The Joseph Smith Papers (TV series)

Last updated
The Joseph Smith Papers
Joseph smith papers tv.jpg
Series title card
GenreHistory
Mormon studies
Documentary
Written byGlenn Rawson
Narrated byGlenn Rawson
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes94 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersRonald O. Barney
Larry H. Miller
ProducerGlenn Rawson
CinematographyDennis Lyman
EditorRick Prather
Running time30 minutes
55 minutes (Pilot)
Production companyLarry H. Miller Communications Corporation
Original release
Network KJZZ-TV
Release2008 (2008) –
2009 (2009)
Related
History of the Saints

The Joseph Smith Papers: Television Documentary Series is a documentary television series produced by Ronald O. Barney and the Larry H. Miller Communications Corporation. The series documented the creation of, and work involved in, the Joseph Smith Papers Project. It also discussed the history of Joseph Smith, the founder and first prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), as well as the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement. [1]

Contents

Production

The history of the Joseph Smith Papers Project began with the work of Dean C. Jessee. Jessee, along with LDS Historian Leonard J. Arrington, wanted to collect and publish all the known works of Joseph Smith, so they could be more easily accessed by scholars and the public. His first attempts at the project were The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, in 1984, and the two volume Papers of Joseph Smith, the first in 1989 and the second in 1992. [2] In 2001, Jessee's project became a joint venture between Brigham Young University and the LDS Church Archives, and was named the Joseph Smith Papers Project. A large amount of funding for the project was donated by Larry H. and Gail Miller the owners of KJZZ-TV, the station which would later air the television series. The project was then moved from BYU to the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City, Utah. [2]

As the project progressed, and the time neared for the publication of the first volume, the Larry H. Miller Communications Corporation decided to produce an hour-long introduction to the project, to air on KJZZ-TV. This introduction aired 5 November 2007, and became the pilot for the series. [1] Eventually it was decided to create a weekly series, to document the project, and to discuss the history of Joseph Smith using original documents. The pilot would differ from the remaining episodes of the series because of changes to the production team and broadcast format. All the episodes were produced in cooperation with the LDS Church Historical Department.

The first season of the series premiered early in 2008 and concluded on 22 February 2009. [3] The second season began airing in 2009 and ended later that year. Following the completion of each season, the episodes were rebroadcast on BYU-TV (to receive exposure outside the Salt Lake City market). [3] Both seasons were later released on region-all DVD.

Plot synopsis and episode list

The first season documented the creation of, and work involved in, the Joseph Smith Papers Project. It also discussed the history of Joseph Smith, the founder and first prophet of the LDS Church (using original documents); beginning with his ancestral roots and ending with the condition of the Church following his death. [1] The second season covered many of the same topics, but went into more detail, using a topical approach versus the chronological approach of the first season. [4] The second season also covered the potentially troubling issues in Joseph Smith's history more thoroughly. [5]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Elaine Jarvik (4 November 2007). "TV show to preview Smith Papers Project". Deseret News . Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 ( Jessee, Esplin & Bushman 2008 , p. xl)
  3. 1 2 R. Scott Lloyd (25 February 2009). "Scholars field questions about Joseph Smith Papers project". Church News . Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "The second season of The Joseph Smith Papers on DVD". Daily Herald . 12 August 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  5. ↑ Trevor Holyoak (22 June 2010). "Review: The Joseph Smith Papers Television Documentary Series, Season 1 (DVD Set)". Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research . Retrieved 14 September 2016.

Related Research Articles

The King Follett discourse, or King Follett sermon, was an address delivered in Nauvoo, Illinois, by Joseph Smith, president and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, on April 7, 1844, less than three months before he was killed by a mob. The discourse was presented to a congregation of about twenty thousand Latter Day Saints at a general conference held shortly after the funeral service of Elder King Follett, who had died on March 9, 1844, of accidental injuries. The sermon is notable for its assertion that God was once a mortal man, and that mortal men and women can become gods through salvation and exaltation. These topics were, and are, controversial, and have received varying opinions and interpretations of what Smith meant. Literary critic Harold Bloom called the sermon "one of the truly remarkable sermons ever preached in America."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Vision</span> Theophany that Joseph Smith received in the spring of 1820

The First Vision refers to a theophany which Latter Day Saints believe Joseph Smith experienced in the early 1820s, in a wooded area in Manchester, New York, called the Sacred Grove. Smith described it as a vision in which he received instruction from God the Father and Jesus Christ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salt Sermon</span> 1838 speech by Mormon leader Sidney Rigdon

The salt sermon was an oration delivered on 17 June 1838 by Sidney Rigdon, then First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and frequent spokesman for Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, against church dissenters, including Book of Mormon witnesses Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and John Whitmer, and other leaders including W. W. Phelps. The Salt Sermon is often confused with Rigdon's July 4th oration.

Egbert Bratt Grandin was a printer in Palmyra, New York, best known for publishing the first edition of the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Works relating to Joseph Smith</span>

There are many works relating to Joseph Smith. These works cover Joseph Smith's his life, legacy, and teachings. Smith is the author of several works of scripture, and several personal histories, letters, and other writings. There have also been several biographies written about him.

Grant Hart Palmer spent thirty-four years in the LDS Church Education System, teaching institute and seminary, and served as a chaplain at the Salt Lake County jail for thirteen years. In 2002 Signature Books published Grant’s book, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins, in which Grant scrutinized many of Mormonism’s foundational stories. Grant went on to publish two additional books, The Incomparable Christ in 2005, and Restoring Christ: Leaving Mormon Jesus for Jesus of the Gospels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry H. Miller</span> American businessman (1944–2009)

Larry H. Miller was an American businessman. He owned the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team. Miller and his companies also owned more than 60 automotive dealerships throughout the western United States, and a variety of other ventures, including Prestige Financial Services, Jordan Commons, Megaplex Theatres, KJZZ-TV, Miller Motorsports Park, the advertising agency Saxton Horne, and the Delta Center. The Fanzz chain of sports apparel stores was also owned by LHM Group until its sale to Ames Watson Capital in 2018.

History of the Church is a semi-official history of the early Latter Day Saint movement during the lifetime of founder Joseph Smith. It is largely composed of Smith's writings and interpretations and editorial comments by Smith's secretaries, scribes, and after Smith's death, historians of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The history was written between 1839 and 1856. Part of it was published in Times and Seasons and other church periodicals. It was later published in its entirety with extensive annotations and edits by B. H. Roberts as part of a seven-volume series beginning in 1902 as History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Sylvester Marshall Smith was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the inaugural seven Presidents of the Seventy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Joseph Smith Papers</span> Project to collect and research documents by Joseph Smith

The Joseph Smith Papers is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The documents, which include transcriptions and annotations, have appeared both online and in printed form. The Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsors the project; the department's imprint, the Church Historian's Press, publishes the website and the printed volumes.

Ronald Kent Esplin is the managing editor of The Joseph Smith Papers project and the former director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University (BYU).

Dean Cornell Jessee is a historian of the early Latter Day Saint movement and leading expert on the writings of Joseph Smith Jr.

James Brown Allen is an American historian of Mormonism and was an official Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 to 1979. While working as Assistant Church Historian, he co-authored The Story of the Latter-day Saints with Glen Leonard. After Ezra Taft Benson dismissed the book as secular new history, other events led to the dissolution of the LDS Church History department in 1982. Allen resigned as Assistant Church Historian in 1979, returning to work at Brigham Young University (BYU) full-time.

Mark Roscoe Ashurst-McGee is an American historian of the Latter Day Saint movement and editor for the Joseph Smith Papers project.

Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of individuals and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious movement associated with the Book of Mormon, though not all churches and members of the Latter Day Saint movement identify with the terms Mormon or Mormonism. Denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the largest, as well as the Community of Christ (CoC) and other smaller groups, include some categorized under the umbrella term Mormon fundamentalism.

<i>History of the Saints</i> (TV series) Television documentary about Mormon Pioneers

The History of the Saints: Gathering to the West is a television documentary series produced by Dennis Lyman and Glenn Rawson. It focuses on the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members following the death of Joseph Smith. This includes the story of the Mormon Pioneers as they left behind Nauvoo, Illinois and traveled along the Mormon Trail to Utah.

This is a bibliography of works on the Latter Day Saint movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Greek Psalter Incident</span>

The Greek Psalter Incident was a moment in the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement when Henry Caswall reported to have asked Joseph Smith to translate an old Greek psalter he had in his possession on April 19, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois, United States. Before meeting with Smith, Caswall was already aware of the psalter's contents and intended to use the request as a means of exposing Smith as a fraud.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.