On a Thursday night in November 1991, millions of American families had just finished watching The Simpsons. Fox had one more thing to show them, something brand new from Michael Jackson.
It was the video for “Black or White,” the first single from his album Dangerous. MTV, BET and VH1 played it at the same moment. Producers estimated that around 500 million people worldwide saw it.
The first part was pure fun.
Macaulay Culkin, the kid from Home Alone, cranks up a giant speaker and blasts his grumpy TV dad clean out of the house. The dad is played by George Wendt, Norm from Cheers. After that, Jackson dances with people from all over the globe, from Zulu dancers in Africa to Native American dancers out among the desert rocks.
John Landis directed it. He’d made “Thriller” with Jackson eight years earlier.
So far, so family-friendly.
Then the song ended, and the video kept going.
A black panther slinks off the studio set and out into a dark, rain-soaked street, where it turns into Jackson. There’s no music now. He starts to dance alone, harder and angrier than anyone had seen him move before.
For the next four minutes, he did things nobody at home expected to see right after a cartoon.
If you’ve only ever seen the short version, this is the part you missed.
Michael Jackson – Black or White (Official Video)
Fox’s phone lines reportedly filled up fast with calls from parents who’d been watching with their kids. A Fox spokeswoman told the Seattle Times that some viewers found the ending confusing and “pretty gross.” The local Fox station in Seattle alone got 40 to 50 calls.
The crotch grabs and the close-up of his zipper upset a lot of people. So did all that broken glass.
Jackson moved fast. Within a day, his publicists put out an apology.
“It upsets me to think that ‘Black or White’ could influence any child or adult to destructive behavior,” he said. He added, “I’ve always tried to be a good role model and therefore have made these changes.” He also said he deeply regretted any pain the final segment caused children, parents and other viewers.
His camp explained the dance as his take on a panther’s wild, animal side. Jackson later said he’d wanted to let out his frustration about injustice and racism.
But the edit stuck. The networks aired the cut version from then on, and for years, that’s what most people saw. MTV and other channels ended the video before the panther ever reached the street.
In 1993, an altered version of the ending reportedly came out with hate graffiti added to the windows he smashes, including “KKK Rules” and “Hitler Lives.” Suddenly, the anger had a target you could see.
For comparison, this is the cut that played for years.
Michael Jackson – Black Or White (Official Video – Shortened Version)
In the long version, the very last word goes to The Simpsons. Bart is bopping along in front of the TV until Homer yells at him to turn it off.