Magic Johnson didn't see his Apple TV+ docuseries until its premiere to avoid him meddling in its production

Apple Tv They Call Me Magic
Apple Tv They Call Me Magic (Image credit: Apple TV+)

What you need to know

  • Magic Johnson says he hadn't seen his new Apple TV+ docuseries before its world premiere.
  • Johnson was concerned that he would ask for changes if he saw *They Call Me Magic before completion.

Magic Johnson says that he didn't watch his new Apple TV+ docuseries until its world premiere for fear of getting too involved in its creation.

Variety reports that Johnson, speaking on the red carpet during the premiere for They Call Me Magic, was concerned that he might cause the series to never air if he got involved. He blamed his perfectionist nature as the reason for avoiding watching it until it was too late to make changes.

With "They Call Me Magic," though, the Olympic gold medalist admitted that he'd abstained from watching the docuseries before the premiere event because he feared that his perfectionism would lead him to interfere with the process."It would never come out," he laughed. "I'm just a perfectionist. I want everything to be done the right way, so that's why I didn't see it. I let the professionals do their job."

Johnson's wife, Cookie Johnson, also said that her husband often doesn't even watch the interviews that he gives. But that was all about to change.

In fact, it was everyone in the Johnson family's first time watching the footage. "We wanted to wait and be surprised," Cookie Johnson explained, adding that her husband usually "never watches even any of his interviews. But this time, tonight, he's going to."

While we don't yet know what the Johnson family made of They Call Me Magic, the Apple TV+ docuseries will hit our screens on April 22 — meaning we only have a few short days to wait before we can make our own judgments on it.

Looking for the best way to watch They Call Me Magic and the rest of the Apple TV+ catalog? Be sure to check out our list of the best Apple TV deals on the market today.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.