[5] In the late 1960s, art professor John Frazer recruited her into helping him set up the university's first "serious film course" at a time when it was, according to Sam Wasson, unclear what that meant.
[3] This soon evolved into her teaching a class at Wesleyan on her own, beginning in 1969, despite lacking the usual academic credentials.
[3] She was a pioneer of taking Hollywood film seriously as a subject of academic study, teaching the work of Clint Eastwood as early as 1971.
[3] Because of Basinger, Wesleyan increasingly became seen as a place for Hollywood figures to deposit their archives; among those who have done so are Elia Kazan, Frank Capra, and eventually the aforementioned Clint Eastwood.
[10] Graduates include Akiva Goldsman, Joss Whedon, Michael Bay, Paul Weitz, Laurence Mark, Paul Schiff, Gary Walkow, Alex Kurtzman, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Toby Emmerich, Nick Meyer, Marc Shmuger, Rick Nicita, Bradley Fuller, Dana Delany, Stephen Schiff, Rodger Grossman, Toni Ross, Bradley Whitford, Sam Wasson, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, Liz Garcia, Jon Turteltaub, Owen Renfroe, Jeffrey Lane, Ed Decter, Zak Penn, Jeremy Arnold and Miguel Arteta.