1983’s “Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” is a documentary I watched so much as a kid. I fondly recall my uncle owning a copy of it on VHS and while he lived with me and my family, we’d sit down with him and watch this almost everyday. Despite it being a pretty basic documentary by today’s standards, for 1983, “Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” was humongous. Not only was it a look behind the scenes of the biggest video of 1983 and perhaps of all time, but it was an important video release that changed pretty much everything.
Allegedly at this time, MTV refused to play black artists on their station, and the studio managed to work out a deal where the distribution of the VHS would help the popularity of video. This would prompt MTV to finally budge and allow them to see the value of airing black artists on their station. “Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” is only about a half hour in length. If you watch it in its full intended format it’s the entire music video followed immediately by the documentary, but on its own the documentary works as a chronicle of the making of the iconic music video.
Over the course of the run time we view John Landis working with Michael, his interaction with Ola Ray, how Michael Jackson hand picked the legend Rick Baker to do the make up for the video, Michael’s submitting to the prosthetics and make up for the video, and of course the fan reactions. It covers all the basics, but is very well put together, allowing for an interesting experience that compliments the music video. It also ends on a light note with Landis showing audiences how absolutely ticklish Michael is. It’s a wonderful very rarely seen bit of vulnerability for an artist who was at virtual god level status by 1983.