Filtering Jackson’s Past Through Today’s Prism

“He just had a finger on what would startle people,” Dick Clark says early on in CBS’ Michael Jackson special, “Michael Jackson: Number Ones.”

It’s the only statement in what turned out to be an hourlong tribute to Jackson’s prodigious talent and musical influence that even hints at Jackson’s slow but steady evolution from superstar to super-freak.

Airing Friday night at the height of the media frenzy surrounding his recent indictment on child molestation charges, and set against the larger context of his decade-long regression from idol to antihero, the special, which Jackson executive produced himself and which has been in the works for about a year, was permeated with a pathos that went entirely unacknowledged.

With their effusive tributes, which were intercut between concert images and video clips, Beyonce Knowles, Isaac Hayes, Slash, Wyclef Jean, Quincy Jones, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott and others take on the quality of character witnesses.

In effect, the special served as a reaffirmation of Jackson’s spectacular career, which has provided more than enough remarkable material to fill an hour.

Entirely absent from the program were references to any of the other aspects of our complicated fascination with the singer -- from his bizarre, self-inflicted physical mutation to his profligate lifestyle, his debts, his strange relationships and his alleged criminal behavior.

In the context of the latest all-Michael all-the-time news cycle, the idea of Jackson as a hugely influential artist feels revelatory.

The chronological survey of his career -- beginning with his first appearance with the Jackson 5 on “American Bandstand,” and through the increasingly astounding milestones of his career, from “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” to “Bad” -- highlights aspects of Jackson’s personality that now seem long-forgotten.

The wholesome innocence and exuberance he seemed to project early in his career seem particularly jarring seen through the prism of his current persona.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the special was the way it showed how Jackson’s life as a media spectacle has managed to obscure talent of such magnitude.

“Michael raised the bar so high,” MTV host Carson Daly says at one point, “that I think even to this day nobody’s gotten close.” The single exception to this being, of course, Jackson himself, though not in the way anyone would have expected.

The special ended with the exclusive world premiere of his new single, “One More Chance,” which, with its nostalgic footage of adoring fans, takes on a beseeching, almost eulogistic quality.

In one image, Jackson walks down an alley in a black shroud. Despite his accomplishments, this reverential send-off is one thing the singer is unlikely to get.