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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Saga 1984-1990: What was it like being a fan?

Discussion in 'Star Wars Saga In-Depth' started by darklordoftech, Jan 23, 2016.

  1. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 30, 2012
    It's often said that Star Wars was "dead" during these years. I've heard that there was little public interest in it. I'm curious as to what being a fan was like during these years. Did you view the films differently than you view them now? Did you watch the droids cartoon, the Ewok movies, etc? Did you wonder about what happened before ANH or after ROTJ?
     
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  2. Lulu Mars

    Lulu Mars Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 10, 2005
    I wasn't really old enough to think about these things. In my world, Star Wars was three movies and a bunch of action figures. That was it. I was curious about what had happened before Episode IV, but I wasn't obsessed with it. Star Wars was just one of many wonderful things fighting for my attention :)
     
  3. Bobatron

    Bobatron Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    I never wondered what happened before or after, although I sort of played "after" as if everyone was still at the Ewok Village, because I had the Ewok Village and liked playing with it. My method of play was kind of repetitive and as if none of the finalizing events and deaths happened. Eventually that got old without me noticing it and other stuff was getting my attention like music, MTV, and eventually other toys. I still played with the toys until late 1984 although from what I remember, I wasn't doing much. I spent the summer visiting grandparents without all my toys other than two of my favorite figures (Biker Scout and AT-AT Driver), and I got the Y-Wing during that time. I thought the toys of 1985 were neat but never got any of them. I kept my toys in boxes. I didn't like the Ewok TV movies but I watched what episodes of Droids and Ewoks I could, but not out of feeling starved for Star Wars and thinking they were special.
    During that time Star Wars maintained being a special thing that would get a lot of attention when it was referenced, which felt rare and definitely wasn't as much as it is now, or when movies were shown on TV. There was no May the Fourth, Star Wars Weekends, news about a tenth anniversary, and if there were conventions or even plans for prequels, only people who read Bantha Tracks and probably other sci-fi magazines or went to conventions (not the huge events they are now) knew. At the time they would show on broadcast networks like NBC. I don't know when they came out on video and oddly enough, I never rented them but recorded them from TV. My interest was especially revived in 1990 after leaving Star Tours through the gift shop and getting the Star Wars Sourcebook. That, written as if it was an encyclopedia about what I'd only known in story form through movies and toys, opened my mind to a lot of things in Star Wars and made me long for it. After that I would watch the movies several times for a while.
     
  4. ImpreciseStormtrooper

    ImpreciseStormtrooper Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 8, 2016
    For me it went fallow. You grew older and instead of playing with the toys they sat on shelves or if you were lucky enough to own one they served as paperweights next to this new fangled thing called a desktop computer.

    Girlfriends. Alcohol. Travel. Life in general just took over.

    Meanwhile SW receded into pop culture.

    So we grew up and discovered Stanley Kubrick, Lean, Kurasawa and Scorcese. Oh and of course we had..um..Howard the Duck.

    To answer the OP, in short SW became just went on the back burner. No fan forums. No comic cons. Not for me anyway. If we were lucky the OT would be on tv. That's about it.

    But VHS gave it a kick. I remember going nuts waiting for ESB to come out on tape. So I started endlessly watching the films privately over and over and occasionally met others who did the same.

    Far easier to keep engaged with the material nowadays, by comparison.
     
  5. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    Yeah, that was pretty much it. I was busy being a teenager and Star Wars was part of my childhood. It was fun picking it back up later though.
     
  6. Bossk74

    Bossk74 Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 15, 2016
    After the movies ended there was really nothing to really keep the interest of the fans. I was a kid at the time so we did have the Droids / Ewoks cartoons. Neither of these cartoons IMO were really all that good. Additionally there was very little canon between those years....it was like Star Wars just fell off the earth. It wasn't until around the mid 90's that interest in Star Wars really picked up.
     
  7. CommanderDrenn

    CommanderDrenn Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 19, 2013
    To me, it would have been more fun to have been a fan then. Now Star Wars is so embedded in internet and pop culture, it lessens the experience of watching it, unless I make an effort to ignore it.


    (Of course, I have a lot of Star Wars merch)
     
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  8. JediChipKelly

    JediChipKelly Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016
    Being part of the OT generation, the 1984-90 period was part growing up and moving on from SW, and privately praying for another Trilogy.

    The first part is we all became teenagers so SW wasn't as cool as it was when we were in elementary school. You had your SW friends and they were the only ones you talked with it about. This is really the advent of how SW became a geek thing as there was sort of a backlash by the masses and the real fans like me didn't boast about it anymore.

    We all privately waited for Lucas next move after 1983, as there was no internet to keep updated. I can say I remember giving up hope for another Trilogy around 1987, as a friend in history class told me he read an interview with Lucas and said he was finished SW. I was crushed cause I thought we were going to get 9 movies! The irony is we eventually did!
     
  9. DantheJedi

    DantheJedi Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 23, 2009
    Being that I was six when ROTJ came out, I moved into stuff like He-Man, G.I. Joe, and Transformers when SW became passe, but it never was far from my thoughts, hoping beyond hope new movies (and thus new toys) would be made. The '90s resurgence made me glad to finally see SW merchandise on store shelves on a regular basis again.
     
  10. JediChipKelly

    JediChipKelly Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016
    Does anyone remember the OT marathons on ScyFy in the early 90's as that was the first time I saw them in marathon form. They would always play them on Holiday Weekends when we were off from school.
     
  11. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 30, 2012
    When I was a teenager, I didn't talk to girls because I thought I'd be suspended for sexual harrasment and I didn't drink because I thought I'd drop dead if I drank before my 21st birthday and if I somehow survived, I'd be arrested and grounded for eternity. Meanwhile, I stuck with Star Wars throughout my teenage years. When I felt down, I would remind myself that Vader was redeemed, the Emperor fell into a reactor, and then the Empire collapsed.
     
  12. Vialco

    Vialco Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 6, 2007
    Wow it sounds like we had very similar childhoods. Nice to know that Star Wars helped a lot of people in their teenage years.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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  13. ImpreciseStormtrooper

    ImpreciseStormtrooper Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 8, 2016
    Yes. Perhaps 'girlfriends' should have been read down in my case to 'why don't I have them' as well. But yeah, as anakinfansince1983 posted being 'teenagers' pretty much covers it.

    Alcohol is legal from 18 down here. That would be a massive difference, I guess!
     
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  14. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    Pffft. I hung out with nerds. We talked Star Wars, and Indy, and Back to the Future, while we played Trivial Pursuit and snuck liquor from our parents' supplies.
     
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  15. The Bops

    The Bops Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 2012
    I was ten years-old when Jedi was released. So, I got to see the OT as a young boy, live. But, it all died after that. Partly because I hit puberty and discovered girls and Busch cans... I still loved the movies but never really mentioned it because it wasn't main-stream and I didn't think anyone else still liked Star Wars.

    When the Special Editions came out, I was ecstatic!!Star Wars was back! But only for a little while...

    Then the Prequels were announced! Now I could nerd out with pride! I didn't care that I was a 26 year-old man! New Star Wars!

    I'm sure you can all relate to the to time after ROTS. Now, we really thought it was over. But then...


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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  16. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 30, 2012
    The nerds I knew hated underage drinkers more than Ted Cruz hates Obama.
     
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  17. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    You're either a lot younger than me or hung out with a different set of nerds. Or both. :p
     
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  18. Zenwalker

    Zenwalker Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 18, 2015
    I was born in 1973, so I was mainly a teen during this time. For my Star Wars fix, I mostly read Star Wars stuff and rewatched the OT. I was also into comics and D&D during that time. There was Batman 1989, Indiana Jones, and some other cool movies. I am an avid sports fan, so I had that too.
     
  19. MOC Vober Dand

    MOC Vober Dand Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 6, 2004
    Similar experience to others in that those years were kind of transition from childhood to teenagehood for me, and other things came along to fill the SW-sized void. It never went away for me though. Always dear to my heart, even when not in the forefront of my mind.
     
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  20. Bobatron

    Bobatron Jedi Master star 4

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    Sep 3, 2012
    This thread is an example of why I won't get in touch with people I knew as kids from that time period. Interests change and they just aren't the same people. I tend to stay the same with the same interests and with nothing really drastically changing since then. I figure I was forgotten and considered a kernel of childhood like Star Wars was as they got older and did whatever else they did.

    Unlike others, transitioning from Star Wars wasn't a matter of maturity. I went from one toy collection to others, while also using my allowance to buy tapes and magazines, and there was only so much my mind could focus on wanting so much. The Ewok Village seemed to be the last big thing that I wanted and I got it, and I don't think I got another Star Wars playset or vehicle until the Y-Wing near the end of the following summer, and even then I barely played with the toys. In the middle of all that, for Christmas 1983, it wasn't a Star Wars toy that I wanted a lot but a tape player so I could play tapes. Sometime in there I completely forgot all about wanting the Imperial Shuttle and the Tatooine Skiff vehicles, which were only illustrations in the toy pamphlet and I don't have a memory of actually seeing them. I remember one night in late 1985 or early 1986 being in my room listening to the radio and just doing nothing really, and getting out my collector's case and looking through the figures. I specifically held one while getting lost in memories, kind of like in a commercial that played in movie theaters recently, and that's the earliest I can remember being nostalgic about something. I guess I'm lucky I managed to keep those toys through several moves despite not playing with them.
    That's just regarding the toys. I never felt differently about the movies, always considering them favorites. The aforementioned renaissance after going to Disney World and getting that sourcebook, left me desiring to see more of that Star Wars time and place. I wished I could see the complete inside of the Millennium Falcon. I wanted to see Ithor and Mon Calamari. The movies weren't enough. It's too bad the Expanded Universe stuff didn't happen a few years earlier. I might have really gotten into it.
     
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  21. MOC Vober Dand

    MOC Vober Dand Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 6, 2004
    I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn't say there was a lot of maturity going on either! Just a few more years of age.
     
  22. MatthewZ

    MatthewZ Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 21, 2003

    So you wish to know about the Dark Times?
     
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  23. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2009

    SW was only really 'dead' - or rather, in hibernation - between 1987 & 1991, when no new content was being produced for the mass market. Even during this time, West End Games was producing the SW RPG (which would provide a great deal of source material for the 1990s EU), but being such a niche market, it didn't really impact upon the public's view of this once omnipresent franchise.

    But yeah, following ROTJ it seemed like SW faded away. Rather than keeping Star Wars alive, the Ewok films, then the Droids and Ewoks cartoons, added to the perception of the franchise's decline, being such inconsequential material compared to the actual trilogy. Marvel ended the SW comic series in 1986, and the last major SW release of that time was 'Star Tours' at Disneyland in January of 1987.

    In early 1987 (March, I think), the SW fanclub newsletter, Bantha Tracks, published its final issue. It included a statement saying that GL was taking a 'break' from SW, but it was clearly just a way of saying that there simply wasn't anything on the horizon. Most of the articles in later issues of Bantha Tracks aren't even about SW, just other LFL productions - the SW fanclub then became the Lucasfilm fanclub, with Lucasfilm Magazine replacing Bantha Tracks (largely covering the Indiana Jones franchise). I think the cancellation of the largely irrelevant Bantha Tracks is the best point at which it could be said that the 'First Era' of Star Wars ended.

    Four years later, the SW franchise was revived with the publication of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, which was a massive hit, and it became clear that there was still plenty of interest in that galaxy far, far away. The rest is history, it's never gone away since, but in the late 1980s, it didn't feel like that. We didn't know that Star Wars would ever come back. There had been that promise of a new trilogy of films set before the OT (and even a trilogy set after), but once it became apparent that it wasn't happening any time soon, if ever, it simply felt like it was time to move on. For those in need of geekdom with accompanying action figures, Transformers, Voltron, M.A.S.K. and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were ready and waiting to fill the void. Then Batman exploded upon the world in 1989. And a lot of us simply grew up.

    For me, I all but forgot about SW between about 1986 and 1994, only ever acknowledging it as an embarrassing childhood obsession. A handful of factors led to that obsession being revived, but during that period, there simply wasn't any real reason to remain a fan.
     
  24. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I was 4 back in 1990, think I recall having several Star War toys. It's probably where my love for the franchise started.
     
  25. JediChipKelly

    JediChipKelly Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2016
    That's what my friend must of read! I remember it was early 1987 cause he told me in our 8th grade history class that Lucas was taking a break from SW and I remember feeling so deflated about it. I thought the new trilogy (PT or ST) would come out in 1988, as the rumor in 1983 was that Lucas was taking 2 years off and then would start shooting the new trilogy in 1985.

    I've asked him about this for 28 years and he couldn't remember where he read it and this had to be it! :)
     
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