05 Scooby-Doo and SVU from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

05 Scooby-Doo and SVU from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

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.

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04 The Simpsons and Arthur from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

04 The Simpsons and Arthur from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

“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.

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03 Fifty Years on the Air from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

03 Fifty Years on the Air from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

 

Transcript:

Face it. there is not another show that got a 50-year anniversary on television that was a narrative piece of work. This is not something that happened. Every time, even when we checked in the hotel the other day and we were trying to explain “Doctor Who” to the lovely women behind the counter. Well, how can a show be on the air for 50 years? Because the writers were so smart that when – as we all know Hartnell was feeling ill and they thought oh no we’re gonna have to stop – they said wait a minute. He’s an alien. He doesn’t have to die. He can change completely. Which is a beautiful writer’s idea which has given us the chance to enjoy so many different actors over the years including of course Tom and we’ve gone all the way through to my favorite is Peter Davidson of the old Who and then the fact that they could reboot and be something that children two generations later are still enjoying. So this 50-year thing, let’s face it, doesn’t happen and they’re gonna have a 60th-year anniversary. 60 years on television with the same general format. This isn’t done. The only other people that have been on the air that long are soap operas and game shows and they stay and stay and stay. The funny thing is, in the game shows they’ve had some of the same lead men for all those years. It’s fascinating when that’s a changeover. I mean sadly we lost Alex Trebek. So now there’s this great change over but “Jeopardy” is not going away. So because they’re not narrative they can continue for all these years.

 

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

Watch this entire presentation

02 Writers Rooms: US vs. UK from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

 02 Writers Rooms: US vs. UK from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

…and he wanted to test the waters of how our American Show is done because we do a writer’s room where there’s a showrunner and everyone sits in the room and talks all day. In England they still do a story editor from the network – so BBC or ITV whatever you’re from – and that person is kind of the overall person in charge. They hire a head writer. So our Davies and our Steven Moffats, but they talk with them. So it’s almost like a team working and then you hire freelance writers. You don’t do a room the way we do. So he wanted – Russell Davies –  wanted to come and have that experience and see what it would do for his writing and would he want to bring that idea back to England and some people there are doing it, but they’re still pretty steady in the way they’ve done. So I think just the idea that they took that chance is really a very fascinating thing. So to me, that’s a big step.

 

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

Watch this entire presentation

01 Introduction from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

01 Introduction from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

 

Transcript:

Today is going to be about how our show “Doctor Who” changed the television Universe because it really has had great a great effect in what we see on TV today and I think people don’t even necessarily recognize the power of this one show. So that’s what we’re going to talk about. As we’ve discussed in the past and I always do this just because in case there’s new people but you all know me. So you know what I’ve done and blah blah that I have so I’m going to skip through all this stuff and get to the meat of what we’re doing which is how it changed the TV Universe. I’m gonna say right off the bat, we had never done a spin-off that would take place in another country. That we would take “Torchwood” and do “Miracle Day”–  which we all have our opinions on. I’m not a huge fan of “Miracle Day” – but the idea that they transported a show to another country right? It got a new staff of people and gave it that different feeling. That’s huge and I’ve not seen another show do that yet. So the power that they could say we want to try seeing what would happen if we moved to the States and got this other feeling. So to me that’s always big and of course, he really wanted to work with Jane Espenson who I love and adore from “Buffy (The Vampire Slayer)” and many other shows. So there was this cross-cultural respect for the kind of work that happens someplace else.

 

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

Watch this entire presentation

The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe (Full Presentation) – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe (Full Presentation) – Dr. Rosanne Welch

 

Dinner at Fiesta de Reyes, Old Town San Diego via TikTok [Video]

@douglaswelch Dinner at Fiesta de Reyes, Old Town San Diego #sandiego #oldtownsandiego #fiestadereyes #diasdelamuertos #travel ♬ original sound – Douglas E. Welch


Dinner at Fiesta de Reyes, Old Town San Diego via TikTok [Video]

24 Conclusion from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today. 

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

24 Conclusion from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

…because my argument with my friend that started all of this was that at the end of “Children of Earth” when Jack has to sacrifice his grandson, for all the good work that Russell has done with female characters my argument was, why wasn’t that his son? Because by making it his grandson – if you remember – the mother was outside the room banging on the door. So he usurped his daughter’s power as the parent of her own child and killed him as opposed to – if it was his son – I mean you shouldn’t kill your kid – you know what I am saying – that was like this one degree of separation and that made her character useless and unempowered and I don’t know why that occurred to him at all. So that was my argument and that’s actually what my article is about – why that didn’t work dramatically for me in that it dealt with that female character but it started the whole thing and caused me to be very interested in Torchwood.

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23 The Writer’s Tale from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today. 

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

23 The Writer's Tale from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

…and I did want to make a quick bit about this yesterday. I mentioned this book to some folks it’s “The Writer’s Tale” where Russell talks not just about the last series with David Tennant but also he talks about writing “Children of Earth” and how the questions and the ideas were coming to him and what he worried about and then the actual watching the pilot and the different you know going to the edits. He really discusses the job of being Executive Producer and how much work it was. He was doing both of those things at the same time which is crazy but that’s how people do it when they do it in town. So to me, these are the many reasons why Torchwood is still worth talking about and I do wish they had kept to the alien of the week and done that for maybe five seasons before we went off into “Children of Earth” and then I would have done. I would have ended right?

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22 Sandman from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today. 

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

 

22 Sandman from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

So, now that we have that happening, gee whiz, Neil Gaiman is doing “Sandman” in London and he’s brought over Alan Heinberg who’s an American writer who’s been in Shondaland for many years. He’s done several of her shows and then was the writer hired to write the first “Wonder Woman” movie. So, he’s an American guy through and through but Neil Gaiman was like “That’s the guy I need on my show.” So now, Allan has moved to London for the last nine months working with Neil, and what a – just as it was an honor for Jane to want Russell to work with her, Allan felt that way about Neil Gaiman choosing him. So, we’re going to have the two sensibilities in this one piece and this stuff didn’t happen in the past either, right? This is a new idea that we can do that. Partially that’s also built up with Netflix and the idea that we’re now watching more international television. It’s not just American shows going everywhere and Americans now have this access to newer things. So I just think that’s pretty amazing. All of this to me comes from Torchwood.

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