Re: Lifetime to air Jackson family reality series (3T)
Michael Jackson's nephew TJ reveals how King of Pop's son Blanket joined reality TV series 'The Jacksons: Next Generation'
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...eals-blanket-joined-tv-show-article-1.2379479
He wasn't about to tell Michael Jackson's youngest son to beat it.
TJ Jackson says that while filming his new Lifetime reality TV series with his two older brothers, the King of Pop's 13-year-old son asked to join the fray.
"There's a camping trip with a variety of cousins. And to be flat-out honest, Blanket wasn't even invited," TJ, the youngest son of "Jackson 5" member Tito Jackson, told the Daily News Tuesday night.
"But when he's packing his bag and expecting to go, what am I supposed to tell him, 'You're not allowed to come because you're Michael Jackson's son and that's just life,' " the 34-year-old father of four asked.
"There's no way I'm going to do that. He's part of my family. He wanted to come. He understood there were going to be cameras. And that's what I think people are going to see. They're going to see kids that are happy," TJ said during an exclusive interview at the Hayvenhurst estate in Encino, Calif., where Michael Jackson lived as a teenager. TJ said Michael's oldest son Prince, 18, also appears in the series.
"We didn't want to penalize them as Michael Jackson's kids and say you cannot be on the show because of who you are," TJ told The News.
"The Jacksons: Next Generation," a six-part series, premieres Friday at 10 p.m. on Lifetime and focuses on the lives of TJ and his brothers Taryll, 39, and Taj, 41, as they navigate life in one of the world's most famous families.
The brothers said Tuesday they agreed to the project to give fans an unscripted glimpse of their personal lives and dispel "misconceptions."
It touches on their mom Dee Dee's tragic 1994 drowning murder, Taryll's struggle with his weight and the status of their once top-selling pop trio 3T.
"There are just a lot of lies told about our family," Taryll said Tuesday. "When you really know our family, how much we love and support each other, and then you hear the lies, and people start to believe them, it's hard."
He said the show forced him to confront his problems and say things to his brothers he previously kept to himself.
"Us being real with the show, I actually spoke to my brothers about things I don't think they were prepared for me to bring up," he said. "Through it all, I made some very big steps."
The brothers sang an acapella version of their new show's theme song Tuesday and also reminisced about time spent with Michael Jackson at the Hayvenhurst estate.
"My brothers and my uncle, we would drive around Encino, and then when we'd come home, (Michael) would stop the car in the driveway and go into his 'Thriller' bit. He'd pull over and say, 'I'm not like other guys,'" TJ recalled with a laugh.
"At first it would scare me, because I was probably 5 years old. I was expecting my uncle to turn into a werewolf," he said. "But after years of doing that, it got to the point when we'd just throw things at him."
TJ gained widespread notoriety after his uncle's 2009 death when a Los Angeles judge named him co-guardian of the superstar's three kids in 2012 along with grandmother Katherine Jackson.
He later testified in court about the duty he felt to the kids and how everyone rallied around Paris Jackson after her suicide attempt in June 2013.
TJ said some episodes of the new series were still being edited and hedged when asked if Paris would appear on camera.
He said the 17-year-old is focused on her education at the moment.
"Every kid goes through things," TJ told The News. "My grandmother and myself and my wife, we're doing the best we can under the circumstance. We're all about love, and we're all just trying to carry on the same principles my uncle taught them."
Sitting in the yard of the mock-Tudor compound left uninhabited when Katherine and the kids moved to Calabasas, TJ listed the principles as "respect, love and working hard."
He said Prince, who announced in April he planned to attend Loyola Marymount University, was far from shy when the cameras were rolling.
"You will see Prince. I love him. Prince is a very outgoing person. There are times when it's like, 'Prince, we're trying to do a scene here, can you step away?'" TJ joked Tuesday night. "That's the beauty of Prince."
TJ Jackson ?@tjjackson
Thanks @NancyDillonNYDN @NYDailyNews for the accuracy and using our actual words.
http://nydn.us/1j0kerJ #JacksonsNextGen #3T