Lost Interviews Sparkle With New Life In The PBS Digital Series ‘Blank On Blank’

The dead can speak—and move—thanks to David Gerlach and his new PBS Digital Series, Blank on Blank.

It’s hard to imagine in these times of oversharing, but most celebrity interviews before the YouTube era were recorded and only a few quotes were plucked out to be part of a story. No one besides the interviewer heard the rest of the thoughts and ideas from these icons.

Gerlach, a former producer at ABC News and MSNBC, wants to make sure those kind of moments escape the storage boxes in which they sit, but he also knows he needs to engage people where they already are: namely, YouTube.

In Blank on Blank, he chooses particularly rich segments from old interviews and works with animator Patrick Smith to create visuals that accentuate what we hear. Like imagining John Coltrane practicing next to a toilet.

JOHN COLTRANE ON GIANT STEPS

A recent episode of Blank On Blank (see above) focuses on jazz great John Coltrane, who recorded classics like A Love Supreme and played on Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue.

In 1966, Frank Kofsky, a historian who wrote several books on jazz, took a ride with the saxophonist near Coltrane’s home on Long Island. Kofsky brought along a tape recorder to capture the conversation. The two talked casually as they drove through town.

Coltrane would die of liver cancer in 1967, and as fate would have it, this turned out to be one of his last interviews. But few have heard the full recording since it was broadcast on KPFA in 1973. It sat in the Pacifica Radio Archives until Gerlach and his Blank on Blank series gave it new life last week.

“John Coltrane’s music will live on for decades, but this lets you hear his voice in a way you don’t usually hear it,” Gerlach told Decider.

In the episode, the saxophonist talks about building a practice space above his garage, but then mentions he’ll probably end up playing in the bathroom. That offhand remark becomes a hard-to-forget image as the animation shows Coltrane with his sax next to the toilet.

For Gerlach, that’s exactly the detail that helps us better understand these luminaries.

“Maybe when he was in the military, that’s where he’d sneak away to play. Maybe that was the place where inspiration always hit,” Gerlach said.

INTERVIEWS REFLECTING AMERICAN LIFE

Gerlach has partnered with PBS for three seasons of Blank on Blank so far and they’ve now released 40 episodes. Gerlach generally stays away from people who are in the current public eye, instead looking for icons who were once mainstream and whose works have proven to have lasting influence.

They’ve given the animated treatment to Kurt Cobain, Lou Reed, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, along with several stars still with us, like David Bowie and Dolly Parton.

The Cobain episode has been watched more than 650,000 times on YouTube. Cobain shares very personal stories in the 1993 interview; kind of like the recently released HBO documentary Montage of Heck, it’s a raw view into a man whose music continues to affect people.

“We get interviews from journalists sitting down with people in a relaxed atmosphere: after a show, or on the tour bus. That’s much different than a TV interview,” Gerlach said.

STAY TUNED

Most recently, Blank on Blank put out a timely episode featuring Joni Mitchell (see above), who has been in the news due to rumors of being near death. The interview itself was recorded by Joe Smith, a former record executive who wrote a rock n’ roll oral history book in the 80s. Smith donated his interviews to the Library of Congress, and that’s where Gerlach found it.

They release a new episode every other Tuesday. Other episodes in the pipeline include Roger Ebert, Ayn Rand, and Dustin Hoffman.

No matter the star in the interview, Gerlach looks for the elements that reflect life in America.

“There’s a goldmine of American interviews,” he said. “It’s like a treasure hunt finding this stuff and figuring out how to bring it to life.”

Michael Gowan impatiently waits for somebody—anybody—to stream the complete Moonlighting series. You can follow him on Twitter @zebgowan.

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