ACH!
These KIDS Nowadays!
Commentary by Jody Reeves
One of ECHO STATION's core brings to
light how insane this all seems to those of us who saw STAR WARS in theaters...
...the FIRST time.
After the release of "Return of the Jedi" in 1983, it seemed that the Star Wars franchise hit its zenith. I was sixteen in 1983, old enough to be put off by the commercialized cuteness of Ewoks, but still young enough to be naively hopeful that Lucas would follow through with his promise of a nine-film saga. After a few years, I came to grips with the notion that "Jedi" was it, there would be nothing else to follow.
Years passed and I finished high school, completed college and had moved to Washington, DC to pursue a dream of becoming a political consultant. By 1991, I’d almost forgotten about "Star Wars." It took the release of "Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn to reawaken a dormant obsession. I happened to be in Tower Books with my younger brother, and we flipped when seeing the display. It was like crawling through the desert for days and then happening upon an oasis.
It was 1995 when I first ventured onto the Internet and found some kindred souls - people who, like me, remembered what it was like when "Star Wars" was first released and the trauma of the drought years. It was also through the Internet that I found there was a new generation of fans, some who hadn’t even been born when "The Empire Strikes Back" was released in 1980. At first I couldn’t understand it - these ‘kids’ had never seen the films in the theater, or if they did, they were too small to remember. They would never know what it was like to get action figures when they only cost $1.97. What fascination could "Star Wars" have for a generation who never even got to experience ‘Pong?’
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It really struck home for me when I was standing in line outside the Uptown Theater in Washington, DC on January 31, 1997 to see the first of the Special Editions. I had gone alone, entrusted with getting tickets for half of my office mates. I arrived at the theater at 7:00 am, and was already consigned to being way back in line. At some point, a group of guys in front of me began quizzing each other about when they first saw "Star Wars." The winner was the guy who saw a bootleg video in the early 80s. One of them, a law student at Georgetown, turned to me to ask when I had my first "Star Wars" experience. I was ten years old, and saw the movie in early June of 1977. The look of awe and respect on their faces was hysterical. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had started kowtowing at my feet, crying out that they weren’t worthy to be in my exalted presence. But, alas, that didn’t happen. Instead, I told them about how it was back in the <gasp> late 70s and early 80s, when a VCR took up your living room and we were playing ‘Breakout’ on a Commodore 64. "Star Wars" was much more magical then, since the technology we take for granted now was still the stuff of Tomorrowland.
I have a three-year old nephew who lives for "Star Wars." When I talk to him on the phone, the conversation usually goes like this:
Jody: "Hi, Tanner, how are you?"
Tanner: "Aunt Jody, I need Ewoks."
Tanner’s love of "Star Wars" is almost too cute to behold. He can quote the films, mainly because my brother made the mistake of showing the kid how to work the VCR. He’s got the toys, many courtesy of his auntie; he wants to be Darth Vader for Halloween. I can’t wait for a couple of years from now, when I take him aside and say: "Tanner, back when ‘Star Wars’ came out, your dad and I had to be content with only a few things - action figures, their ships, the occasional book. Look at what you get to play with - action figures on steroids, ships that make cooler noises, interactive books, CD-Roms, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Pez, laser-etched trading cards that don’t smell of stale bubble gum, yadda yadda yadda."
And Tanner will look calmly at me and say: "Geez, must’ve really sucked in those days. Did you even have electricity?"
(When not slaving away in America's own version of the Imperial Senate, Jody Reeves can be found avidly hunting down nude photos of Harrison Ford on the internet. Authenticity matters not.)