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Dr James Dobson Reboots Legendary Parenting Film Series
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – April 25, in the year of our Lord
2012 – Dr. James Dobson, now heading Family Talk radio
and known for bestsellers such as The Strong-Willed Child, Dare
to Discipline and Bringing Up Boys—will restore and expand his
legendary 1978 film series on parenting (more than a third of
the U.S. population saw it at the time), with new segments
filmed May 11-12 and 18-19 at a two-weekend conference free and
open to the public called BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY.
“My son, Ryan, at the time a new dad, picked up a video and
watched it one night,” Dobson said, describing the genesis of
the new series. “He phoned me, and, after a few laughs about the
sideburns and big eyeglasses, he said, ‘Dad, this is what
parents are wanting right now!’”
Ryan’s plea was far from the first, and the Dobson team with
producer David Nixon began to consider which segments to retain
and what to update and add. In 1978 segments about dealing with
young children, for example, the child psychologist speaks from
the front lines of raising Ryan and Danae, at the time young
children in the Dobson household (she inspired The Strong-Willed
Child!). That one-of-a-kind footage will be restored and
reframed. (“John Wickham, then Army chief of staff, was so taken
with the Fathering film, he made it required viewing for
soldiers around the world,” Dobson recalls.)
In the new Legacy session, one of five new titles to be
presented at the San Diego conference, Dobson traces four
generations in his family to examine the enduring influence of a
single generation.
“Mixing the immediacy of youth and the perspective of age from
one man’s long career is a rich capstone,” said Robert
Wolgemuth, BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY executive producer and,
interestingly, one of the marketers of the original film series
at Word Publishers. “We’ve specially invited audience members
from the original San Antonio event because that conference was
a once-in-a-generation moment, and this is too.”
“Faces in the crowd in that San Antonio screening were minor
celebrities for two decades,” Wolgemuth added, laughing.
Author of more than 30 books, Dr. Dobson currently heads Dr.
James Dobson’s Family Talk, a nonprofit ministry and radio
program. For 14 years, he was an associate clinical professor of
pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of
Medicine and was on the attending staff of Children’s Hospital
of Los Angeles for 17 years. He earned his doctorate in child
development from USC. He founded and is chair emeritus of Focus
on the Family.
WHEN Friday, May 11
Saturday, May 12
Friday, May 18
Saturday, May 19
Each evening, sessions are from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
WHERE Skyline Church, 11330 Campo Road, La Mesa, Calif.
(Highway 94 at Jamacha Boulevard)
TICKETS
www.BuildingAFamilyLegacy.com