Beautifully said, @Darwin. I was tracking right along with you until “we need to move on.” Move on to what? What Michael did in his personal life doesn’t detract from the fact that he and his brothers left a strong legacy of music. Many of us will carry those songs with us the same way we do the songs of John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye and many others who left a legacy of classic music.
But we’re getting away from the point. The Jacksons are not the first musical group to lose a lead singer. We all (those who cherish the music of the Jacksons) recognize the enormous hurtle The Brothers face trying to move forward without Michael’s indelible contribution. But unlike those groups that precede them, the Jacksons have never made any real effort to forge an identity distinct from that of Michael. They’ve always seemed content to ride his coattails and from the looks of it (the A&E miniseries) they’re still not doing much to carry on the legacy they began in Gary Indiana. That, to me, is as tragic as Michael’s death itself.
As for your other observations (smiling) I’m not quite old enough to remember Beulah (I’m 52), but I am old enough to remember our family owning a black & white TV, and the rare occasions when a famous Negro (we weren’t Black then) celebrity would appear on a talk or variety show, and how excited everyone would be because “There’s a colored person on TV!” Anyone who hasn’t experienced that can hardly recognize how proud we were to see these 5 young men explode from the Motown factory of celebrated performers. The were us and they set a standard of excellence many young performers emulate to this day. Attempting to reduce that achievement by dragging out Michael’s adult eccentricities and legal problems is insulting to anyone who witnessed the emergence of the Jackson 5 and followed them throughout their entire career.