THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280371
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO TELEVISION WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Ken Burns, who is just about everybody's favorite documentarian, spent much of the day Tuesday in New York City, editing film for his next blockbuster on public television - an eight-part, 12-hour study of the Old West.
With that done, he grabbed a plane for Norfolk, slipped into a tuxedo and addressed the Norfolk Forum at Chrysler Hall. The full house liked his history lesson so much that Burns was given a standing ovation.
Before Burns took the stage at Chrysler Hall to be part a forum that is in its 63rd year, he talked in the green room of the work at hand - not one, not two but three major series for PBS. There is the history of the west, to air in the fall, and then there are five films about famous Americans including Thomas Jefferson. And there is the series due in the year 2000. It's about jazz.
The commercial networks have asked him to do documentaries.
Even a movie of the week, for heaven's sake.
Not interested, Burns has told them.
``It's not for me,'' he said, because networks other than PBS put commercials into programs every 8 or 12 minutes of so.
Interruptions. Ugh. They destroy the tone of the piece, said Burns.
Imagine ``Baseball'' or ``The Civil War'' broken up by Lite Beer spots. Unthinkable, he said.
In his Norfolk address, Burns put in a pitch or two for public broadcasting, subtly criticizing politicians who would cut federal money that helps make possible what he called ``the good works'' of PBS. The bearded Burns delivered his talk from a script. He doesn't raise his voice much, and most of the time, the man is deadly serious.
There was a light moment when he quoted the philosopher Yogi Berra. ``If you don't go to their funerals, they won't go to yours.''
And O.J. Simpson's name popped up. Giggles in the audience.
No, said Burns. He will not do the 2,715-hour O.J. documentary.
What he will do is 12 hours on jazz. ``It was made up as people went along. Much like America itself,'' said Burns.
And there is the ``The West,'' which is about to be wrapped up.
``The West was the great crossroads of human history,'' said Burns. He could not resist it. He takes his time.
Burns put in a combined 10 years on the baseball and Civil War series, which have been watched by an estimated 75 million people on TV, and now sell well as home video packages.
Burns in Norfolk described himself as an amateur historian who is forever asking himself questions. ``Who are we Americans? Why do we do what we do? Why do we kill each other?'' His quest is to convince Americans that history is something to be cherished.
``We have a tendency to ignore the past, to burn it behind us like spent rocket fuel. That is a bad thing. To do that leaves a gap in the fabric of who we are.'' by CNB