Originally published at: Watch this 1977 TV commercial for Star Wars focusing on siblings Luke and Leia's "forbidden love" | Boing Boing
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Further evidence, were any needed, that the brother-sister thing was decided after IV was already out.
BTW I recently learned on Reddit that before acting in Episode IV - A New Hope, Mark Hamill had never seen a single Star Wars movie.
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this romance of the future
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Of course the other pervy bit is that Han and Chewy like to watch. Nerf Herder indeed.
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That ad did not age well. But probably is big in Japan.
Is that strictly necessary?
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The PG tag at the end is worded in a way I don’t recall seeing before. It says: “Some material may not be suitable for pre-teenagers.”
That’s interesting (to me anyway) because 1977 is before the introduction of the PG-13 rating in 1984. (The first PG-13 movie was Red Dawn, but PG-rated Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was likely the impetus for creating a level between PG and R.)
So the wording suggests that Star Wars would have been rated PG-13 had the rating existed in 1977. That seems odd by today’s standards: sci-fi/action violence, no blood, no nudity, and no bad words. I wonder what impact that would have made on the Star Wars phenomenon. If it weren’t for friends’ parents dropping off station wagons full of 10 year old “pre-teenagers” at a matinee showing of Star Wars (again!), I might have completely missed out.
Two years later, Paramount had to beg the MPAA to boost Star Trek: The Motion Picture’s G-rating to PG.
Star Wars also almost got a G rating as well.
They added blood to the dismemberment scene with Obi Wan and Ponda Baba to try to edge it up to PG. If that didn’t work, they had extra footage that included decapitation along with the arm.
I can’t be the only kid scarred a little from the G Rated Watership Down.
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I wonder if this ad is fake. I never saw it (not saying that proves anything but I watched every Star Wars ad that came on tv) but mainly the voiceover seems wrong for the era.
I need stronger proof than an ad that says “romance of the future” for a tale from “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”
Just going to point out 1977 was when George RR Martin published his first book.
See also Alan Dean Foster’s 1978 Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, which was the first official Star Wars spin off novel, in which Luke & Leia are implied to be lovers. Foster had written the official novelization of Star Wars (even if it was credited to Lucas on the cover) and had been given permission by Lucas to publish his own sequel, so at least as late as 1978, Lucas hadn’t decided on Luke & Leia being siblings.
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I vaguely remember that, and some bits that were titillating to my 13-year old brain. I also remember the part where Luke refocused his saber to a needle point in order to break a lock, and was disappointed that capability never manifested again.
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Also weren’t some scenes from Splinter worked into Empire? Like where Luke’s face is in Darth Vader’s helmet, wasn’t that from Splinter?
Maybe… I do recall Darth losing his hand in Splinter.
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