For fans of his music and those curious about his unusual personal life, this will be a Michael Jackson-themed weekend. The Web will be flooded with tributes, debates, reminiscences on where and when people were when they heard those first cuts from “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Dangerous,” etc.

The tragedy is that Jackson never got the opportunity to write his own comeback story, but with so much great music to enjoy, I don’t think it’ll matter much. His influence and legacy are unquestionable. Though how that legacy will be shaped in years to come (by music historians) is another matter.
Following are a few Jackson-related highlights for the weekend.

TV One will air “The Michael Jackson Story” on Friday, June 26, at 8 p.m. An encore will follow at 11 p.m.

CBS will air “The Life and Death of Michael Jackson” on Friday, June 26, at 10 p.m. It will be hosted live by Harry Smith.

BIO Channel will air "Remembers: Michael Jackson" on Saturday, June 27, at 10 p.m. It will feature interviews with Jackson's family and friends.

MTV will air “A Celebration of Michael Jackson on MTV” on Saturday, June 27, at 10 p.m.

VH1 will air a Michael Jackson special on Saturday, June 27, at 9:30 p.m.

The BET Music Awards will be broadcast live on Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. Expect a Jackson tribute or two and perhaps a few surprises.

If you want a break from the ubiquitous coverage of the King of Pop, there’s “Virtuality,” an original TV movie airing Friday on Fox, at 8 p.m.

This story follows a diverse crew of scientists who have a very important decision to make: do they keep going deeper into space (for a proposed first mission to Mars) or do they return home? The Earth is in a lot of trouble and due to rising natural disasters, may not survive another 100 years.

For relaxation, the crew uses virtual eyewear to escape the day-to-day of floating in space. Not only is it a form of recreation, it also it helps to keep the members psychologically balanced. Then a virus pops up that starts to cause real problems that affect not only the virtual world but the crew’s mind, and by extension the real world they inhabit.

There’s also a highly-rated reality series being shot (and produced on the ship) that beams all the fights, drama and goings-on of the crew to Earth.
From Ronald D. Moore, a co-creator of the critically acclaimed series “Battlestar Galactica,” “Virtuality” isn’t your run-in-the mill science fiction series.

This was originally conceived as a pilot for an ongoing series, but Fox has yet to commit to it. Hopefully critical response and high DVR viewing numbers will convince the network that there is an audience clamoring for smart, engaging, character-driven science fiction.

Forget alien life forms, time travel and all that high-concept business. What will win non-sci-fi people over with the “TV movie” are characters they can relate to and these folks are just the type you’d want to spend time once a week with. Diverse in both ethnicity and sexuality, “Virtuality” presents a microcosm of our present world.