Flyover Guys
Just a couple middle-aged midwestern fellas who are here to yap about pop culture and sports. Occasionally, we'll fly over some random, forgotten about topics from the past that we hold near and dear to our hearts.
Flyover Guys
Episode 30: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
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As the new Star Wars movie hits the theaters, Seth and Joel discuss their memories of Star Wars--thank you for listening.
Okay, welcome to Flyover Guides, a show by two middle-aged Midwestern fellas who are just trying to figure out what was, what is, and what will be about aspects of American culture from our little plot of soil here in the Heartland. So jump on board. He's Seth, and I'm Joel. In this week's episode, we are going to a galaxy far, far away. So it's Star Wars time. Are you excited to see The Mandalorian and Grogu? The worst title for a movie I can think of. It does not roll off the tongue.
SPEAKER_01I'm going to watch it when we get back from vacation with my son.
SPEAKER_00So I'm sure I'll see it with probably my son, if not multiple children, but I would think so. Um He's a lot more excited than I am, so. Well, what we thought we'd do is this is not a good way to start a Star Wars podcast of like, jeez, I gotta see a Star Wars movie. But uh it's the first time since what 2019 uh we have a Star Wars movie coming out, and um I don't even that that's the movie that shall not be spoken of because it is not the worst movie, it is the most evil movie, Rise of Skywalker, because it is a series of corporate compromises that they did not know how to finish this story, and it's just mind-boggling. Um, well, what we're gonna do, let's we're just gonna I'm gonna ask you a bunch of Star Wars questions, I'll jump in with some stuff. Um this franchise, let's let's first start, let's talk about this franchise because it spanned our lifetimes basically. Um uh what what is it in your opinion that draws people to this franchise?
SPEAKER_01When I was four, that was Return of the Jedi. That was the one that I saw. And so speaking to me, I think it was something very new that it it also appealed to kids, and maybe that was the one that um really targeted the the kids more so. Um for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so it's one of those movies where uh there wasn't a lot of stuff out at the time that uh was like sci-fi space opera adventure that was really targeted towards kids. Um like the black hole, Disney's Black Hole was kind of like a it was a flop, I think.
SPEAKER_00Um Flash Gordon, I think might have been an 80 or so.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I think uh Black Hole was 79 and Flash Gordon was eighty.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh see kind of had those things there at the beginning of the decade, but uh and but Star Wars was totally different.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh neither one of us are old enough. I don't think you were born, but I wasn't old enough to remember the original Star Wars coming out. I would have been only been two. Um, I have memories of seeing Empire Strikes Back in the movie theater and how profound that was as a kid uh to experience that in a movie theater. And Jedi, I definitely remember, and it was one of the things that the Wichita Eagle Beacon back then, this was the one it was the Wichita Eagle Beacon, every Friday they would put out their movie section. Bob Curtright would put out his movie section, and that's where they had paragraph reviews of the movie, and then at the very end of the paragraph review, it put in parentheses how many weeks it's been showing in the theater. And I remember as a kid being obsessed with Return of the Jedi because it went past 52 weeks, and I remember when it was at 55 weeks, 56 weeks. Right. And it was like it was like a box score. You know how I we always check box scores for baseball, and I would check the box score. I'm like, is it gonna make it to 57? And honestly, I don't remember how far it went, but I do remember it going past 56 weeks, though. It was like Joe DiMaggio, yeah. Yeah, it was like the history of the how many movies today are out for over a year, I mean, as a first run, it's it's incredible. Um, there are 12 movies. I guess we have to count the Clone Wars animated movie, um, but 12 live action, or no, 11 live action movies, one animated movie, and then there's 15 Star Wars shows, TV shows, which I don't know how much you and I could speak to those. Um, I mean, a little bit. Um, I could I've already talked with you about Andor that I might be ready at this point to rank Andor third out of everything behind Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. I might even put it in front of Return of the Jedi, which is I know appreciate as a bold statement, but it is that good. But I just thought uh I don't know. The thing about Star Wars is, and I had mentioned to this this to you in a text, is I wanted to talk about in the scope of Hollywood, how when this when Star Wars came out, it was so mind-blowing to people to see the kind of special effects that George Lucas put forward. And I don't think in in the 21st century we can appreciate the type of effects and impact that had on American culture in the late 70s to get this space opera story with these special effects, and then to follow it up with Empire in 1980, um which to have the courage to make a dark movie, that dark of a movie, um, I think is incredible. And because then you're right, they do very much lighten it up with Jedi and the third one. Um and I think some people have their complaints about Jedi. I still think it I think it's almost become underrated now because people just talk ewoks and they forget about some of the great set pieces. But um, do you do you have a favorite of those three?
SPEAKER_01Uh Empire Strikes Back, I think, is the best. So I'd say New Hope is second. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00The other thing I uh I we're gonna get history nerd on you is I wanted to talk about George Lucas's writing a story that we've already used the phrase like space opera or western, and that's grounded, it seems like in 1950s culture. Kind of the westerns of the 40s and 50s, uh the Cold War, you get the language of the Republic and the Empire, and then um science fiction, the space race. Uh and I just got me thinking more and more about this. That how is an what is an angle I can take on these films that might be unique to my experience? And I was I'm doing these really long walks, and so this started coming into my head. Is that when I I talk about politics with students, one of the things we talk about is you got to go back, and my and this is my opinion, you gotta go back to FDR as president in the 30s, and he's the first president to command mass media effectively with the radio. Prior to that, Americans really had no connection or interaction to their leadership, to presidents. And so this intimacy and this bond that is created between the American public and FDR from 1932 to 1945. Um, obviously the Great Depression and World War II, that's why FDR is revered. And I would argue a lot of that has to do with he is one of the perfect blends of substance, because he had real substance in his programs, but then also style, and that there was an intimacy there. There was the ability just to talk with the American public. And if we trace every leader's sense, part of that is the command of how well they can blend style and substance, if that makes sense. Like Eisenhower's a bore, he was terrible on TV, he was terrible on the radio, but nobody's gonna question the substance of who Eisenhower was as a person. And the reason why I'm saying this, because we can trace this forward even more, is I think by the time we got to the 70s, Americans are so fatigued from war, um, inflation, the economies tanked in the 70s, um, stagflation, and urban violence, all that, that to get a spectacle like Star Wars, it's like a sugar high. And it was an uplifting, great story that had, I would argue, you you said empire more than Star Wars, right? A new hope. I I agree. It had a it if we're gonna put it on the scales, I think Star Wars has a little bit more style than substance, and then when you get to empire, I think it tilts the other way. I think empire is like the perfect blend of it's got great set pieces, and we can I want to ask you about set pieces a little bit, like scenes, and it has terrific style as well, as well as the substance, it has both. And my problem as we go forward and talk about more Star Wars, it's kind of like talking about presidents post Kennedy. There's a heck of a lot more style than there is depth and substance. And I I I just kind of kept going on and on with this idea because you're talking about tack tariffs, you're talking about trade policy. Um, obviously, you're talking about the idea of what is proper leadership between an emperor, uh having an empire and security and control versus an alliance to create some type of republic. I mean, it's very political. Um, so I don't know. I I felt like that conversation had to at least be had that finding the right Star Wars movie for me is finding where it it clicks between style and substance, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, let me ask you a question. So we had this talk uh uh one battle after another about you know deeper meaning and themes and stuff uh on that podcast, but uh you are a very smart individual, and and you just said that you went on a you went on a long walk and you had these in-depth thoughts about tying all this together. Do do you think that people, Lucas and all these people, have all that in mind when they write out these stories? Or or is it us? They they give us something to popcorn movie, and then we look into these deeper themes and relate it to our lives and the world that's going on. Because when I was a kid, I and even into an adult, I like to just watch a movie for what it is, and then I'll like let it marinate and think about it more, just like when you read a book or something like that. It's just what what's the message in in that? But I don't know if we just if everybody and that's the beauty of watching a movie or or listening to a song or whatever, we relate it to our lives and we try to we try to make sense of it all. Um but I never thought growing up that Star Wars had these deeper meanings. I just saw it for what it was, you know, good versus evil and and a journey and redemption. You know, there's obviously story arc and character development and stuff like that, but um I'm not I'm not the type of person that can get that right away.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, no. I and I don't want to I don't think that they're getting I mean any writer has has a deeper meaning in mind. I think when anybody composes art, they have something that they're trying to whether consciously or or subconsciously express to people. And so I do think Star Wars is trying to dig into that meaning of, and you even said it, like redemption, that there's something to be said about the arc of looking at somebody like Darth Vader, who is maybe the best villain in pop culture. You and I kind of went back and forth a little bit about this, and yet you can see already that by I mean, you can see in uh Jedi that he's trying to redeem Darth Vader. And so there's something to be said about that that you you stick with somebody who's bad, and that you want to influence them to try to turn into a good person. You want to try to help that person become good. There's not too much more depth than that. I mean, it it's almost like you're lit looking at this grand heroic arc. And so all I'm saying is, as an audience, I feel like as audiences, we have become, we've fallen in love with the spectacle. And it's really hard to create art that is spectacle, that is sci-fi, that is, that is CGI, that is special effects, and then to carry a deeper meaning into that. You know what I mean? It's like there's not many Marvel movies that I'm looking at to try to peel away some deeper meaning uh about who we are as people, and and yet Star Wars, I feel like it's when it's at its best, it you can. Yeah. Uh I think you can't when it's at its best. And again, maybe maybe that's not the point of watching these movies. Maybe the point is just go in and have a good time. But at the same time, that that's why I started with the question why are we drawn to this franchise? There's a reason why there's a dozen movies and 15 TV shows, is people are intrigued by good and evil through the lens of different species, different planets, this concept of the force. Um, and again, I don't want to make it super serious, but at the same time, uh it's it's intriguing.
SPEAKER_01Well, and when you when you compare it to the other movies, like you just you know, Flash Gordon, and I know Queen did a great job in that, you know, but the depth, like you said, the depth of Star Wars and the spectacle, and it holds up. You watch Flash Gordon, I'm sorry, it doesn't. Yeah. Uh it does not. And and John Williams composing the music that is having those all those agree, you're right. I I took my son that I think they come every year to Alfaretta and they do the uh or you know, the John Williams tribute song, and they play all of his music from all the movies, but they emphasize Star Wars and uh it it's gen it lives on through different generations and it creates a mythology in our culture. And we can talk about this more um later on about some of those things in our culture, but uh you you did hit it. I I think you want a movie that's like if it's sci-fi, that you can escape into a different world, but you want it to be real and fantastical. And uh I mean it it hit it checked all the boxes in in my opinion on like amazing to look at when you were growing up. Just the creativity of the characters, the the world and the planets, like you said, uh it was just nothing like it. It was very unique.
SPEAKER_00So well, and and that's what I think is Star Wars and Empire and Jedi. You're talking a six-year window, 77 to 83 or eight seven-year window. Um it kind of hits the cultural zeitgeist of the late 70s and early 80s that we are a country that is in need of redemption. Uh, that we post-World War II tended to be kind of our apex of where we saw ourselves as the good guy. But then by the 60s into the 70s, we started questioning are we the good guy with something like Vietnam and of course Watergate. And so it hit at that right time of there is a redemptive arc for us. And even Reagan plays that up. You know, uh Reagan very much in the early 80s is playing up this kind of tap into the masculinity, even referring to the Soviet Union as the evil empire in in 1980, uh 1983. Um, and so it was something that deeply ingrained in our culture, then, the way the pop culture can mirror what's going on in the real world, albeit in a fantastical way, it seems like we've tried to recreate it and they're all pale imitations. And so George Lucas tried again in 1999, 2002, 2005, saying, All right, now I'm gonna give you the prequels of the rise of Anakin Skywalker. And, you know, in a way, that that means for us when we were 10 years old looking at the original Star Wars trilogy, now we're 25, 30 years old going, all right, it's nostalgia for our childhood. This is gonna be great. And then when you watch it, it doesn't hit quite the same because it doesn't match the magic of your childhood, it doesn't match where our country was at. And then you try it again in 2015 till 2019, the next trilogy, and it just seems like it's oh, you just kind of remade the Force Awakens, is like, okay, that was fun, but you just kind of remade Star Wars. You didn't really come up, you oh, it's another Death Star. Okay, yeah, and so there's nothing really that unique or new about it, it's it's it's just a imitation of it. And and I think that I think for people that that matters because they tie it to nostalgia and they tie it to their childhoods, and they want their kids to have the same experience. Because if you think about those three different trilogies, the first trilogy is our childhood, the second trilogy, you know, we're in our twenties, and then by the time you get to this latest trilogy, we have kids, and we want to share that with our kids, and it just doesn't hit quite the same, unfortunately, as much as you want it to. Um I think there's something to be said about generational elements of this.
SPEAKER_01So the first three, you know, like you said, that's our childhood. This the second batch, I never watched them. In fact, I've never watched them all the way through. I to this day I still haven't. I've I've seen bits and pieces of them, but m um my son likes those. And and they're not bad when I mean they're not bad when I sit down and kind of watch it, but I never got into it. And and the the last three, um I took we went as a family to see them when they had come out in the movie theater, and I watched them and I like I liked them, but I didn't say that's one of my favorite movies, and I really haven't re- I haven't re-watched them. They're not re-watchable to me. And that's not a Star Wars fan, if you ask somebody. I so maybe I'm not a Star Wars fan because I don't re-watch them and and cherish them, but none of them I really even consider like the first three. That's yeah, that's what I think of as Star Wars.
SPEAKER_00And well, I think because they're because there's a little bit of melancholy with them, because they're not they just can't, no matter what, they just can't hit in the same way. Um yeah, I I agree. I don't really go back and watch them. I'll go back and and if Empire's on or New Hope is on, I'll watch that. Yeah, I'll watch this. I can't ever say that I've been really excited to go look at Attack of the Clones or The Rise of Skywalker. I saw it once in the theater, and I'm like, I don't ever want to see this movie again. Um it just was a mess to me. And maybe the reason why that last trilogy really bothered me is because Marvel had done such an amazing job in pop culture of hitting all the right beats of connecting stories together and threading them together. And that that Force Awakens Last Jedi Rise of Skywalker was it was like just false starts and backtracking because they didn't really have a narrative arc that they were trying to get through with, and it was more frustrating to a fan of like, golly, it you guys have a decade, didn't you like plan this out a little better? I mean, this is it's kind of like a student handing in their final, like, this is what you've handed in, you've had all semester. Yeah, and why did why is this the final product? It seems like you could go back and do it again and it would be better. Uh there are qual like there, I like the cast a lot in the new trilogy. I think the three people they got um was it Daisy Ridley and uh John Boylega and Oscar Isaacs, even Adam Driver I liked as Kylo Wren. They got they've got cool actors. It's just they didn't really have a lot to do, like John Finn and Poe, they just didn't really have a lot to do. To do. It just it's like the writers didn't give them a story, and it's just like, God, you you spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and it it it it just kind of frustrated me, I guess. And and I wanted my kids to have the same experience, and and they don't go back and watch him, they don't really talk about him. And so you know, I mean, that's by the way, I'm not upset or angry about it. It's just one of those that their equivalent is probably Marvel movies, yeah. For what Star Wars was for us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I will say that my son, he's watched all these he's watched them all. Um and he says that some of the best things that they've really done are some of the animated um clone wars and uh new batch. Like he he will watch those and really get into it. And he says that that's better than the latest movies that they've come out with. And which I don't know, but I I I believe it. I was lost after the Ewok adventure movies that they came out with, and I was like, nope, not gonna not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00Well, I have sat through uh The Mandalorian, which I really enjoyed uh about a season and a half of it. Uh you could see that John Favreau, who was involved heavily with I mean, he did Iron Man, um, he he very much wanted to take it back to the space western. And so he's doing this Mandalorian Groggoose. Um he he did a good job for about a season and a half, and then I think it just kind of wore out its welcome. Um, and then Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Kenobi, as much as I like you and McGregor, I don't know, they just kind of went. It's kind of like the prequels. I feel like they made the prequels back in '99 and 2005 so George Lucas could make the last 30 minutes of Revenge of the Sith. It's like he had this vision in mind of showing us the birth of Luke and Leia and then the rise of Vader. And everything, every movie was just leading to that 30 minutes, which were terrific. The last 30 minutes of Revenge of the Sith are terrific. I feel that way about something like Obi-Wan, Kenobi, the TV show. It's like they all point just so there can be one more fight between Obi-Wan, Kenobi, and Darth Vader, which eh. Um, and you know, I've sworn to you, I've sworn by to you, and or that that is two seasons, 12 episodes each season. So each episode's about an hour. So I won't say it's 24 hours, it's more probably like 20 hours. And that is somebody who Disney left alone. Tony Gilroy is a terrific writer. Um, he's done, he's written The Born Identity, The Born Supremacy, Michael Clayton, I think, is one of the best movies of the 21st century. And they left him alone. They gave him, I think it was like $600 million. And go make a couple seasons. And that's the Star Wars when I was a kid that I wanted it to be when I grew up to be an adult. And because what's weird is it's just like any of those prequels, you know where they're going. You're you know, Anakin's gonna become Vader. We know what's gonna happen to Cassie and Andor, but it doesn't matter because the writing is so dang good. And and it and it works with very deep when you when you asked earlier, do writers think about deeper meanings and themes? I guarantee you you can see it in that, that there are big ideas that are being discussed that we're living through. And I just thought it was incredibly impressive to ground it in a reality about themes about how media can shape a narrative, how you want uh uh um how the powers that be who control the media can shape a narrative for their own benefit, how if we don't if we can't accept a shared narrative or a shared truth, uh we're screwed as a people. And that's kind of what we talk about with you know uh mass media nowadays with with uh smartphones and stuff, is we all can't agree on a truth anymore. And that's gonna cause us terrific problems in our lifetime. And that shows exploring some of those ideas, I think, in a very smart way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think as a writer, you write what you know, and what more do you know than what you're live, what you live through, and all the themes in life? So it it just kind of parallels what everybody has gone through, I guess.
SPEAKER_00So well, let's take it to let let me throw out some things about Star Wars, just we can run through some rapid fire ones. Um do you have a do you have a favorite character from Star Wars? One that you always liked.
SPEAKER_01I always identified with the comedic duo of uh C3PO and R2T2 for some I always I always thought that uh I don't know. I I kind of identified with them. There's like Costello. Yeah, there were a lot that were cool, uh like Boba Fett and Han Solo, and they were they I liked them, uh, but I haven't really like connected with any of them. What what about you or or saw me?
SPEAKER_00I I I agree with what you said earlier. I liked Boba Fett and Greedo, and I know that's kind of two bounty hunter bad guys, but when I was a kid, I just thought those guys were so cool. And to own the action figures, uh, I had like a two-foot-tall or maybe one foot tall Boba Fett doll that I just thought that was the coolest things, that little missile shot out of his backpack, and and and it speaks to you didn't know anything about him, and that's what was cool. And so when that TV show came on, the book of Boba Fett, and you see who the guy was, and he's talking and doing if you're like, I want to know less about you. Yeah, I don't I think this is stupid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because the mystery, we we would take the mystery and we would make our own stories out of it, and we would let it we would let it live on. When we grew up, we you saw the the movie and then you kind of reenacted stuff and with the toys and action figures, and and you gotta give it your own life, you know, its own life through your eyes and your stories.
SPEAKER_00So let me ask you, um uh OG, original characters, go back to our OGs. Is there any of their character arcs that you since you said you saw the new sequel trilogy, are they any of the character arcs that you liked or particularly didn't like?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I'm not gonna be very good at this.
SPEAKER_00Um I'm gonna I'll throw one out. Okay. I loved I loved that Ryan Johnson made Luke Skywalker whiny and kind of because I felt that way even when I was younger. I'm like, God, this guy whines a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I know he's supposed to be the hero, but I mean, we all kind of gravitated towards Han Solo. He was just kind of the badass. And I didn't really like Luke. Cool, but yeah, he whined all the time, and it's just like, and so I liked that that was the arc of him, is that he made him he's this adult. He's like, Yeah, I failed, I screwed up, and and he's just hanging out in basically some Irish island doing his own thing. And yeah, fans hated it. I mean, they hated The Last Jedi, which I go the other way. I actually think it was the best of the new ones because I liked that the director was trying to take a risk and push the story forward. Um, I think that his eye for filming was amazing. Um, but obviously, I'm in the minority on The Last Jedi that I I would ditch the first and the third one of the new trilogy just for the second one. So I liked I liked Luke's character arc. I thought that was great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. I you know, we s we talked about this not too long ago, but Harrison Ford to me was just the pinnacle of coolness. Yes, and Indiana Jones and Han Solo, and my gosh, he was captivating, and that's the guy that I enjoyed the most on screen. Uh he was too cool to be me. Like, you know, I can never be him. Uh I need to screw things up, and you know, but yeah, uh not a fan of Luke, and I I was you know fascinated with Han Solo.
SPEAKER_00So I feel a little d bad about the arc of Leia, and that one thing that I don't think we appreciated when we were growing up watching it is what an iconic revolutionary feminine character she was. That this was a this was uh uh a tough spirited woman character who didn't need anybody's help, she would take care of it of herself, and I yeah, and I didn't get that as a kid, um, but I just thought she was a tough character and I liked that. But that was kind of a big deal for the 70s instead of a damsel in distress. She was a great leader.
SPEAKER_01I mean, under pressure, she would she made decisions and told what she wanted to be done, you know, have have done, and the men did it. Some of those some of those scenes.
SPEAKER_00So it did get a little dark though, the fact that was she like Jabba's sex slave? I mean, that that got a little dark, yeah. And I I don't I know that's just some marketing going, we need to put her in a bikini for 20 minutes. Uh and so that's the cynicism of the early 80s for me that I I kind of wish that didn't happen, but obviously as a kid I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but nowadays what like that was kind of weak the way he went.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and him dying, yeah, great call. Yeah, dying by the sarlac.
SPEAKER_01Come on, man. I think I could have got away from that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that he got what hit by a blind hair, a blind hone solo where he's like bubba fett, bubba fett, and then he hits him, and yeah, that's kind of a weak death. You're right. There are some problems with with Jedi in that sense. Um did you ever own any Star Wars merch merch?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, or not. Um so did you my parents were not sci-fi people. Uh they didn't take us to go see movies. I've already expressed that in the podcast. But uh I had one action figure. You did, and I still have it. I got this so you got the evil for Christmas. Yeah, I was four. Yeah. And this is what I wanted, like more than anything. I still have it. This is the one that I got, and this and my brother, this these were the only two. This was my brother. Hammerheads? Yeah. This is the only two action figures we had in our house that were Star Wars. Unless my oldest brother had some, but I don't think he did. Uh, but this is it, and they survived. These are the original I have. Um, but yeah, the Wicked and the Ewoks. I would listen to the cassette um story. You could have those storybooks and listen to the audio cassette and follow along. I loved all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What about you?
SPEAKER_00Did you I had a ton uh of characters now again, darker moment in my college days. I sold them many of them for a three-iron because I was really into golf at the time, which I deeply regret, obviously, now because I probably gave 50 to 75 Star Wars characters away for a three-iron. I still have a bunch. Um, but yeah, we all make mistakes when we're under 20. Well, we all make mistakes, let's just put it that way. We all make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01I still collect stuff, and you can't see this, and people that that are listening obviously can't see it. But um in this room I have a ton of stuff, and and I've kind of picked up Star Wars stuff over the years, and I've kind of traded and bought and sold, but uh my friend John actually emailed or not emailed, he mailed me his figures from his childhood. So I have those in my collection and some other ones. Uh, but I do I kind of gathered my top five things or stuff that I had. I don't know if if we'll talk about that, but um what is what is you just but this is the one thing I think um Star Wars that's what they excelled at was merchandising.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean so posters, did you have posters in your room?
SPEAKER_00I had a Star Wars poster in my room and a Return of the Jedi poster in my room.
SPEAKER_01So every kid had okay, so every kid had either sports or I had trading cards, a lot of trading cards. So posters were awesome. That's probably an honorable mention, but um the other thing was I have this Burger King glass.
SPEAKER_00The glasses, the Burger King glasses, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Instead of four. Yeah, so I have those, and and these things are awesome. I mean, you used to drink Kool-Aid out of these, and um I had Muppets and Star Wars and all that kind of stuff. Um you mentioned trading cards. I still I I picked this up. This is a whole wax box or a a box of 36 packs of Return of the Jedi. Unopened? Unopened, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Unopened, holy moly.
SPEAKER_01And it's in great shape. There was a guy that was a local guy here uh that had a collection of stuff, and I bought it from him, and that was in his collection.
SPEAKER_00That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then we we used to always, when we were growing up, we would have Star Wars album. Yeah, the the record, the vinyl records that um whether it was Star Wars or Annie or whatever, you would listen to soundtracks and stuff on on vinyl and and just put it on repeat and let it go. Um my preferred like medium of uh just any type of movie is still VHS. I prefer VHS over Blue Blu-ray and HD and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Is that the original Star Wars VHS? Or is it a reprint?
SPEAKER_01Uh this is the CBS Fox, it's from 1984, so it's not the original.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but still, you know, early.
SPEAKER_01But this is one of the earliest ones, yeah. I I just love that we always talk about the box art and stuff.
SPEAKER_00The box art's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01And that's what you would literally just stare at, and you'd read the back, and that was some of the coolest stuff. And then I also have a like a ton. I I probably have 50 to 75 just magazines. So here I just grabbed a few.
SPEAKER_00Mad magazine of Star Wars.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, dynamite and starlog, and I'm looking at my I have like a little comic book spinnerack, and I have all my like Beckett Price guides and my Mad and Fangoria. I've got like over a hundred Fangoria magazines, and um that's but great. Kids that were growing up in the 80s, yeah. You would like go to a drugstore or wherever that would have the magazine racks, and that used to be a big deal. Now it's shrunk quite a bit. They still have stuff by checkout aisles at the grocery store, but you used to go into those stores when you were a kid and you would have a whole aisle almost of just magazines, and you would grab a slower drugstore for us. Yeah, the sports and uh any type of movie or music magazine. So and you would flip through it, and that was I I you would read some stuff, but mainly it was just all visual experience. Um You said the the the card the collecting cards, the sticker books, all that stuff. You would you would collect those and and play with those and you would recreate the movie. Yeah. So a lot of times these came out so early that you didn't really have rentals or VHS that you owned, you would just relive them through the audio cassettes or the trading cards. You try to put them together like chronologically to tell the story. Um that's kind of what we did, and I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm trying I of the Star Wars set pieces. I remember I got the Millennium Falcon, and that might be the greatest present I got ever for Christmas, was the Millennium Falcon back in the early 80s, and I got the Ewok Village, which was a big deal. Yeah, but and I always wanted a um an X-Wing, and I didn't I don't think I got an X-Wing as a kid. No, and a TIE Fighter we got, but there are certain of those things just to get to have those toys and to run around the house. Oh, yeah, look at that sweet X-Wing. You've got an X Wing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I have a Millennium Falcon and the X-Wing, and I've had a lot. Um, I've sold off a lot, but I've kept I the only two vehicles that I have is the X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon. And that sucker's big, it's sitting over there on my floor. But um, I've got a carrying a Darth Vader carrying case with all the figures in it.
SPEAKER_00Your action figures and a carrying case.
SPEAKER_01So I still have a bunch of stuff. Even though I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, I'm a huge fan of all the Kinner action figures, and I I like it because that is almost more of what um I consumed even more than the movies themselves, really.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well that's part of the brilliance of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, or my friends, you'd go over to your friend's house for sleepovers, and in their bedroom, they had books and the the storybooks and all that stuff that they you would look at and relive it.
SPEAKER_00Well, with when those first Star Wars figures came out, I remember they ran out so fast that they had to do IOUs to people that you would get it sent in the mail to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was the early bird. It was the early bird, it was like a piece of cardboard that you got.
SPEAKER_00Golly, that's well, that's where George Lucas made his money was tying it all into uh having control of merchandising. Let's finish our conversation with uh I there's one question I want to ask because it's happening right now with Harry Potter. Uh HBO is is redoing Harry Potter one season at a time. What would you think about that of redoing Star Wars uh again? Or is it just something you don't touch now?
SPEAKER_01I don't think you can ever redo it. And and partly because uh Industrial Light and Magic, they did such a creative job the the first time that all the CGI stuff now, it just doesn't it's just not the same. Um so when you're already redoing Harry Potter, I mean Harry Potter is not that was late 90s.
SPEAKER_00Late 90s.
SPEAKER_01So the only thing that I challenge, I know that we love to tell stories, and and we've said this as well. We we retell the funniest stories of our lives many times. Um even to your your kids just rule their eyes every time, you know. Um so I think that's what a lot of movie people do too. And we've we've talked had that conversation about how they just retell the stories from when they're growing up when they are directors and writers. Uh, but I challenge people to come up with something new and creative. Um, so what would I want the future for Star Wars to be? I I do like to keep it all alive. Um, when we go to like Disney and Hollywood Studios and all that, and there's Galaxy's Edge, and you can go there and visit and relive. Love that stuff. Um come up with the new animation stories and andor and all that stuff. Um, I don't think we should redo the originals, though. That's just my opinion.
SPEAKER_00I was just curious. I don't I I would be. I almost wish they would redo this new sequel trilogy, and I would be okay with it saying, you know what, we're just gonna punt on those. Um because I just felt like there were such easy fix. Like in The Force Awakens, they never had a scene with Luke, Leia, and Han Solo, which is just like, why are we making this movie if you're not gonna have one scene with those three characters in the same room? It seems like such an obvious oversight. I mean, you know, it's just something like that. Um, I would be okay if they say, you know what, we just we screwed that up, we're gonna try it again, because I don't think those hold like you said, I don't think most people hold those as sacred the way they hold kind of the original trilogy. I I hope they don't mess with the original trilogy. Um, I like how like I had mixed feelings about Rogue One doing the the CGI of Princess Leia at the very end when she gets the plans for the Death Star and she ends the movie with that. I've kind of mixed feelings about that, but at the same time, you know. That doesn't touch the original trilogy and they they tried to very cleverly and I think succeeded uh tie Rogue One to that. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what other what other things I would want to have explored or if it's just you're waiting for new a new story to be told that's not Star Wars related. Uh I'm not sure. Although Andor gives me hope that if you get the right creative person, there's stuff to be mined. There's stories to be mined from it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I don't now I'm sounding very hypocritical because John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my favorite movies. And it's a and it's a re I mean that's not the original. It was done in the 50s. So uh so go ahead. People can create whatever they want. Anybody's free to create anything as long as they're not stealing stuff, I guess. Um so yeah, I love John Carpenter's The Thing, and so I would be very hypocritical if I said they can't redo Star Wars. So we just have to separate um, you know, what's the original, what's the remakes. Uh Harry Potter, I don't I don't care what they do with that. Um so it could be better. Who knows?
SPEAKER_00It it just well, it would never be for us. Because part of part of the story is when it hits you in your life, and since that is so entwined with our child entwined with our childhood, that's what makes it more powerful. And you can't it's like uh a friend and I, we talk about the your favorite musicians, your favorite music is age 12 to 20, and you're never gonna get you're never gonna reject the music you liked at in those ages. That's the apex of music for me when I was ages about 12 to 20, and everything I've listened to since is I want it to be as meaningful and special as that music was to me. I think the same thing about films in your childhood is it's so connected to something uh in you that you know, if if you want to get to nostalgia or what have you, that no matter what, they're not gonna have the same meaning. It's just not, even with their imperfections. Um I I just don't think they will.
SPEAKER_01So that's that's what we do as humans is we connect the song, the movie, what were we doing at that time when we saw it? What relationships did we have? That's what the that's what makes songs so special, and you can't recreate those times in your life. So uh you're right. Uh they'll there'll never be your life will never be at that moment ever again, so therefore it won't have that special meaning.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think we covered a lot of ground. Um, we will see how this goes with this new Mandalorian Grogu. Um I I will I will see it obviously with a little hesitation, but I again I will see it just to pay my respects, if nothing else. So any final thoughts on Star Wars? Are we good?
SPEAKER_01Go see it, take your kids, save your movie ticket, and add to your pile that you watch movies if you still do that. So I can't wait. I told you I could save all my movie stubs. Um if I that's why I always pay and buy it in person and don't do it online, so I can have that collection.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, hey, I'm off to the Tashi station to pick up some power converters. So you have a good one. All right, thank you. Take care, everybody. Bye.