Spike Lee’s Michael Jackson Doc ‘Bad 25’ To Air On Thanksgiving

Carl Williott | August 29, 2012 8:38 am

Today (Aug. 29) would have been Michael Jackson‘s 54th birthday, so it’s fitting that Spike Lee’s Bad 25 documentary — about the King of Pop’s seminal follow-up to Thriller — has finally found a home. On Thanksgiving (Nov. 22) ABC will air Lee’s in-depth look at the making of Bad and its impact 25 years later. (Can you set DVRs three months in advance? No? Shoot.)

Unlike This Is It, which mainly relied on scrapped concert footage, Lee worked with Jackson’s estate and Legacy/Epic Records to use archived footage that the public has never seen. He also interviewed choreographers and collaborators who worked side-by-side with Jackson, as well as today’s artists who were inspired by MJ, including Kanye West and Mariah Carey.

Lee will screen Bad 25 at the Venice Film Festival on Friday (Aug. 31) and it will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September. As for the album, the massive four-disc 25th anniversary edition of Bad will be released on September 17, and it includes a Bad tour concert DVD, new remixes and unreleased recordings.