WGF Exhibits: Celebrating 50 Years of Hawaii Five-O

Fifty years ago this month, the very first episode of Hawaii Five-O (entitled “Cocoon”) aired on CBS as a two-hour television movie. Twelve seasons and one enormously catchy theme song later, the series became the longest-running procedural drama of its day. In turn, Hawaii, which had only become a state in 1959, gained many tourists from the mainland and around the world from the small-screen exposure. Created by Leonard Freeman, the show's concept—a small and scrappy unit of cops solving peculiar crimes in beautiful island locations—had so much fuel in its tank, the show still churns out stories in revival form on CBS today.

New in the display cases leading into the WGF Library is an exhibit honoring 50 Years of “Five-O” and the work of Mr. Freeman. The exhibit shines a light on the painstaking work that goes into developing a series from fledgling idea to a well-oiled story machine that keeps people delighted and engaged, all while simultaneously enriching our entertainment and cultural landscapes. Thanks to Rose Freeman who worked tirelessly to safeguard her husband’s creative legacy, this exhibit features 50 years of treasures.

The items on display include Mr. and Mrs. Freeman’s plane tickets for an initial research trip to Hawaii, scrapbook photos, correspondence, script pages, a piece of concept art from “Cocoon” and a letter from Rose Freeman to the producers of the new Hawaii Five-0, offering them her advice and encouragement. Also on display are a pitch document and annotated script pages from executive producer Peter Lenkov and the revival of Hawaii Five-0.

Archival materials are a kind of living road map for budding writers. From them we can glean inspiration, motivation and the knowledge that we can do it too. Writers engaging with this display can expect to find an elucidating paper trail behind 50 years of a beloved TV series. What could be more motivational when you're walking into the front doors of a library to write your own film or television series?

So, hats off to Hawaii Five-O and special thanks to the Freeman Family and Peter M. Lenkov for loaning their materials for this exhibit. Catch it while it's up and also check out our collection of original Hawaii Five-O scripts as part of the Leonard Freeman collection!

The Lone Arranger: Inside The Magic Cottage

In this new blog series, WGF Archivist Hilary Swett gives you a glimpse inside the WGF Archives, from newly unearthed treasures to her tips for preserving a writer's collections.  Hello there, boys and girls! In this age of reboots and re-imaginings, what's old is new again. But back in the late 1940s, TV was just beginning and the landscape of shows and genres that we are so familiar with now were just being developed. Children's shows are no exception. We all know the names of the famous shows and possibly grew up watching them—Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and more. These friendly adults taught us lessons on how to live and how to get along with one another. One of the earliest examples of this is the subject of today's blog post. Kids visited faraway lands, encountered talking creatures and learned lessons via The Magic Cottage.

Creator Hal Cooper was a prolific television director and worked on every famous sitcom from the 1960s through the 1980s. But before this, he helped solidify a template for TV children’s shows that still exists today. Along with his first wife, Pat Meikle, they were hired by the now defunct DuMont Network to produce a show aimed at preschoolers called Your Television Babysitter. It aired weekday mornings and was intended to give mothers a half hour where they could do housework uninterrupted. This show was such a success that the network asked them to create another show for older kids, which aired during primetime. The Magic Cottage aired on DuMont from 1949-1952 and then locally on WABD in New York from 1953-1955. Pat Meikle hosted the show and all of the episodes were written and produced by Hal Cooper. Each episode began with the almanac segment—a fact from that day in history. Then the fun would start. Meikle would begin by sketching a scene for the audience, and then the characters and fantasy scenarios would be acted out onscreen.

A story was broken up to span the five days of the week and were always fantastic fables and fairy tales, some well-known and some made up for the series. Like shows of today, there would be a moral lesson embedded in the story. This was revealed on Fridays, accompanied by a short song.

In the beginning of TV, everything was performed live, so recordings, also known as kinescopes, are rare. Only two for The Magic Cottage are known to exist: one episode is at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the other is located at the Paley Center for Media.

Fortunately, Hal Cooper’s family has just donated 1,000 scripts to the WGF Library and Archive. This collection contains scripts for every episode that aired from 1950-1955 when Cooper worked on the show, all of which were written by him. Aside from scripts, the collection contains a small assortment of merchandise created for the show called “premiums.” There are several children’s stationery sets, pins, and “encoded” messages from one of the show’s sponsors, the Cocoa Marsh snack company.

For those of you who want to write for children (or are young at heart), visit and peruse the Magic Cottage Collection to be steeped in fairy tales and get inspired to create your own fairy tale worlds. We have lots of current kids' shows too—just take a look in the catalog! And to hear more anecdotes about the making of these shows, you can watch the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences oral history with Hal Cooper, recorded in 2003.

The Library also has a selection of other scripts for lost TV recordings. Check out:

  • My Living Doll - Several teleplays from this 1960s sitcom, including Episode 22, written and shot after the departure of star Bob Cummings
  • Major Dell Conway of the Flying Tigers - another DuMont series, from 1951
  • Curiosity Shop - A 1970s ABC children's show from creator Chuck Jones (of Looney Tunes fame)
  • Meet Millie - a 1950s precursor to Mary Tyler Moore. Only a few episodes survive but we have 113 scripts!

Youth Spotlight: "Jumbo Shrimp" by Rosibel Villalobos

Rosibel Villalobos,18, and her poignant script for the short film Jumbo Shrimp came to us through Ghetto Film School, an award-winning nonprofit that identifies and educates young talent from local communities and provide them with the access, opportunity, and resources to pursue creative careers.  Ghetto Film School specifically equips students for top universities and careers in the creative industries through two tracks: an introductory education program for high school students and early-career support for alumni and young professionals. 

We were struck by Rosibel's talent and original voice, and not at all surprised to learn that she has been writing her entire life. She has made the transition from short stories to novels to scripts. And this fall, she will continue her journey as a screenwriter and will be attending UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television.

Below is our interview with Rosibel about Jumbo Shrimp and her writing process.

What is this script about? Jumbo Shrimp is the story of Liam, a young boy who pushes himself to grow up too fast in order to help his single mother.

What inspired you to write this story? When I wrote Jumbo Shrimp, I had just gotten back from New York, where I spent two weeks last summer taking a film course. I was thinking a lot about being personal in my work and what that meant for me. I thought a lot about the guilt I felt growing up and the kids that I knew, and so Jumbo Shrimp and its protagonist, Liam, became a vessel for me to express that guilt in a way I never would be able to aloud.

What parts of writing this story did you find particularly challenging and why? When I realized how much I related to what Liam was going through in my script, I suddenly felt like I wanted to stop writing. It was difficult to be so vulnerable and open in my work and to then share that with others. I felt like I was showing everyone an old scar, one that I had hidden for so long, and it was frightening, but also so fulfilling.

What scene or moment are you most proud of in this script? The scene that I’m most proud of is one towards the beginning, where Elara is dropping Liam off at school. Very few words are exchanged by the two, and it’s such an everyday task, dropping your child off at school, but I think that for me it captured who the characters were at their very core. The way Liam takes note of what’s happening around him reflects the shame and guilt he carries with him everywhere, and Elara being late to a job interview, but walking her son to school, is such a small thing that also shows how much she loves him. I think it’s really the little things that count.

When and why did you become interested in writing? Words have always been something that I’ve loved. I’ve always been a writer, it’s a part of me. In elementary school, I’d spend recess writing stories for my friends. In middle school, I’d spend my summers up until 6 a.m. trying to write a novel. My progression into film and screenwriting felt natural.

What makes your voice unique? My experiences make my voice unique. The way I was raised, where I was raised, who I grew up around, the opinions and tastes that I’ve shaped myself—they make me who I am. And the person that I am always seems to sneak her way into the work that I’m producing, even if it isn’t always so obvious.

 

WGF Summer of Screenplays: Our Six Fave Tearjerkers

In this week's Summer of Screenplays post, Library Intern Denise Curtis, recommends six films and their scripts to give your tear-producing glands a workout: Eyes puffing up. Nose sniffling. Lump in your throat. Weird hiccup breathing thing that makes you look like a child. There’s nothing like a film that brings you to tears. I tend to be a stoic person, so it’s quite noteworthy when I connect to a film’s story and characters so much that I’m forced to fast-walk out of the theater to my car before anyone notices my smeared makeup and bloodshot eyes.

Because I am usually composed during movies, I found it difficult to compose this list of recommendations, but here are my top six. The order of the list goes from one to six with one being “Alright, cool, I only cried for 5 minutes” to six being a film where I cried so hard, I thought my eyes were going to pop due to high blood pressure. So, if you’re in the mood for a good sob session, you can read all of these screenplays in the WGF Library.

 

A Walk to Remember - Screenplay by Karen Janszen; Based on the Novel by Nicholas Sparks

This movie feels scientifically engineered to make you cry. It’s about a troubled teenage boy and a quiet teenage girl crossing paths and falling in love, complete with a heartbreaking secret that puts their relationship to the test. This is a textbook example of a tearjerker in the sense that it's built to make you weep and it delivers.

 

The Pursuit of Happyness - Written by Steven Conrad

The Pursuit of Happyness tells the true story of Chris Gardner, a homeless single father, who fights to provide for his son by taking a competitive unpaid stockbroker internship in which one of twenty candidates will receive a job at the end. Chris and his son Chris Jr. have such a loving and pure bond, it catapults the viewer into a rollercoaster of emotions. One minute you ugly cry, the next minute you cry of pure happiness.

 

Titanic - Written by James Cameron

Every time you hear that weepy Irish music, it’s your cue to start crying. Now, this is a tear-jerker that is carefully constructed to make you sob (and even though you try not to because you are aware of this fact, you do anyway). Titanic tells the tale of a young aristocrat falling in love with a poor artist on the ill-fated R.M.S Titanic. Even though I’ve seen this film so many times, there are several scenes that convey so much despair, it’s hard not to weep. The writing is just iconic. It’s got to be on the list.

 

Never Let Me Go - Screenplay by Alex Garland; Based on the Novel by Kazuo Ishiguro

Warning: This film will give you such a shocking and terribly sad ending that it will feel like you got pistol-whipped in the face. Never Let Me Go follows the lives of three friends from being children in a boarding school to their adulthood, facing the challenges of love and the haunting pre-determined future that is planned for them. The film is so beautifully written and creative, it burns itself into your mind and sticks with you for days.

 

Les Miserables - Screenplay by William Nicholson & Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg & Herbert Kretzmer; From the stage musical Les Miserables Based on the Novel by Victor Hugo

When I first saw this movie, every time a character opened their mouth to sing, the audience was treated to my lightly sobbing in the back of the theater. I promise, every time a song springs forth you’ll have to hold back tears. It’s an amazing workout. Just see it. Unless you hate musicals, then maybe stay away from this one.

 

Twelve Years A Slave - Screenplay by John Ridley; Based on Twelve Years a Slave by Soloman Northup

This film was the saddest film I’ve ever seen. Just thinking about the movie for this post makes me want to cry. This film conveys so much pain and suffering. It’s the saddest movie experience I’ve had to date. I have no words to describe it. Just see it for yourself.

That's all she wept!  - Denise

Youth Spotlight: "Glamor" by Nadjee

Through our Volunteer and Mentorship Program, we pair WGAW members with likeminded organizations that provide writing, filmmaking and literacy services to youth and underserved communities. In our collaborations, it goes without saying that we meet incredible young creatives every day. Nadjee is one of them. We met Nadjee, 23, during a visit with Digital Dove, a filmmaking and youth empowerment program at Covenant House California. During that session, writer Diana Mendez (Rizzoli & Isles, Rosewood) inspired the students to think about the role of conflict in storytelling and using personal experiences to inform their stories. Nadjee opened up about his personal experiences and overcoming the obstacles that led him to the inspiration for his script.

We invited Nadjee to tell us more.

More information about Digital Dove and how to get involved can be found on their Facebook page.

What is the script about?  The screenplay “Glamor” is about two teens coming of age and coming to terms with their feelings in the final week of high school. The lead protagonist and his best friend are LGBTQ with very different personalities, but great chemistry. Running in parallel to their journey of self is a mystical force called glamor, the personal magic of soul and character. As the boys come to terms with who they are, they also come to terms with a spiritual power. 

What inspired you to write this story?  Writing became like therapy to me as the floodgates of my own feelings were coming unhinged during high school, and I needed a creative outlet. I’m very introspective, accommodating spiritual ideas and psychology into my work by creative means. Though it all stays grounded and easily relatable. 

What challenged you most when writing the story?  The most challenging part was finding a direct and simple approach to selling the main points of plot and character development without breaking the SHORT FILM mold. I learned to keep it simple, don’t beat around the bush, and grab peoples’ attention. 

What moment are you most proud of in the script?  The scene I’m most proud of is probably the bedroom scene for its intimacy and vulnerability. Since I didn’t want to add sexual content, this scene cuts right to the point and shows the characters as open and honest. It felt natural to me as I read the action scenes and dialogue aloud. 

When and why did you start writing?  I began writing with a purpose back in 2012 when I started on my first novel, which this screenplay is based on. I started writing to let loose some of the racing energy I had. Many frustrations plagued my mind when I started, and it was sort of like venting. Later, I saw it as a way to redeem my thoughts from the selfish, racy and confused mess they were to something people would be patient with, interested in and try to understand.  

What makes your voice unique?  

My voice is willing to go places I feel many people overlook or ignore. I consider myself a heartful writer with vulnerable, and courageous content.