Original subtitles

[indistinct chatter]

[Michael] Ah, it's in my pocket.

Huh?

[indistinct chatter]

[Michael] I think every child is born...

to do a certain thing.

[dramatic music playing]

[Michael] I knew I wanted to be a...

a star. [chuckles]

It was being on the stage.

Just looking out over a sea of faces.

[crowd cheering]

[Michael] When they're chanting and they're screaming.

[Michael] And I've wanted it...

because I wanted to be loved.

That's the real truth.

I wanted people to truly love me.

[somber music playing]

[reporter] 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.

[crowd cheering]

This is a man who changed the music industry.

I mean, he is a musical genius.

[reporter 2] 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.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter 2] And now the battle is raging for the truth...

and Michael Jackson's legacy.

[dramatic music playing]

[announcer] The number one artist in the world!

[Shmuley] That level of mega stardom is not healthy.

People are not gods.

[reporter 3] Tonight, Jackson is wanted by police

of multiple felony counts of child molestation.

[reporter 3] The Jackson machine just keeps right on rolling.

[indistinct chatter]

[La Toya] Are you guys ready for me?

[soft music playing]

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.

[somber music playing]

[interviewer] What do you do mostly?

I mean, you know, in your spare time?

Sports. Messing around.

I go swimming all the time. I like swimming.

Play basketball.

Catching lizards and things. Just messing around.

[La Toya] My memory of Mike...

is...

basically...

a child that was far older than his age.

[soft music playing]

[La Toya] Mike was always just feisty.

- [indistinct chatter] - No, sit down.

Now I would like to show you...

[La Toya] 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.

[reporter 4] 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.

[La Toya] 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 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.

[dramatic music playing]

My father, he saw them performing together...

and he says, "Jeez."

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 Black audience.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be ashamed. We want Black power.

[crowd cheering]

We want Black power. We want Black power.

[dramatic music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

[Dionne] 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.

[reel clattering]

["Tobacco Road" playing]

? I know ?

? Bring it back To Tobacco Road ?

I met Michael when they were coming into 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.

? When I had you to myself I didn't want you around ?

? Those pretty faces Always made you ?

? Stand out in a crowd ?

? But someone picked you From the bunch ?

[Dionne] Michael, he had something that nobody else had.

And his performances were meticulously done.

Watching their growth over the years was sensational.

We've got some great guests, the incredible Jackson Five.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

[Robert] One of the hottest recording groups

today is the Jackson Five,

the only American group to have

four consecutive number one records.

[Steve] Kids nowadays don't know how big the Jackson Five were.

They were our Beatles, our Black royalty.

You had Beatlemania, we had Jackson mania.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter 5] Not since the heyday of The Beatles,

has the music world seen anything like the Jackson Five,

about to receive yet another platinum record?

[interviewer 2] But you have to give a lot of the 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 Five.

- [crowd applauding] - [soft music playing]

[Steve] 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.

[upbeat music playing]

[reporter 6] It's called Los Angeles,

the city of the angels.

People from all over the world,

drawn by a city of limitless boundaries...

one that offers unlimited opportunity.

[dramatic music playing]

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 this fine group.

- [crowd applauding] - [indistinct chatter]

Okay, we're going to find out who's boss around here.

Dad, 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.

[all laugh]

- No, that's fair. - [Joseph] Yeah.

Yeah, but what about Michael?

If Michael, Michael always does right?

[Joseph] No, not all the time.

The way we discipline Michael is sort of like,

yeah, we don't give him as much money to spend.

- [all laughing] - That's it.

Right.

You think it's a good profession for them?

Yes, I like for them to...

[Joyce] 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.

[dramatic music playing]

[Michelle] 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...

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.

[Michael]

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.

[La Toya] He wasn't as cruel as people think.

But Mike had a fear of my father,

we all did, because we felt, okay...

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 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."

[reel clattering]

[dramatic music playing]

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. - [all chuckling]

[presenter] Now, I don't have to give any introduction

to these gentlemen, do I?

You knew them originally as the Jackson Five.

They're the Jacksons now. They record on Epic.

[Susan] This is really a special picture to me.

Both of our hair was kind of big.

See, his face looks completely different.

So this was earlier, I guess.

He still looks like a great looking kid, you know.

When the Jackson Five came to Epic...

they were a good pop group.

But Michael was so much the center of it, the star.

He just wanted to be perfect in a way.

He wanted to be the best dancer ever...

and best singer, best entertainer.

He wanted to be a great.

[reporter 7] 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?

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.

[car horns honking]

[reporter 8] 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.

[Susan] The Wiz was

the Black version of The Wizard of Oz.

And Michael really wanted to be in that movie.

[La Toya] 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.

[dramatic music playing]

[interviewer 3] 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 say, you're going to film The Wiz next week, huh?

Or next month.

She would say, yeah, next thing I noticed, I was in it.

[La Toya] Mike and I were extremely close.

So we moved to New York together.

And going to the set every day...

he just embraced it with great joy.

But most of all, what he would always say,

"I'm learning so much, La Toya, you have no idea."

Hey fellas, is today the day

you're going to help me get down from here?

[crows] Help you down?

Man, what is going down in that hayloft you call a head?

[La Toya] 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.

[upbeat music playing]

[Rubell] 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 Pauley. Come sit over here.

[Jane] It's been a long day for you

and you're unwinding here?

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. [chuckles]

[Jane] When you hear the name Studio 54, 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.

[Jane] But you're Michael Jackson,

you don't have it so bad.

What are you escaping from?

- You know? - I'm not escaping from anything.

It's just a change of pace.

- Right, it is. - It's a change of pace.

He doesn't escape from anything.

If anything, he's one of those people

who's very recognizable...

[La Toya] 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."

[dramatic music playing]

[Steve] 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.

[telephone ringing]

[Michael] 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?"

["Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" playing]

[Steve] I remember getting a cassette 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 gonna be phenomenal.

[reporter 9] 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 it so, oh here we go. Hello, Michael.

- [Michael] Hello. - How are you?

[crowd cheering]

He is the first artist to have four top ten singles

with his Off The Wall album.

He keeps breaking records.

- It's just amazing. - [Michael] Ow!

[dramatic music playing]

[Dionne] It had to happen.

[Michael] I feel like I wanna rock.

He had earned the right to be Michael.

[crowd cheering]

[Dionne] He felt that it's now my time.

[dramatic music playing]

[reel clattering]

[indistinct chatter]

Mayor? Okay.

- Let's get the mayor back here. - Yeah.

[cameraman] I'm rolling.

[interviewer 4] Hey, guys, what did 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 wonderful.

[interviewer 4] What do you have to say for Atlanta?

I'll start here.

[Randy] Love it. I can't wait. Tomorrow night.

I love it.

- [Jackie] We love you, Atlanta. - Love you very much.

Tomorrow night, everybody be out there.

Because we're going to do our best. Have a good time.

[interviewer 5] At this point, Michael really is kind of

the mainstay of the Jacksons.

Has it always been that way?

Yes, yes.

[interviewer 5] Michael has always been sort of the star.

Yeah, he's been highlighted the most

because 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.

[soft music playing]

[La Toya] 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.

[Michelle] 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.

[crowd cheering]

[Michelle] 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 crystallized for Michael

that he was nothing more than a commodity to his brothers.

And I think it broke his heart.

[indistinct chatter]

Oh hi, Steve! Good to see you.

Fine, how are you?

[La Toya] 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.

["Lovingly" playing]

? Don't look so sad ?

It's one of your favorite songs.

? I know it's over ?

? Don't say a word... ?

[La Toya] 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.

[soft music playing]

[Christian] 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."

It 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.

And 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,

and 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 our 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 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.

[Michael] We did missionary work, door to door.

We do 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.

[Christian] 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 wanted to sell 100 million albums.

On his next album.

And I think that really fed him.

[somber music playing]

[Steve] 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.

[indistinct chatter]

I'm not like other guys.

I mean, I'm different.

I'm a monster.

[dramatic music playing]

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, in 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.

God, what a great looking kid.

Filmmakers, 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.

[reporter 10] Bob Pitman is the 29-year-old whiz kid

who created MTV after a successful career

as a radio station program director.

We are not all things to all people.

We are cable television.

And what cable television does best is specialize.

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.

[interviewer 6] Over Christmas, I watched MTV.

- I saw no Black star. - Plenty of Black stars,

but only Black stars who do rock and roll.

[Susan] And MTV refused to play Michael's video.

You don't see R&B. You see...

He was outraged. It was pure blatant racism,

plain and simple.

Prejudice is ignorance.

Music has no color. I don't believe in that.

What I do, I don't want it labeled Black or white.

I want it labeled it's music.

[Susan] 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 program like this

without honoring 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.

[reel clattering]

[reporter 11] 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.

[dramatic music playing]

[Michelle] 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!

[reporter 12] Michael Jackson was partying in New York.

The occasion, for selling 23 million albums.

[La Toya] He exploded.

Everybody wanted a piece of him. Everyone wanted to see him.

[indistinct chatter]

Michael Jackson's Thriller is now the highest selling

solo album in the history of recorded music.

The number one artist in the world!

[reporter 13] He is simply put, probably the most exciting

and intense performer of the decade.

[interviewer 7] You have something within your records

that everybody just loves.

Boy I couldn't say. I just created it.

[interviewer 7] Where do you think the gift came from?

- God. - [dramatic music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

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 canceled.

[crowd cheering]

Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson.

We now welcome him to the Walk of Fame.

[Christian] 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 a 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 realized

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,

"Okay, 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,

you know, 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.

[indistinct chatter]

[interviewer 8] How long have you had this beautiful beast?

Gosh, it was during the,

a little bit before Thriller I had him.

Probably about, almost a year, almost a year now.

[interviewer 8] And this type of snake is not dangerous?

Well, I don't think so.

- Some people would. - Could it be dangerous?

Yeah, they squeeze, they can really squeeze.

I think he's great.

[interviewer 8] What other animals do you have?

[Howell] 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 eccentric.

[indistinct chatter]

[Howell] I could see he enjoyed being around kids.

- Hello! - Wow! Wow! Woo!

Tell us about where we recognize...

[interviewer 9] We're going to do our own interview here.

Okay this is the Michael Jackson Interview Show, okay?

So, how old are you, young man? No, not how old are you.

What show are you on?

My show is Webster!

And who do you play on the show?

[Howell] 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.

He goes, I need you to come over.

So I get there, and he has Emanuel 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.

[somber music playing]

[Michael] When a child steps in the room

I'm totally changed. I feel their energy.

I feel their spirit.

When I look in their eyes, I feel healed.

[Howell] 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.

By then, Michael got so big, now it's just a business.

[dramatic music playing]

[reporter 14] Jackson's image has been pressed into plastic.

In a short six months since they first came on the market,

Michael Jackson toys, dolls,

and other products have been selling with a fury.

[Mike] 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.

[reporter 15] Michael Jackson made recording business history

today by closing the deal on The Beatles' catalog.

From now on, all those royalties go to Jackson.

[reporter 16] 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.

[La Toya] 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, cutthroat.

And people will say and do anything to get into your circle

and to manage you.

And that part of it...

destroyed him.

[reporter 17] Michael Jackson has not a song on his lips,

but a bottle of Pepsi-Cola.

This week, he signed up for five million dollars 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 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 is 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.

The pyrotechnics...

added too much...

and all hell broke loose.

[explosion]

[dramatic music playing]

[crowd screaming]

[indistinct chatter]

[reporter 18] 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.

[indistinct chatter]

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.

[soft music playing]

[Michelle] 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.

[somber music playing]

[Michael]

[Howell] 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 Havenhurst house,

and that was when I saw the change.

You know, the transition from the negro look

to like something different.

[Michelle] 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...

facial reconstruction and his skin color.

But I don't think anybody was prepared

for how extreme it would get.

- [indistinct chatter] - [camera shutters clicking]

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.

[reel clattering]

[reporter 19] 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... [chuckles] the new look is not too hot,

but the album is great and he's a great entertainer.

[dramatic music playing]

[Gregg] I was a fan of Michael Jackson

since I was a kid.

From you know, the Jacksons, 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 I met him like up close and personal

and I was just surprised at like how white he was.

I mean and just almost like almost like translucent.

[man] Oh, this is beautiful. What happened?

[Gregg] You know, we were wondering

if he was bleaching his skin or maybe it was makeup.

I can remember one instance and we had made this video.

It was like multi-million dollar video.

We had David Fincher, you know, directed.

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 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.

[somber music playing]

[Gregg] 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.

[ominous music playing]

[Shana] 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.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

The latest of the Michael Jackson rumors.

Are Michael Jackson and his sister La Toya Jackson

actually the same person?

I'm here with Lars Bunquist 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. It's been a full-time job.

[reporter 20] For most of us, he's just Whacko-Jacko.

And if some of the press are to be believed,

he sleeps in an oxygen tank,

often with a chimp, a snake, and an alien.

[reporter 21] 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.

[reporter 22] Record stores have been reporting

disappointing sales for the new album.

Some have already begun taking down

the Bad promotional posters.

[Gregg] 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.

- [somber music playing] - [camera shutter clicking]

[Shana] 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.

- [suspenseful music playing] - [indistinct chatter]

And the whole objective for that interview

was to humanize 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.

Hey.

- [Oprah] Hello. Hey. - Hey.

Well, how nervous are you right now?

- How what? - How nervous are you right now?

I'm not nervous at all, actually.

- [Oprah] You really aren't? - No, I never get nervous.

- [Oprah] You don't? - No.

[Oprah] 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.

[Michael chuckles]

I just wanted to let the world know...

[Gregg] 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 color changing.

[Oprah] The color of your skin is obviously different

than it was when you were younger.

- [Michael] Yeah. - [Oprah] And so, I think...

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, have, are-

Is your skin lighter because you don't like being Black?

Number one, this is a situation. I have a skin disorder

that destroys the pigmentation of the skin.

It's something that I cannot help.

Okay, but... when people make up stories

that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me.

[Oprah] So, it is.

It's a problem for me. Okay, I can't control it.

I'm a Black American.

I'm proud to be a Black American.

[indistinct chatter]

The Black community was really relieved to hear that.

You know, I remember people saying, "Oh, that's why it was."

"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.

[Shana] And it worked.

And it really changed a lot of people's perceptions of him.

[indistinct chatter]

[Shana] It felt like Michael was back on top.

[Rosibel] 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.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Rosibel] We knew that it was going to be a huge case.

[dramatic music playing]

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