Comments on: Please Tell Me It’s Just a Jedi Mind Trick — The Star Wars Holiday Special

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:19:18 +0000

That puts things in perspective nicely, KC. I suppose the rise of the hyper-critical fanboy mentality only could have coincided with the explosion in entertainment alternatives and accessibility we’ve seen in the last fifteen years or so.

Now, who thinks Lucas will go ahead and release a digitally remastered version of this, replacing Bea Arthur with a singing Wookie?

By: K.C.

K.C. — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:16:31 +0000

It depends upon your definition of serious, Bill.

You have to remember that thirty years ago, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Silent Running (1972) were anomolies. Alien (1979) was still a year away, while Blade Runner (1982) and Terminator (1984) weren’t even in the planning stages yet.

If you were a SF fan in the early seventies, you took what you could get. Watch the original Star Trek episodes; they seem trite and poorly produced now, but in 1966 those of us who read science fiction, male and female, couldn’t get enough.

We had Star Trek parties every week and the 0n-campus turn-out at each available set was in the hundreds. No beer, no food, no noise; just a bunch of SF nerds sitting hypnotized in front of the television.

Star Wars was a similar phenomenon. We knew the first one had gigantic flaws, if you had any brains and were any kind of critical reader, that was almost automatic. And we realized the television special sucked enormous boulders, but we stood in line, over and over, for Empire and later for Return of the Jedi.

Now, I watch George’s work and groan; there is so much better work out there. But if I had laughed back then, I would have been tarred and feathered.

At last, there was someone doing space opera and we ate it up, licked the bowl and asked for more. Even if it did feature Bea Arthur and Harvey Corman.

By: Nathan D. Jerpe

Nathan D. Jerpe — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:37:58 +0000

Great post, tell Bea Arthur I said hello! Oh, a-and Merry Christmas!

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:15:27 +0000

I have a million questions about that, but uppermost in my mind is — could you have possibly taken The Empire Strikes Back seriously once you had seen this strange concoction?

By: K.C.

K.C. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:29:51 +0000

Pity me, Bill; I was forced to watch the original broadcast as an adult (my nephew was spending the holidays and he was a staunch Stars Wars fan). As I recall, though, it was not nearly as bad as little wooden actor Anakin and that frigging pod race in The Phantom Menace. That travesty was enough to turn anyone to the Dark Side.