Exploiting the Archives: Star Wars!
Star Wars mania is upon us! Not since The Phantom Menace introduced audiences to a funny-talking frog-man from outer space named Jar Jar Binks have audiences been so agog with anticipation for more adventures from everyone’s favorite outer space “squad.”
The Star Wars world is at an all-time high. Ron Howard recently made a “splash” when he replaced noted bums Lord and Miller by taking over the Han Solo movie.
Disney didn't "hire" Ron Howard: they let the maniac out of the cage. I can't wait to see the kind of fucked-up shit his "beautiful mind" dreamed up. Yes, Solo has filmgoers “Gung Ho” over this audacious choice. These truly are “Happy Days” for everyone’s favorite American Graffiti cast member.
Rumor has it, it was on the set of American Graffiti where George Lucas, the proud pappy of Star Wars himself, first taught Howard the Vulcan Mind Meld. Now he’s directing his own Star War. Live long and prosper, Meathead!
The “Parenthood” of the Han Solo movie may be contested, but we all know that the finished film reflects your audacious vision, one that will have audiences “rushing” to theaters.
The whole Star Wars gang is back in Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Bleep Bloop, Gary the Robot, Cool Guy, the Blonde Swordsman, Hairy Fella, Sexy Space Princess, Sorcerer Man. And the reviews are glowing! Chances are good you might be seeing the movie critics are hailing as “The rich man’s Battle Beyond the Stars” yourself so why not prepare for an adventure that takes place in a galaxy many moons from here with four of my Star Wars themed articles from the archive?
As someone who has made his career out of writing about the worst of the worst, the Star Wars Holiday Special occupies a very warm place in my heart. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve probably devoted more mental energy to the ill-fated variety special than I have to Star Wars itself. It’s one of the all-time shit-shows so it’s not surprising that I wrote about it for a memorable My World of Flops case file that was mentioned in an episode of I Was There Too that I ended up writing about for my Pod-Canon column at Splitsider.
I also wrote up a lovely episode of The Dana Gould Hour where Gould waxed nostalgic and insightful on the important role the film series has played in the imagination and memory of multiple generations of geeks not long after the release of The Force Awakens. Last and most assuredly not least, I had the surreal honor of interviewing Mark Hamill about the low-budget genre movie Sushi Girl he was promoting literally a day after the announcement that Disney had bought Star Wars.
So dig in! As George Lucas famously said in that hilarious 1980s Saturday Night Live sketch, “Get a job, losers! Star Wars is just for nerds and babies! Excelsior!”
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