I'll ask this here because it seems to be the most active thread discussion-wise on the documentary...Any idea why past interviews with folks who knew and worked with Walt wasn't used? Like those with folks who have passed? And please don't answer with tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff. Was it the producers and PBS policy to just use their original stuff? Rights? Time and money? I assume that if the production team had complete access to the archives that it must have existed there for their use. Input from folks like Ward Kimball, Babbitt, Marc Davis or any of the other old or long-time employees sure would have helped and I'm sure that it would have been enlightening. Maybe those of you who went to the D23 panel on this could shed some light. I, for one, would have loved to hear Art Babbitt, and especially Ward Kimball chime in on Walt. I know the stuff exists.
You probably could have ended up in the same place as you did and used their input as opposed to the 'biographer' perspective and maybe critics of the piece would give it more legitimacy.
For what it's worth, I discount somewhat the family input on the doc. I mean, if it was your dad or father-in-law you are inherently quite biased when someone tries to make a program like this about them. No one wants to see family painted in any kind of a negative light AT ALL, so I understand Diane's dislike of the Gabler book (which while it had a lot of factual inaccuracies, I didn't find as damning as it's often portrayed to be).
If you don't try and get to the core of an individual in a documentary, you are left with a list of accomplishments, facts, dates, etc. That's pretty boring and hard to watch over four hours and nothing is really learned or at least discovered. There's a lot of invoking of "If Ken Burns had only made this" out there. Well, he has a ton of supposition and a very pointed view in any of his documentaries too, along with omissions and errors. As a baseball history nut and jazz fan, I can assure you of that with his "Baseball" and "Jazz" series. But his stuff is still brilliant, engaging, enlightening and fosters discussion. In the end, that's what I liked about "American Experience". It made people discuss someone who's been dead for nearly 50 years, brought to life someone who some younger folks thought was a corporate icon, ala' Ronald McDonald. Now if folks could only get off the conspiracy bandwagon.....
By the way...Photo Dave...you da man!
