BY NY DAILY NEWS

Michael Jackson grew up on stage and on the small screen.

Through the years, Jackson created a number of landmark TV moments, from early Jackson 5 appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to kissing his one-time wife, Lisa Marie Presley, in front of millions of viewers of the MTV Video Music Awards.

Here are 10 memorable Jackson TV appearances:

1. Jackson 5 on “The Ed Sullivan Show” (1969): The Motown group appeared regularly on the variety show, but during a 1969 visit, Sullivan presented the Jackson 5 with their first single, “I Want You Back,” which knocked B.J. Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” from the number one spot.

2. “The Jackson 5ive” (1971): The Saturday morning cartoon featured animated versions of the group, though the boys themselves weren’t involved with show.

3. “The Jacksons” (1976): Each 30-minute show included celebrity guests, singing, dancing and comedy sketches. It was the first TV series to feature an African American family.

4. “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” (1983): During a performance of “Billie Jean,” Jackson stopped the show with the debut of his now infamous moonwalk. The performance earned the pop-star an Emmy nomination.

5. Premiere of the “Thriller” music video (1983): At the time it was made, the $500,000 13-minute music video was the most expensive video ever. It won a Grammy for Best Video in 1985.

6. Super Bowl XXVII (1993): Jackson performed a medley of “Jam,” “Billie Jean” and “Black or White,” and was later joined by 3,500 local Los Angeles children singing “Heal the World.”

7. Oprah Winfrey interview (1993): In his first interview since 1979, Jackson sat down with Oprah for a 90-minute live one-on-one, in which he denied bleaching his skin and revealed he suffered from vitiligo. ABC estimated that on that night, more than 55% of the televisions in use were tuned to the interview. ABC estimated 62.3 million people watched all or part of the sit-down.

8. “Primetime Live” interview with Diane Sawyer (1995): Appearing with wife Lisa Marie Presley, it was his first interview after first being accused of sexual abuse. The interview was watched by 60 million people.

9. 1994 MTV Video Music Awards: Jackson and then-wife Lisa Marie Presley walked onstage hand-in-hand before he proclaimed, “And just think, nobody thought this would last. Then they kissed.

10. “Living with Michael Jackson” (2003): The documentary, which was filmed over a period of 8 months and hosted by Martin Bashir, has been fingered as one of the contributing factors that led to his child molestation trial, because of certain revelations about his relationships with several children, whom he admitted slept in the bed with him. ABC paid reportedly paid upwards of $5 million to air the documentary.

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