Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Jackson 5 series puts PG boy in spotlight Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:11:15 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE \HD Jackson 5 series puts PG boy in spotlight \BY Lolita M. Rhodes \CR SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Roger Myers of Laurel is young and talented, much like members of the Jackson 5 when they reached for stardom. He's had a chance to find out what that feels ike. Roger, 9, portrays Marlon Jackson as a youngster in a five-hour miniseries on ABC, "The Jacksons: An American Dream." Starring Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, Holly Robinson, Vanessa Williams and Billy Dee Williams, "The Jacksons" begins Sunday night; the second half airs Wednesday night. A total of 15 young male actors are used to impersonate the Jackson 5 during their adolescence and early manhood in the movie. Alex Burrall plays the littlest Michael, but Roger could have played that role, his mother, Renee Trice, believes. It's an opinion shared by Katherine Jackson, mother of the Jackson clan. "For Mrs. Jackson, it was like seeing her kids all over again," says daughter-in-law Margaret Maldonado Jackson during a phone interview from Los Angeles. She co-produced the miniseries with husband Jermaine, himself a former Jackson 5 member. Roger caught Katherine Jackson's eye during production, which lasted from April to July, her daughter-in-law says. The Prince George's County youth "had a special quality that reminded her of Michael when he was little." "He's very, very outgoing, extremely sensitive. He's wise beyond his years," the co-producer says. Not too sophisticated, though, not to be enthralled by the Jacksons. "When I first met Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Randy, it was like, 'Hold up. Am I sleeping?' " Roger says. "It felt like a long dream." His mother, too, was thrilled. Ever since Ms. Trice was a little girl, she's wondered how the Jacksons lived, what they were like. "Little Roger fulfilled my dream," she says. "I tell him all the time he's blessed." Ms. Trice, 27, says Roger always has been precocious. "I just saw something in him that I didn't see in other 2-year-olds." She tells of Roger speaking clearly and wanting to do everything for himself. He landed his first commercial at 3 (a Muppet baby toothbrush ad) and has stayed busy ever since. His mother took his career seriously, researching managers and opportunities. Most recently, Roger was booked for a Pepsi commercial in which he'll be singing an old Jackson standard, "I'll Be There." Voice coach Michael Goodrich of Van Nuys, Calif., helped Roger work on his singing technique this past summer. "What technique will do is free him up to be able to capitalize on his tremendous energy and enthusiasm. He loves to do it. That to me is the making of a performer," Mr. Goodrich says in a phone interview. * * * Having a child who is trying for an entertainment career has meant sacrifices, says Ms. Trice, who works for the U.S. Postal Service. She once gave up her apartment and moved in with her mother to save money for Roger's shot at show business, but doesn't regret it. "If he gets older and chooses not to do this anymore, that's his decision," she says. In the meantime, Roger's work has taken the two all over the country. There have been countless hotel rooms, meals on the road and hours with a tutor to keep Roger abreast of school work. When at home, he is a fourth grader at a Prince George's public school that his mother does not want publicized. Roger's role as Marlon Jackson could give him a big boost. From December to February, he and his mother, who plans to take time off from work, will be in California to audition for parts during the TV pilot season. And Roger recently got a call-back from the Disney Studio for a possible role as a Mouseketeer. The first half of the Jackson 5 story was shot in Pittsburgh, which doubled as the family's hometown of Gary, Ind. Suzanne de Passe, who brought the group to Motown, served as the film's executive producer, along with Stan Margulies. All the Jacksons, with the exceptions of LaToya and Michael, were on the set at one time or another. Michael asked to see tapes of the boys who played him and seemed pleased with the choices, says ABC publicist Dan Doran from Los Angeles. Roger appears in a little more than an hour of the movie, which starts with Joe and Katherine Jackson's romance in the late 1940s and ends with their singing sons' Victory Tour in 1984. * * * A huge Michael Jordan poster hangs on Roger's bedroom wall at home, and he's a big Redskins fan. He also likes to run, saying he may go out for track in high school. But most of all, he loves to entertain. "I'm full of energy. Once they play that music, it's like we're gone," Roger says of the days on "The Jacksons" set. At home, he listens to tapes constantly, dancing and singing until he's breathless and sometimes hoarse - not because someone makes him practice, but because he wants to perform all the time. His tapes of choice these days are old Jackson 5 hits. In his black loafers (the shoes worn in the movie) and red shorts, he's all emotion, all energy. So far Roger, or Little Roger as his family calls him, lives a fairly normal life. But occasionally friends or the youngsters at school mention his work, Roger says. "First it's like 'Yeah, right. You're on TV,' " he explains. But when they see him on television, it's "Wow, you're a star,' " he says. Roger is handling his share of rejection well, his mother says. "He never gets angry at anyone getting anything," Ms. Trice says of tryouts. "He accepts 'no' well. He just keeps going. He's aware of the fact he may get turned down." Roger's father is Floyd Roger Myers Sr., 30, a detective with the Metropolitan Police Department. "My role is to keep him on an even keel. It's not you're Roger, the superstar. You're Roger, my son. You still have to rake the leaves and take out the trash," says Detective Myers, who doesn't live with Roger and his mother. "My biggest concern is to keep him well-balanced and to keep his focus." "His father and I try to keep it in his head that he's no better than anyone else," Ms. Trice says. "I'm not going to isolate him and put him in private schools. We still let him be a kid." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM