television – Page 2 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

01 Introduction from The Real History Behind the Historic Episodes of Doctor Who with Dr. Rosanne Welch – SD Who Con 2023

In this presentation given at the 2023 San Diego WhoCon I talked about what really happened at Pompeii on volcano day; the agricultural knowledge of the Aztecs; when Robin Hood began appearing in literature, and the bravery of Noor Inayat Khan and Rosa Parks.

Transcript:

well welcome everybody very nice to see everybody um I’m glad that the title sounded interesting I hope that the entire presentation will prove interesting um I am Rosanne Welch I teach at a couple places actually because that’s how you do it these days uh Steven’s college is actually in Missouri but we run an uh MFA in screenwriting here in Los Angeles well here north of here in Los Angeles um and so that’s my specialty I was a television writer for about 20 years and then I got into Academia so I studied history because I wasn’t sure I wanted to study writing so I ended up doing a lot of history stuff which was fascinating um and so today we’re going to look at this show that we all love which started out to teach history and how much of it you know is real and how much is fake um and these are kind of the breath of the place that I want to cover um I come from as I said TV writing so I was on all these shows in the past and even on a show like Touch by an Angel we would deal with history because angels of course last forever it was a traveling Angels show where the Angels happen to be Angels but right stylistically The Fugitive is a traveling Angel show MacGyver is a traveling Angel show Doctor Who is a traveling Angel show someone who just goes from place to place and helps other people out and I think that’s really really cool um and then like I said I got a PhD at Claremont University also in slightly above us a couple hours and that’s where I focused on history for a while before I went back into working and writing so that’s where I’m sort of interested in both of these areas and I think we see that show up in Doctor Who um I’m also on the editorial board for these various journals so very interested in how writing is presented to people and how stories are told um I was extremely lucky uh the the magazine of The Writers Guild written by magazine uh I was on the board for that like I said and the editor knew that I was a huge Doctor Who fan so in that period when Russell came to town and did that fourth season of Torchwood here in town um he called me the editor called me and said we’re going to interview him would you like to be the one to talk to him to which I said uh yeah can I do that right away and it was great because as most of these things go the pr person set me up in a room with Russell and it was this Glass Room in the middle of this fancy place in in in Santa Monica and uh the guy said well you have 20 minutes and I was like I can do this in 20 minutes right I’m happy to be here and 20 minutes passed and you saw the pr guy open the door and poke in and Russell was like I’m not done yet and you kicked the pr guy because I knew what I was talking about and I was asking him these really interesting questions and he was having such a great time we ended up talking for an hour and you just saw the man walk around looking but he didn’t want to poke his head in again and get yelled at so it was a marvelous and fun time and this um interview is online uh on this particular website um which is on the writer Guild website and I’ve I’ve also written a bunch of books not all about Doctor Who these three happen to be about Doctor Who and just got me very interested in analyzing the show and why has it been so popular for so long we know it’s provided us a really interesting character who obviously there are many versions of and we’re all very happy to see all those different versions but why else right why else does it stick with us the latest book is the one that’s right up here and it’s about Jodi’s era hello um because that was of course a very iconic moment in all Television right

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Applications Now Open – Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting for Fall 2024

We’re excited to have opened the window for applications to our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting’s Fall 2024 cohort.

While we have rolling admissions until all seats in the new cohort are filled. If potential MFA candidates submit materials by March 30th and suit the criteria they will be in contention for our Jan Marino Scholarship (for a woman writer 45 or older).

Check out our new video with interviews with our most recent grads:

Inquire for more information on the program
or
Apply Now

Being a low residency program means you travel to Hollywood for 10 days at the beginning of each semester (once in August/once in January) for a workshop experience worth 3 units. We hold workshops at the historic Jim Henson Studios (originally the Charlie Chaplin Studios) in Hollywood, California.

Each semester students will take 3 courses after the workshop. They have one mentor for a television script and one mentor for a screenplay. The television mentors change each semester because in Fall semester you write a spec script/in Spring a pilot; the screenplay mentor is onboard for the whole year, as the Fall semester is all about developing an outline and writing Act One of the screenplay, and in the spring semester you complete and revise the script. Our instructors are all chosen because they are working writers and members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

In year two, there’s a second screenplay written (with a different mentor) and a thesis project, which can be anything from a web series to a limited series pilot and bible to a group of short films to an actual written thesis.

Our History of Screenwriting Courses are taught with a female gaze. Taught by our Executive Director so she can stay in touch with MFA candidates across their 2 years in the program. In the course, students read texts and view films each week that feature female-focused stories, and then post responses to the material. At the end of each semester, students turn in a profile of a screenwriter.

In 2017, 22 of these profiles written by MFA students were compiled into the book WHEN WOMEN WROTE HOLLYWOOD, published by McFarland Press.

If you are a writer looking to move your material to the next level so it will secure you a spot in the industry – or a college educator who wants a graduate degree to move up in the academic world – then our program is perfect for you.

Join us in Fall 2024 in Hollywood!

The Real History Behind the Historic Episodes of Doctor Who with Dr. Rosanne Welch – SD Who Con 2023 (Complete)

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Commencement Speaker, Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks On “Female Role Models from ’70’s TV” at the Stephens College Graduate Commencement 2023

On Friday, May 5th I had the honor of delivering the commencement speech at the 2023 Stephens College Commencement Ceremony for Graduate & Continuing Studies as part of having received the Distinguished Faculty Award for the year. The full commencement ceremonies for the 2023 Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting include speeches by MFA student commencement speaker Natalie Cash Petersson and Stephens College President Dianne Lynch.

Together we covered the gamut from “How Watching 1970s TV Gave me the Female Role Models to Succeed in Life” through “How to Channel your Knowledge into Action” and “How to be a Lifelong Learner – After a Well-Deserved Break”.

You can listen to the short ceremony here (the audio is a series of slides but the audio is smooth).

Rosanne’s Speech

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14 Inspector Morse, Young and Old from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Since that other, of course, shows have exploded more. We were talking with some folks the other day about these guys but you start with “Inspector Morse” which again was on PBS in the 70s and then that became the spin-off of “Lewis”. So “Lewis” who is the original assistant now becomes the head guy and there’s a “Doctor Who” connection because the guy who played Hathaway was married to Billy Piper and then, of course, they blended that into doing the prequel the “Endeavor” show which is really Morse as a young man right because his real name was Endeavor but he never liked that as a name so they used it for the new show but now that’s something that Americans know a lot about. I have friends who’d never heard of Morse but they all watch “Endeavor” and so then they’re like oh let’s go backwards and see what this guy you know what happens to him later in life.

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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13 Writing and Acting Crossovers from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

We tend to forget that actors are sometimes also writers. The same thing happens when I teach something with Emma Thompson. She wrote Sense and Sensibility and then won the Oscar for that and people don’t realize that. She wrote The Nanny McPhee movies. So she adapted the books into film and also starred in them. So Sherlock has gone Global. Again the books always did but shows done earlier no one had paid attention to in the same way. Of course, our Doctor Who connection to Victoria is that it was the next piece that Jenna Coleman did and that became something that everybody was paying some attention to. So the power of Doctor Who and for all these characters is amazing.

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12 Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and Doctor Who from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

As we know Downton Abbey became this huge explosive again filmed in England is a very culturally English story with an English cast and that has a Doctor Who connection because Hugh Bonneville shows up after that on Doctor Who. That’s how powerful now Doctor Who is this worldwide let me see let me have everyone see me here right? So I think that’s a beautiful connection. Sherlock went Global and it has its Doctor Who connection because we know it was written by both Moffat and Gatis who a lot of people don’t take seriously or don’t realize he’s more than an actor. He’s also a writer. He actually has a wonderful – it’s still on YouTube – It’s a three-part documentary on his love of American horror films and so he goes to the history of early horror films. The classic here and then he does one about the modern and in the middle he does one about English horror films but it’s a three-part really fun piece and I show that the students and they recognize him from Sherlock but they don’t know that he wrote it.

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11 Globalizing The Story from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Then the fact that you simulcast the newest Doctor. Simulcast because as we got it we always knew the show aired at this hour and you got it and then you had to wait eight hours to see it here etc. Then they realized no that audience with the internet and the explosion of the internet there’s no possible way we can keep the secret it’s going to disappear before we have the chance to enjoy it. So they literally put in the effort to simulcast that moment of changing the character – changing an actor on a show. How could that become so important because Doctor Who. I think that’s really cool. Now slowly because of Doctor Who it’s that long tail thing now other shows you’re being able to sort of jump on that bandwagon and people are saying oh let me look at that. So for instance of course there’s the new All Creatures Great and Small. What I love is all of a sudden by accident some of the shows I chose as examples they all have connections to Doctor Who right? So, for instance, this is the new All Creatures Great and Small but in the top corner I have the original All Creatures which I watched on PBS originally and that’s connected to Doctor Who because… Peter Davidson came to us from that show and then moved into Doctor Who. So I think that’s fun and actually, the bottom picture is how much fandom gets you. When we happened to be lucky enough to go to an event in Leeds we took a train to Thirsk and that is the home of James Herriot and that is the James Herriot Museum. It’s the smallest and most popular little Museum in the whole of that section of England and it was kind of fun and they had a little area where they showed you the set from the original show because we were here before the new show had started. So I’m kind of interested to know how they’ve expanded their Museum but that’s the power right of now globalizing the story.

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Film Can, Hollywood Heritage Museum, Hollywood, California

A few shots from an event day at the museum for “Afternoon @ The Barn: “Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist” which included a screening of the documentary, Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist (Watch on Kanopy) and a panel discussion with several children of those men and women blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Commission in the 1940s and 50’s.

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10 Doctor Who in Hollywood from The Doctor Who Changed the TV Universe – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Then we rebooted “Doctor Who” and even in the David era it was getting there because David was known from “Harry Potter” so there’s a fandom there that’s bringing it together but it was this moment when they debuted Matt – they were like okay we are gonna make a push in the United States. This is going to be so important. That billboard is on Sunset Boulevard in LA. Where normally it’s just a bunch of upcoming movies right or big albums that we expect. So the idea that you could bring this billboard and expect that the people driving by in Los Angeles knew who he was and what that show was. That was an amazing Step In global television and of course Craig Ferguson down there was a Dalek because he’s from the UK anyway so he knew what it was. He was kind of insinuating his love of “Doctor Who” into – but late late night. Not everybody stayed up for the late late night but everybody drove down Sunset Boulevard.

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