Thriller (Michael Jackson album) video that would appeal to the mass market ended up influencing the way that professionals now market and release their songs. John Landis' production of a mini-movie, rather than the usual short music video, would raise the bar for other directors and producers. Before the success of "Thriller", many felt Jackson had struggled to get MTV airing because he was black. In an effort to attain air time for Jackson, CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff pressured MTV and declared, "I'm not going to give you any more videos and I'm going to go public and fucking tell them about the
Michael Jackson for every album sold, and was making record-breaking profits from sales of his recordings. The videocassette of the documentary "The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller" sold over 350,000 copies in a few months. The era saw the arrival of novelties such as dolls modeled after Jackson, which appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12. Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli writes that ""Thriller" stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple." In 1985, "The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller" won a Grammy for Best Music