Twenty-five years ago today, on Nov 13, 2001, CBS aired “Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration.” It was a two-hour special, taped at Madison Square Garden in New York that September, and it put Michael back on stage with his brothers.
The man in charge of bringing it to TV screens was Bruce Gowers.
If that name doesn’t ring a bell, his work probably does. Gowers was a British TV director best known for Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” video from 1975. Much later he directed “American Idol,” which won him an Emmy in 2009. He passed away in January 2023 at 82.
Before any of the cameras rolled, though, Gowers had to meet the star. And he wrote about that first meeting on his own website, in a story that’s a lot sweeter than you’d expect from a business appointment.
If you’d like to see the special the way TV viewers saw it that night, this upload has the broadcast with its commercial breaks still in.
The 30th Anniversary special as it aired on CBS
Here’s how Gowers set the scene. “When this show was in its formative stages, I was asked to meet Michael on a Saturday morning at the Universal Sheraton.” That’s the hotel in Universal City, Los Angeles.
A director walking in for a meeting like that probably expects a conference table and a long talk about camera angles.
That’s not what he found.
“When I went to his room, it was dark, drapes drawn, cartoons playing on the TV.”
And the King of Pop wasn’t at a desk. He was down on the floor.
“Michael and his young son Prince were playing on the floor with toy cars.”
Prince, Michael’s oldest child, was born Feb 13, 1997, so he was 4 years old at the time. Gowers remembered one more detail about the little boy: “Prince’s hair was bleached platinum blonde with a dark part.”
At some point the grown-ups needed some daylight to get to work. So Gowers asked if they could open the drapes. Michael’s answer is the kind of thing any parent of a 4-year-old has said at some point.
“Yes, we are finished with the cartoons, anyway”
Then the meeting got going. Gowers kept his verdict short: “We had a great meeting.”
He also saw the other side of Michael once the work began. “Michael as always worked incredibly hard on his performance,” he wrote. And Gowers noted that the show was the last time Michael performed with his brothers.
That makes this next clip extra special to watch. It’s Michael and his brothers together on stage at the Garden, from the show Gowers directed.
Michael and his brothers perform “Can You Feel It” at the 30th
It’s fun to know that a TV special this big got its start on a hotel room floor, with a dad and his little boy playing cars.
Gowers directed plenty of famous names over the years. Still, this was the Michael Jackson story he made sure to write down.