Meeting of the Minds The Complete Scripts with Illustrations of the Amazingly Successful PBS-TV Series

by Steve Allen

Allen brings together the characters of Ulysses S. Grant, Marie Antoinette, Sir Thomas More, and Karl Marx. Original PBS soundtrack. Unabridged.

Genres: History, Humor, Philosophy, Drama, Nonfiction, Social Science, Religion

Hardcover

First published December 12, 1988

About the author

Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best-known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?

Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs, one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. Allen wrote more than 50 books and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meetings of Minds was an inspired idea of Steve Allen to present a series of discussion between various historical figures. For instance the first show featured Theodore Roosevelt, Queen Cleopatra, Thomas Aquinas, and Thomas Paine, moderated by Steve Allen of course. It was a clever show even it is a bit dated now and often did not feature the best actors in the roles. Yet it was a surprisingly intelligent show amidst the TV fodder of the 1970s. This book features the complete scripts which actually reads better than watching the show. I don't know if this book is still available but it is worth looking out for. My copy was a gift from Mr. Allen as my ex-wife was working for him when the series was in production. Three and a half stars.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember seeing some of these when they were on PBS and I loved them! These are the original scripts from the first season. I suspect they were kept on the sweet side to see if the concept would fly. I must say I found Emily Dickinson rather annoyingly coy and timid. And the men were slightly patronizing of her. However I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction of men and women from any time period tossed together! I did not realize there were 4 seasons worth. I only have volume 1 and 2. I’ll have to find the others!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love intellectual history and these scripts from Steve Allen's show made it come alive. Two things stand out for me. One is the way diverse thinkers would find common ground, like Thomas More and Karl Marx. The second is the way these people from the past were quick to respond to criticism by pointing out the hypocrisy of the 20th century shaking its finger at the past when our international affairs are still violent and our domestic affairs still include indifference to suffering.

If you liked Jo Walton's Thessaly books, these are in that tradition of engaging intellectual history directly.

[Rex Libris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1970's Steve Allen hosted a television series entitled "meeting of Minds," in which diverse figures from history would get together and talk about themselves and those things that made them famous. This book contains the script from three such meetings. The first featured President Theodore Roosevelt, Theologian Thomas Aquinas, Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine, and Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The second series featured French queen Marie Antoinette, English statesman, theologian and philosopher Thomas More, Karl Marx, and President Ulysses S Grant. The third features Attila the Hun, poet Emily Dickinson, astronomer and scientist Galileo, and naturalist Charles Darwin.

In the introduction Allen goes through all the travails involved in trying to get the show launched. It took well over 10 year to convince any networks to look at it. The networks were reluctant to do so because it was just too intellectual.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent transcript of an excellent program.

Too bad that at the time of this review there are no videos available. The broadcast ran from 1977 to 1981. The only thing that you do not get a clear picture of is the expressions on Steve Allen’s face.

The advantage of the “book” form is that you have time to think while reading and not lose your train of thought. You can even look things up.

It is a fun talk show with many of the greatest mines such as President Theodore Roosevelt, Queen Cleopatra, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Paine, President Ulysses S. Grant, Queen Marie Antoinette, Sir Thomas More, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Galileo Galilei, and Attila the Hun. If you miss your favorites in the first series there are more in the second.

[Michael A. Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! The third series promised to be much like the first two (based on the guests for the first four shows), but there was a sense of what was in store right away, with the conversations between those guests and Allen seeming to be a bit livelier and cutting off far too soon due to the time constraint. And the last two shows were both a tour de force and bold innovation, with Shakespeare and three of his famous characters (and a mysterious woman with surprising connections) interacting with each other while Allen is off-set.

[Michael A. Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be clear-eyed, I'd call it rather 5- stars, as there are some niggling points of disconcontention, such as the seeming randomness in choosing the 'guests' and the lack of attention to equal time for being the focus of attention. Still, the concept of having actors play the parts of historical figures of interest having a round table meeting with a modern moderator/interviewer was (and is!) utter brilliance.

[Michael A. Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine piece of the series. A new drawback to the format chosen became apparent to me. By inviting so many historical figures and operating under a time constraint, you are perforce going to pay short shrift to at least *some* of them. A better idea might have been to have two guests with opposed viewpoints (not necessarily in all regards), and have the moderator encourage a lively discussion between them while keeping things civil.

[Michael A. Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best season, IMHO. The format was changed to reduce the number of guests to three, allowing them more individual time and adding more focus to heir interactions with each other and Allen.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the idea that drove this book and found it very interesting. It did not let me down, and I feel I know more about these historical figures now.

[Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere) · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are 4 volumes of this series of Meeting of the Minds books. Each has the scripts for multiple shows.

Meeting of Minds links: Wikipedia, Steve Allen's website, Youtube videos

In this volume:

Series III

Scripts of the following shows:

Show # 13
Cast: St. Augustine of Hippo, The Empress Theodora of the Byzantine Empire, Thomas Jefferson, Bertrand Russell

Show # 14
Cast: same as Show # 13

Show # 15
Cast: Aristotle, Niccolo Machiavelli, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Sun Yat-Sen

Show # 16
Cast: same as Show # 15

Show # 17
Cast: William Shakespeare and others: Woman, Hamlet, Romeo, Ghost of Hamlet's Father, Othello, Iago

Show # 18
Cast: same as Show # 17

I had a history class in high school where our teacher showed us an episode of Meeting of Minds then had us research and write a historical biography, then appear together in groups of 3 as that person for a class presentation. So not only did we have to learn our chosen historical character's background, but we then had to react to other historical characters as that person (no costumes, as we already had enough prep time taken up with the research paper). I was Mary, Queen of Scots, and I remember having a discussion with Michelangelo, but can't remember who was our third person. Anyway, it was a really great exercise in creative thinking, and I loved it - along with Allen's concept of time traveling to have conversations with historical characters.

I'd watched Show 15 and 16 (yay local PBS) and that was the first time I'd heard anything of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's life story, which was fascinating.

[Scott L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant writing. The second in a series of four books with the scripts from the PBS television show "Meeting of Minds", this book contains some of the great thinking of all time. I cannot recommend it highly enough - if you are curious to know how Plato and Martin Luther, for example, would interact - this book is for you. It is an amazing read and gets five stars from me.

[Libraryassistant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember loving several episodes of this on tv. Unfortunately, though some of the interactions were still fascinating,the reading of it seemed to go on too long. I ended up losing interest and skimming over a lot. I still think it was a brilliant and evocative idea.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been looking for this for a long time. Really fun to read the scripts. Dated, but still would be interesting to have a read-in party with these great thinkers.

[Nancy Laney]

Meeting of the Minds Book 1

[Fausto Betances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great, well executed idea that's too short to count as a book.

[Grace Best-Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a concept! This needs to be done more.