18 Popular Culture and The Monkees from “Why The Monkees Matter: Even 50 Years Later [Video] (56 seconds)

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From Denver Pop Culture Con 2019.

Wherever you go, you find Monkees fans and the Denver Popular Culture Con was no different.  Amid rooms full of caped crusaders and cosplay creations, I was initially not sure how many folks would attend a talk on a TV show from the 1960s – but happily I was met by a nice, engaged audience for my talk on Why the Monkees Matter  – and afterward they bought books!  What more could an author ask for?

18 Popular Culture and The Monkees from

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Transcript

They were their own comic book. I’m sure somewhere in this place this weekend at one of the big comic cage upstairs might have a copy. I don’t know. It’s probably pretty rare. They were drawn by who knows who the drawer — the artist — Hirschfeld — thank you very much. That’s a huge thing that he would choose them right? This was for a piece in TV Guide at the time but he did all the great Broadway stars. So and I just think that’s beautiful (Audience: Is his daughter’s name in there somewhere?) You know it should be and I think it’s in Peter’s hair I think or it might be at the end of Mike’s hair. It’s got to be in this hair somewhere. He always had the name Nina — his daughter’s name. That’s a fun fact of Hirschfeld and if you go online you can google Hirschfeld Nina and it will show all the photos where her name appears. So I’m guessing if we looked hard enough it would be in there. So they’re making it all over popular culture. Obviously, there’s other Hirschfeld’s where you can see more of them and look at all the famous people that he’s covered but there in that world. Nina’s definitely in her Marilyn Monroe’s skirt.



Buy 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 Acheivement 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 Riderand Five Easy Pieces.

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?

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30 More On Jane Espenson from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (58 seconds)

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The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

30 More On Jane Espenson from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction - Dr. Rosanne Welch

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This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne

Transcript:

Likewise, she wrote many Buffy’s but one of the best is an episode called Earshot and Buffy’s all streaming for free on Facebook right now so you can watch. (Audience: I grew up watching that.) I Iove Buffy, I know. It’s really brilliantly written show. Earshot was a brilliant episode about Buffy who is the Vampire Slayer being cursed with the ability to hear what everyone is thinking — so mental telepathy and the problem is the cacophony in your head starts to make you crazy because if you can hear what everyone was thinking you couldn’t think your own thoughts and along the way — she’s in high school — she hears someone say “It doesn’t matter tomorrow by noon they’ll all be dead.” So now she knows she’s in a school with a shooter but who is it because she can’t pinpoint where the voice came from. So the whole episode is about trying to find the kid and of course, you trace the kid who looks the most bullied and seems to be the most stereotypically that kid. I’m not going to tell you you did it but — spoiler alert — it ain’t that kid right? So it’s really again excellently written episode using all the tropes of the era so Jane Espenson a pretty important writer.



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#MentorMonday 8 – Dawn Comer Jefferson – Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting

Dawn Comer Jefferson is our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting #mentormonday spotlight this week!

Dawn comer jefferson

Dawn is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning writer. On television, Comer Jefferson wrote on the CBS family drama Judging Amy, served as writer/consulting producer on MTV’s teen drama, South of Nowhere, freelanced on the CBS hit NCIS, and developed a drama pilot at NBC Universal Studios. She was nominated for an Emmy for writing the Fox-animated family film, Our Friend, Martin, and for the last nine years has written Emmy-winning arts programming for PBS, performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

As a non-fiction writer, Comer Jefferson has written about children, families and public policy issues for national print and online media including Garnet News, Working Mother, Fit Pregnancy Magazine and MomsRising, and her essays have been featured in the anthologies A Woman Alone (Seal Press) and Go Girl (Eighth Mountain Press). She adapted, produced and directed the eight-part NPR radio series adaptation of the biography Maggie’s American Dream, co-wrote the nonfiction book Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work, and Family, and the African American historical children’s fiction, The Promise.


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#MentorMonday 8 - Dawn Comer Jefferson - Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting

Presenting “When Women Write Horror” Talk

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Presenting “When Women Write Horror” Talk

Presenting “When Women Write Horror” Talk

Cal Poly Pomona University Library

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* 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!

Getting ready for my panel at DTLA Film Festival on Sunday via Instagram

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Getting ready for my panel at DTLA Film Festival on Sunday

Getting ready for my panel at DTLA Film Festival on Sunday via Instagram

Chatting with Maria Staroselets of the DTLA Film Festival before our panel discussion, Privileged Characters: How to recognize and avoid implicit bias in your screenwriting.

Video of this panel coming soon

 

Presenting my talk “How the chaos of collaboration in the writer’s room created the golden age of television” at the Screenwriting Research Conference in Porto, Portugal

Presenting my talk “How the chaos of collaboration in the writer’s room created the golden age of television” at the Screenwriting Research Conference in Porto, Portugal

Presenting my talk “How the chaos of collaboration in the writer’s room created the golden age of television” at the Screenwriting Research Conference in Porto, Portugal

** We have returned from Porto and I am streaming out our photos over the next few weeks.

Opening Reception, Screenwriting Research Network Conference, Porto, Portugal via Instagram

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* 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!

Chatting with conference attendees before my talk at the Screenwriting Research Conference in Porto, Portugal

Chatting with conference attendees before my talk at the Screenwriting Research Conference in Porto, Portugal

Chatting with conference attendees before my talk at the Screenwriting Research Conference in Porto, Portugal

A great way to encounter these international friends I only see in person once a year at the 2019 Screenwriting Research Conference.

** We have returned from Porto and I am streaming out our photos over the next few weeks.

Opening Reception, Screenwriting Research Network Conference, Porto, Portugal via Instagram

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* 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!

Ready to present my talk yesterday at the Screenwriting Research Conference here in Porto, Portugal via Instagram

Ready to present my talk yesterday at the Screenwriting Research Conference here in Porto, Portugal

Ready to present my talk yesterday at the Screenwriting Research Conference here in Porto, Portugal via Instagram

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* 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!

At the ‘She Called Action’ 35 Pilot Table Read Contest

At the ‘She Called Action’ 35 Pilot Table Read Contest

At the 'She Called Action' 35 Pilot Table Read Contest

My Second-year MFA candidate Randi Barros and I spent the morning on set at the Manhattan Beach Studios watching a filmed table read of Barros’ script “Springtime in September.” A winner of this year’s ‘She Called Action’ 35 Pilot Table Read Contest, the script concerns a suddenly single mother dealing with dating in the new era.

This “She Called Action” event was created by Cheryl Rodes of the women-owned production company Rodes Unpaved, dedicated to putting women as the heroes of the story.

That’s something the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting can certainly support!

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Presenting on “Why The Monkees Matter” at Denver Pop Culture Con via Instagram

Presenting on “Why The Monkees Matter” at Denver Pop Culture Con

Presenting on “Why The Monkees Matter” at Denver Pop Culture Con via Instagram
Such a nice, engaged audience for my talk on Why the Monkees Matter at the Denver Popular Culture Con – and afterward they bought books, too!

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Buy 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 Acheivement 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 Riderand Five Easy Pieces.

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?

Order Examination Copies, Library and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland

 

McFarland Company logo