Meet Professor Becker, the woman who knows television better than you. Professor Becker does not just understand TV and film, she understands students. She has the ability to transform any comment a student says into a valuable class lesson. Let’s meet this TV master.
Name: Professor Christine Becker
Department: Film, Television, and Theatre
Home town: Chicago Heights, IL
Alma Mater: University of Wisconsin Madison (PH. D. in Film Studies)
Did you always want to be a college professor? How did you take this path?
If you had told me when I was an undergrad that I would become a college professor, I would have laughed in your face, mainly because I never talked in my classes, never felt confident that I knew anything anyone would want to know. I went to grad school solely because I loved studying movies and wanted to keep doing it. While there I both developed my skills of media analysis and had to teach public speaking as a way of funding my tuition. The latter taught me how to teach, and the former gave me confidence I had information worth sharing. And now, I can’t imagine being anything other than a college professor.
What is your favorite class to teach and why?
This is a tough question, because I love the freedom that Notre Dame and my department give me to teach whatever I want and think will be valuable for students, so in a way, every class is my favorite or else I’d opt to not teach it. But I guess the class I find most thrilling to teach is our intro class, Basics of Film and Television. It’s really fun uncovering for students who have been watching TV and movies their whole lives without necessarily thinking much about it all the intricacies of how texts work, how the media industries work, and how media culture works. I love the idea that I’m passing media literacy on to students who may take only one media studies course in their lives but can use those skills for the rest of their lives, and it’s a special thrill when you reach a student who decides to major in FTT after taking Basics and realizing how much they love studying film and TV.
What is your biggest pet peeve as a teacher?
Classrooms that are set at too high a temperature. 25 people in a small room talking for 75 minutes can make for an unbearably warm experience. And a warm classroom during midterm week when everyone is already exhausted? Forgot about being able to accomplish anything.
What is the most impressive thing a student has ever done during class or for one of your classes?
One student who comes to mind is Conor Hanney, a ’14 graduate, who completed a senior thesis project that I advised. Conor aspired to be a TV writer for tween shows targeted primarily at boys (having grown up loving shows like Drake and Josh). So for his thesis project, he wrote a research paper on the conventions of tween shows and also wrote a set of scripts for shows, both original pilots and spec scripts (i.e. original episodes of existing shows). He was so prolific, he wrote those scripts almost faster than I could read them, and they were all a blast to read – very creative, fun, and easy to imagine actually being on TV. Cut to the present: Conor is now employed as a writer on a Disney XD show, living out his dream, and he’s used a few of his thesis scripts to apply for new opportunities. So what I admire so much is that he knew what he wanted to achieve with his degree and took full advantage of what Notre Dame and FTT could offer him to guide his way to that.
Your book It’s the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television (Wesleyan University Press, 2009) won the 2011 IAMHIST Michael Nelson Prize for a Work in Media and History. Who is your favorite 1950’s film star and why?
I really fell in love with Ida Lupino when researching my book. She was a compelling actress at both drama and comedy (she had a 1950s sitcom called Mr. Adams and Eve where she played a satirical version of herself, a self-obsessed actress, and it’s one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen). She was also one of the very few women throughout all of classical Hollywood history to have an accomplished career as a film and TV director.
Who is your favorite actor/actress right now?
I will go with Amy Poehler, because Parks & Rec is one of my favorite sitcoms of all time, and I also love her Smart Girls online community.
What is your favorite movie of all time?
Casablanca. I put it on the syllabus every time I teach Basics, and I never tire of it.
Take your favorite 50s actor/actress and your favorite current actor/actress and place them in the lead role of your favorite movie of all time. Who would play the role better?
My favorite film choice gives Ida Lupino a leg up here. She was a Warner Bros. contract actress who had starred with Humphrey Bogart before, so I’m sure she could have pulled out Ingrid Bergman’s role as Ilsa Lund. It’s tough to see Amy Poehler in that part, but I’d bet she would make a good Capt. Renault. He’s the comedic heart of the film, after all.
Your current research project involves the comparison of American and British television production and programming. If you could only watch American TV or British TV for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?
Oh, what a frightening prospect, to not have easy access to both! I’d have to answer American TV, simply because one of the great joys of watching TV for me is talking with others about it, and as an American who lives in the U.S. and has mostly American friends on Twitter, I’d want to watch what most of my friends are watching. If you let me move to England and start building up a big group of British friends, I might change my answer, especially because I often find British TV more creatively compelling (and would love to live in England).
Since you are constantly analyzing television and movies, is it possible for you to ever sit back, relax, and enjoy what you are viewing or are you constantly analyzing and critiquing these shows?
I would say 90% of the time I am doing both at the same time. Analysis is enjoyable for me, and it’s so second-nature at this point that it isn’t “work” for me to be aware of the inner workings of a TV text. The other 10% would be times when I’m tired and barely able to pay attention to the screen or when I’ve assigned something for a class that I don’t necessarily like or want to see in that moment, and so I don’t have the usual joy attached. But getting to assign, say, a Parks and Rec episode for class, watch it closely myself, and then talk about it with students and have them add their own insights that I hadn’t even considered? That’s why I love my job.
Thanks so much for your insightful answers, Professor Becker. If you have not taken a class with Professor Becker, I’d highly recomment enrolling in one for next semester!