CT When Star Wars Wasn't Popular

It was difficult to find Luke or Han action figures in the mid to late 80's, but I don't really ever remember it being uncool. I do remember going to a party when ROTJ made its television debut in 88 or 89. It was pretty popular with that crowd.

 

It was always cool as I remember. Funnily enough it feels less cool now with folk hating on Disney and saying how rubbish it's all become.

 

I actually remember SW being pretty popular in the 90s. We had the Zahn books and then some of the best computer games ever made in X-wing, Tie-Fighter and the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series of games. (RIP Lucasarts)

I had video tapes of all the movies that my grandparents recorded when they were on HBO.

 

Those Zahn books back in 91 seemed to be the start of the resurgence, but the preceding 6 or 7 years were really barren in terms of its popularity. The buzz from 91 onwards was strange to experience because it was like a rising tide before the prequels came out.

 

yeah between about '85 to early 90s it wasn't in the air much .

I well remember about '86 they were selling off the action figures at 25p each , and I didn't even bother buying them (there's millions of 'em , they'll never be worth anything) .

it seemed to me that Clerks 1994 was the first thing in quite a while that had referenced SW.

 

It's not so much that Star Wars wasn't popular, it's that George Lucas/Lucasfilm shut down the Star Wars machine. It's not like the fanbase all the sudden dried up in 1985. People LOVED Star Wars even in the "dark times."

 

I was born in the mid 80s, I remember my parents lamenting that they couldn't find any Star Wars toys for me when I was a kid. Little did they know it would come roaring back in about 10 years... I do remember I had the 1978 Luke and Vader action figures, but they were missing their lightsabers. I also had the top half of a Jabba figure. The torso snapped into the tail and could swivel around. I found the severed torso at a second hand store and thought it was the neatest thing. lol The main thing my parents were able to find for me were Star Wars model kits. I was way too young to be putting these things together....my closet is full of poorly assembled, glue-encrusted X-Wings, TIE fighters, star destroyers, snowspeeders, etc.

I remember most kids my age were fans of Star Wars. I was probably a bit more enthusiastic about the trilogy than most. My interest in Star Wars dipped a bit as I got older and got interested in other franchises like Star Trek, Godzilla, Power Rangers. I remember kind of getting back into Star Wars when the special editions were released in theaters, and the prequels were announced. The special editions came out around the same time that my family got the internet, and that's when I discovered the online fan community and started learning about the novels, comics, and video games. I didn't really know very many other kids at school that were reading the EU material, so I mostly learned about that through websites. I never got super into the novels, but I do remember reading some of the short story anthologies, as well as Truce at Bakura and Shadows of the Empire.

But yeah, it was definitely a different time. I remember being aware that the prequels were coming, though I don't remember exactly when I first heard about them. I'm guessing something must have been announced around 1996. I never could have imagined that Star Wars would become as ever present as it is today.

 

No doubt fans were still fans. But the franchise seemed to disappear from the public eye once the Droids and Ewoks stuff wound down. I think it became uncool the public eye for a short while. Since 1991 Star Wars has been ever present in terms of merchandise, comics, books, which escalated once the prequels came out with more films, cartoons and TV series. From probably 85-91 it was nothing like that.

 

I remember when ITV broadcast ROJ the first time in the late 80s on some random afternoon about 5pm , not even peak time.

 

By the same token I also felt the VHS rental release of Jedi didn't get much fanfare or attention when that came out in 85 or 86. The buzz surrounding SW had diminished a lot in the late 80's.

 

One other thing to consider, how much sci-fi was around from 85-90?
ANH caused a lot of other sci-fi films, some copies of SW, others like Star Trek, rode on the popularity.

But from 85 and onwards, what sci-fi films did we have? There were the Trek films but they were not super big in the US and not big at all overseas.
You had Aliens, Predator, The Terminator, Alien Nation but those films were not epic space fantasy like SW.

You had stuff on TV, Star Trek, TNG was on but it only got big in the 90's, the first two seasons struggled a bit.
There was V the series and probably some other stuff.

But I was around at the time and looking for sci-fi and there was not a lot of it.

In the 90's TNG go big, we got Deep Space Nine later on, Babylon 5, Star Gate and Independence Day at the movies.

So Star Wars faded a bit, due to not that much new material but I think sci-fi as a genre also faded a bit.

Bye for now.
The Guarding Dark

 

I remember having trouble finding a rental copy of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK when it was first released in 1984, but had no problem with RETURN OF THE JEDI in 1986.

STAR WARS was pretty much dead by 1987 (tenth anniversary). The last film in the trilogy was released on home video the previous year, and the KENNER toy line ended in 1985.

 

it was also that transition period between optical and digital FX . I remember Denis Muren saying on Innerspace that they'd gone as far as they could with models and opticals , we'd started to do CG but it was a very slow drip at first until T2 and Jurassic Park.

 

I remember having a ROTJ poster on my wall in 8th grade and my friends making fun of me for it. Maybe it was the age, but it seemed once I got in high school SW wasn't cool anymore. That is my personal experience anyway. Stuff like comic books, Lord of the Rings and videogames had not really yet entered the mainstream like now. Maybe the SW mania of 77-83 had finally died down. Or maybe it's just the fact that high school is a brutal age.

 

Well - as much as I love Star Wars, at least the prequels, Rogue One and of course the originals, its fair to say that its getting to be a bit much. If Disney would have made better films(they are OK, but I hate TROS) it might have helped. But it does seem like overload and that could be the problem. Three more movies, endless TV shows, cartoons, more and more backstories, another couple TV shows, a few more animated shows, and on and on. Never mind the also vast library of comics, novels, video games and anything else Im forgetting.

Sure, I watch some of the shows and they are fine. But the cool factor can take a hit when there's just too much of something. I dunno. Just a theory.

 

I don't disagree.

 

Yes there is a lot out there to look over. It can be overwhelming, but it's best to usually concentrate on what's most important to you. In this time period, it's a time to reflect on the OT. The greatest trilogy of all time. Also the time where Lucas Arts continued growing without new movies. Who can forget West End Games? A pillar in carrying SW forward into the 90s. I never watched Droids/Ewoks as I went from 7-10 in mid 80s so they didn't appeal. Why oh why didn't I go buy out those clearanced figures for $1 or less!!! Man I would buy the whole bushel now!
Video games brought the 90s closer to SW and then the best thing in the time period of '86-'93 ..the Thrawn books! I wasn't into reading at this time but have a real appreciation in what they meant to SW. I'm reading Heir to Empire now.

 

I was at university in the UK from 85-88. Star Wars wasn't big in the mainstream - there wasn't the levels of mechandise previously available, but it wasn't 'not cool'. I happened to be into films and roleplaying, where SW was still very evident and popular. The release of the RPG was a big thing - at last, an official Star Wars rpg ! Why had it taken so long ? And all the wonderful source books that told us so much about the worlds of Star Wars.
I was still heavily involved with the student run cinema even after graduation. For Film Unit's 40th anniversary in 1989, we wanted to do something really special. The decision was quite simple, to show the Star Wars triple bill. We ran the trilogy on 2 consective nights and it was a big success. Star Wars may not have been mainstream by then, but it was still popular.
If we'd wanted to show the trilogy the following year, it would not have been possible. Lucasfilm were withdrawing the films from exhibition in cinemas. We didn't really know then, but this was in preparation for the special editions. I guess they wanted to create a demand for Star Wars in the cinema. We could get Star Wars and Jedi without a problem, but Empire was no longer in distribution. We had to call Lucasfilm directly to plead our case. They said we could show it (for free) if we could find a print, and then ship it across the Atlantic to them.
We did manage to get a copy from ITV, which had a spare, and worked out a deal with the Museum of Film and TV in Bradford. Film Unit showed the trilogy, the prints went to Bradford, who showed it, then we shared the costs of shipping the print of ESB to the states.
So the spring of 1989 was the last time that the trilogy was shown in its original form in the UK.

 

Cool story. It almost sounds like your ESB print was like the stolen Death Star plans, and Lucasfilm was the Empire.

 

Then who was the athletic Darth Vader?

 

Star wars had died pretty much in about 1985 when the focus went to other properties such as transformers which had started in 84. At least for this fan. I had forgot about star wars for years until I saw Star wars magazine(now Insider) in a newsagents and decided to do my College Communications presentation on Darth Vader. At this stage Heir to the empire was out about 4 to 5 years so I started reading them. The Special Editions were great. Seeing ANH in the cinema was amazing. Then TPM and the rest is history.

 

no , I believe you're wrong there . The last time was in '94 , it was a place near London . I went .

 

Maybe someone tracked down another print of ESB then. I know we had a hard time finding one, and only got permission to show it if we shipped it back to Lucasfilm.

 

Star Wars has always been popular. Literally always.

 

oh it wasn't easy , as I remember Gary Kurtz helped out (he lived here throughout the 90's ) . I met him a coupla times , lovely guy , just the opposite of the cliche film producer , got his autograph , had a picture taken with him - and absolutely free !