Halloween Television Special
When Michael Jackson signed on with AEG Live to perform a concert residency at London’s O2 Arena, his agreement to do the shows came with a specific requirement; that AEG would also help him venture into movies.
One of the first things Jackson wanted to do was produce a Halloween television special focusing on his more horror-type music and film pieces; “Thriller” and “Ghosts”. To do this, Jackson had Randy Phillips set up a meeting between he and Grammy Award show producer Ken Ehrlich. Phillips and AEG’s Tim Leiweke joined the pair, along with Jackson’s manager Frank Dileo. The meeting took place before rehearsals on June 24th, 2009 at the Staples Centre – the day before Jackson died.
“When I saw him the night before he passed, we were having a meeting about another show; a Halloween project that Michael wanted to do with CBS,” Ehrlich recalls.
“Ken Ehrlich was to produce the show for Michael. It centered around the ‘Ghosts’ footage Michael had personally financed,” Randy Phillips told me today. “The intent was to create a yearly Halloween television special. Michael was going to host and perform on the show.”
"Who's doing sculpture for Halloween special"
Jackson had dreamed of re-introducing his 1996 musical masterpiece, “Ghosts,” to the world. With his dazzling “This Is It” tour bringing the focus back to him as an entertainer, October 2009 was shaping up to provide the ultimate platform for Jackson’s dream to come true.
“Ghosts” is a 40-minute film, co-written by Jackson with legendary horror writer Stephen King, and directed by Stan Winston. Jackson plays the roles of several characters in the film including; the fun-loving yet eccentric ‘Maestro’, the rude, ignorant, bigoted town ‘Mayor’ and the ‘Skeleton’. The characters are very different, but have one glaring thing in common – they all dance exactly like the King of Pop!
“The video contains some of the best, most inspired dancing of Jackson’s career,” said Stephen King in a moving piece published shortly after the entertainer’s death. “If you look at it, I think you’ll see why Fred Astaire called Jackson ‘a helluva mover’.”
The first ‘Michael Jackson Halloween Special’ was to be broadcast on October 31, 2009 by CBS. This was perfect timing for all parties involved. By the time Halloween rolled around Jackson would be one month into a three-month break from the tour, so the positive PR and exposure would be warmly welcomed. The King of Pop’s final show of the tour’s first leg was scheduled for September 29, 2009. Jackson was not scheduled to return to the O2 stage until January 7, 2010 for the commencement of the second leg.
Because Jackson would not be on tour at the time of the broadcast, his performance for the special would have been sourced from a trove of high-definition footage AEG Live had planned to capture during the first leg.
It was planned that footage of the spectacular “Thriller”/”Ghosts”/”Threatened” portion of the live show would be edited as Jackson’s “performance” in the special, giving the home-viewing audience their first up-close glimpse of the superstar’s triumphant return to the stage, and the magnificent production on offer. This would be a excellent advertising for future ticket sales with AEG anticipating that the tour would proceed to residency in additional cities around the world.
“Michael was very happy. I solidified [the] Halloween special that he wanted,” explained Frank Dileo in an interview. “We laid out what we wanted to do with the film ‘Ghosts’, and what his participation was and he was acceptive of that. He was extremely happy.”
However unfortunately, the tour and the Halloween special weren’t to be, with Jackson passing away the day following his meeting – on June 25th, 2009.
