NYC subway station where Michael Jackson's "Bad" video was shot?

November 13, 2006 1:58 AM

I just watched the Scorsese-directed, 17-minute video for Michael Jackson's Bad, released on 1987, and I'm trying to figure out which subway station it was shot in. Most stations looked different back then, of course - there's been a lot of fixing up and adding of art since then. It looks like maybe it could be the 2nd Ave F stop, but it could also be the Broadway/Roosevelt/74th St multi-train express stop in Jackson Heights, Queens. Or.... where? Does anyone know? I haven't been successful finding anything about it via web searching.
posted by MaudB to media & arts (7 comments total)

(Ashamed to know this)

I think Michael Jackson had a set built, because he later lent it to Weird Al for the filming of "Fat."
posted by Sweetie Darling at 2:38 AM on November 13, 2006

:-)

Was about to post the same conclusion as Sweetie Darling, using the same reasoning.
posted by The Confessor at 2:46 AM on November 13, 2006

I may be mistaken, but it's my understanding that Al used the same half-scale set that Mikejack used for the version of the 'Bad' video that appears in the Moonwalker movie. You know, the one that's staged entirely with prepubescent boys. I don't know why people don't talk about it more. Or why Moonwalker isn't commercially available these days.

There was a making-of documentary about either the 'Bad' video or the 'Fat' video (maybe both, even). That might be a good source, if you could manage to find it.
posted by box at 6:05 AM on November 13, 2006

The MTA Transit Museum in Brooklyn has vintage rolling stick exhibited on the Court St. subway station platform that is operational but no longer in service. They said it was used for filming The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 and although Michael Jackson wasn't mentioned, maybe he used it too?
posted by Rash at 10:02 AM on November 13, 2006

Thanks for the interesting answers, all. But what's a "rolling stick"? And why on earth would one be ashamed to know such a telling detail as the fakeness of the symbol of street cred in such a key work of world culture, enacted by a black man in the process of turning white female, written and directed by white men, whose very subject is the eternal disappointment of the dream of transcendent cred? Be PROUD.
posted by MaudB at 11:46 PM on November 13, 2006

er, I meant "rolling stock."
posted by Rash at 9:19 AM on November 14, 2006

Funny, I thought it was Times Square/Port Authority-8th Ave.
My memory of the place is only old. I don't recall the video all that much (but I loved it), but off hand, I would guess there is nothing limiting it to only one specific location.
posted by Goofyy at 12:48 AM on November 15, 2006