Actors - Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever

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	Actors - Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever

Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was a 1983 television special produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to commemorate Motown's twenty-fifth year of existence. Interestingly, however, Motown was founded in 1959, meaning that a twenty-fifth anniversary special should have aired in 1984, not 1983.

The program was taped before a live studio audience on March 25 1983, and broadcast on NBC on May 16. Among its highlights were a Temptations/Four Tops "battle of the bands", Marvin Gaye's inspired speech about black music history and his memorable performance of "What's Going On", a Jackson 5 reunion, Michael Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean", and an abbreviated reunion of The Supremes, who performed their final #1 hit, "Someday We'll Be Together" from 1969.

Marvin Gaye, who had left the label ironically a year before to sign with Columbia Records and had a current hit with "Sexual Healing" agreed at the last minute to join the roster of other Motown legends to perform. When he came on, he played the piano and gave the audience a narrative of black music history before he stepped off the piano and sung his classic 1971 hit, "What's Going On", to thunderous applause.

Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" was a song he recorded for Epic Records in 1982, not a Motown song; he planned to attend and not perform on Motown 25 before he successfully negotiated his solo spot and the permission to sing a non-Motown song. His intense, tightly focused dancing performance mesmerized the audience, especially when he glided across the stage, executing his trademark moonwalk for the first time. His Emmy nominated performance contributed immensely to his Thriller album's phenomenal success and his status as a musical and cultural giant of the 1980s.

The unrehearsed Supremes reunion between Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong was cut short when Ross, frustrated by the fact that Wilson and Birdsong were taking the same steps foreward as her instead of staying in the back, turned around and pushed Wilson towards the back of the stage. In a few moments, Motown labelmates such as Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and others filled the stage for an impromptu finale. Wilson invited Berry Gordy to come down from the balcony and join everyone onstage, but Ross snatched her microphone away and hissed "it's been taken care off," before inviting Gordy down herself.

By the time the reunion aired on May 16, the Ross/Wilson altercations had been excised from the special, but they were widely reported, resulting in bad publicity for Ross and a public perception of her as an egotistical diva.

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