Advanced TV Herstory

Some of the freshest works on TV today are the result of screen adaptations of best selling novels. Abbe Wright of Penguin Random House, who is also podcast host of The Adaptables and Read it Forward. Advanced TV Herstory host Cynthia Bemis Abrams and Abbe discuss the current trend of adaptations from the publishing and storytelling perspectives.

Since the early days of TV, adaptations of stage and literature have delivered incomparable works to primetime viewers. They discuss the 1977 miniseries Roots, based on the book of the same name. Current works like Little Fires Everywhere, Normal People, and Big Little Lies (all written and backed by women) are achieving great success with a new approach to storytelling.

Podcast: The Adaptables https://open.spotify.com/show/66vrBJce6CegNFfuz5bMub

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Music by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/

In this episode of Advanced TV Herstory, host Cynthia Bemis Abrams continues her conversation with Emmy Award-winning actress Cady McClain. Best known for her iconic role as Dixie Cooney on All My Children, Cady shares her experiences transitioning from daytime TV star to accomplished director and arts advocate.

Through her documentary Seeing is Believing: Women Direct, Cady highlights the struggles and triumphs of female filmmakers, offering insights into the creative process and the resilience required to thrive in the entertainment industry.

Tune in as Cynthia and Cady explore how storytelling, representation, and the arts drive meaningful change in media and beyond. Recent film Seeing is Believing: Women Direct can be seen at Seed & Spark.

In this episode of Advanced TV Herstory, host Cynthia Bemis Abrams sits down with Emmy Award-winning actress Cady McClain to explore her groundbreaking career in daytime television. Best known for her role as Dixie Cooney on All My Children, Cady became the first actor to win Daytime Emmys for performances on three different soap operas.

This two-part interview delves into her early beginnings as a child actor, her rise to fame as part of a daytime TV super couple, and her transition to directing and arts advocacy. Discover how Cady's creative journey reflects the evolving role of women in television, both in front of and behind the camera.

Resources Mentioned: Seeing is Believing: Women Direct

The groundbreaking legal series L.A. Law (1986-1994) lived a glamorous, full life. Advanced TV Herstory host Cynthia Bemis Abrams examines the series pilot, written by Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues) and Terry Louise Fisher (writer/producer of Cagney & Lacey), with a critical, 21st century feminist eye. What's revealed is a time capsule of office life that reveals sexism, racism, and generational approaches to power.

As an experiment in high quality TV, L.A. Law launched with a bang. Why isn't it now celebrated for its transformational prowess? Cynthia covers that, too, and applauds guest star Alfre Woodard's epic performance, which occurred early in her career.

1.1 L.A. Law Pilot (1986) https://youtu.be/wL05e5UIylI?si=v1aS6QDczoy8nAUq

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Podcast Editing - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariloumarosz/

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Music by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/

End of year lists that honor the memories of celebrities and prominent figures are a tradition that this podcast has passed up in recent years. A deeper look at the list of prominent TV women lost in 2019 calls out not just the well-known women - usually actors - but also those who built careers behind the scenes.

Join Cynthia in celebrating the vast body of work of notable names: Katherine Helmond, Georgia Engel, Peggy Lipton, Valerie Harper, Doris Day, Carol Channing, Diahann Carroll, Gloria Vanderbilt, Beth Chapman, Beverley Owen, Toni Morrison, Cokie Roberts and more. Cynthia also reveals 4 women whose work she finds inspiring, as each raises her voice: Jane Fonda, Ava DuVernay, Kathleen Turner and TCM's Sunday Night host Jacqueline Stewart.

TV is once again attempting to bring legendary "girl detective" Nancy Drew to life. We dust off our very first episode for a look at past attempts to put the hugely popular Nancy Drew mysteries on the small screen.

The book series' backstory is a fascinating look at ego & the evolution of publishing. Excerpts are included from Melanie Rehak's 2005 "Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her." Host Cynthia Bemis Abrams explores why the Sunday night series that paired actress Pamela Sue Martin's Nancy Drew with The Hardy Boys failed in 1977-1979 and how the books have impacted TV herstory.

Links for further reading: "The Not So Hidden Racism of Nancy Drew" https://electricliterature.com/the-not-so-hidden-racism-of-nancy-drew/

"How does Nancy Drew connect to the books? Almost everything is different" https://www.bustle.com/p/how-does-nancy-drew-connect-to-the-books-almost-everything-is-different-19199448

"Why does it matter who wrote Nancy Drew anyway?" https://crimereads.com/why-does-it-matter-who-wrote-nancy-drew-anyway/

"Mildred Benson is dead at 96; wrote 23 Nancy Drew books" https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/books/mildred-benson-is-dead-at-96-wrote-23-nancy-drew-books.html

The Mystery of Carolyn Keene" https://www.lib.umd.edu/nancy/influential-authors/carolyn-keene

"The adventurous writer who brought Nancy Drew to life" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/adventurous-writer-who-brought-Nancy-Drew-to-life-180969479/

"The Stratemeyer Syndicate" https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/collections/12/the-stratemeyer-syndicate/

Clips and Music: Nancy Drew (The CW) Trailer HD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYOK1K_04Gc "Uniq - Art of Silence" is under a Royalty Free music license.

Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/er--pnwFDgU 'Moody Swing' by Oshóva is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0) Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/CPhnejWBYtc 'Malibu' by Scandinavianz is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0) Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/iusKLrpij2w

Host Cynthia Bemis Abrams revisits Anita Hill's groundbreaking testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991. Before the #MeToo movement and the widespread conversations about workplace harassment, Hill's testimony ignited national discussions about power, credibility, and gender dynamics in politics.

This refreshed episode from 2016 explores how Hill's testimony changed the landscape for women in the workplace and public life. Cynthia provides historical context on Robert Bork's earlier Supreme Court nomination, the role of key political figures like Joe Biden and Arlen Specter, and the parallels between Hill's experience and the 2018 Brett Kavanaugh hearings.

Join Cynthia as she examines what has changed in the conversation about sexual harassment, the ongoing impact of Hill's activism, and the role of media in shaping public perception.

Related Episodes: I Believe Anita Hill (2.7)

https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/5e8bd659-e882-403c-85e2-6923cd9b2125.mp3

Resources:

Race, Gender and Power in America: The Legend of the Hill-Thomas Hearings by Emma Coleman Jordan (1995)

Speaking Truth to Power, by Anita Hill (1997)

CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA and ADVANCED TV HERSTORY

Monthly Newsletter - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

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LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-bemis-abrams-5046573/

PRODUCTION

Podcast Editing - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariloumarosz/

Video Editing - https://nivialopez.com/

Music by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/

The topic of Hollywood Blacklisting has recently added a chapter - the impact it had on the budding TV industry, and more specifically, women. Researched and backed by FBI files of author/scholar Dr. Carol Stabile (University of Oregon), this 4 episode series of Advanced TV Herstory mentions names of talented women whose careers were maliciously ruined with the 1950 publication of Red Channels.

Trumped up accusations, which later the FBI admitted were unfounded, were accepted as proof enough to break contracts, withdraw offers and freeze out women who otherwise would have changed the look, sound and depth of TV's first decade.

Episode 3, features a frank conversation with author and scholar, Dr. Charlene Regester (of the Univ. of NC Chapel Hill) about how racism further changed the course of early TV. Lillian Hellman on Dick Cavett 1973 Lillian Hellman's letter, read by Liza Minnelli (rare video of the 1974 telecast of the 1972 Off Broadway stage production in which actors portrayed blacklisted people from the entertainment world during the House Un-American Activities Committee proceedings).

Carol Stabile's Broadcast 41 https://broadcast41.uoregon.edu/

Charlene Regester's 2010 book African-American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility 1900-1960 https://iupress.org/9780253221926/african-american-actresses/

Big Thinker Series hosted by The Ethics Centre (Eleanor Roosevelt Clip) https://ethics.org.au/big-thinker-eleanor-roosevelt/

CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA and ADVANCED TV HERSTORY

Monthly Newsletter - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

Website - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

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PRODUCTION

Podcast Editing - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariloumarosz/

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Music by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/

This 4-episode series examines anti-communism/McCarthyism blacklisting's impact on the careers of women who likely would have changed the look, depth, and sound of TV. Host Cynthia Bemis Abrams and author/scholar, Dr. Charlene Regester of the University of North Carolina, have a frank conversation about how racism, stereotyped roles, and Jim Crow laws delayed TV's depiction of Black life by more than a decade.

This adds to the story of a previous podcast episode about TV's Single Women and how even in the 1980s, a TV series cast a black woman as a household domestic.

Resources Mentioned:

Charlene Regester (2010) African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility 1900-1960. Indiana University Press.

Carol Stabile (2018) The Broadcast 41: Women and the Anti-Communist Blacklist

James Gavin (2010) Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne

Advanced TV Herstory's episode: TV's Single Woman Caregivers & Gimme a Break

https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/a2e5bfdd-b084-405c-9897-d486f922c123.mp3

CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA and ADVANCED TV HERSTORY

Monthly Newsletter - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

Website - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/advancedtvherstory/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@advancedtvherstory

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-bemis-abrams-5046573/

PRODUCTION

Podcast Editing - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariloumarosz/

Video Editing - https://nivialopez.com/

Music by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/

The topic of Hollywood Blacklisting has recently added a chapter - the impact it had on the budding TV industry, and more specifically, women. Researched and backed by FBI files of author/scholar Dr. Carol Stabile (University of Oregon), this 4 episode series mentions names of talented women whose careers were maliciously ruined with the publication of Red Channels.

You'll also hear from another author and scholar, Dr. Charlene Regester. In episode 3, listen in on our frank conversation about how racism, Jim Crow laws and segregation further changed the course of early TV.

Carol Stabile, (2018) The Broadcast 41: Women and the Anti-Communist Blacklist https://broadcast41.uoregon.edu/

Charlene Regester (2010) African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900–1960 published by Indiana University Press https://iupress.org/9780253221926/african-american-actresses/

CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA and ADVANCED TV HERSTORY

Monthly Newsletter - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

Website - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/advancedtvherstory/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@advancedtvherstory

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-bemis-abrams-5046573/

PRODUCTION

Podcast Editing - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariloumarosz/

Video Editing - https://nivialopez.com/

Music by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/