Jaafar Jackson spent this year as the face of his uncle in the movie “Michael.” It’s easy to think of him as the first of the family to play a Jackson on screen.
He wasn’t. He wasn’t even the first of Jermaine Jackson’s sons to do it.
Jaafar’s dad, Jermaine, is Michael’s brother and was his bandmate in the Jackson 5. Jaafar was born on July 25, 1996, to Jermaine and Alejandra Oaziaza. And to find the other son in this story, you have to go back to a TV event from 1992.
This Sunday, Nov. 15, marks 34 years since ABC aired the first part of “The Jacksons: An American Dream.” The miniseries ran in two parts from Nov. 15 to Nov. 18, 1992. It was based mainly on “My Family,” the 1990 book by Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother.
It was a big deal at the time. Angela Bassett played Katherine, and Michael himself approved the script and Bassett’s casting. Part 2 drew 38.4 million viewers and was the No. 1 program of its week.
This original ABC promo shows you exactly how the network sold the story to millions of families that week.
The original 1992 ABC promo for the miniseries
For the Jackson family, this wasn’t just another TV movie about them. Jermaine was one of its producers, along with his wife, Margaret Maldonado. He knew what he wanted people to take away from it.
“The idea of this story is to show that we had a life before the Jackson 5,” Jermaine said in a 1992 newspaper feature written during filming.
“We’re human. We hurt. We cry. We do the things that people do,” he added.
That same feature slipped in a family detail that’s easy to miss. It described “Jermaine, whose 15-year-old son, Jermaine Jr., is one of the actors playing him.”
That’s the answer. Jermaine Jackson Jr., known as Jay, played teenage Jermaine. In other words, he played his own dad, while his dad helped produce the show. Colin Steele played Jermaine as an adult.
Jay was born on Jan. 27, 1977, which makes him Jaafar’s older half-brother. So years before Jaafar played Michael, his big brother had already stepped into the family story.
And there’s a second twist. Jay’s mother is Hazel Gordy, daughter of Motown founder Berry Gordy. She and Jermaine married in 1973 and had Jay four years later. Both of them show up as characters in the miniseries. Monica Allison played Hazel Gordy, and Billy Dee Williams played Berry Gordy.
So the family story Jay acted in had his mom and his grandpa written into it too.
This scene recreates the brothers’ 1968 audition at Motown, when the real Jermaine was 13, so it’s the stretch of the story where the teenage Jermaine role comes in.
The Jackson brothers audition for Motown in the 1992 miniseries
It wasn’t Jay’s first time on screen with family, either. Four years earlier he was credited as a dancer in the kids’ “Badder” segment of Michael’s 1988 film “Moonwalker.”
Three decades after he played his dad, his younger brother Jaafar played their uncle Michael in “Michael.” Two of Jermaine’s sons have now played a Jackson, and the first one played their own father.