The Super Bowl Halftime Show now generates almost as much buzz as the game itself – probably more outside of the US – but it wasn’t always this way. In fact, the Halftime Show didn’t really become a ‘thing’ until 1993, when it was performed by Michael Jackson.
This moment is now set to be documented in a new film – Spectacle: Michael Jackson at the Super Bowl – which is coming to Hulu on Disney+ and ESPN in February 2027. Directed by Bao Nguyen, who previously helmed Netflix’s The Greatest Night in Pop, it promises to detail the behind-the-scenes events leading up to the performance, and includes never-before-seen footage.
Jackson’s show was produced and directed by the late Don Mischer. He was brought in at The King Of Pop’s request, having previously co-produced and directed the Motown 25 TV special 10 years earlier. This was notable for being the first occasion on which Michael Jackson performed his signature moonwalk dance move.
“I will always remember the first meeting with the NFL and with [TV broadcaster] NBC,” Mischer told Rich Eisen in a 2023 interview. “I brought Michael in and Michael went around the room and introduced himself quietly. We sat at the table and the first thing Michael said was ‘Now the first thing I want to do is move the start of the game four hours later so that my Halftime show will be in the dark.’”
With this request, Jackson was forgetting a couple of important things: firstly, that the Super Bowl is kind of a big in itself and isn’t likely to have its kickoff time moved on the whim of a pop star; and secondly, that the show was being staged in Pasadena, California, which is several hours behind US Eastern Standard Time.
It was left to Mischer to explain: “There was silence in the room and I said, ‘Michael, you know that means that people are going to be seeing you at midnight in New York? It won't work, man.’”
Mischer would go on to produce and direct Super Bowl Halftime Shows by Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, and Jackson’s start time request gave him an early lesson in how to deal with the talent on these occasions.
“The first thing you say to them is, ‘This is not your show. You're not 100% in control of it. It's not like going out on tour and playing a big venue like the Hollywood Bowl. You are one cog in a whole wheel that is called Super Bowl Sunday you’re one little piece of it.”
A little piece Jackson may have been, but his show was a landmark moment for the Super Bowl. His star power was deployed specifically to stop people from changing channels during the break – NBC had been stung in 1992 when rival network Fox aired a special episode of sketch show In Living Color during the halftime break, drawing viewers away – and the gambit worked.
In fact, for the first time ever, viewership actually increased for the second half, indicating that many people had tuned in specifically to watch Jackson’s performance.
Not that his set was as crowd-pleasing as it could have been. Yes, we got Billie Jean, but the rest of the set (other than the 90 seconds Jackson stood stock still after being propelled upwards through a trapdoor on the stage) was filled with songs from his 1991 album Dangerous – Jam, Black or White, and Heal the World – and a performance of USA For Africa’s 1985 charity hit We Are The World.
