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Access America

9/11 – The Only Plane in the Sky

By Isabella Strauch

“WTC Smok­ing” by Michael Foran

The attacks on the World Trade Cen­ter as well as the Pen­ta­gon in Sep­tem­ber 2001, dubbed 9/11, were a major news event. As is the case with trau­mat­ic events, peo­ple often remem­ber exact­ly what they were doing when they heard the news. With 9/11, how­ev­er, visu­al images have been engraved in people’s minds as well: a plane fly­ing into the tow­ers and peo­ple sub­se­quent­ly – out of sheer des­per­a­tion – jump­ing out of win­dows. Michael Moore’s doc­u­men­tary, Fahren­heit 9/11, offers an alter­na­tive media per­spec­tive sig­ni­fy­ing 9/11: that of a pres­i­dent over­whelmed by the news and inca­pable of an imme­di­ate reaction.

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Creativity Corner

Look Homeward, Amish Son: Ira Wagler’s Journey between Amish and “English” Worlds

By Maryann Henck

GUAWhat is it like to grow up in an Old Order Amish com­mu­ni­ty? Can the allure of tra­di­tion and a sense of belong­ing to such a com­mu­ni­ty over­ride the long­ing for free­dom and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence the great wide world? This unre­lent­ing push and pull between secure Amish com­mu­ni­ty life and the tempt­ing siren song of the out­side world have shaped ex-Amish author and blog­ger, Ira Wagler. In his best-sell­ing mem­oir, Grow­ing Up Amish, the author offers his read­ers an hon­est, bit­ter­sweet, and mov­ing account of how he left the Amish, only to return and even­tu­al­ly leave for good.

As one of the guest speak­ers at the Plain Peo­ple Con­fer­ence, Ira Wagler gave a heart­felt talk as well as read excerpts from his mem­oir about com­ing of age and his first love, Sarah Miller. But why don’t you lis­ten for yourself?

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Best Books & Fabulous Films

Safety First!

By Kai-Arne Zimny

Pho­to Cred­it: Tangqiu☺

Many of you might remem­ber Kate Winslet and Leonar­do DiCaprio togeth­er on the big screen, sur­round­ed by water and ice. While “Rose” whis­pers last words of love in the freez­ing air, “Jack” sinks to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. And despite their cold­ish, blueish skin we feel noth­ing but warmth wit­ness­ing those eter­nal words of love. And – with­out a shad­ow of a doubt – we know that his life ends, but their love doesn’t.

Eleven years after Titan­ic (1997), Kate and Leo are back, this time as a mar­ried cou­ple in Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Road (2008), the film adap­tion of Richard Yates’ nov­el (1961) of the same name.

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Access America

Mary Kay and Johnny – America’s First TV Sitcom

By Tabea Stöhr and Anne-Sophie Daffertshofer

For the past decades, sit­coms have been omnipresent in our every­day lives. On TV, in mag­a­zines, or on the Inter­net – it’s hard to escape the stars and sto­ry­lines of How I Met Your Moth­er, The Big Bang The­o­ry, or Two and a Half Men. But when did this phe­nom­e­non begin? That’s easy: On Novem­ber 18, 1947, Mary Kay and John­ny, the first sit­com ever broad­cast on Amer­i­can TV, pre­miered on DuMont Tele­vi­sion Net­work. Mary Kay and John­ny was a domes­tic sit­u­a­tion com­e­dy fol­low­ing the real life of new­ly­wed cou­ple Mary Kay and John­ny Stearns. By the time they start­ed the show they had been mar­ried for about one year. The plot focused on the cou­ple build­ing their life togeth­er in the Big Apple with John­ny work­ing at a bank and Mary Kay liv­ing the life of a typ­i­cal house­wife in their Green­wich Vil­lage apart­ment. So what exact­ly made this show extraordinary?

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Creativity Corner

Winnetou Rides Again

By Drew Hayden Taylor

Picture 1
Drew at the Karl May Fes­ti­val in Bad Segeberg

After a dozen trips or more to Deutsch­land, I can offi­cial­ly say I con­sid­er Ger­many to be my home away from home. Each vis­it reunites me with old friends, and if I’m lucky, I get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make new ones. I’ve grown fond of the land and the peo­ple. Upon reflec­tion, I think I have quite prob­a­bly seen more of Ger­many and its cities than most of its cit­i­zens. I lost track after the thir­ti­eth town. Or was it the for­ti­eth. … Hard to say. After this many trips, it’s all a blur of schnitzel and white asparagus.
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Best Books & Fabulous Films

Watch and Write! Writing the TV Drama Series

By Kai-Arne Zimny

 

“To cre­ate a tele­vi­sion show out of thin air, with­out any­body pay­ing you,

requires a cer­tain amount of delu­sion, and that’s tak­en me very far.”

Matt Wein­er, cre­ator of Mad Men

 

Do you reg­u­lar­ly watch a TV series? Prob­a­bly yes.

Have you ever con­sid­ered writ­ing one? Prob­a­bly not.

But if you like TV series and love to write, you might want to recon­sid­er. The recent ser­i­al tele­vi­sion land­scape is diverse and of a qual­i­ty as nev­er before. And pro­duc­tion stu­dios are begin­ning to open their gates a tiny crack to meet an ever-increas­ing demand for series ideas and concepts.

In her book, Writ­ing the TV Dra­ma Series:  How to Suc­ceed as a Pro­fes­sion­al Writer in TV, tele­vi­sion writer and screen­writ­ing teacher Pamela Dou­glas offers an approach to learn­ing how to slide through that crack and gain insight into what’s lurk­ing behind those gates.

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