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00:11I think every child is born to do a certain thing.
00:19I knew I wanted to be a star.
00:27Just being on the stage, just looking out over a sea of faces, and they're chanting, they're screaming, and I've
00:44wanted it, because I wanted to be loved.
00:50That's the real truth. I wanted people to truly love me.
00:57A lot of people ask, who was Michael Jackson, really?
01:04I mean, he was a child star who became the most famous man on the planet.
01:16This is a man who changed the music industry.
01:20I mean, he is a musical genius.
01:25But he was also accused of abusing children, and died without a cent to his name.
01:36I mean, this is the ultimate story of power, celebrity, and money.
01:47And now, the battle is raging for the truth, and Michael Jackson's legacy.
02:19That level of megastardom is not healthy.
02:23People are not gods.
02:33Tonight, Jackson is wanted by police of multiple felony counts of child molestation.
02:41The Jackson machine just keeps right on rolling.
02:54Doesn't do that before,usp influencia makes an accident.
03:01Never thinking about police of many willŃŃ to understand that.
03:01He does not father got in I believe anailed death upon killing, everybody.
03:03This is the ultimate theory of good crime that engages with a baby.
03:04You know, how can you support them for so many
03:15Are you guys ready for me?
03:22Whenever you're ready.
03:27People don't know my brother.
03:28They never did.
03:29They thought they did.
03:31And I think it's important for the public, the world, to see the, I don't want to say
03:39the truth, but from a family member's perspective.
03:42And that's important to me, so you get it right and you understand, as opposed to reading
03:49nonsensical things in the media.
03:56What do you do mostly?
03:58I mean, you know, in your spare time.
04:01Sports.
04:02Messing around.
04:03Well, I go swimming all the time.
04:05I like swimming, you know, play basketball, catching lids, just do things, just swim.
04:14My memory of Mike is basically a child that was far older than his age.
04:26Mike was always just feisty.
04:31Whoa, sit down.
04:37As young kids, we would have a photo shoot.
04:41He would stand there and then he would get out the picture and say, no, put Jermaine here,
04:45Jackie here, and I will be in the middle.
04:47And this is a little kid talking to his siblings.
04:54Northwestern Indiana is not like any other part of the state because it is solely industrial.
04:59One factory next to another for miles.
05:02The Negro population of Gary, Indiana is 45.8 percent, the highest percentage in any city
05:08north of the Mason-Dixon line.
05:11Growing up in Indiana, it was humble beginnings.
05:16My father, Joseph, worked in the steel mills.
05:20And we were a large family from a small home.
05:25It was two bedrooms.
05:27And in one of the rooms, the brothers slept.
05:29And there were six bunk beds.
05:31And my sisters and I, we slept on a let-out sofa in the living room.
05:39We were a family that loved music.
05:45And when Mike was around eight or nine, he would do riffs constantly.
05:51And no matter what you would sing to him, he would do it even better.
05:58My father, he saw them performing together.
06:03And he says, geez, he became their manager because he saw a bigger and brighter future.
06:15They used to do shows.
06:17What they called back then was the Chitlin Circuit.
06:20It was famous black artists, but they were performing for black audience.
06:26Don't be afraid.
06:27Don't be ashamed.
06:28We want black power.
06:30We want black power.
06:32We want black power.
06:39Super form during that period of time was very challenging.
06:44Based on the fact that we were kind of relegated to certain areas of our country.
06:48And not very welcome in some parts.
06:54But we learned how to deal with it.
06:57And how to break down the barrier that they thought they'd put in front of us.
07:24I met Michael when they were coming into addition to Beyond Motown.
07:30I had to kind of just look at him and shake my head.
07:35I said, my God, this kid is amazing.
07:38It was an exciting time.
07:41They wanted it so badly.
07:43And then finally, there they are, signed Motown.
07:57Michael, he had something that nobody else had.
08:03And his performances were meticulously done.
08:07Watching their growth over their years was sensational.
08:13We've got some great guests.
08:15The incredible Jackson 5.
08:21One of the hottest recording groups today is the Jackson 5.
08:25The only American group to have four consecutive number one records.
08:30Kids nowadays don't know how big the Jackson 5 were.
08:36They were our Beatles.
08:38Our black royalty.
08:41You had Beatlemania.
08:42You had Jacksonmania.
08:46Since the heyday of the Beatles, has the music world seen anything like the Jackson 5?
08:50About to receive yet another platinum record.
08:54But you have to give a lot of the credit to the original Jackson 2, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Jackson.
08:59I decided to deal with the boys as much as I possibly can, getting them prepared to be in show
09:05business.
09:06They come to us originally from Gary, Indiana, the Jackson 5.
09:14They're just amazing to see this black family post-segregation who were so famous
09:25and that you can identify with, showed black people that we can make it in America.
09:43It's called Los Angeles, the city of the angels.
09:48People from all over the world, drawn by a city of limitless boundaries,
09:53and one that offers unlimited opportunity.
10:03Growing up in Indiana, Mike would have this little projector thing that you put over your eyes
10:08and you would click it and it would show a different slide of L.A.
10:13He would say, oh, this is so beautiful.
10:15I would love to live there one day.
10:18So moving to Los Angeles was simply amazing.
10:25We were so elated and excited just to see the beauty of the city.
10:31And it was such a different life.
10:36We moved to this huge mansion.
10:39And my father just said, I think this will be a perfect place.
10:46And, you know, what my father said goes.
10:50Let's introduce Mr. Joe Jackson, the father.
11:03Okay.
11:04We're going to find out who's boss around here.
11:07Do you have to ever discipline this lively group you've got here?
11:12I have a way, you know, like when Randy don't do right, we make him take out all the garbage
11:16or something.
11:18Oh, that's fair.
11:20Yeah, but what about Michael?
11:21Michael always does right?
11:24No, not all the time.
11:25The way we discipline Michael is sort of like, yeah, we don't give him as much money to spend.
11:32That's it.
11:33Mike?
11:34You think it's a good profession for them?
11:37Yes.
11:38I like for them to...
11:39I moved to Los Angeles to work for the family out of Joseph's office.
11:48When Joseph spoke to me about coming to work for the boys, he presented himself as a really
11:54concerned, loving father.
11:59Joseph grew up dirt poor before civil rights, and to take from nothing and build that act
12:09was huge.
12:10And all of a sudden, now he's living in a wealthy house in Encino.
12:15He's got a Rolls Royce.
12:18He really was chasing the American dream.
12:24At that point, they were portrayed as this happy, loving family.
12:30But my experience, can't speak for anybody else's, but my experience of what I saw, that
12:36was the farthest thing from the truth.
12:40I went to high school with Michael's baby sister, Janet.
12:44And Michael was also a very close friend.
12:47When I would be there and Joseph would pull in, you know, the speaker or the phone would
12:53ring and it would be like, Joseph's here.
12:55And everyone's like, oh God, Joseph's here.
12:56We weren't that, you know, savvy back then about this stuff.
13:00But knowing that there was just weirdness.
13:06Our career was very important.
13:10My father made sure that we rehearsed every day.
13:14Lock all the doors.
13:16It's time to rehearse.
13:18If you went out of step, you'd get it real bad.
13:24He would oil you down.
13:25Your whole ritual, he would oil you down.
13:29So when the foot of the iron cord hit you, it would just, you know, and your foot's all
13:36in the face, your back, everywhere.
13:40He said, if you guys ever stop sinking, I'll drop you like a hot potato.
13:47I found out later, Joseph had done some really awful stuff.
13:54Joseph would put Michael in the closet, in the dressing room, in the dark, and lock it
14:01so that he was, he would do what Joseph would tell him to do.
14:09And nobody figured out what was going on.
14:18He wasn't as cruel as people think.
14:21But Mike had a fear.
14:23My father, we all did.
14:25Because we felt, okay, what did we do wrong?
14:30He's going to discipline us.
14:31And you were kind of afraid of that.
14:33It just put something in your belly.
14:36And you would say to yourself, oh, no.
14:41His eyebrows would go up.
14:43And his eyes would turn a deeper green.
14:48A deeper green than they were.
14:51And you knew he was angry.
14:52Everybody would say, I don't want to get in trouble because Joseph's going to strangle us.
15:07We're right almost in the middle of a recording session with the Jacksons.
15:11And we're going to bring the boys in right now.
15:14All five of them.
15:16Here they are.
15:25Now, I don't have to give any introduction to these gentlemen, do I?
15:29You knew them originally as the Jackson Five.
15:32They're the Jacksons now.
15:34They record on Epic.
15:38This is really a special picture to me.
15:42Both of our hair was kind of big.
15:44See, his face looks completely different.
15:46So this was earlier, I guess.
15:48He still looks like a great looking kid, you know.
15:52When the Jackson Five came to Epic, they were a good pop group.
15:58But Michael was so much the center of it.
16:02The star.
16:05And he just wanted to be perfect in a way.
16:08He wanted to be the best dancer ever.
16:11Best singer.
16:13Best entertainer.
16:14He wanted to be a great.
16:16You guys are really riding a big high now as far as producing records and so on.
16:21Do you think this is the peak of your career now?
16:23Or have you gone down a little bit?
16:25Are you expecting bigger and better things?
16:27Well, we're looking forward to doing other things like producing other people
16:30and producing ourselves in the future and going into acting and that type of thing.
16:46New York is the most exciting city in the world.
16:49But New York has never seen anything like The Wiz.
16:52A new musical motion picture being made here that stars Diana Ross.
16:58The Wiz was the black version of The Wizard of Oz.
17:03And Michael really wanted to be in that movie.
17:10My father didn't want him to venture off into movies
17:15because he felt it would break up the group
17:18and he would go in a different direction.
17:20And he wanted to keep the brothers together.
17:23As he always said, I want to keep my boys together.
17:26But this is something that Mike saw.
17:28He loved Opportunity.
17:30And he went for it.
17:42How did you feel when you heard you got the part in The Wiz?
17:45And especially playing with Diana Ross.
17:47I was very happy.
17:50I would talk to Diana on the phone.
17:51I'd say, you're going to film The Wiz next week, huh?
17:54Or next month.
17:55She would say, yeah, next thing I noticed, I was in it.
18:01Mike and I were extremely close.
18:05So we moved to New York together.
18:11And going to the set every day,
18:14he just embraced it with great joy.
18:18But most of all, what he would always say,
18:21I'm learning so much, Latoya.
18:22You have no idea.
18:23Hey, fellas, is today the day you're going to help me get down from here?
18:27Help you down?
18:29Yeah, what is going down in that hayloft you call a head?
18:36Living in New York, we were so used to being with family,
18:43being controlled by my father.
18:46But yet, you could do what you wanted.
18:50It was so wonderful.
19:18It's been a long day for you, and you're unwinding here.
19:21You mean today?
19:23You mean today?
19:23No, we're all finished with the movie, but I'm just relaxing now.
19:28Just hanging out in New York?
19:29Yes, Studio 54.
19:31When you hear the name Studio 54, what does that do?
19:35Does your pulse quicken and your beats start moving?
19:37Yeah, I'm ready to have a good time.
19:39It's where you come when you want to escape.
19:42It's really escapism.
19:44Sure, Michael Jackson, you don't have it so bad.
19:47What are you escaping from?
19:48I'm not escaping from anything.
19:50It's just a change of pace.
19:51Right, it is.
19:52It's a change of pace.
19:53He doesn't escape from anything.
19:55If anything, he's one of those people who very recognized.
19:57Doing the Wiz, and all the work that he had done,
20:04and the growth that came with it,
20:09took him mentally in a different direction,
20:14saying, I want to do a solo album.
20:23By Michael doing the Wiz,
20:25he had a chance to meet great composer, arranger Quincy Jones.
20:34And Quincy, I work with Sinatra,
20:38I mean, the greatest music people ever.
20:44I called Quincy up one day.
20:46I said, Quincy, I'm ready to do an album, a solo album,
20:49but I want a real good producer to work with me.
20:54I said, can you recommend somebody?
20:57And he said, why don't you let me do it?
21:15I remember getting a copy of Off the Wall,
21:18and when I heard Don't Stop Forget Enough,
21:21I was just astonished to hear, oh my gosh.
21:26I said, Michael, this is going to be phenomenal.
21:32This is the album that's caused the storm right around the world.
21:36It's Michael's Off the Wall album,
21:37and hopefully we've got Michael in LA on the phone now.
21:41Let's have a sec.
21:42Oh, here we go.
21:43Hello, Michael.
21:45Hello.
21:45How are you?
21:49He's the first artist to have four top ten singles
21:53with his Off the Wall album.
21:54He keeps breaking records.
21:56It's just amazing.
22:04It had to happen.
22:07I feel like I'm overwrought.
22:09He had earned the right to be Michael.
22:18He felt that it's now my time.
22:44Hey, guys, what did you think of this?
22:48Were you ever afraid when you saw that big crowd?
22:50Never afraid.
22:51Never afraid.
22:52It's a lot of excitement.
22:54It's nice to see the fans all come out to greet us at the airport.
22:58I think it's wonderful.
23:01What do you have to say for Atlanta?
23:03I'll start here.
23:05Love it.
23:05I can't wait.
23:06Tomorrow night.
23:08I love it.
23:09We love you, Atlanta.
23:11We love you very much.
23:12Tomorrow night, everybody be out there.
23:14We're going to do our best.
23:15Have a good time.
23:16Have a good time.
23:26At this point, Michael really is kind of the mainstay of the Jacksons.
23:30Has it always been that way?
23:33Yes.
23:34Yes.
23:35Michael has always been sort of the star.
23:36Yeah, he's been a highlight the most because he's a lead singer and he's up front, you know.
23:41As a little kid, we put him up front because he danced so much and had so much energy.
23:50I think my brothers, some of them felt that once he do this, he's never coming back.
24:00He's going to abandon us.
24:04And that was kind of disturbing to some of them.
24:08And then the others were just, well, let's see where it goes.
24:12Let's see where it leads.
24:19I remember the boys being in the office and one of them distinctly said, if it wasn't for them, Michael
24:26wouldn't be who he was because they were the ones.
24:30And Joseph was the one who made Michael who he is.
24:34And he basically wouldn't be shit without them.
24:36And it was them that built him.
24:39And Michael's just sitting there listening to this.
24:43And he sat there and he took it.
24:45I just remember thinking, how mean.
24:48Why are you guys being so mean to him?
24:50I just, I wanted to go in and like hurt them because they were being mean to Mike.
25:00I think Michael had grown up feeling under Joseph that he wasn't anything more than a commodity.
25:07And I think in that moment, it crystallized for Michael that he was nothing more than a commodity to his
25:13brothers.
25:13And I think it broke his heart.
25:16I think it broke his heart.
25:46He was a very loving relationship with my mother.
25:49It was a very trusted relationship.
25:55If something upset him, she would always make sense out of everything.
26:16My mother was a very religious person.
26:21And she was a Jehovah's Witness.
26:26And she always thought, if you had a personal relationship with God, then he would show you away.
26:45It's strange being back here.
26:46I haven't looked here for many years.
26:50Yeah, it was such a strange time, you know, with Michael being suddenly so famous.
26:55And we're just going door to door trying to save souls.
27:00Michael would say, hi, my name is Joe.
27:03That was his middle name, so he wasn't lying.
27:06This is my friend Christian.
27:06We're here to talk to you about the wonderful hope of God's kingdom.
27:10And the people would kind of stare.
27:12They would think, that guy really looks like Michael Jackson.
27:17You can kind of see it in their eyes.
27:21The Jehovah's Witnesses are millennialists, so they believe that Armageddon is coming any day now
27:27when God's going to cleanse the earth of all the evil people.
27:31And so our job as Jehovah's Witnesses was to go door to door and try to recruit people to save
27:36them
27:36so that they could join our religion and then, you know, hopefully make it into the paradise that was going
27:41to come.
27:44Michael had a tough upbringing, and I think that he had a, you know, fantastical view of what he wanted
27:51the world to be.
27:52And I think this idea of God bringing a paradise just was very appealing.
27:58And I think that was a big part of his enthusiasm for going door to door.
28:02He genuinely wanted to tell people.
28:05We did missionary work door to door.
28:09You do 90 hours a month.
28:11It was just a wonderful time for me because it allowed me to get out into society and to see
28:16people.
28:17I was totally deprived of seeing people open their doors.
28:20I don't go to other people's houses.
28:22I don't know what they live like.
28:23So when they would open the door and say, come in, I would come in.
28:30I was 15 when we started hanging out together.
28:35I think he felt safe with us because he had no other space where he didn't have something, some place
28:42where people wanted something from him because of his fame.
28:44We just liked him because of who he was and that he was part of this joint community where we
28:50were all working to do God's will.
28:55But at the same time, I think he was conflicted about who he was because even though he was very
29:02devout.
29:03I think Michael had a lot of ambition around being perceived as very successful, very talented.
29:13He was raised in this paradigm where success is how you get validation, right?
29:17And from the time he was a little kid.
29:19So I don't think he ever lost that.
29:20Michael sometimes would stand in front of a mirror and say, 100 million, 100 million.
29:25Because he wanted to sell 100 million albums on his next album.
29:30And I think that really fed him.
29:55Michael's ambition, I believe, was to make the greatest album ever heard.
30:02But he also knew the power of motion pictures.
30:10He wanted to use video to drive sales.
30:13I mean, rock bands have been doing that for years.
30:19I'm not like the other girls.
30:23I mean, I'm different.
30:30I'm a monster.
30:39Michael, I think this is going to be the Citizen Kane of the videos.
30:42I really do.
30:43It's going to be the most revolutionary thing in the history of the videos, you know.
30:50I mean, it's a new art form now, but I think this is leading the way.
30:53Beat it.
30:54And this one is leading the way.
30:59What a great-looking kid.
31:04Filmmakers, they usually know when they have something.
31:08And I knew we had something.
31:11Music video was new at that time.
31:14And this is pre-internet.
31:26Some prominent black musicians are complaining that they are being left out of the video market,
31:31specifically the music television cable operation.
31:37Bob Pittman is the 29-year-old whiz kid who created MTV after a successful career as a radio station
31:44program director.
31:45We are not all things to all people.
31:47We are cable television, and what cable television does best is specialize.
31:51One thing per channel.
31:55It was almost impossible for a black artist to get on the cover of any of the major magazines or
32:03TV shows.
32:04Over Christmas, I watched MTV.
32:06I saw no black star.
32:08Plenty of black stars, but only black stars who do rock and roll.
32:13And MTV refused to play Michael's video.
32:18He was outraged.
32:20It was pure, blatant racism, plain and simple.
32:34A few of us at Epic and the president of CBS Records, we all went up there and explained why
32:42they had to play those videos.
32:43They said you can't continue with a program like this without honoring some of the best music that America has
32:51to offer and some of the best music America has to offer is made and performed by black artists, period,
32:59end of discussion.
33:00They only could look at the bottom line and say, you can't ignore these tracks.
33:04And once they played Michael, it took off.
33:15Michael Jackson's album, Thriller, has been topping various record charts, so it should come as no surprise that Thriller is
33:22number one on Billboard's chart of most successful pop albums.
33:26Well, the title song from that blockbuster album, now the subject of the most talked about music video to come
33:31along.
33:31Take a look at this.
33:35Thriller was an amazing piece of work.
33:39Like, everybody loved it.
33:41And it just got bigger and bigger.
33:44We love you!
33:46We love you, Michael!
33:48Michael Jackson was partying in New York.
33:51The occasion, for selling 23 million albums.
33:55He exploded.
33:57Everybody wanted a piece of him.
33:59Everyone wanted to see him.
34:02Michael Jackson's Thriller is now the highest-selling solo album in the history of recorded music.
34:09The number one artist in the world!
34:14He is, simply put, probably the most exciting and intense performer of the decade.
34:21You have something within your records that everybody just loves.
34:27Boy, I couldn't say.
34:29I just created it.
34:31Where do you think the gift came from?
34:34God.
34:35God.
34:35God.
34:36God.
34:37God.
34:38God.
34:38God.
34:38God.
34:40God.
34:43God.
34:56God.
34:58God.
34:59God.
34:59God.
35:00God.
35:00God.
35:02God.
35:03Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention.
35:08I need your attention right now. I am saying for the last time, as chairman of the Walk
35:17of Fame, if you do not back up, this ceremony will be cancelled.
35:26Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Walk of Fame.
35:39The Thriller album was fantastic. It was far exceeding anyone's expectations about how big it was going to be.
35:46And Michael was becoming sort of transcendent as a pop star.
35:52But he was still very idealistic, very devout.
36:00I mean, nobody had been that famous in the Jehovah's Witnesses yet.
36:07It was very much at odds for the church for someone to be famous because any kind of notoriety could
36:12be considered controversial, potentially.
36:15Even his deciding to do the Thriller video.
36:19The church was very paranoid about any demon influence and anything with demonology.
36:24And so zombies rising from the dead or anything related to the occult.
36:28Suddenly, the hammer came down from the headquarters of the church.
36:32And so when he realized that this was going to be a problem for him, he panicked.
36:37He wrote,
36:38Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in
36:44the occult.
36:44And he had to put that at the beginning of the video in order to get the church to go,
36:49okay, you can release it.
36:52It really created some tension.
36:55On the one hand, fame brought him all this opportunity.
36:59And I think he liked the adulation. It was very validating.
37:03But I think he started to feel handicapped by the fact that he couldn't pursue all his creative stuff that
37:07the church was constantly tightening the screws and saying, no, you can't do this. No, you can't do that.
37:13And later on, he just made a decision.
37:18He disassociated himself, which basically meant he was leaving the church.
37:23You know, I left the church in 1990.
37:26And when you leave, you know, the church completely cuts you off.
37:29You know, you lose your whole foundation.
37:31You lose your family, all of your friends.
37:33You're really adrift in so many ways.
37:37And when he left, he lost the thing that had grounded him for so long.
37:48How long have you had this beautiful beast?
37:51Gosh.
37:52A little bit before Thriller, I had him.
37:55Almost a year.
37:57Almost a year now.
37:58And this type of snake is not dangerous?
38:01Well, I don't think so.
38:03Some people want it.
38:04Could it be dangerous?
38:04They squeeze, yeah.
38:05They squeeze.
38:06They can really squeeze.
38:10I think he's great.
38:12What other animals do you have?
38:15After Thriller, I saw a completely different Michael Jackson.
38:23I was his personal cinematographer from 1981 to 1987.
38:32And when I first met him, Michael was really humble.
38:39He was a true cool dude.
38:43But after the Thriller album, his personality started to get a little bit different, more eccentric.
39:04I could see he enjoyed being around kids.
39:33Out of nowhere, Michael's good friend was Emmanuel Lewis.
39:40Emmanuel Lewis was a star of the TV show Webster.
39:47And then one day, Michael calls me up, he goes, I need you to come over.
39:53So I get there, and he has Emmanuel with him, and they're dancing to one of his new songs
40:02that never ever was released, and he's holding him like a baby.
40:15And I could see Michael had a connection with children.
40:21When a child steps in the room, I'm totally changed.
40:26I feel their energy, and I feel their spirit.
40:31When I look in their eyes, I feel healed.
40:44What I saw, Michael liked kids because of the fact that they weren't domineering.
40:53They weren't asking for something, you know, because you had too many of these producer
41:03bigwigs coming over.
41:05What I called and what he called suits, and when the suits would come over, it was a different
41:11atmosphere because they wanted something.
41:16By then, Michael got so big, now it's just a business.
41:25Jackson's image has been pressed into plastic.
41:27In a short six months since they first came on the market, Michael Jackson toys, dolls, and
41:32other products have been selling with a fury.
41:35Jackson has become a mini conglomerate.
41:37He is setting up five separate companies to handle his business interests, albums, video
41:42cassettes, concert tours, merchandising tie-ins.
41:45This year, Michael Jackson is expected to earn more than $50 million.
41:50Michael Jackson made recording business history today by closing the deal on the Beatles catalog.
41:56From now on, all those royalties go to Jackson.
41:59Michael Jackson has a new manager.
42:02Jackson has hired the vice president of promotion for Epic Records, Frank DiLeo.
42:06to manage his booming career.
42:08Formerly, Jackson was managed by his father, Joseph Jackson.
42:15Mike decided to end the relationship with my father.
42:20And his thinking and his thoughts were, I need a manager who's much bigger and better,
42:26and someone who really knows what they're doing in this big industry.
42:32But I think the part that became difficult was the people that entered into his life,
42:40because this business can be very overwhelming, cutthroat, and people will say and do anything
42:49to get into your circle and to manage you.
43:02Michael Jackson has not a song on his lips, but a bottle of Pepsi-Cola.
43:07This week, he signed up for $5 million or more to promote Pepsi in concerts and commercials.
43:14A lot of people are asking, why would Michael Jackson do commercials?
43:18Well, the reason is, is that these commercials are going to be just extraordinary.
43:22They're using state-of-the-art technology.
43:25They're going to be creative masterpieces.
43:27No expenses spared.
43:29They asked me to direct them, because I had success and a relationship with Michael.
43:38We were going to shoot two promotional commercials, even though Michael confessed to me that he
43:46never drank Pepsi in his life.
43:47We went down there and started shooting, and the plan was, there was an explosion.
43:53Michael would come down and dance.
43:56The pyrotechnics added too much, and all hell broke loose.
44:41The scene was wild as hundreds of fans tried to see Michael Jackson, as he was carried
44:45into a Los Angeles area hospital with second and third degree burns on his scalp.
45:09I'll never forget the image of Michael being taken away in the stretcher, but smart enough
45:14to take his glove, the famous glove, and wave it.
45:20But it was the beginning of a dark time.
45:46I remember in the early years, Michael would just come out and hang out.
45:50It was just, it was casual, it was normal.
45:55But at that point, Michael started going out a lot less.
46:05Everybody was, like, worried.
46:08He would call all the time.
46:11He would constantly reflect back on things from his childhood.
46:20I was always trying to be perfect, trying to impress my father.
46:30And I wanted him to be proud of me, but he would never say it.
46:37He used to make fun of me.
46:41You are so black, you don't look like my child.
46:47He looked at you, she was poor, you're not a big nose.
46:53You don't realize how much it hurts.
46:57I wanted to just die.
47:08When I went to the house, after the Pepsi burn, with Michael, there were some times where we would talk
47:17and he would come a little close.
47:19And then I would say to myself, what is on his nose, and those were stitches, physically or visually, that
47:28you could see that it had been, you know, worked on.
47:32I have a shot of Michael when he's leaving the Havenhurst house, and that was what I saw the change.
47:39You know, the transition from the Negro look to look like something different.
47:52It was heartbreaking.
47:55Michael was trying to erase something off of his face, and it was all the nastiness and all the things
48:02that Joseph said about him.
48:04But I think that set Michael on a very unhealthy pattern and path for the rest of his life when
48:09it came to facial reconstruction and his skin color.
48:15But I don't think anybody was prepared for how extreme it would get.
48:22Michael.
48:24Please turn.
48:28Thank you, thank you, thank you.
48:54Thank you, thank you, thank you.
49:24All over America, snapping up the first copies of Michael Jackson's latest offering.
49:29But after five years of comparative seclusion, he's changed his image.
49:34It's a lot of talk, a lot of people are talking about it and how foolish he looks.
49:39The look, well, the new look is not too hot, but the album is great, and he's a great entertainer.
49:48I was a fan of Michael Jackson's since I was a kid.
49:52From, you know, the Jacksons, you know, I loved Off the Wall.
49:59I was a talent manager at the firm that managed Michael Jackson, and it was our job to manage his
50:06career and public image.
50:08I remember when I met him, like, up close and personal, I was just surprised at, like, how white he
50:15was.
50:15I mean, and just almost like, almost like translucent.
50:19That was good.
50:20It's beautiful.
50:21What happened?
50:22You know, we were wondering if he was bleaching his skin, or maybe it was makeup.
50:28I can remember one instance, and we had made this video.
50:32It was, like, multi-million dollar video.
50:34We had David Fincher, you know, directed.
50:36I remember at one point, he literally kind of broke down in tears, and he was kind of ranting, like,
50:41I look like a monkey, I look like a monkey, and I was, like, thinking, what?
50:45I mean, he looked great in the video, but in his own mind, he, you know, he hated the way
50:51that he looked.
50:52And some people mentioned, I think it's called baking, where they, you know, could lighten him up throughout the video.
51:00I mean, that word, I look like a monkey, first it was kind of shocking from him.
51:08I'm thinking, here's this huge, amazing artist, and his own issues with self-image actually became a form of, like,
51:18self-sabotage with his career.
51:25I remember a lot of the black community felt like he had deserted them and thought that he didn't want
51:36to be black.
51:38And it was really difficult, because he was in the tabloids every week.
51:45He sort of became a joke.
51:48First problem is the sex problem.
51:51The problem being, we don't know what sex he is.
51:58The latest of the Michael Jackson rumors.
52:01Are Michael Jackson and his sister, Latoya Jackson, actually the same person?
52:06I'm here with Lars Bunquist of the IOFC IRA, the Institute of Facial Changes in Recording Artists.
52:13And I understand you had a grant for the last six years to study the facial changes in Michael Jackson.
52:18That's correct, Dave.
52:19And it's been a full-time job.
52:23To most of us, he's just wacko jacko.
52:26And if some of the press are to be believed, he sleeps in an oxygen tank, often with a chimp,
52:32a snake, and an alien.
52:35When you think of Michael Jackson, you don't first think, what a great artist, what a definitive performer.
52:41You think, what a weird guy.
52:43Record stores have been reporting disappointing sales for the new album.
52:47Some have already begun taking down the bad promotional posters.
52:52The bad album had been released in the late 80s, but it hadn't been as successful as Thriller.
52:57We had to get him back to basics as an artist, as a singer, and get away from the wacky
53:04personas and the trappings and everything else and stuff.
53:15We had to make him more relatable to the public, to answer the questions that people had about him, about
53:24his skin, about bubbles, about everything.
53:28Because up to that point, Michael hadn't done a major interview.
53:32People hadn't heard him talk.
53:34People didn't know anything about him.
53:39And then Michael's managers had this idea that he should do an Oprah Winfrey interview.
53:58And the whole objective for that interview was to humanize him to the world.
54:06Oprah was calling every day, like, five or six times a day.
54:10Nothing was left to chance.
54:12His whole career, his reputation, were dependent on this interview going well.
54:23Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson.
54:28Hey, well, how nervous are you right now?
54:33How what?
54:34How nervous are you right now?
54:36I'm not nervous at all, actually.
54:38You really aren't?
54:39No, I never get nervous.
54:41You don't?
54:42No.
54:42Not even for your first interview, and it's live around the world?
54:46I thought you'd be a little nervous, but that's great.
54:49Because if you're not nervous, I won't be nervous.
54:51I just wanted to let the world know that.
54:54We were all watching it on TV, and it was pretty eye-opening.
54:58I think it really was the first time that I can recall where he ever sat down for a length
55:04of time, answered the questions that we all wanted to know, and was really pretty candid.
55:09I was actually surprised how candid he was.
55:13The main thing in that Oprah interview that was talked about was his answer to his skin color changing.
55:21The color of your skin is obviously different than it was when you were younger.
55:26And so I think it has caused a great deal of speculation and controversy as to what you have done
55:35or are doing.
55:36Are you bleaching your skin?
55:37And is your skin lighter because you don't like being black?
55:41Number one, this is the situation.
55:43I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin.
55:47It's something that I cannot help.
55:50Okay, but when people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me.
55:55So it is, it's a problem for me, okay?
56:00I can't control it.
56:01I'm a black American.
56:03I'm proud to be a black American.
56:08The black community was really relieved to hear that, you know?
56:12I remember people saying, oh, well, that's why it was.
56:15Of course.
56:16Of course Michael wouldn't deserve us.
56:18He has a disease.
56:20Makes me feel some of the pain that he's feeling because I can look in his eyes,
56:24and I can see the hurt in his eyes, you know?
56:26He looks like he's so lonely and so hurt, you know?
56:29And it makes me want to just reach out to him.
56:34And it worked.
56:36And it really changed a lot of people's perceptions of him.
56:40Now, Michael, you're pointing the thing down.
56:41You're driving one hand on the wheel.
56:42It felt like Michael was back on top.
56:48Wow, that's not terrific.
56:49Wow.
57:01My name is Rosabelle Smith.
57:05In 1993, I was working the sexually exploited child unit.
57:09A case had come in involving a young boy who was 13 years of age
57:15and that the perpetrator was Michael Jackson.
57:26We knew that it was going to be a huge case.
57:37We knew that it was going to be a big thing.
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