Welcome to Season 3!<br />Sharon and Susan kick off a new season with Jennifer Keishan Armstrong, the New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia: How a Show about Nothing Changed Everything, When Women Invented Television, Sex and the City and Us, and Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted. <br /><br />Jennifer writes about entertainment and pop culture for the New York Times Book Review, Fast Company, Vulture, BBC Culture, and Entertainment Weekly. Her latest book So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We're Still So Obsessed with It) was published this year.<br /><br />In this fascinating interview, Jennifer takes us behind the scenes with four different women who, in their own ways, invented television: Irma Phillips, Hazel Scott, Gertrude Berg -- and Betty White. Each of them faced sexism -- and racism -- but triumphed during a time when opportunities for women in television were limited -- but strangely also more open than you may think….<br /><br /><b>THE CONVERSATION</b><br /><ul><li>How The Mary Tyler Moore Show gave a voice to women everywhere when they gave a voice to a host of female TV writers.</li><li>The Oprah of the 1950’s was… Gertrude Berg?</li><li>The Beyoncé of the 1940s was... reknowned Black jazz pianist, Hazel Scott.</li><li>Find out how Scott became the first Black person to host a national primetime  television show -- in 1950.</li><li>The character of Suanne Nivens that Betty White played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was based on a woman who did a LIVE Homemaking Show played by… Betty White!</li><li>Irma Phillips was asked to make something that would appeal to women -- so she invented the Soap Opera.</li><li>Phillips created As The World Turns -- AND the longest running show of all time, The Guiding Light.</li><li>Gertrude Berg’s ground-breaking sitcom about a Jewish family -- The Goldbergs -- was so successful that it was considered to be the lead-in for a new, untested show that might need some help -- I Love Lucy.</li><li>Why was 1955 the death knell of women working in television -- both in front of AND behind the camera?</li><li>According to network executives in 1969, what were the THREE THINGS Americans didn’t want to see on television?</li><li>How The Mary Tyler Moore Show made Ed Asner a feminist.</li></ul>So join Susan and Sharon -- and Jennifer -- as they talk “fat farms”, Mean Girls, the Black List, Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Shonda Rhimes, Father Knows Best -- and “On Wednesdays we wear pink”!<br /><br /><b>AUDIO-OGRAPHY</b><br />Find Jennifer Keishan Armstrong at her website, <a href="https://jenniferkarmstrong.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jenniferkarmstrong.com</a>.<br />Buy The Women Who Invented Television (and all Jennifer’s books) at <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/when-women-invented-television-the-untold-story-of-the-female-powerhouses-who-pioneered-the-way-we-watch-today-jennifer-keishin-armstrong/15468268" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bookshop.org</a>.<br />Find Jennifer on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jmkarmstrong/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Instagram.</a><br /><br />Find Women Who Invented Television at YouTube:<br />Watch <a href="https://youtu.be/7k23zM-eLoI?si=L6v3M5IGjvLvadEa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Betty White Show (1954)</a><br />Watch Betty White in her sitcom, <a href="https://youtu.be/s1NsEkPmXqc?si=dC-3SnZZZAIYKvoo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Life with Elizabeth.</a><br /><br />Learn more about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_WJ4PpxWaE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hazel Scott.</a><br />The Goldbergs with Gertrude Berg, Episode: <a href="https://youtu.be/wgiYXIUG5eg?si=-LVjEtrbljNE6Q3L" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“A Sad Day”</a><br />Check out an Irma Phillips episode of <a href="https://youtu.be/O4Xb17kSttY?si=4klI86JY-AZCU711" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Guiding Light (1952).</a> <br /><br /><b>CONNECT</b><br...

80s TV Ladies

134 West | Susan Lambert Hatem & Sharon Johnson

When Women Invented Television | NY Times Bestselling author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

SEP 18, 202465 MIN
80s TV Ladies

When Women Invented Television | NY Times Bestselling author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

SEP 18, 202465 MIN

Description

Welcome to Season 3!<br />Sharon and Susan kick off a new season with Jennifer Keishan Armstrong, the New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia: How a Show about Nothing Changed Everything, When Women Invented Television, Sex and the City and Us, and Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted. <br /><br />Jennifer writes about entertainment and pop culture for the New York Times Book Review, Fast Company, Vulture, BBC Culture, and Entertainment Weekly. Her latest book So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We're Still So Obsessed with It) was published this year.<br /><br />In this fascinating interview, Jennifer takes us behind the scenes with four different women who, in their own ways, invented television: Irma Phillips, Hazel Scott, Gertrude Berg -- and Betty White. Each of them faced sexism -- and racism -- but triumphed during a time when opportunities for women in television were limited -- but strangely also more open than you may think….<br /><br /><b>THE CONVERSATION</b><br /><ul><li>How The Mary Tyler Moore Show gave a voice to women everywhere when they gave a voice to a host of female TV writers.</li><li>The Oprah of the 1950’s was… Gertrude Berg?</li><li>The Beyoncé of the 1940s was... reknowned Black jazz pianist, Hazel Scott.</li><li>Find out how Scott became the first Black person to host a national primetime  television show -- in 1950.</li><li>The character of Suanne Nivens that Betty White played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was based on a woman who did a LIVE Homemaking Show played by… Betty White!</li><li>Irma Phillips was asked to make something that would appeal to women -- so she invented the Soap Opera.</li><li>Phillips created As The World Turns -- AND the longest running show of all time, The Guiding Light.</li><li>Gertrude Berg’s ground-breaking sitcom about a Jewish family -- The Goldbergs -- was so successful that it was considered to be the lead-in for a new, untested show that might need some help -- I Love Lucy.</li><li>Why was 1955 the death knell of women working in television -- both in front of AND behind the camera?</li><li>According to network executives in 1969, what were the THREE THINGS Americans didn’t want to see on television?</li><li>How The Mary Tyler Moore Show made Ed Asner a feminist.</li></ul>So join Susan and Sharon -- and Jennifer -- as they talk “fat farms”, Mean Girls, the Black List, Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Shonda Rhimes, Father Knows Best -- and “On Wednesdays we wear pink”!<br /><br /><b>AUDIO-OGRAPHY</b><br />Find Jennifer Keishan Armstrong at her website, <a href="https://jenniferkarmstrong.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jenniferkarmstrong.com</a>.<br />Buy The Women Who Invented Television (and all Jennifer’s books) at <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/when-women-invented-television-the-untold-story-of-the-female-powerhouses-who-pioneered-the-way-we-watch-today-jennifer-keishin-armstrong/15468268" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bookshop.org</a>.<br />Find Jennifer on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jmkarmstrong/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Instagram.</a><br /><br />Find Women Who Invented Television at YouTube:<br />Watch <a href="https://youtu.be/7k23zM-eLoI?si=L6v3M5IGjvLvadEa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Betty White Show (1954)</a><br />Watch Betty White in her sitcom, <a href="https://youtu.be/s1NsEkPmXqc?si=dC-3SnZZZAIYKvoo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Life with Elizabeth.</a><br /><br />Learn more about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_WJ4PpxWaE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hazel Scott.</a><br />The Goldbergs with Gertrude Berg, Episode: <a href="https://youtu.be/wgiYXIUG5eg?si=-LVjEtrbljNE6Q3L" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“A Sad Day”</a><br />Check out an Irma Phillips episode of <a href="https://youtu.be/O4Xb17kSttY?si=4klI86JY-AZCU711" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Guiding Light (1952).</a> <br /><br /><b>CONNECT</b><br />Visit<a href="http://80stvladies.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> 80sTVLadies.com</a> for transcripts.<br />Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies<a href="http://eepurl.com/h1YPWH" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> mailing list.</a><br />Support us and get ad-free episodes on<a href="https://www.patreon.com/80sTVLadies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> PATREON.</a> <br /><br /><b>VOTE</b><br />We're NOMINATED for Best Film &amp; TV Podcast.<br />Please VOTE for 80s TV Ladies at<a href="https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Women in Podcasting Awards</a>.<br />REMEMBER: Register or Check your US Election Registration at<a href="https://www.vote.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Vote.org</a><br /><br />This year is the 45th anniversary of President Carter's Crisis of Confidence speech. Get Susan’s new play about it: Confidence (and the Speech) at<a href="https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=6386" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Broadway Licensing.</a>