Brittany Luce

This is the star-studded 1992 TV miniseries dramatizing the Jackson family's ascent.

And when I say star-studded, I mean it.

Angela Bassett played matriarch Katherine Jackson.

Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, a.k.a.

Cochise from Cooley High, was domineering father Joe Jackson.

Plus, you had none other than Billy Dee Williams as Motown founder Barry Gordy, Vanessa Williams as music producer Suzanne DePass, Terrence Howard as the young adult version of Brother Jackie.

The M.O.

of the miniseries is right there in the title.

It's selling the Jacksons as the embodiment of the American dream, from working-class Gary Indiana to Motown superstardom to the early days of Michael's breakout solo career, from rags to the richest of riches.

A familiar strain of the Jackson lore that the movie depicts is Joe, the hardcore, abusive stage dad whose children fear him.

But whose abuse is nonetheless accepted as a price worth paying.

Because, as the family has often publicly stated, it's what steered them toward excellence and mainstream success.

Here's Angela Bassett as Katherine Jackson.

He's the one that made all this possible.

And here's Michael's sister Janet echoing the same sentiment in a clip from her 2022 self-titled docuseries.

It was because of my father I've had the career that I've had.

It was tough at times.

There was nothing easy about it, period.

Now, I'm a late 80s baby, so I didn't experience peak MJ in real time.

And I was still too young to catch the American Dream miniseries during its initial airing.