the sho, I want some edgy leading edge because they, I guess, the producers or whoever set up the show were committed to having this newer show to appeal to this new demographic.
Rosanne: In fact, they went and hired the two show runners, so the people who ran all the stories on the show, was Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso and they’d come off of Get Smart.
Jean: I love that show.
Rosanne: New hip writers from Get Smart. There was a show very much like what we’re used to today, The Daily Show, the comic news. It was called That Was The Week That Was and they had written on that so kind of the SNL of its day and previous to that, Mr Gardener had a been a speechwriter for Robert Kennedy in his senatorial campaign in New York.
Jean: I love RFK.
Rosanne: He’s written a book about that experience. So after doing television for several more years Mr. Gardner went off and he’s written about 80 books.
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.
A History of Screenwriting 48 – The Engagement Ring – Mabel Normand – 1912
A History of Screenwriting 48 – The Engagement Ring – Mabel Normand – 1912 
Alice has two persistent suitors, one rich, one poor. Each buys her an engagement ring; the rich man pays cash, but the poor man must pay on installments. He has trouble making the payments, but then he’s injured in an auto accident and the settlement allows him to pay off the ring and propose to Alice.
Learn More About Mabel Normand 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! † Available at the LA Public Library
From The Research Vault: Blacks and White TV: African Americans in Television Since 1948 by Fred J. MacDonald
More On Women in Early Filmmaking from Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Watch this entire presentation
A recording of my presentation at this year’s University Film and Video Association (UFVA) 2017 conference.
Transcript:
In Beauchamp’s book, you’ll see all these famous women. My great joy is that one of my students, who teaches directing, found Lois Weber in my class who wrote and directed her films back in the day and now incorporates her into the set of directors that he teaches as examples because she had that kind of career back in the day. Eve Unsell ran her own production company for Universal for 10 years. Made a ton of movies that are very very successful in the day. She also allows us to go into the place where we discuss the problems with films whether it is back them or today because she was involved in what, back then, were yellow race films which were anti-Asian-American films and so that’s something students should understand about. So, again that goes back to to the title of what we are talking about and I talk fast because I’m Sicilian. I also don’t want to eat up all the time.
Books Mentioned In This Presentation
- Without Lying Down
- Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker
- The Real Nick and Nora
- Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter
- The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild
- Monster: Living Off the Big Screen
- “It’s the Pictures That Got Small”: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood’s Golden Age
- Women Screenwriters: An International Guide
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Writers in Hollywood, 1915-1951 Hardcover by Ian Hamilton | Gifts for the Screenwriter #7
Writers in Hollywood, 1915-1951 Hardcover by Ian Hamilton | Gifts for the Screenwriter #7
I found Ian Hamilton’s book long before I had any inkling that I would ever be involved in creating a course on The History of Screenwriting (as opposed to History of Film, which always means History of Directors). I enjoyed his look into the personalities that made up the earlier eras of the screenwriting colony here in Los Angeles, many of them transplanted New Yorkers from the journalism or playwright world drawn to the other coast for the fast money – and sometimes faster lifestyles – Hollywood was known for back then. Hamilton’s coverage of the era from 1915-1951 is both entertaining and educational. – Rosanne
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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
A History of Screenwriting – 47 in a series – City Lights – Charlie Chaplin (1931)
A History of Screenwriting – 47 in a series – City Lights – Charlie Chaplin (1931)
City Lights is a 1931 American pre-Code silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin’s Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and develops a turbulent friendship with an alcoholic millionaire (Harry Myers).
Although sound films were on the rise when Chaplin started developing the script in 1928, he decided to continue working with silent productions. Filming started in December 1928 and ended in September 1930. City Lights marked the first time Chaplin composed the film score to one of his productions and it was written in six weeks with Arthur Johnston. The main theme, used as a leitmotif for the blind flower girl, is the song “La Violetera” (“Who’ll Buy my Violets”) from Spanish composer José Padilla. Chaplin lost a lawsuit to Padilla for not crediting him.
City Lights was immediately successful upon release on January 30, 1931 with positive reviews and box office receipts of $5 million. Today, many critics consider it not only the highest accomplishment of Chaplin’s career, but one of the greatest films of all time. In 1991, the Library of Congress selected City Lights for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it 11th on its list of the best American films ever made. In 1949, the critic James Agee called the film’s final scene “the greatest single piece of acting ever committed to celluloid”.[2] — Wikipedia
Learn More About Charlie Chaplin 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!
† Available at the LA Public Library