Two boys came tearing out of a soundstage at Universal in the early 1980s. Coming the other way, about to walk in, was Michael Jackson.
The boys were Jason Bateman and Ricky Schroder, and they worked there. Schroder was the young star of NBC’s “Silver Spoons”, the sitcom about a kid who moves in with his rich, toy-loving father. Bateman, barely a teenager, played Derek Taylor, the smooth-talking friend who kept landing Ricky in trouble. He was on the show from 1982 to 1984, long before “Arrested Development” and “Ozark” made him one of the best-known faces on television.
About forty years later, Bateman sat down with Jimmy Kimmel, and the interview went up on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” YouTube channel on October 1, 2022. Near the end of it Kimmel tried a game. Bateman grew up on studio lots, so the host threw out the names of 1980s stars one after another to see which of them he’d met.
Bateman explained why he had met so many. While his sister Justine was making “Family Ties” on the Paramount lot, he treated the place like his own street. “I would like to cruise around and bop into other stages and say hi to folks,” he said.
Then Kimmel said two words: “Michael Jackson.”
Bateman’s answer wasn’t about a handshake or an autograph. It sounded more like a near miss on the road.
Jason Bateman tells Jimmy Kimmel about the day Michael Jackson came to “Silver Spoons”
This is the official “Jimmy Kimmel Live” upload. Kimmel says Michael’s name at about 12:52, and Bateman’s story runs for roughly 40 seconds from there.
“Ricky Schroder and I almost ran over Michael Jackson with our bicycles,” Bateman said.
It happened, he explained, “while we were doing Silver Spoons at Universal.” The boys kept bikes at work, in his words, “because kids got to play.”
Michael hadn’t come to Universal for a meeting or a movie. He’d come for the sitcom. “Michael was there to see him,” Bateman said, meaning Schroder. “He’s a fan of the show and a fan of the Ricker.”
Michael was in his twenties by then, and he followed the shows kids watched closely enough to turn up at one in person. He wanted to meet the boy at the centre of it. He just picked the wrong second to arrive.
“He was coming onto this stage while we were zooming off,” Bateman said, “and almost took him down.”
So the visit began with the star of the show and his on-screen sidekick bearing down on their guest on two wheels. By Bateman’s account they missed him. He doesn’t say what Michael did next, or whether anybody got a word out, and Kimmel couldn’t leave that gap alone.
“Wow. Did he moonwalk out of the way?” the host asked.
“Nice,” Bateman said. “This is talk show quick.”
Kimmel moved on to the next name on his list. Bateman tells the story the way most people would mention a close call in a parking lot. He gives no date, and he doesn’t say how long Michael stayed or what he and Schroder talked about once the bikes were out of the way.
What he does give away is the nickname. Roughly forty years on, the kid he shared a soundstage with is still “the Ricker” to him.