# Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues (Documentary)

Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues is a documentary film about Michael Jackson directed by Patrick T. Kelly and produced by Motown and narrated by actor James Earl Jones . .
It was the first official documentary on Jackson produced after the worldwide successes of his solo albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987) and contained, in addition to many previously unpublished images, for the first time exclusive images from his first solo tour, the Bad World Tour which started in Japan in 1987.

## Content

The documentary focuses on Jackson's life and career from childhood , chronicling his early years in the music business with his family group of him and his brothers, the Jackson 5, through to his successful career as a solo singer , which by then it already included three very successful albums for Epic Records .
To reconstruct the artist's story, some family members are interviewed, such as his brother Marlon, who for the first time tells the background of how the Jackson 5 were actually discovered by an artist called Bobby Taylor (and not the legend who believed it had been Diana Ross to discover them), the record producer Quincy Jones who talks about his first meeting with Jackson on the set of the musical film The Wiz in 1978 and the collaborations on his first solo albums. Many other artists then simply bear witness to their friendship or tell background stories about Jackson's life and career, among these appear the historic actresses Elizabeth Taylor , Katharine Hepburn and Sophia Loren , the actor and historic dancer Gene Kelly who praises Jackson for his dance skills, the singer Sammy Davis Jr. instead in one passage utters a phrase that has become historic among Jackson fans:   “If you want to see the boy next door, go out and look at the boy next door, but don't look at Michael Jackson because he's not the boy next door.”
( Sammy Davis Jr. in the documentary The Legend Continues )
Many artists then recount the emotions they felt when they saw Jackson perform the moonwalk for the first time in the television special Motown 25.
n a reconstruction it is then told of three fans who won a competition for MTV and who were able to meet Jackson on his return from a concert in Australia and visit the Jackson family ranch Hayvenhurst in Encino .
The documentary also contains many rare images, many unpublished at the time, and clips of videos and performances of Jackson alone and with his brothers and sisters.

## Television

The special was first broadcast in the United States in 1988 on the television channel Showtime.

## Distribution & Commercial Performance

It was distributed worldwide on VHS between 1988 and 1989 by Showtime. In the early 2000s, version was also released a very rare bootleg on DVD by DvdGO which was reissued again after Michael Jackson's death in 2009.
By April 1992, The Legend Continues had sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States with a additional 400,000 copies sold in the United Kingdom within the first month.

## Note

* ↑ "Michael Jackson - La Leggenda Continua: il primo moonwalk (video)". Soundsblog.it. 2010-05-15.
* ↑ "MICHAEL JACKSON THE LEGEND CONTINUES 1988 SHOWTIME SPECIAL DVD - Media Collectibles".
* ↑ http://www.silenzio-in-sala.com/recensione_dvd_michael-jackson-la-leggenda-continua.html. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
* ↑ "IMDb: With Cine Storm Entertainment (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)". IMDb.
* ↑ Givens, Robin (April 1992). Top Black Video Cassette Sales. Johnson Publishing Company.
* ↑ Ann Vare, Ethile (8 Apr 1989). Jackson becomes a legend. Calhoun Times and Gordon County News. "The Legend Continues," a documentary with music, has already sold 400,000 units in the United Kingdom with more than 300,000 copies sold in the United States