Congrats on completing the ancient rite of fanboy passage. For one cannot truly call themselves a Star Wars fan without staring into the HS abyss at least once.
Take heart in the fact that George allegedly hates this as much as some of us hate the Prequels and Special Editions.
So, in a way, it's continued preservation and unauthorized distribution brings balance to the Force. ;)
Ralph designed quite a lot of stuff for the special.
http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/gallery_1/star_wars/tv_special/index.html
The $64,000 question about the Holiday Special that may never be answered is: Why didn't George take advantage of that recreated Cantina set (not to mention having Harrison Ford handy) and reshoot that Greedo scene he was so damn unhappy with? ;)
"Itchy" and "Lumpy" are nicknames, just like "Chewie" is. Look it up!
There wasn't a whole lot of canon on Wookiees back in 1978. But Chewie isn't a total primitive as originally conceived, and it's silly to assume Wookiees don't have the basic comforts of home.
I don't know of any 20th century dwellings that look like that, and happen to be in the top of giant trees though. (Nor do I know of anyone who had holographic displays, video communications, or virtual reality porn devices in their homes at the time.)
Ralph McQuarrie designed the Wookiee home, so blame him. ;)
The Wookiees all wear red gowns at the end to conceal the fact they only made new costumes for Chewie's family. In fact, all the extras are wearing modified Don Post Chewie masks!
No major network or studio would shoot a tv special on U-matic in 1978. It was probably one-inch broadcast tape on a reel. U-matic was what colleges and cable access channels once used because it was cheaper than most broadcast gear. Some news broadcasts used it early on for it's portability in the field.
I like the "Indy Font" as much as the next guy, but they really only used it onscreen in TOD. We'd all be screaming bloody murder if Lucasfim had gone back and slapped that "new" title font on Raiders. ;)
I wanted to suggest that a newsreel style montage would be more 1950's
than the newspaper whirl. Lift some stock footage from something involving the red scare (a congressional hearing?) and use the shot of Indy and Marion going down the Capitol steps at the end of Raiders, behind a headline graphic of Indy being cleared of all charges. (The better to hide their younger appearance!)
skyjedi2005 said:You got that right the only way they celebrated the 30th Anniversary Of Star Wars was with the Force Unleashed. No Restored oot to celebrate. Even if Star Wars 77 was only restored for it's 30th anniversary that would have been a big deal.
20th Anniversary saw the release of the special edition versions of the original trilogy in 1997.
I can clearly remember seeing the trailer when i went to see Star Trek First contact .
The 10th anniversary i think was a vhs box set. Plus a starlog magazine that celebrated ten years of star wars. I have mine signed by the Bearded one himself. From a former person who worked for the magazine.
Unfortunately i never met Lucas.
Also i think 1987 was the opening of star tours?
You're forgetting the 10th anniversary celebration, held at an LAX hotel. The first "official" SW con ever held. :)
Is Lucasfilm doing anything to mark the 10th anniversary?
Contacting KCET might be the best place to start? Saying you're doing "research" might help too.
In all fairness Christopher Lee wasn't really given much to work with. Lucas could have kept the mystery of whose side he was really on in Episode II for more than 30 seconds, maybe even not reveal his true allegiance until the third film. They also killed him off way too early in ROTS.
His old pal Peter Cushing, (also a Hammer vet) had enough on the script page to make Tarkin memorable.
Not keeping Dooku around to exchange curious glances with a younger Tarkin was an missed opportunity! And if Clone Wars does it, I'll faint from shock. I'm still amazed they've made Anakin and Padme into better characters. ;)
Maybe Clone Wars will give us Mace battling Mynocks while trapped aboard a passenger vessel of some kind. :D
Here you go.
http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/gallery/491525_jwdf9#P-13-12
There are tons of photos covering all the years of reconstruction, but you will probably have to search a while!
doubleofive, Universal is supposedly going to bring Kong back in some form.
No Eddie Murphy in the Haunted Mansion, but they do transform the ride into a spooky holiday theme, with characters from Nightmare Before Christmas between October and January. The ride is back to it's normal spooky self the rest of the year.
Only the Disneyworld version was 20,000 Leagues themed. They plowed it under for a Winnie The Pooh kiddie playground! Really sad, as the subs were cooler looking than the Disneyland ones.
In any case, I'm glad they brought the original back. It sat idle for so many years, fans speculated the subs would rust away to nothing before anything was done. And how many rides in this digital age actually take you underwater? (Sort of!)
They need to bring back the live mermaids though. ;)
I followed someone's photo blog during the reconstruction of the ride, and seeing the lagoon drained with all the old animatronics visible was surreal!
I've wanted to see one about Yoda when he was young and reckless. ;)
Wasn't the Back To The Future ride film released on the new DVD recently? Would be nice if we got a home version of Star Tours. The original ride film is 70mm, IIRC.
They will no doubt put HDTV screens in any update of the ride to avoid the hassles of the film wearing out. But that also leaves the door open to change the footage whenever they want. So they could keep the original as one of many destinations, which the pre-ride segments have been promising for two decades now!
And C3PX, they made changes to POTC long before the movies came along. Notice the women being chased by pirates are holding food now? Because it wasn't PC for them to be chasing after wenches anymore! They're after the food now! One of the other pirate's racy lament about a certain woman in red is gone too.
Adding three Jack Sparrow figures to scenes in the ride is hardly ruining it. And nobody misses the buttless pirates added in the 80's(?) in what was originally an empty spot at the end of the ride anyway.
At least these rides are still around! Some of my faves are gone forever. Journey Through Inner Space, (the first DL ride I remember going on in 1971, replaced by Star Tours) and the People Mover that once passed over the ST area, where a Stormtrooper took aim at you from the shadows. They put in a freaking pizza joint where the Moon/Mars rocket ride once was. And don't get me started on Captain Eo! :P
At least they brought the subs back, albeit with a Finding Nemo theme.
Star Wait was interesting in that it documented what it was like to camp out in line for weeks waiting to see the Episode I premiere in Hollywood. A slice of life of real fans, without mocking them. I don't know if the DVD was ever sold outside of a Target exclusive though.
I'm still waiting for "5-25-77" to come out!
CD's have been around since 1983, and LP's since the 50's.
How do the original late 1980's CD releases compare? I still have mine. I never thought the 90's special edition versions sounded as good as the anthology set, but couldn't put my finger on why...
The old Kenner Raiders "Well of Souls" playset had Artoo, Threepio, and Vader in the hieroglyphics too.
http://g1988.blogspot.com/2009/03/force.html
I got a good chuckle out of these.
Holy crap! I've never noticed that before! I've been too busy trying to read that screen all these years. Is that from Empire or Jedi? Although it would make sense if they simply recycled that shot for Jedi...
And C3PX, there were some Mon Calamari in ROTS. They were the aquatic dancers in the "opera house" scene, but we never got to see them close up. (There is concept art of them out there someplace.) And I think one turned up as a senator in one of the cut scenes showing the future leaders of the rebellion expressing concern over Palpatine's actions.
I read somewhere that one of those bloated creatures Anakin rides on to impress Padme on Naboo was put into the asteroid field Obi Wan pursues Jango in.
Probably not intentional, but something similar to the cloak Qui-Gon Jin wore on Tatooine supposedly can be seen in Obi-Wan's house in Episode IV.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/25/bea.arthur.obit/index.html
Watching the holiday special will be a little sadder from now on.
All the dialog where Han and Lando actually patch things up ended up being cut as it was in the infamous sandstorm scene.
TNT ran the Logan's Run series late night on weekends back in the 90's, so it was likely new video masters were made at the time. It wouldn't surprise me if it pops up in Warner's new burn on demand site one of these days.
"Beyond Westworld" had a very short run, but IIRC, the SciFi channel ran all the episodes in the 90's. They actually dug up quite a few shows that had not been seen since they originally aired. A pity they don't do that anymore!
My first Star Wars experience was during live news coverage of one of the Space Shuttle Enterprise tests in the summer of '77. (In which the 747 transporter took it up, and then the orbiter detaches and glides back down for a landing.)
I'm not sure if I what I saw was a commerical for the movie, or they ran a clip before the test started. I do recall the newscasters talking about the movie, so maybe it was a segue for discussing science fiction becoming reality.
Later that night, I had a spooky dream where that "Garth Vader" guy was chasing me! ;)
Dear George, scrap prequels. Film "Heir to the Empire" instead! Pay Harrison whatever he asks for. Get Lawrence Kasdan to script polish.