The best celebrity interview program hands-down continues to be the animated Blank on Blank animated series in which they take snippets of old interviews by famous people (writers, musicians, actors and the miscellaneous “notables) and bring them to life via animation. The result is frequently surreal, and funny in a chuckle & smile inducing way rather than laugh-out-loud hilarity (though that sometimes occurs). The latest installation in the series focuses on young Bob Dylan, just twenty years old, interviewed in 1962 by Cynthia Gooding for New York City radio station WBAI’s “Folksinger’s Choice” program.
The viewer is given a succinct telling of Dylan’s origin tale as an artist, the unorthodox ways he supported himself while honing his craft, and a prophecy about his future that was far from self-fulfilling. The episode, whimsical and charming, was produced by David Gerlach, and animated and directed by Pat Smith.
