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Post by Starbeard on Mar 2, 2022 7:28:36 GMT -6
This might lean more toward people Americans who were already adults when Star Wars came out, but what about the 70s paranormal boom? UFOs, ancient aliens, unsolved mysteries. Chariots of the Gods and UFO abductions were big enough cultural touchstones that Spielberg based a large part of his career on them. In Search Of with Leonard Nemoy started airing one month before Star Wars opened, so it was basically a simultaneous production as the movie slow rolled across the country and stayed in theaters for two years. It also came out of a few special documentaries from earlier in the decade.
TV shows explored paranormal and alien stuff quite a bit.
And can't forget the oil crisis, and the stagnation and fragmentation of the Cold War.
If you were in California, then my parent's generation still talk about the drought of 1976-77, which lined up with the Bicentennial buzz and helped cause the skateboard generation to spring up overnight.
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Post by talysman on Mar 2, 2022 11:27:45 GMT -6
This might lean more toward people Americans who were already adults when Star Wars came out, but what about the 70s paranormal boom? UFOs, ancient aliens, unsolved mysteries. Chariots of the Gods and UFO abductions were big enough cultural touchstones that Spielberg based a large part of his career on them. In Search Of with Leonard Nemoy started airing one month before Star Wars opened, so it was basically a simultaneous production as the movie slow rolled across the country and stayed in theaters for two years. It also came out of a few special documentaries from earlier in the decade. There were certainly paranormal, cryptid, ufo, and other fringe things going on in the early '70s, and it was probably just as popular with kids as with adults (although maybe it was just weird that I was reading Fate magazine around age 10.) Not everything you mention was available: In Search Of started airing after Star Wars, for example, as did Project U.F.O. on NBC. But there were occasional paranormal-themed shows like The Sixth Sense (short-run series, episodes later syndicated as if they were part of Night Gallery.) Most did not last, and they really weren't super common before Star Wars. Every one I remember that I think might be pre-Star Wars, like the ESP-themed Next Step Beyond or the Bermuda Triangle themed Fantastic Journey, turns out to be just after the release of Star Wars when I check the dates. Take ancient astronauts as an example. Chariots of the Gods was pretty well-known and had a couple sequels by the time Star Wars came out. There may have even been one of those cheap documentaries similar to The Legend of Bigfoot or The Legend of Boggy Creek... but as I recall, most of those were either Bigfoot/Loch Ness Monster/UFO related or vaguely-religious topics like near death experiences. The companies that made those also distributed crappy Biblical reenactments or safari films. Edit to Add: Oh, wait, my point with that last paragraph was that Chariots of the Gods was widely known, but not all that popular, as was Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, UFOs, and ESP. I think I said earlier that there was sort of a "lull" going on just before Star Wars came out, after coming down from a "fringe peak" in the '60s. There was a lot of focus on more realistic stuff in movies and TV. Lots of cop shows and family sitcoms on TV, lots of drama and action movies pushing the boundary of how gritty or realistic you could be. You could get sci-fi, fantasy, or fringe stuff, but the weirder it was, the rarer and less well-known it was. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2022 15:00:10 GMT -6
I wonder if the popularity of Bigfoot influenced Chewbacca's final character design in any way, shape or form, since several people mentioned a big Cryptozoology fad in the seventies.
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Post by geoffrey on Mar 2, 2022 16:05:21 GMT -6
I wonder if the popularity of Bigfoot influenced Chewbacca's final character design in any way, shape or form, since several people mentioned a big Cryptozoology fad in the seventies. In the early 70s, the following all lived in the same imaginative area: 1. King Kong (TV re-runs of the 1933 film) 2. King Kong vs. Godzilla (TV re-runs of the 1963 film) 3. King Kong (the 1976 film) 4. the entire Planet of the Apes franchise (5 films in 1968-1973, often re-ran on TV; the TV series in 1974; the cartoon in 1975; the Marvel Comics series in 1974-77; toys, viewmasters, lunchboxes, etc.) 5. Bigfoot/Sasquatch books and magazine articles and comic book appearances everywhere, along with... 6. the white Bigfoot of the Himalayas, the Abominable Snowman/Yeti (who even has a role in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas TV special that has aired every year since 1964). 7. Plus stuff that I am doubtlessly forgetting. Given all of that, there really was very little chance that Star Wars wouldn't feature some sort of ape-man / man-ape. Chewie was foreordained.  |
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 2, 2022 16:31:14 GMT -6
That's a good insight.
Bigfoot was also a memorable character on the hugely popular Six Million Dollar Man, appearing in two different two-part episodes, The Secret of Bigfoot (Feb 76) and The Return of Bigfoot (Sep 76). The former appears to have just before Star Wars started shooting in March '76.
There was also Cha-Ka on the Land of the Lost, starting in 1974, who basically looks like a mini Chewebacca with less facial hair. The first episode of the series is called "Cha-Ka". Come to think of it, the name "Cha-Ka" is not that far off from Chewbacca...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2022 17:01:58 GMT -6
Almost forgot about the classic Planet of the Apes films. Those were a huge moment in Sci-Fi. And the 70's King Kong was considered really good for a suit-mation movie, wasn't it? I remember watching it on VHS as a kid. It doesn't hold the timeless appeal of the original 30's movie but it's quite alright. They made a cheesy sequel about a decade later and brought a female Kong into it and I don't remember that one being nearly as good. There was also a Japanese suit-mation movie called War of the Gargantua which was about two giant Sasquatch type creatures. (Apparently the spawn of the Frankenstein monster. Toho lore is kind of bonkers sometimes.)
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Post by derv on Mar 2, 2022 18:15:34 GMT -6
And can't forget the oil crisis, and the stagnation and fragmentation of the Cold War. I remember waiting in lines to get gas during the mid 70's. There were certain days you could go based on your license plate number. Speaking of the Cold War, the 70's were the hey days of the Broad Street Bullies. They won the cup in 74 and 75. Then they crushed the Soviets in an exhibition game at the Spectrum in 76. Hockey was popular at the time. I even had my own Bobby Clark stick. I think it's still around somewhere. I believe it was during this time that HBO became a thing. That was some fancy stuff if you had cable. No commercials. |
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Post by talysman on Mar 2, 2022 18:36:30 GMT -6
I wonder if the popularity of Bigfoot influenced Chewbacca's final character design in any way, shape or form, since several people mentioned a big Cryptozoology fad in the seventies. In the early 70s, the following all lived in the same imaginative area: 1. King Kong (TV re-runs of the 1933 film) 2. King Kong vs. Godzilla (TV re-runs of the 1963 film) 3. King Kong (the 1976 film) I think there were reruns of the 1966 King Kong cartoon once or twice, too. I can still sing the theme song. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2022 13:05:25 GMT -6
In the early 70s, the following all lived in the same imaginative area: 1. King Kong (TV re-runs of the 1933 film) 2. King Kong vs. Godzilla (TV re-runs of the 1963 film) 3. King Kong (the 1976 film) I think there were reruns of the 1966 King Kong cartoon once or twice, too. I can still sing the theme song. Was it any good? I've never seen it. I've seen about 10 episodes of the Hannah Barbara Godzilla cartoons, though. The ones where he helps the people on the boat and has a tiny bewinged nephew for some reason that's never explained. |
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Post by talysman on Mar 7, 2022 13:30:56 GMT -6
I think there were reruns of the 1966 King Kong cartoon once or twice, too. I can still sing the theme song. Was it any good? I've never seen it. I've seen about 10 episodes of the Hannah Barbara Godzilla cartoons, though. The ones where he helps the people on the boat and has a tiny bewinged nephew for some reason that's never explained. Not good, but I guess not bad, either, for a Saturday morning cartoon from the '60s. Most Saturday morning cartoons were just cranked out without much thought. The stuff that was the best quality was the cartoons that first aired in theaters (Looney Toons,) in prime time (Flintstones, Jetsons, Jonny Quest,) or from a few eccentric animation studios (Bullwinkle and other Jay Ward cartoons.) But the theme song stuck in my head. |
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Post by geoffrey on Mar 7, 2022 22:40:59 GMT -6
Ha! And I can still sing the theme song to the old Godzilla cartoon:
Up from the depths,
30 stories high,
breathing fire,
he stands in the sky!
Godzilla!
Godzilla!
Godzillaahhhh!
(That's what has stuck in my head, anyway. There might have been a part about "and Godzooki", too.)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2022 15:43:50 GMT -6
Godzooki is like the scrappy of the Godzilla animated universe, except Godzooki was there all along instead of being brought in after earlier seasons. He's a lot less annoying than Scrappy, too.
So, someone on page 1 mentioned Planet of the Apes. Probably multiple someones. That was a big sci fi series leading up to Star Wars, for sure. I always liked the original the best, didn't care for "Beneath", really liked "Escape From" and "Conquest Of" but felt "Battle For" was a weak and cheap ending for the series.
Actually, "Escape From the Planet of the Apes" might be tied with the original as my favorite because it brilliantly turns the concept on its head. It was a very brave direction for the series. I'm sure everyone was wondering how they'd follow "Beneath" after the frickin' blew the Planet of the Apes to smithereens.
Anyway, a lot of these themes clearly influenced Star Wars to varying degrees. Chewbacca has strong ape vibes, you have exploding planets, rebellions, a bit of philosophy thrown in. Great special effects, too.
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Post by derv on Mar 8, 2022 17:35:36 GMT -6
Oh no, there goes Tokyo!
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muddy
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Post by muddy on Apr 21, 2022 8:40:12 GMT -6
Star Wars -
I would have been 13 when it came out, and had been playing D&D for a year or two. I actually read the book before seeing the movie, in the car with family on the way to the ocean. I remember picking it up after we had settled in for the ride a mile or two from home as we passed the only site of a revolutionary war battle in Delaware. I was initially a bit disappointed with the book, but primarily because the title Star Wars had lead me to expect something more of a grand scale account of intergalactic war (large armies, tactics, strategy) rather than a focus on the human side of the story. I was very much into the various Avalon Hill games during the 70's.
I had never seen anything like the reaction to the movie when it came out. The movie itself was spectacular compared to others at the time. My best friend and I had been going to the movies by ourselves for years, it was what we did in the summer. We had seen a lot of the 70's disaster films in the theater - Earthquake, Towering Inferno, one that was so horrible you probably can't find reference of it today - Tidal Wave, I think it was called. Also saw Jaws in the theater, which was another that really stood out as something special. The Bond films. And other more fantasy/horror films like Food of the Gods (another stinker) and Hitchcock's Family Plot. Star Wars was unlike anything else. We went to see it at least six time while it was in the theater that summer and every time there was a line out and around the building. I've never been much of a science fiction fan, but I loved it. We pretty quickly invented a Star Wars D&D and played that for a while.
As for reading - pretty much any fantasy that came out. First the Hobbit. All of the Conan novels, the Xanth novels, Ursala leGuin, Thomas Covenant, Elric, A Spell for Chameleon, The Sword of Shannara. Prior to that it was Hardy Boys, Ellery Queen, The Three Investigators. There were also horror/supernatural comics that I read a lot, and Mad Magazine and Cracked. And of course the D&D stuff was purchased as soon as it came out. Actually a lot of TSR stuff in general - Boot Hill, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha. The only non-fiction I can remember reading much was the Foxfire series of books with information on how to tan leather, find edible plants, that kind of thing.
When not reading or going to the movies, camping with scouts was a big thing. We went somewhere at least once a month for years. Gettysburg, Appalachian Trail, Assateague Island. One trip I was sharing a tent with the aforementioned best friend reading Salem's Lot one night, and he asked me to read it aloud. That lasted a few pages before it got so creepy he asked me to stop. One of our scout leaders took us to see The Hobbit when it came out - and that point we had most of the troop playing D&D.
Around that time I remember listening to the Beatles White Album on vinyl, but pretty shortly after had amassed a large collection of 8 track tapes (thinking since that's what cars use, I would get ahead of the game and be ready with lots of music when I got a car. Then came cassette tapes.) Lot's of Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Faces, Stones, 70's rock stuff.
Television would have been stuff like Happy Days, Love Boat, Three's Company, Welcome Back Kotter. There were lots of cop shows back then - Mannix, Columbo, Barretta, The Streets of San Francisco. Sometimes I would stay up late by myself and watch the early SNL shows.
The 70's was a great time to grow up, so much freedom.
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