Jason Bateman Reminisces About Almost Hitting Michael Jackson While Riding A Bicycle

Jason Bateman has had prominent TV roles at various points in his life, whether it’s childhood parts on shows like Silver Spoons and The Hogan Family, playing Michael Bluth on the beloved comedy series Arrested Development, or starring in the recently concluded drama Ozark. Whatever endeavor you first knew Bateman from, the fact is that he’s been in show business for a long time.

The actor was a guest on Friday’s (September 30) episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where the host decided to have some fun with Bateman’s longevity: Kimmel rattled off a list of random names of celebrities, mostly from the ’80s, to see how many of them Bateman knew, which yielded an interesting Michael Jackson story.

Towards the end of the segment, Kimmel named Jackson and Bateman said, “Ricky Schroder and I almost ran over Michael Jackson with our bicycles,” which got a desk-pounding laugh from Kimmel. Bateman continued, “This was while we were doing Silver Spoons in Universal and we’d need to have our bikes because kids gotta play. And Michael was there to see him.”

At that point, Bateman trailed off and gave an uneasy gesture to the audience, presumably a nod to the child sexual abuse allegations made against the singer. Bateman continued, “I don’t… listen, hey! He was a fan of the show and a fan of the Ricker! He was coming onto the stage while we were zooming off and almost took him down.”

Check out the full interview above.