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Ashley Banjo on Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'

Re: ITV Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller @ 10.15pm

Thanks, Bonnie. That's good to hear.

It's certainly a step in the right direction that we have a documentary on TV that is not about some BS about the allegations, plastic surgery or autopsy.

I guess because of comments some people made (Quincy in particular) I'm a bit defensive when it's suggested that MJ was not involved creatively in his own success or when his contribution is downplayed, but if you say that is not the case in this docu, I trust you with that. I'm looking forward to see it for myself. Hope it's on YT soon.
 
Bubs said:
Shoot! I forgot to watch this docu and was a sleep when it aired:(
Have to find a place when I can see it, or wait until its uploaded on utube.
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Do you have access to itvplayer? I posted the link on the thread in the news section. If someone in uk is techy minded they could upload to youtube to allow more people to watch, although not sure about copyright issues.
 
Re: ITV Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller @ 10.15pm

Hooray!! I apologize for my rants and raves. I should have waited before I spouted off. It sounds great!

A lot of people didn't care for Spikes doc either but I loved it. Only complaint was that it was too short.
I tried the ITV player but it wouldn't work for me.
I see next one is Len Goodman on Fred Astaire!!
 
Bonnie Blue said:
Do you have access to itvplayer? I posted the link on the thread in the news section. If someone in uk is techy minded they could upload to youtube to allow more people to watch, although not sure about copyright issues.
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Bonnie-thank you for your great review. I am even more excited to see it now.
I tried the ITV player but it won't work here in the US.
 
Re: ITV Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller @ 10.15pm

^ @respect Tbh, quincy didn't really feature a huge amount in the documentary, and certainly not as the real force instead of mj behind the album.

Dam mentioned the 'beat it' video as an example where mj's contribution was diminished. As i recall, vincent paterson said that mj very much took direction from michael peters in 'beat it', but in the later videos ie thriller, he was much more vocal and his own man. His purpose i think was to show the growth of mj as an artist, becoming more confident in his ideas. You can argue i suppose that mj was super experienced by the time of the beat it shoot and didn't need to take direction/ideas from anybody, but that was paterson's view, he was there and he claimed he saw a change in mj as the videos progressed.

@barbee, hope you get to see it. It was a more workmanlike doc than spike lee's (obviously, spike lee is a supertalented director) and it didn't have any 'unseen' footage and i suppose little new info for hardcore fans, but for what it was it was excellent.
 
Re: ITV Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller @ 10.15pm

Thanks Bonnie. I thought it cannot be that bad if people are raving about it on twitter.

Do you know where to find rating for that program? You found ratings for that awful autopsy program, can you find for this one too? Hopefully this got more viewers that autopsy program.
 
Bonnie Blue said:
Do you have access to itvplayer? I posted the link on the thread in the news section. If someone in uk is techy minded they could upload to youtube to allow more people to watch, although not sure about copyright issues.
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I tried to register with it, but I got stuck on post code thingy. I live in Ireland so I suppose it is only for UK people, although I tried to put UK post code, but it didn't allow me proceed with registering.

Yes, somebody could copy it from ITV player and posted here or ytube.
 
Re: ITV Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller @ 10.15pm

Bubs said:
Thanks Bonnie. I thought it cannot be that bad if people are raving about it on twitter.

Do you know where to find rating for that program? You found ratings for that awful autopsy program, can you find for this one too? Hopefully this got more viewers that autopsy program.
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The guardian do a next day ratings on various programmes but i checked and they don't mention any prog last night after 10pm. I can check ratings on barb when they come out a week or so later but as it's itv and they only feature the top 30 progs each week on any one channel then i don't think that this documentary will be on there. Clicks on itv player will be recorded so i think we can all click on the documentary there to show it some love! Yes, if fans don't support a positive doc like this because of various little issues, then we only have ourselves to blame if all we're fed in the future are docs on w***0 j***o.
 
Re: ITV Perspectives: Michael Jackson's Thriller @ 10.15pm

Bonnie Blue said:
Clicks on itv player will be recorded so i think we can all click on the documentary there to show it some love! Yes, if fans don't support a positive doc like this because of various little issues, then we only have ourselves to blame if all we're fed in the future are docs on w***0 j***o.
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:clapping:
 
good documentary, nice to see something positive about Michael on ITV for a change!
 
It was like a children's illustrated book version of how the Thriller album was made: fluffy and pleasant but little in the way of challenging ideas or of anything insightful.

For an artist with layers as deep as Michael it's a little insulting. They glossed over Off the Wall like it was a sunny day that MJ just farted out one afternoon.

And there was a big emphasis on everybody else doing the work. So much so that Ashley began asking people 'how much was Michael involved in the creative process' ergo did he do anything or just show up?

Ashley's enthusiasm was kinda nice, but I'm not sure presenting historical music docus is his forte. To sit with someone like Bruce Swedien and ask trivial questions like you'd just bumped into him in a coffee shop...

Can't believe the names they got for this either - ITV paid for that?? How odd.

Bruce and John had some nice things to say. I know Landis has said some stupid things but his frankness makes him quite relatable and I think that adds some gravitas when he's speaking positively about Michael - as he does the vast majority of the time.

And someone else said it but Ashley repeatedly stated Michael died for overdosing on prescription meds - like he just took too many aspirin one day or something. Someone went to jail, man. Annoying.

Vincent and Jeffrey getting their usual digs in: 'it pissed me off that Michael took the moonwalk', 'Michael just showed up, he was used to doing what he was told'.

Everybody making out that Michael's drive was purely commercial.

Gambacci again talking rubbish. Said Thriller was good for Michael but killed the music industry but failed to expand on that at all. No idea why he feels that way.

They also said that Michael's videos had just been simple performance pieces but that changed with Billie Jean. Yes and no. 1980 Can You Feel It should not be ignored.

Fantastic to hear that Human Nature demo - I never had. And the contributions from Jason King were great once again.

It's nice to see a mainstream UK network pay for something that I believe was intended to be mostly positive. But it's still not good enough. Not even close.
 
^ Agree with this review.
I also thought that the last 2 minutes were a real downer....implied that everything was downhill for MJ after Thriller....Ashley said something like' MJ seemed to have a sad life'....but really, he could have mentioned that MJ actually did make a few (!) more recordings!

I also don't understand why t was screened so late in the day.....especially on a Sunday night (before school etc).

Still, I suppose it was nice that it was positive overall.
 
barbee0715 said:
Bonnie-thank you for your great review. I am even more excited to see it now.
I tried the ITV player but it won't work here in the US.
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Download Zenmate app for your computer. Then you can change location to U.K.
 
i recorded it last night as i was working and then got home this morn and watched it, i have to say im so happy the interview was a good postive interview and not a bad nagtive one Michael does'nt deservie it. Good docucamenty.
 
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They played some footage from the Molly interview - 1987, but it looked cropped from the leaked HQ source.. hehe
 
available on tv torrent sites its easy, know what I mean!!
 
djlf said:
available on tv torrent sites its easy, know what I mean!!
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I don't. No one can upload this to YouTube? Or does ITV have a channel on YouTube? I found a ton of ITV stuff but nothing on this. :(



(They must be the same channel that ran the M. Bashir doc in Britain-TONS of stuff came up about that).
 
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barbee0715 said:
I don't. No one can upload this to YouTube? Or does ITV have a channel? I found a ton of ITV stuff but nothing on this. :(
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Perspectives is what i wrote, when i typed in 'Michael Jackson' or 'Thriller' on ITV player i didn't find anything...
 
myosotis said:
ITV.Perspectives.2015.Michael.Jacksons... by marco-balletta-58
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Thanks.

I watched it. I think it's a great documentary. What we need about Michael on TV. Not some trash.
I understand that for hard core fans it may not say much new, but the target audience is the general public and for them a lot of it may be new, keep that in mind.

So thank you, Ashley Banjo.

BTW, they said that the Thriller album cover suit was designed for Michael by Hugo Boss. Wasn't there a different story by the photographer who said Michael took it off of him?
 
^^yes. Zimmerman said it was his suit. I always thought it was the suit he wore in Diana's special. (Esp since he used the shirt from the special for Motown 25 and the Guinness record ceremony. Looks so different each time.)

Guess that's why it's "different origin stories".

It was fantastic and I'm going to watch it again and say why tonight. :)
 
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It's mostly positive but at times it felt amateur-ish. For a fan presenting a musical documentary of one the most groundbreaking albums, Ashley didn't seem that knowledgeable. I don't want to be negative because it was a nice try but I don't think it made justice to Michael's genius, once again he was portrayed as the one who was told what to do and he was just the puppet, if us hard core fans wouldn't know better, we'd buy it like the general public. Ashley asked pretty frivolous questions but I admit Bruce moved me to tears the way he always sapeaks in awe about Michael. It was nice to see featured a program with better quality and not the usual tabloid garbage ones but it's not enough to the artist of such caliber.
 
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ChrisC said:
It was like a children's illustrated book version of how the Thriller album was made: fluffy and pleasant but little in the way of challenging ideas or of anything insightful.

For an artist with layers as deep as Michael it's a little insulting. They glossed over Off the Wall like it was a sunny day that MJ just farted out one afternoon.

And there was a big emphasis on everybody else doing the work. So much so that Ashley began asking people 'how much was Michael involved in the creative process' ergo did he do anything or just show up?

Ashley's enthusiasm was kinda nice, but I'm not sure presenting historical music docus is his forte. To sit with someone like Bruce Swedien and ask trivial questions like you'd just bumped into him in a coffee shop...

Can't believe the names they got for this either - ITV paid for that?? How odd.

Bruce and John had some nice things to say. I know Landis has said some stupid things but his frankness makes him quite relatable and I think that adds some gravitas when he's speaking positively about Michael - as he does the vast majority of the time.

And someone else said it but Ashley repeatedly stated Michael died for overdosing on prescription meds - like he just took too many aspirin one day or something. Someone went to jail, man. Annoying.

Vincent and Jeffrey getting their usual digs in: 'it pissed me off that Michael took the moonwalk', 'Michael just showed up, he was used to doing what he was told'.

Everybody making out that Michael's drive was purely commercial.

Gambacci again talking rubbish. Said Thriller was good for Michael but killed the music industry but failed to expand on that at all. No idea why he feels that way.

They also said that Michael's videos had just been simple performance pieces but that changed with Billie Jean. Yes and no. 1980 Can You Feel It should not be ignored.

Fantastic to hear that Human Nature demo - I never had. And the contributions from Jason King were great once again.

It's nice to see a mainstream UK network pay for something that I believe was intended to be mostly positive. But it's still not good enough. Not even close.
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I totally agree with everything you said.

Jeffrey Daniels' self entitlement is ridiculous. Michael never said he created the Moonwalk, he took it from the kids in the street. He enhanced it. Michael Peters recognized more Michael's creativity and genius.

I didn't understand what Gambacci meant with that remark. Michael revived the music industry, Thriller made people going out and buy albums again.
 
Snow White luvs Peter Pan said:
I totally agree with everything you said.

Jeffrey Daniels' self entitlement is ridiculous. Michael never said he created the Moonwalk, he took it from the kids in the street. He enhanced it. Michael Peters recognized more Michael's creativity and genius.

I didn't understand what Gambacci meant with that remark. Michael revived the music industry, Thriller made people going out and buy albums again.
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What did you think he meant (Gambacco)?
 
Psychoniff said:
What did you think he meant (Gambacco)?
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Could be many reasons why he said that. It's not for us to surmise. The documentary put it in so they should have expanded it. In the end it just looked like another racist British critic whining.

I suspect it's something to do with the music being too visual? The bar Michael set being far too high. But it's such a back-handed compliment. It's nonsense.
 
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