The Michael Jackson Story (2026) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Huh?
I think every child
is born to do a certain thing.
I knew I wanted to be a a star.
Just being on the stage.
Just looking out over a sea of
faces
..when they're chanting and screaming.
And I wanted it.
Because I wanted to be loved.
That's the real truth - I wanted
people to truly love me.
A lot of people ask, who was Michael
Jackson really?
I mean, he was a child star
who became the most famous man on the
planet.
This is a man who changed the music
industry.
I mean, he is a musical genius.
But he was also accused of abusing
children
..and died without a cent to his name.
I mean, this is the ultimate story
of power, celebrity
and money.
And now the battle is raging for the
truth
and Michael Jackson's legacy.
The number one artist in the world!
That level of megastardom is not
healthy.
People are not gods.
Tonight, Jackson is wanted by police
of multiple felony counts of child
molestation.
The Jackson machine just keeps right
on rolling.
Are you guys ready for me?
Whenever you're ready.
People don't know my brother.
They never did.
They thought they did.
And I think it's important for
the public, the world, to see
..I don't want to say the truth,
but from a family member's
perspective.
And that's important to me,
so you get it right and you
understand,
as opposed to reading nonsensical
things in the media.
What do you do mostly?
I mean, you know, in your spare time.
Sports.
- Yeah.
Messing around.
I go swimming all the time.
Like swimming.
And play basketball.
Catching lizards and things. Messing
around.
My memory of Mike is
basically a child
that was far older than his age.
Mike was always just feisty.
No. Sit down.
Now, I would like to show you
As young kids, we would have a photo
shoot.
He would stand there, and then he
would get out the picture and say,
"No, put Jermaine here, Jackie here,
and I will be in the middle."
And this is a little kid talking to
his siblings.
Northwestern Indiana is not like any
other part
of the state because it is solely
industrial.
One factory next to another for miles.
The negro population of Gary, Indiana
is 45.8%,
the highest percentage in any city
north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Growing up in Indiana,
it was humble beginnings.
My father, Joseph, worked in the steel
mills.
And we were a large family from a
small home.
It was two bedrooms.
In one of the rooms, the brothers
slept and there were six bunk beds.
And my sisters and I, we slept on a, a
let-out sofa in the living room.
We were a family that loved music.
And when Mike was around eight or
nine,
he would do riffs constantly
and no matter what you would sing to
him, he would do it even better.
My father, he saw them performing
together and he says,
"Geez."
He became their manager
because he saw a bigger and brighter
future.
They used to do shows, what they
called back then,
was the Chitlin' Circuit.
It was famous black artists,
but they were performing for a black
audience.
Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed.
We want black power.
To perform during that period of
time was very challenging,
based on the fact that we were kind of
relegated
to certain areas of our country
and not very welcome in some parts.
But we learned how to deal with it
and how to break down the barrier
that they thought they put in front of
us.
I met Michael when they were coming
in to audition to be on Motown.
I had to kind of just look at him and
shake my head.
I said, "My God, this kid is amazing."
It was an exciting time.
They wanted it so badly.
And then finally, there they are,
signed to Motown.
Michael, he had something that
nobody else had,
and his performances were meticulously
done.
Watching their growth over their years
was sensational.
We've got some great guests - the
incredible Jackson 5.
One of the hottest recording groups
today is the Jackson 5.
The only American group to have four
consecutive number one records.
Kids nowadays don't know how big the
Jackson 5 were.
They were our Beatles, our black
royalty.
You had Beatlemania, you had
Jacksonmania.
Not since the heyday of the Beatles,
has the music world
seen anything like the Jackson 5,
about to receive yet another platinum
record.
But you have to give a lot of credit
to the original Jackson two -
Mr and Mrs Joe Jackson.
I decided to deal with the boys
as much as I possibly can,
getting them prepared to be in show
business.
They come to us originally from
Gary, Indiana -
the Jackson 5.
It was just amazing
..to see this black family
post-segregation
who were so famous
..and that you could identify with.
Showed black people that we can make
it in America.
It's called Los Angeles, the city of
the angels.
People from all over the world,
drawn by a city of limitless
boundaries
and one that offers unlimited
opportunity.
Growing up in Indiana,
Mike would have this little projector
thing
that you put over your eyes and you
would click it
and it would show a different slide of
LA.
He would say, "Oh, this is so
beautiful.
"I would love to live there one day."
So moving to Los Angeles
was simply amazing.
We were so elated and excited just to
see the beauty of the city.
And it was such a different life.
We moved to this huge mansion
and my father just said,
"I think this will be a perfect
place."
And you know, what my father said
goes.
Let's introduce Mr Joe Jackson,
the father of
There you are. There you are.
OK. We're going to find out who's boss
around here.
Do you have to ever discipline this
lively group you've got here?
I have a way, you know, like when
Randy don't do right,
we make him take out all the garbage
or something.
Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, but what
about Michael?
If Michael Michael always does
right?
Is he always?
- No, not all the time.
The way we discipline Michael is sort
of like,
we don't give him as much money to
spend.
Mikey.
Do you think it's a good profession
for them?
Yes, I like for them to
I moved to Los Angeles
..to work for the family
out of Joseph's office.
When Joseph spoke to me about coming
to work for the boys,
he presented himself as a really
concerned, loving father.
Joseph grew up dirt poor
before civil rights.
And to take from nothing
and build that act was huge.
And all of a sudden, now he's living
in a wealthy house in Encino,
he's got a Rolls-Royce.
He really was chasing the American
dream.
At that point, they were portrayed
as this happy, loving family.
But my experience, can't speak for
anybody else's,
but my experience of what I saw,
that was the farthest thing from the
truth.
I went to high school with Michael's
baby sister, Janet,
and Michael was also a very close
friend.
When I would be there and Joseph would
pull in,
you know, the speaker or the phone
would ring and it would be like,
"Joseph's here," and everyone's like,
"Oh, God, Joseph's here."
We weren't that, you know, savvy back
then about this stuff.
But knowing that there was just
weirdness.
I found out later Joseph
..had done some really awful stuff.
Joseph would put Michael in the
closet,
in the dressing room, in the dark and
lock it
so that he was he would do what
Joseph would tell him to do,
And nobody figured out what was going
on.
He wasn't as cruel as people think.
But Mike had a fear of my father, we
all did
because we felt, "OK, what did we do
wrong?
"He's going to discipline us."
And you were kind of afraid of that.
It just put something in your belly
and you would say to yourself,
"Oh, no."
His eyebrows would grow, go up
and his eyes would turn
..a deeper green,
a deeper green than they were.
And you knew he was angry.
Everybody would say, "I don't want to
get in trouble
"because Joseph's going to strangle
us."
We're right, almost in the middle of
a recording session
with the Jacksons,
and we're going to bring the boys in
right now.
All five of them.
Here they are.
Now, I don't have to give any
introduction to these gentlemen,
do I?
You knew them originally as the
Jackson 5.
They're the Jacksons now.
They record on Epic.
This is really a special picture to
me.
Both of our hair is kind of big.
His face looks completely different.
So this was earlier, I guess.
He still looks like a great looking
kid, you know.
When the Jackson 5 came to Epic,
they were a good pop group.
But Michael was so much the centre of
it,
the star.
He just wanted to be perfect in a way.
He wanted to be the best dancer ever
and best singer,
the best entertainer.
He wanted to be a great.
You guys are really riding a big
high now,
as far as producing records and so on.
Do you think this is the peak of your
career now,
or have you gone down a little bit?
Are you expecting bigger and better
things?
Well, we're looking forward to doing
other things,
like producing other people
and producing ourselves in the future
and going into acting and that type of
thing.
New York is the
most exciting city in the world,
but New York has never seen anything
like The Wiz,
a new musical motion picture being
made here that stars Diana Ross.
The Wiz was the black version of The
Wizard of Oz.
And Michael really wanted to be in
that movie.
My father didn't want him to venture
off into movies
..because he felt it would break up
the group,
and he would go in a different
direction,
and he wanted to keep the brothers
together.
As he always said, "I want to keep my
boys together."
But this is something that Mike saw.
He loved opportunity and he went for
it.
How did you feel when you heard you
got the part in The Wiz?
And especially playing with Diana
Ross.
I was very happy.
I would talk to Diana on the phone.
I'd say, "You're going to film The Wiz
next week, huh?"
Or next month. And she would say,
"Yeah."
Next thing I notice, I was in it.
Mike and I were extremely close.
So we moved to New York together.
And going to set every day,
he just embraced it with great joy.
But most of all, what he would always
say,
"I'm learning so much, LaToya. You
have no idea."
Hey, fellas, is today the day you're
going to help me get down from here?
Help you down?
What is going down
in that hayloft you call a head?
Living in New York,
we were so used to being with family,
being controlled by my father,
but, yeah, you could do what you
wanted.
It was so wonderful.
Is Michael there?
Hi, Michael. Come on in. You can come
right in. Hi.
How are you?
You just walked in. How are you?
Michael, this is Jane Hall.
- Excuse me. Come sit over here.
It's been a long day for you, and
you're unwinding here?
Erm, you mean today?
No. We're all finished with the movie,
but I'm just relaxing now.
Just hanging out in New York.
- Yes. Studio 54!
When you hear the name Studio 54,
what What does that do? Does your
pulse quicken
and your feet start moving?
Yeah. I'm ready to have a good time.
It's where you come when you want to
escape.
It's really escapism.
But you're Michael Jackson, you
don't have it so bad.
What are you escaping from?
I'm not escaping from anything.
It's just a change of pace.
Right
- It is a change of pace.
He doesn't escape from anything.
If anything, he's one of those people
who are very recognisable
Doing The Wiz
and all the work that he had done
..and the growth that came with it
..took him mentally in a different
direction,
saying, "I want to do a solo album."
By Michael doing The Wiz, he had a
chance to meet
great composer, arranger - Quincy
Jones.
And Quincy had worked with Sinatra,
I mean, the greatest music people
ever.
I called Quincy up one day.
I said, "Quincy, I'm ready to do an
album, a solo album.
"But I want a real good producer to
work with me."
I said, "Can you recommend somebody?"
And he said, "Why don't you let me do
it?"
I remember getting a copy of Off the
Wall,
and when I heard Don't Stop 'Til You
Get Enough,
I was just astonished to hear, "Oh, my
gosh."
I said, "Michael, this is going to
be
.."it's going to be phenomenal."
This is the album that's caused the
storm right around the world.
It's Michael's Off the Wall album
and, hopefully, we've got Michael in
LA on the phone now.
Let's have this. Oh, here we go.
Hello. Michael?
- Hello. How are you?
He's the first artist to have four
top ten singles
with his Off the Wall album.
He keeps breaking records. It's just
amazing.
Oh!
It had to happen.
I feel like I'm overawed.
He had earned the right to be
Michael.
He felt that it's now my time.
Mayor? OK.
Let's get the mayor back here.
Yeah.
I'm rolling.
Hey, guys. What'd you think of this?
Were you ever afraid when you saw that
big crowd?
Never afraid.
- Never afraid.
It's a lot of excitement and it's
nice to see the fans all come out
to greet us at the airport. I think
it's, I think it's wonderful.
What do you have to say for Atlanta?
I'll start here.
Love it, I can't wait, tomorrow
night.
I love it.
We love you, Atlanta.
We love you very much.
Tomorrow night, everybody be out there
because we're going to do our best.
Have a good time.
At this point, Michael really is
kind of the mainstay
of the Jacksons. Has it always been
that way?
Um, yes. Yes.
Michael has always been sort of the
star?
Yeah. He's been highlighted the most
cos he's the lead singer
and he's up front, you know.
As a little kid, we put him up front
because he danced so much
and had so much energy.
I think my brothers,
some of them felt that once he do
this,
he's never coming back.
He's going to abandon us.
And that was kind of disturbing to
some of them.
And then the others were just, "Well,
let's see where it goes.
"Let's see where it leads."
I remember the boys being in the
office,
and one of them distinctly said if it
wasn't for them,
Michael wouldn't be who he was because
they were the ones,
and Joseph was the one who made
Michael who he is
and he basically wouldn't be shit
without them.
And it was them that built him.
And Michael's just sitting there
listening to this.
And he sat there and he took it.
I just remember thinking,
"How mean. Why are you guys being so
mean to him?"
I just, I wanted to go in and, like,
hurt them
because they were being mean to Mike.
I think Michael had grown up feeling
under Joseph
that he wasn't anything more than a
commodity.
And I think in that moment it
crystallised for Michael
that he was nothing more than a
commodity to his brothers.
And I think it broke his heart.
Oh, hi, Steve. I didn't see you.
Fine. How are you?
If things got difficult for Mike,
he always had a very loving
relationship with my mother.
It was a very
..trusted relationship.
If something upset him, she would
always make sense out of everything.
This is one of your favourite songs.
My mother was a very religious
person.
She was a Jehovah Witness.
And she always thought if you had a
personal relationship with God,
then he would show you the way.
It's strange being back here.
I haven't lived here for many years.
Yeah, it was such a strange time, you
know, with Michael being
suddenly so famous
and we're just going door-to-door
trying to save souls.
Michael would say,
"Hi, my name is Joe."
That was his middle name, so he wasn't
lying.
"This is my friend Christian.
"We're here to talk to you about the
wonderful hope of God's kingdom."
And the people would kind of stare.
They would think,
that guy really looks like Michael
Jackson.
You can kind of see it in their eyes.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are
millennialists,
so they believe that Armageddon is
coming any day now,
when God's going to cleanse the Earth
of all the evil people.
And so our job as Jehovah's Witnesses
was to go door-to-door
and try to recruit people to save them
so that they could join the religion
and then, you know,
hopefully make it into the paradise
that was going to come.
Michael had a tough upbringing, and I
think that he had a, you know,
fantastical view of what he wanted the
world to be.
And I think this idea of, uh,
God bringing a paradise just was very
appealing.
And I think that was a big part of his
enthusiasm
for going door-to-door, he genuinely
wanted to tell people.
We did missionary work door-to-door.
We did 90 hours a month.
It was just a wonderful time for me
because it allowed me
to get out into society and to see
people.
I was totally deprived of seeing
people open their doors.
I don't go to other people's houses. I
don't know what they live like.
So when they would open the door and
say, "Come in," I would come in.
I was 15 when we started hanging out
together.
I think he felt safe with us
because he had no other space where he
didn't have something,
some place where people wanted
something from him
because of his fame.
We just liked him because of who he
was,
and that he was part of this joint
community
where we were all working to do God's
will.
But at the same time, I think he was
conflicted about who he was.
Because, even though he was very
devout,
I think Michael had a lot of ambition
around being perceived as
very successful, very talented.
He was raised in this paradigm
where success is how you get
validation, right,
and from the time he was a little kid.
So I don't think he ever lost that.
Michael sometimes would stand in front
of a mirror
and say "100 million, 100 million,"
because he was he wanted to sell 100
million albums
on his next album.
And I think that really fed him.
Michael's ambition, I believe,
was to make the greatest album ever
heard.
But he also knew the power of motion
pictures.
He wanted to use video to drive sales.
I mean, rock bands have been doing
that for years.
I'm not like the other guys.
I mean, I'm different.
Um
I'm a monster.
Michael, I think this is going to be
the Citizen Kane of the videos.
I really do. It's going to be the most
revolutionary thing
in the history of videos, you know?
I mean, it's a new art form now, but I
think this is leading the way.
Beat It and this one is leading the
way.
What a great looking kid.
Film-makers, they usually know
when they have something.
And I knew we had something.
Music video was new at that time
and this is pre-internet.
And Michael's videos were special.
You could tell.
Some prominent black musicians are
complaining
that they are being left out of the
video market,
specifically the music television
cable operation.
We are looking for a certain sound
and a certain point of view.
Bob Pittman is the 29-year-old whiz
kid who created MTV
after a successful career as a radio
station programme director.
We are not all things to all people.
We are cable television.
And what cable television does best is
specialise -
one thing per channel - so you know
exactly what you're getting
when you turn on the channel.
It was almost impossible for a black
artist to get on the cover
of any of the major magazines or TV
shows.
Over Christmas, I watched MTV.
I saw no black star.
Plenty of black stars, but only
black stars who do rock and roll
And MTV refused to play Michael's
video.
..you don't see R&B.
He was outraged.
It was pure, blatant racism. Plain and
simple.
Prejudice is ignorance.
Music has no colour.
I don't believe in that.
What I do, I don't want it labelled
black or white.
I want it labelled as music.
A few of us at Epic and the
president of CBS records,
we all went up there and explained why
they had to play those videos.
They said, "You can't continue with
a programme like this
"without honouring some of the best
music that America has to offer.
"And some of the best music America
has to offer is made and performed
"by black artists."
Period. End of discussion.
They only could look at the bottom
line and say,
"You can't ignore these tracks."
And once they played Michael
..it took off.
Michael Jackson's album
Thriller has been topping
various record charts, so it should
come as no surprise
that Thriller is number one on
Billboard's chart
of most successful pop albums.
Well, the title song from that
blockbuster album,
now the subject of the most talked
about music video to come along.
Take a look at this.
Thriller was an amazing piece of
work.
Like, everybody loved it
and it just got bigger and bigger.
We love you! We love you, Michael!
Michael Jackson was partying in New
York.
The occasion - for selling 23 million
albums.
He exploded.
Everybody wanted a piece of him.
Everyone wanted to see him.
Michael! We want Michael!
Michael Jackson's Thriller
is now the highest selling solo album
in the history of recorded music.
The number one artist in the world!
He is, simply put,
probably the most exciting and intense
performer of the decade.
You have something within your
records that
everybody just loves.
Boy, I couldn't say.
I just created it.
Where do you think the gift came from?
- God.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your
attention?
I need your attention right now.
I am saying for the last time,
as chairman of the Walk of Fame,
if you do not back up, this ceremony
will be cancelled.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Michael Jackson!
We welcome him to the Walk of Fame.
The Thriller album was fantastic.
It was far exceeding anyone's
expectations
about how big it was going to be,
and Michael was becoming sort of
transcendent as a pop star.
But he was still very idealistic, very
devout.
I mean, nobody had been that famous in
the Jehovah's Witnesses yet.
It was very much at odds for the
church for someone to be famous,
because any kind of notoriety could be
considered controversial,
potentially.
Even his deciding to do the Thriller
video.
The church was very paranoid about any
demon influence
and anything with demonology,
and so zombies rising from the dead or
anything related to the occult.
Suddenly, the hammer came down from
the headquarters of the church.
And so when he realised that this was
going to be a problem for him,
he panicked.
He wrote, "Due to my strong personal
convictions, I wish to stress
"that this film in no way endorses a
belief in the occult."
And he had to put that at the
beginning of the video
in order to get the church to go, "OK,
you can release it."
It really created some tension.
On the one hand, fame brought him all
this opportunity,
and I think he liked the adulation, it
was very validating.
But I think he started to feel
handicapped by the fact
that he couldn't pursue all his
creative stuff,
that the church was constantly
tightening the screws and saying,
"No, you can't do this. No, you can't
do that."
And later on, he just made a decision.
He disassociated himself,
which basically meant he was leaving
the church.
You know, I left the church in 1990.
And when you leave, the church
completely cuts you off.
You know, you lose your whole
foundation, you lose your family,
all of your friends.
You're really adrift in so many ways.
And when he left, he lost the thing
that had grounded him for so long.
How long have you had
this beautiful beast?
Gosh.
During, um A little bit before
Thriller, I had him.
Probably about, almost a year. Almost
a year now.
And this type of snake is not
dangerous?
Well, I don't think so. Some people
might.
Could it be dangerous?
- Yeah, they squeeze.
They can really squeeze.
Erm
I think he's great.
- What other animals do you have?
After Thriller,
I saw a completely different Michael
Jackson.
I was his personal cinematographer
from 1981 to 1987.
And when I first met him,
Michael was really humble.
He was a true cool dude.
But after the Thriller album,
his personality started to get a
little bit different,
more, um, eccentric.
Step, step, step.
- Watch your step.
I could see he enjoyed being around
kids.
Hello!
Whoa!
- Whoa!
We're going to do our own interview
here.
OK. This is the Michael Jackson
interview show. OK?
So, how old are you, young man?
No, not how old are you.
What show are you on?
My show is Webster.
And who are you playing on the show?
Out of nowhere, Michael's good
friend was Emmanuel Lewis.
Emmanuel Lewis was a star of the TV
show Webster.
And then one day Michael calls me up
and he goes,
"I need you to come over."
So I get there and he has Emmanuel
with him.
They're dancing to one of his new
songs
that never, ever was released,
and he's holding him like a baby.
And I could see Michael had a
connection with children.
When a child steps in the room, I'm
totally changed.
I feel their energy and I feel their
spirit.
When I look in their eyes,
I feel healed.
What I saw,
Michael liked
..kids because of the fact that they
weren't domineering,
they weren't asking for something.
You know, because you had too many of
these producer bigwigs
coming over.
What I called and what he called
"suits".
And when the suits would come over,
it was a different atmosphere because
they wanted something.
But then Michael got so big,
now it's just a business.
Jackson's image has been pressed
into plastic.
In the short six months since they
first came on the market,
Michael Jackson toys, dolls and other
products
have been selling with a fury.
Jackson has become a mini
conglomerate.
He is setting up five separate
companies
to handle his business interests.
Albums, video cassettes, concert
tours,
merchandising tie-ins.
This year, Michael Jackson is expected
to earn
more than $50 million.
Michael Jackson made recording
business history today
by closing the deal on the Beatles
catalogue.
From now on, all those royalties go to
Jackson.
Michael Jackson has a new manager.
Jackson has hired the vice president
of promotion for Epic Records,
Frank DiLeo, to manage his booming
career.
Formerly, Jackson was managed by his
father, Joseph Jackson.
Mike decided to end the relationship
with my father.
And his thinking and his thoughts
were,
I need a manager who's much bigger and
better
and someone who really knows what
they're doing in this big industry.
But I think the part that became
difficult
was the people that entered into his
life
because this business can be very
overwhelming, cut-throat,
and people will say and do anything to
get into your circle
and to manage you.
And that part of it
..destroyed him.
Michael Jackson has not a song on
his lips,
but a bottle of Pepsi-Cola.
This week, he signed up for $5 million
or more
to promote Pepsi in concerts and
commercials.
A lot of people are asking,
why would Michael Jackson do
commercials?
Well, the reason is,
is that these commercials are going to
be just extraordinary.
They're using state of the art
technology,
they're going to be creative
masterpieces, no expense spared.
They asked me to direct them
because I had success
and a relationship with Michael.
We were going to shoot two promotional
commercials.
Even though Michael confessed to me
that he never drank Pepsi in his life.
We went down there and started
shooting
and the plan was there was an
explosion,
Michael would come down and dance.
Pyrotechnics added too much
and all hell broke loose.
The scene was wild as hundreds of
fans tried to see
Michael Jackson as he was carried into
a Los Angeles area hospital
with second and third degree burns on
his scalp.
I'll never forget the image of
Michael being taken away
in a stretcher,
but smart enough to take his glove,
the famous glove, and wave it.
But it was the beginning of a dark
time.
I remember in the early years,
Michael would just come out and hang
out.
It was just, it was casual, it was
normal.
But at that point,
Michael started going out a lot less.
Everybody was like worried.
He would call all the time.
He would constantly reflect back
on things from his childhood.
When I went to the house after the
Pepsi burn
..with Michael, there were some times
where we would talk
and he would come a little close
and then I would say to myself,
"What is on his nose?"
And those were stitches.
Physically or visually, you could see
that it had been,
you know, worked on.
I have a shot of Michael when he's
leaving the Hayvenhurst house
and that was when I saw the change.
You know, the transition from the
Negro look
to look like something different.
It was heartbreaking.
Michael was trying to erase something
off of his face,
and it was all the nastiness
and all the things that Joseph said
about him.
But I think that set Michael on a very
unhealthy pattern and path
for the rest of his life when it came
to,
uh, facial reconstruction and his skin
colour.
But I don't think anybody was prepared
for how extreme it would get.
Michael!
Michael!
- Michael!
Michael!
- Michael!
Michael, Michael!
Not since Thriller five years ago
has the record industry been so
focused on a single album.
It's called Bad.
It's Michael Jackson and Bad right
here on Kiss FM.
They were queuing all over America,
snapping up
the first copies of Michael Jackson's
latest offering.
But after five years of comparative
seclusion, he's changed his image.
It's a lot of talk.
A lot of people are talking about it
and how foolish he looks.
The look
Well, the new look is not too hot,
but the album is great and he's a
great entertainer.
I was a fan of Michael Jackson since
I was a kid
from, you know, the Jacksons.
You know, I loved Off the Wall.
I was a talent manager at the firm
that managed Michael Jackson.
And it was our job to manage his
career and public image.
I remember when I met him, like, up
close and personal,
I was just surprised at, like, how
white he was.
I mean, and just almost like, almost
like translucent.
That was good. Beautiful.
You know, we were wondering if he
was bleaching his skin
or maybe it was make-up.
I can remember one instance
and we had made this video.
It was like a multimillion dollar
video,
we had David Fincher, you know, direct
it.
I remember at one point he literally
kind of broke down in tears
and he was kind of ranting like,
"I look like a monkey. I look like a
monkey."
And I was like, thinking, "What?"
I mean, he looked great in the video,
but in his own mind, he, you know, he
hated the way that he looked.
And some people mentioned, I think
it's called baking, where they,
you know, could lighten him up
throughout the video.
I mean, that word, "I look like a
monkey."
First, it was kind of shocking from
him.
I'm thinking, here's this huge,
amazing artist,
and his own issues with self-image
actually became a form of like
self-sabotage with his career.
I remember a lot of the black
community felt
like he had deserted them
and thought that he didn't want to be
black.
And it was really difficult because he
was in the tabloids every week.
He sort of became a joke.
First problem is the sex problem.
The problem being, we don't know what
sex he is.
The latest of the Michael Jackson
rumours -
are Michael Jackson and his sister
LaToya Jackson,
actually the same person?
I'm here with Lars Bundquist of the
IOFCIRA -
the Institute of Facial Changes in
Recording Artists.
And I understand you had a grant for
the last six years
to study the facial changes in Michael
Jackson.
That's correct, Dave. And it's been
a full-time job.
To most of us, he's just Wacko
Jacko.
And if some of the press are to be
believed
he sleeps in an oxygen tent,
often with a chimp, a snake and an
alien.
When you think of Michael Jackson,
you don't first think
what a great artist, what a definitive
performer.
You think, what a weird guy.
Record stores have been reporting
disappointing sales
for the new album.
Some have already begun taking down
the Bad promotional posters.
The Bad album had been released in
the late '80s,
but it hadn't been as successful as
Thriller.
We had to get him back to basics as an
artist, as a singer,
and get away from the wacky personas
and the trappings
and everything else and stuff.
We had to make him more relatable to
the public,
to answer the questions that people
had about him,
about his skin, about Bubbles,
about everything.
Because up to that point, Michael
hadn't done a major interview.
People hadn't heard him talk,
people didn't know anything about him.
And then Michael's managers had this
idea
that he should do an Oprah Winfrey
interview.
And the whole objective for that
interview
was to humanise him to the world.
Oprah was calling every day, like five
or six times a day.
Nothing was left to chance.
His whole career, his reputation
were dependent on this interview going
well.
Ladies and gentlemen, Michael
Jackson.
Hi, Oprah.
- Hey, hey.
Well, how nervous are you right now?
How what?
- How nervous are you right now?
Mm, I'm not nervous at all,
actually.
You really aren't?
No, I never get nervous.
You don't?
- No.
Not even for your first interview
and it's live around the world?
I thought you'd be a little nervous.
But that's great, because if you're
not nervous, I won't be nervous.
I just wanted to let the world know
that
We were all watching it on TV, and
it was pretty eye-opening.
I think it really was the first time
that I can recall
where he ever sat down for a length of
time,
answered the questions that we all
wanted to know.
and was really pretty candid.
I was actually surprised how candid he
was.
The main thing in that Oprah
interview that was talked about
was his answer to his skin colour
changing.
The colour of your skin is obviously
different
than it was when you were younger.
And so, I think, um,
it has caused a great deal of
speculation and controversy
as to what you have done or are doing.
Are you bleaching your skin?
And is your skin lighter because you
don't like being black?
OK, number one, this is just the
situation -
I have a skin disorder that destroys
the pigmentation of the skin.
It's something that I cannot help. OK?
But when people make up stories that I
don't want to be who I am,
it hurts me.
So it is
It's a problem for me, OK?
I can't control it.
I'm a black American.
I'm proud to be a black American.
Yes!
The black community was really
relieved to hear that.
You know, I remember people saying,
"Oh, well, that's why it was, of
course.
"Of course, Michael wouldn't desert
us. He has a disease."
It makes me feel some of the pain
that he's feeling,
because I can look in his eyes and I
can see the hurt in his eyes.
You know, he looks like he's so lonely
and so hurt, you know?
And it makes me want to just reach out
to him.
And it worked.
And it really changed a lot of
people's perceptions of him.
It felt like Michael was back on top.
My name is Rosibel Smith.
In 1993,
I was working the Sexually Exploited
Child Unit.
A case had come in involving a young
boy who was 13 years of age.
And that the perpetrator was Michael
Jackson.
We knew that it was going to be a huge
case.