The First Time I Saw Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' - December 2nd, 1983 on NBC's Friday Night Videos

Michael Jackson - New Music - More Music Videos

The first time I saw Thriller was the night it premiered on December 2nd, 1983, on NBC's Friday Night Videos. I was 13 years-old and in the Eighth Grade at the time. The anticipation to see this video was so very high. It was actually electric. You could feel that this was going to be something very special and something very big. Little did we know how big!

With Thriller (The album) being released on November 30th, 1982 followed by the amazing videos "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", we had a full year to take in and enjoy Thriller both via audio and video, each song blowing our minds. So by the time the Thriller video was scheduled to come out, I think we all knew we were all in for a special treat.

As the whole concept of music videos were new at that time, everyone could not wait to see it because of the buzz surrounding it leading up to it's air date. The impact as we know was and has been lasting to this day, to say the least, and the rest as they say, is history.

This video has gone on to inspire and influence most if not all of the big videos that we see today that we take as normal extended videos that have a mini-movie feel to them. Friday Night Videos scored a ratings victory when it aired Michael Jackson's Thriller as a World Premiere Video. Michael Jackson took The Music Video World To A Whole 'Nother Level with Thriller! MJ is a trailblazer!
~LT