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The Importance of 1997 · Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to regret this.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the NED Party.
0:06
Speaker 1: Hi.
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Speaker 3: This is Nick and Astasu, story editor on Star Wars,
0:10
Speaker 3: the Clone Wars and Star Wars bad Batch and you
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Speaker 3: are listening to aggressive negotiations.
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Speaker 4: Well, hello, and welcome to aggressive negotiations. Good Star Wars
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Speaker 4: podcast here on the Nerd Party network that brings you
0:32
Speaker 4: all the delights of the galaxy far far away that
0:37
Speaker 4: you just can't get anywhere else.
0:39
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here. I'm just one of
0:41
Speaker 2: your hosts, Matthew Rushing and with me the Jedi Master
0:44
Speaker 2: who's been putting up with me for four hundred and
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Speaker 2: eleven episodes, or as Bilbo would say, four hundred what
0:51
Speaker 2: does you say? Eleven d I can't remember anyway, that's
0:55
Speaker 2: not important. What's important is John Mills.
0:58
Speaker 1: Yes, that is important, and John Mills is important, at
1:01
Speaker 1: least he likes to think. So that's the name I
1:03
Speaker 1: have gone by, you know, so many years. I usually
1:06
Speaker 1: go by Kessel Junkie. That's me. That's me, that's me.
1:08
Speaker 1: But Matt I am thrilled to be here, as I
1:11
Speaker 1: always am. The reason we've been going for so long
1:13
Speaker 1: with this show is because Star Wars is the gift
1:16
Speaker 1: that keeps on giving. It just keeps giving us topics
1:18
Speaker 1: to talk about, which is crazy because we're nearing fifty
1:22
Speaker 1: years of this legendary franchise being out there, and we
1:26
Speaker 1: don't talk about you know, what they're doing at Disney
1:29
Speaker 1: Parks or random speculation type of stuff. We talk about
1:32
Speaker 1: the deep dive stuff. And there's still enough for us
1:35
Speaker 1: to keep going. That is the amazing thing.
1:38
Speaker 2: Well, John, we would love if people would join us
1:41
Speaker 2: on this amazing journey and help make sure that it
1:44
Speaker 2: keeps happening, you know. I mean one of the best
1:46
Speaker 2: ways to do that is with reviews on places like
1:50
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts or Spotify, plus the nerd party dot com,
1:54
Speaker 2: where you can see all the shows that the network
1:56
Speaker 2: has previously done and currently doing as well. Check all
2:01
Speaker 2: that out. But you know, John, I was thinking the
2:04
Speaker 2: other day I thrown to you before we started recording,
2:08
Speaker 2: and you're like, Hey, that sounds like a good one.
2:09
Speaker 2: Let's do that. And you know, I sampled that because
2:13
Speaker 2: you know, those words don't really happen very often. But
2:16
Speaker 2: that's not important. What is important is this is uh
2:22
Speaker 2: so recently an art company, poster company, Bottleneck, just released
2:28
Speaker 2: the Drew stres and art for the special editions, and
2:33
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this idea as to why the
2:38
Speaker 2: special additions matter, and so I wanted to throw that
2:42
Speaker 2: to you just as an opening salvo. Why do you
2:46
Speaker 2: think the special editions matter and are important in the
2:50
Speaker 2: Star Wars Cannon?
2:51
Speaker 1: Well, I think they're incredibly important culturally, more than anything else,
2:55
Speaker 1: because of the fact that, let's set aside any of
2:59
Speaker 1: the changes discussions, it's just gotten so tiring. They are
3:02
Speaker 1: what they are, They're there, we live with them, whatever.
3:06
Speaker 1: But culturally, what's important is it's the only film series
3:12
Speaker 1: of longstanding that I think has had the courage to
3:18
Speaker 1: bring that source material and try to update it in
3:21
Speaker 1: some way to make it more relevant for modern audiences. Again,
3:26
Speaker 1: regardless of what you think of the changes themselves at all.
3:29
Speaker 1: We've talked about those in the past. The fact that
3:32
Speaker 1: Lucas was willing to take his beloved works and say,
3:36
Speaker 1: you know, this looks dated, and so I'm gonna try
3:41
Speaker 1: to update this a bit so that it speaks a
3:43
Speaker 1: little more to modern audiences. That's really smart, because we
3:48
Speaker 1: can live with that text and we love it over time,
3:51
Speaker 1: but audiences change. We talk about this is why movies change.
3:55
Speaker 1: This is why all that stuff changes. And Lucas was
3:58
Speaker 1: willing to come in there and say, you know what,
4:00
Speaker 1: but I'm going to meet the audience now at their
4:02
Speaker 1: level and give them a little refresher course to hype
4:06
Speaker 1: up for the next salvo that's coming out, which was
4:08
Speaker 1: a couple of years later. In terms of the Star
4:10
Speaker 1: Wars canon, I think there are actually some changes made
4:15
Speaker 1: that are important with the storytelling and like making it
4:18
Speaker 1: a more cohesive story overall, which I know enrages a
4:21
Speaker 1: lot of people. But if you're asking for my opening comments,
4:24
Speaker 1: my opening arguments about why the special editions matter, that's
4:27
Speaker 1: it right there. I mean, what about you though, because
4:29
Speaker 1: like we do have a little bit of an age
4:30
Speaker 1: difference between us, so we came at these from a
4:33
Speaker 1: different perspective. Why do you think they're important?
4:35
Speaker 2: The thing that always sticks with me is the marketing
4:40
Speaker 2: campaign and the way in which they went about getting
4:46
Speaker 2: people hyped for the fact that these were coming out.
4:50
Speaker 2: And you know, as they're doing that, you know, this
4:53
Speaker 2: is the time period which you know, I am in
4:57
Speaker 2: late high school and I have the ability to go
5:02
Speaker 2: to the movies, you know, by myself or with friends
5:07
Speaker 2: and so I'm doing that, and I'm seeing a lot
5:09
Speaker 2: of movies, and so when I see the trailer for
5:14
Speaker 2: Star Wars' Special Edition, the whole marketing campaign is literally
5:19
Speaker 2: aimed at me. In my generation, that generation of jen
5:25
Speaker 2: X that did not get to see the Star Wars
5:27
Speaker 2: films in the theater, they just missed them, right, And
5:31
Speaker 2: the only way we've been able to watch Star Wars
5:35
Speaker 2: has been on television. And it doesn't matter how big
5:39
Speaker 2: a television you have, the experience of seeing Star Wars
5:43
Speaker 2: was meant to be seen on a big screen. And
5:46
Speaker 2: it didn't matter how big the television was anyway, because
5:50
Speaker 2: for most of that it was in a pan and
5:52
Speaker 2: scan version, so you weren't even getting to see the
5:55
Speaker 2: whole thing.
5:56
Speaker 1: Right, So heartbreaking exactly, you know.
5:58
Speaker 2: In fact, I remember when and they finally released the
6:03
Speaker 2: letter boxed versions of the films, you know, on VHS,
6:07
Speaker 2: and it was such a big deal. And so when
6:11
Speaker 2: the trailer said for an entire generation who's only seen
6:15
Speaker 2: Star Wars or the small screen, like that was me
6:20
Speaker 2: and I had fallen in love with Star Wars on
6:26
Speaker 2: the small screen, and then that love of Star Wars
6:31
Speaker 2: had been nurtured by random friends who still had Star
6:35
Speaker 2: Wars toys from Return of the Jedi, you know that
6:38
Speaker 2: were all you know, JANKI, and you know books that
6:42
Speaker 2: I was reading by you know, Timothy's on and others.
6:47
Speaker 2: But I had not gotten to have the experience to
6:50
Speaker 2: which had galvanized an entire generation into moviegoers with Star Wars.
6:57
Speaker 2: And so when it came out in ninety seven, that's
7:02
Speaker 2: I think its legacy is that it recaptured the imaginations
7:08
Speaker 2: of fans who had seen it, but it also recaptured
7:13
Speaker 2: the imagination of fans who had only gotten to see
7:17
Speaker 2: it on a television screen, and it brought it to
7:20
Speaker 2: life in a way that it was always meant to
7:22
Speaker 2: be seen. And like you said, it then sets the
7:27
Speaker 2: stage for the prequels and for your excitement to be
7:32
Speaker 2: at a level you couldn't imagine, because you know, if
7:37
Speaker 2: they had never released them again and then you went
7:40
Speaker 2: into episode one, it would still be huge, right, But
7:45
Speaker 2: I would argue that I don't think it would be
7:48
Speaker 2: as big if fans hadn't gotten to experience the original
7:53
Speaker 2: trilogy on the big screen, back to back to back,
7:57
Speaker 2: so that by the time ninety nine came around, you
8:01
Speaker 2: knew what you were going to be getting right, you
8:04
Speaker 2: understood the impact of Star Wars on the big screen
8:09
Speaker 2: and seeing it on the big screen, and now we're
8:11
Speaker 2: going to have a whole new trilogy to which we
8:13
Speaker 2: were going to be able to be those fans that
8:17
Speaker 2: you know, got to stand in line and got to
8:19
Speaker 2: see those films at mid nine. Yeah, be able to
8:22
Speaker 2: tell those I mean, I think that's the thing that really,
8:27
Speaker 2: you know, catapulted this in my mind as to being
8:33
Speaker 2: such an important milestone for the series.
8:35
Speaker 1: It definitely moved everything forward in the sense that the
8:39
Speaker 1: movies that the prequels were prequels of were no longer
8:44
Speaker 1: distant memories. Right like you see it in the theater.
8:47
Speaker 1: It's now current, it's now recent, it's now right there.
8:50
Speaker 1: You're now seeing something that's following off something that you
8:53
Speaker 1: saw in the movie theater two years ago. It does
8:55
Speaker 1: have a recency effect. It's very valid. What would you
8:59
Speaker 1: say about the changes, because that was that was controversial
9:03
Speaker 1: back when the special editions came out. Do you think
9:07
Speaker 1: that the changes were still helpful? Do you think that
9:12
Speaker 1: they were a positive for the special editions or do
9:16
Speaker 1: you think they should have just released them as they
9:18
Speaker 1: were and walked away.
9:20
Speaker 2: You know, I would argue that the changes helped people
9:23
Speaker 2: understand what was going to be coming in the prequels
9:28
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways. You know, I think what
9:32
Speaker 2: a lot of those changes actually do. You know, I
9:36
Speaker 2: think of a new Hope and the way in which
9:40
Speaker 2: Star Wars, you know that most ice Ley's expanded and
9:43
Speaker 2: things like that that actually kind of helped give things
9:47
Speaker 2: a grander scale. And I think those are the type
9:52
Speaker 2: of things to which actually set the stage well for
9:56
Speaker 2: the prequels, because the prequels are a huge, grand scale, right,
10:00
Speaker 2: you know, you think about all the worlds we visit
10:03
Speaker 2: on in the Phantom Menace, just the scope that you
10:08
Speaker 2: get is going to be massive.
10:11
Speaker 1: Uh.
10:11
Speaker 2: And I think that the special editions actually help create
10:16
Speaker 2: that scope and scale in a way that is beneficial
10:19
Speaker 2: to those who are going to go into the prequels.
10:23
Speaker 2: Uh And and so you know, I mean for me personally,
10:29
Speaker 2: it had no impact in the sense of being a
10:33
Speaker 2: bad thing. It was only a good thing for me,
10:35
Speaker 2: you know, I had you know, and we've talked about
10:38
Speaker 2: it before. I don't have any issues with with any
10:41
Speaker 2: of the changes that George made, if you you know,
10:44
Speaker 2: so I can see there's a whole other side of
10:49
Speaker 2: fandom where that could have been a deleterious effect in
10:52
Speaker 2: the sense of and we do have to talk about
10:55
Speaker 2: this in the sense that the changes for the Special
10:59
Speaker 2: Edition created this, you know, underworld of fandom that was
11:07
Speaker 2: worse than level thirteen thirteen, where people were able to
11:11
Speaker 2: then say, you know, George Lucas ruined my childhood. And
11:18
Speaker 2: I think that sadly began with the Special Editions and
11:23
Speaker 2: those changes and fans reacting badly to it, you know,
11:28
Speaker 2: because and here's the big difference, right, you show a
11:32
Speaker 2: kid the Special Edition, they don't care why because they.
11:36
Speaker 1: Don't know what That's very true.
11:37
Speaker 2: They don't know any different.
11:38
Speaker 5: And if those kids who grew up and were like
11:41
Speaker 5: George Lucas ruined my childhood saw the Special Editions in
11:46
Speaker 5: the theater, they wouldn't have cared either. And the same
11:51
Speaker 5: way the kids didn't care about the prequels because they
11:54
Speaker 5: loved the prequels.
11:55
Speaker 2: That was their Star Wars.
11:57
Speaker 1: I agree in the sense that fans came out of
12:02
Speaker 1: the woodwork because they they got obsessed with the particulars
12:09
Speaker 1: and we had all seen and myself, I'm guilty of
12:14
Speaker 1: this too. We'd all seen Star Wars more than five
12:16
Speaker 1: hundred times. Yeah, to the point where we still know
12:20
Speaker 1: all of the flaws in the movie that you know,
12:23
Speaker 1: whether it's a wire that's exposed, or you know, something
12:26
Speaker 1: that shouldn't be in a shot, or something that matted wrong,
12:29
Speaker 1: or something, you know, whatever, because it's so familiar, because
12:33
Speaker 1: it's so burned in our skulls. When anything deviates from that,
12:38
Speaker 1: it's jarring. It's immediately jarring. So to your point, yeah,
12:41
Speaker 1: my kids they saw what we would essentially consider special
12:44
Speaker 1: editions whatever. To them, it's they don't notice anything, nothing's
12:50
Speaker 1: wrong with this. But to me, yeah, I mean when
12:54
Speaker 1: Gredo fired first, I remember making fun of it when
12:58
Speaker 1: we went to the Wendy's afterwards, you know, to like
13:01
Speaker 1: all the fans to talk about it. I was like, man,
13:03
Speaker 1: I love that. That was great. I loved all those things,
13:05
Speaker 1: but man, that grudo firing effect kind of sucked. Like
13:08
Speaker 1: and that's my honest opinion in the ninety seven version
13:12
Speaker 1: was it was not good. And unfortunately I think they've
13:14
Speaker 1: now like over over corrected in the four K. But
13:18
Speaker 1: at the same time, the end result of the scene
13:21
Speaker 1: is the same, the movie is the same. They didn't
13:27
Speaker 1: change whether the Death Star blew up. Like, these are
13:30
Speaker 1: all cosmetic things where if I saw any other movie
13:35
Speaker 1: that had an imperfection, it's not like I would just
13:38
Speaker 1: be like, good day, sir, and I'd walk out. No,
13:40
Speaker 1: it's just, oh yeah, they could have done that. They
13:43
Speaker 1: could have fixed that. There's no such thing as a
13:44
Speaker 1: perfect film. It just doesn't exist. Well, okay, there are
13:49
Speaker 1: a couple perfect films. But you know, that's a point
13:52
Speaker 1: of debate to begin with, because so much goes into that.
13:56
Speaker 1: But I think that it is a combination of that
14:02
Speaker 1: what you're saying, that the older fans fixated on the
14:05
Speaker 1: particulars and got really nasty about it really quickly. Newer
14:11
Speaker 1: fans or kids seeing it for the first time, didn't
14:14
Speaker 1: know any different, didn't know any better. Still loved the film.
14:19
Speaker 1: That's the point. They still loved the film, and it
14:21
Speaker 1: was speaking. It adjusted the visual language in such a
14:24
Speaker 1: way that it spoke it to them the way that
14:27
Speaker 1: they understood it, which I think was very smart on
14:31
Speaker 1: Lucas's part, because these were no longer archival things that
14:35
Speaker 1: your dad liked. These were things that you liked on
14:38
Speaker 1: your own terms too, And we can shelve any of
14:42
Speaker 1: the further deeper discussions about whether every version should be
14:45
Speaker 1: officially really bad, bah bah blah whatever, whatever, whatever. But yeah,
14:50
Speaker 1: I think that additionally some of the the impact of
14:57
Speaker 1: getting Star Wars back in the brain. If you think
15:00
Speaker 1: about it, the Special Editions really cap off what they
15:05
Speaker 1: had been working on for years leading up to the prequels.
15:10
Speaker 1: The entire nineteen nineties was George Lucas and Howard Roffman
15:15
Speaker 1: and Lucasfilm doing a giant social experiment to see if
15:19
Speaker 1: they could get away with hyping the audience up for
15:22
Speaker 1: the better part of a decade. We had the books
15:25
Speaker 1: come out They're still interest. We had the books continue cool.
15:29
Speaker 1: We had a new toy line come out. We had
15:31
Speaker 1: new releases of the movies. We had Shadows of the Empire,
15:34
Speaker 1: the movie without a Movie. We had the Special Editions.
15:37
Speaker 1: This is all building up to that point. The entire
15:41
Speaker 1: decade of the nineties is simply Lucas figuring out how
15:45
Speaker 1: he can push an audience around and his marketing department.
15:49
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous how good they they were. It hurts my
15:52
Speaker 1: heart to look back at the nineties and the way
15:55
Speaker 1: they manipulated all of us in a positive way to
15:58
Speaker 1: get up to the prequels and the special editions being
16:01
Speaker 1: along the way on that. And then I look at
16:03
Speaker 1: the way they're marketing Mandalorian and Grogu and I'm like, great,
16:07
Speaker 1: we finally got a trailer officially released and radio silence
16:11
Speaker 1: ever since the hell man like look to the past
16:17
Speaker 1: and learn from that, you know.
16:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think you're speaking into that something
16:23
Speaker 2: that a lot of people have noticed, right, which is
16:30
Speaker 2: these franchises seem to not know how to run themselves anymore.
16:36
Speaker 2: And Star Wars is a big part of that problem
16:39
Speaker 2: as well. You're either going too fast or you're going
16:44
Speaker 2: at a galacial speed. And Lucas understood, you know with
16:49
Speaker 2: the original trilogy, right, if you're going to do this
16:53
Speaker 2: sequel thing, it's got to be at least every three years, right,
16:56
Speaker 2: And how you build momentum in that is, you know,
17:01
Speaker 2: you think back to the original trilogy, you would release
17:04
Speaker 2: the the previous film in the theater again. You'd to
17:08
Speaker 2: do a re release, right, which is fascinating because you
17:11
Speaker 2: know Avatar is doing the same thing right now in
17:13
Speaker 2: theaters with the way of Water coming back into the
17:16
Speaker 2: theaters to get ready for the next film. I think,
17:19
Speaker 2: you know, Fire of Ashes or whatever it's called. I don't,
17:22
Speaker 2: I can't remember. But and so and I mean, and
17:28
Speaker 2: this is the thing that I'm with you in this sense, like,
17:34
Speaker 2: look at what happens every time they re release a
17:36
Speaker 2: Star Wars film, you know, for an anniversary. It's a
17:43
Speaker 2: huge hit, and it makes twenty million dollars in a weekend.
17:47
Speaker 2: It's like, films these days can't even open to twenty
17:50
Speaker 2: million dollars. But Star Wars, a film that we've all
17:54
Speaker 2: seen five hundred times, can come out in the theater
17:57
Speaker 2: again and we will all go see it, and yep,
18:00
Speaker 2: it will make twenty million dollars. And you know it's
18:04
Speaker 2: and then the weird thing is they release it and
18:07
Speaker 2: they only give it a week. And so I am
18:10
Speaker 2: with you in this sense that it seems as though
18:13
Speaker 2: they have lost the ability to understand how to market
18:17
Speaker 2: to people in a way that's interesting, and how to
18:20
Speaker 2: release things in a way that helps build towards a
18:25
Speaker 2: momentous goal. And this is the other problem with Hollywood too.
18:29
Speaker 2: I mean, they keep stopping themselves with strikes and things
18:32
Speaker 2: like that, and so that you know, you got to
18:34
Speaker 2: wait three, four or five years between episodes of a
18:37
Speaker 2: season of television. You know, by the point by the
18:42
Speaker 2: time you get you know, seriously, by the time we
18:44
Speaker 2: get to Ahsoka season two, it'll be three and a
18:47
Speaker 2: half years since the first season came out.
18:50
Speaker 1: Absolutely abominable, you know, and I'm sorry it is. It's abominable.
18:55
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, Like, I can't, I get it. Everybody's
18:59
Speaker 1: got a lot going on. Everybody wants it to be
19:02
Speaker 1: great and creative and all of those sorts of things.
19:04
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you know, I'm not I'm
19:08
Speaker 1: basically just saying you're absolutely right. Like Lucas, you sit
19:12
Speaker 1: down and you're like, this is the cadence. We're going
19:14
Speaker 1: to do it, and we're going to release it and
19:16
Speaker 1: we're going to get it out there. And there you go,
19:18
Speaker 1: there's your timeline. That's what we do. And yeah, I'm
19:24
Speaker 1: just I'm agreeing with you very very hard right now.
19:26
Speaker 2: And even that too, I mean, the genius of that
19:30
Speaker 2: was you still had built in time to make sure
19:35
Speaker 2: you weren't over rushing things. You know. It was kind
19:38
Speaker 2: of like the goldilocks of the release schedule. It was
19:40
Speaker 2: just right, you had enough time to see what the
19:43
Speaker 2: reaction was to the film, you know, kind of think
19:45
Speaker 2: about it, make any changes that you wanted, and then
19:47
Speaker 2: dive into pre production and you know all that stuff.
19:50
Speaker 2: And I think this is also something that we've kind
19:54
Speaker 2: of talked about many times, but I think it bears
19:57
Speaker 2: repeating here, especially when thinking about this special additions and
20:01
Speaker 2: you mentioning the fact that this was all a coordinated
20:04
Speaker 2: effort to get people psyched in the end for the
20:09
Speaker 2: prequel series. When you have one person at the top
20:16
Speaker 2: who's not only created the thing, but makes all the
20:20
Speaker 2: decisions about the thing, I think that is the place
20:25
Speaker 2: where it just makes a world of difference. And when
20:29
Speaker 2: you run things by committee, it becomes much more difficult
20:33
Speaker 2: to get things made in a proper time, with proper
20:38
Speaker 2: thought and care, because you're either again you're going too fast,
20:43
Speaker 2: or you're going at a speed that it's like molasses
20:47
Speaker 2: that's cold comes out of the jar faster, you know.
20:50
Speaker 2: And that is this the hard place that we've come to,
20:55
Speaker 2: because you're having to run things by too many people.
20:59
Speaker 2: And that's the beauty of having that one person who
21:04
Speaker 2: created the thing, because George already knew where the story
21:08
Speaker 2: was going. He even had you know where he wanted
21:10
Speaker 2: to go for seven, eight and nine, And so when
21:14
Speaker 2: you know those things, it makes it much easier than
21:18
Speaker 2: to be able to plan accordingly. And I think what
21:24
Speaker 2: it goes to show is that sometimes necessity is the
21:35
Speaker 2: best way to get story out of people who are
21:38
Speaker 2: kind of making it up as they go along.
21:40
Speaker 1: Right.
21:41
Speaker 2: You think of seasons of television previously, where you got
21:44
Speaker 2: twenty two to twenty six episodes a season, you got
21:48
Speaker 2: two months off and then you're right back in, and
21:51
Speaker 2: then you're right back in the writer's room and you
21:54
Speaker 2: got to hit it again, and you just got to
21:57
Speaker 2: keep going because you got to get those shows out
21:59
Speaker 2: because they got to be on time for the release
22:02
Speaker 2: schedule that's already set up. And so there seems to be,
22:06
Speaker 2: you know, something that's just kind of missing in that.
22:08
Speaker 2: And I think the Special editions what made them special
22:13
Speaker 2: truly was the way in which they galvanized an entire generation,
22:20
Speaker 2: myself and all those like me to be primed to
22:26
Speaker 2: be on the edge of their seat for the prequel trilogy,
22:31
Speaker 2: but also to fall back in love with Star Wars
22:36
Speaker 2: because we finally got to see it the way it
22:38
Speaker 2: was meant to be seen. And that's something I don't
22:41
Speaker 2: think you can actually put a price tag on That's
22:45
Speaker 2: something that I think you know this. You know, these
22:49
Speaker 2: subsequent generations are starting to not understand what it's what
22:54
Speaker 2: it means to be able to see something in this
22:56
Speaker 2: communal space that like well, brings things together.
23:00
Speaker 1: This is the one thing and sort of like my
23:02
Speaker 1: final point that I'll tack onto that you're right about
23:04
Speaker 1: the communal space thing, how key it is getting everybody
23:08
Speaker 1: back into the theater together. Experiencing this reminds us it's
23:13
Speaker 1: the big storytelling thing. Streaming wasn't even a thing at
23:18
Speaker 1: that point when the Special Editions came out, obviously, but
23:23
Speaker 1: people will go see something for the communal aspect of it,
23:28
Speaker 1: and I think the special Editions proved it back then.
23:31
Speaker 1: And then when you have that right sort of zeitgeist,
23:37
Speaker 1: when you have something like the Barbenheimer thing we went through,
23:42
Speaker 1: how many people who normally wouldn't go see a movie
23:45
Speaker 1: like Oppenheimer saw it because it was the cultural thing
23:48
Speaker 1: to do. You were supposed to go see Barbie and
23:51
Speaker 1: you were supposed to see Oppenheimer. You were supposed to
23:54
Speaker 1: see both. Or if you were a curmudgeontally old fool
23:57
Speaker 1: like myself who's a diehard Nolan fan. You went to
23:59
Speaker 1: see Oppenheimer and then eventually your family forced you to
24:02
Speaker 1: watch Barbie, but you still understood the cultural thing. And
24:07
Speaker 1: I think that there is a place for something like
24:11
Speaker 1: the Special Editions to come back and do these re releases,
24:14
Speaker 1: because I think these re releases, like you said that
24:17
Speaker 1: they did of the prequels recently, these anniversary re releases,
24:21
Speaker 1: they showed that the appetite is still there. People still
24:25
Speaker 1: respect that the movie space is something new and special
24:28
Speaker 1: and different, and even recently, and this is going to
24:30
Speaker 1: sound crazy to draw a comparison like this, the movie
24:33
Speaker 1: theater was not full, but regal cinemas. While we're recording this,
24:40
Speaker 1: they have their thirty one Screams in thirty one Days,
24:43
Speaker 1: where every day of the month of October they're releasing old, classic,
24:50
Speaker 1: beloved horror movies from the eighties, from the nineties. For
24:55
Speaker 1: the release in Scream, I saw Friday the Thirteenth, Part
24:58
Speaker 1: three in three D in the movie theater. I was
25:01
Speaker 1: way too young to have seen Front of the Thirteenth
25:03
Speaker 1: Part three and three T in the movie theater when
25:05
Speaker 1: it came out in nineteen eighty two, but I took
25:08
Speaker 1: my kid to go see it because it was like,
25:11
Speaker 1: it was exactly like the Special Editions. I was like,
25:14
Speaker 1: this is this is You're going to get to experience
25:17
Speaker 1: what life was like back when I was your age,
25:20
Speaker 1: young lady, and how much fun it could be. And
25:24
Speaker 1: we're part of the same generation, you and me. I'm
25:26
Speaker 1: a little bit older, but you really have hit on
25:28
Speaker 1: something where it's like it is that communal thing, and
25:32
Speaker 1: it is that sense of I think I wax nostalgic
25:35
Speaker 1: for the Special Editions because I have a very happy
25:38
Speaker 1: memory of that. The theater was full. I purposely treated
25:44
Speaker 1: my own father to go see it. I was old
25:47
Speaker 1: enough to take my dad because my dad took me
25:49
Speaker 1: when I was a little nugget. It's pretty cool, very
25:52
Speaker 1: young kid, and it was like it was this symbolic thing.
25:55
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, the Special Editions will always be important.
26:00
Speaker 1: We're always important. And regardless of what you think about
26:06
Speaker 1: whether they should have changed, Vader's line in the Empire
26:08
Speaker 1: strikes back as he's leaving Cloud City, and maybe you've
26:10
Speaker 1: held a grudge for the last couple of decades because
26:12
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have changed it, And that's okay. You can
26:14
Speaker 1: tell that the sound quality is different, but you're the
26:16
Speaker 1: only person among your friends who seems to care at all.
26:18
Speaker 1: And that's okay, and I'll live with that. I'll live
26:20
Speaker 1: with it. It's fine. It's fine, but it's still a
26:24
Speaker 1: beautiful film. It still says the same things. And yeah,
26:29
Speaker 1: the special editions will continue to be important. Great topic.
26:33
Speaker 1: Man really enjoyed talking about it.
26:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. You know, it's funny because just thinking
26:39
Speaker 2: about it, I'm like, man, I kind of just want
26:40
Speaker 2: to go back and watch the original trilogy now, and
26:43
Speaker 2: so maybe I will. Yeah, and we'd love to hear
26:46
Speaker 2: your thoughts, you know, about special visions and Star Wars
26:50
Speaker 2: in general. You know, this is again we made the
26:55
Speaker 2: joke about the fact that we've been discussing Star Wars
27:00
Speaker 2: for over four hundred episodes, and this is the kind
27:02
Speaker 2: of stuff that just keeps us coming back, you know,
27:05
Speaker 2: there and there, there's something special about this series that
27:12
Speaker 2: keeps people coming back time and time again, even though
27:14
Speaker 2: they've seen the movie five hundred times. But you could
27:17
Speaker 2: find us all over the place, and John Mills that
27:20
Speaker 2: you can find you all over the place. So you know,
27:23
Speaker 2: if people wanted to catch up with you and talk
27:26
Speaker 2: more about the special editions or Star Wars in general,
27:29
Speaker 2: or maybe just see what the exchange rate is in
27:31
Speaker 2: Kestlevania now that it is Scream Month. Where can people
27:35
Speaker 2: find you?
27:36
Speaker 1: Oh, well, we're always accepting bitcoin here in Kessylvania, and
27:40
Speaker 1: we look forward to the future stable coin that hopefully
27:42
Speaker 1: we'll have a George Lucas denomination on it somewhere along
27:46
Speaker 1: the way. And you can find me just online at
27:49
Speaker 1: Kessele Junkie occasionally blogging actually right now at kesseljunkie dot com,
27:55
Speaker 1: off and on, and you can find me right here
27:57
Speaker 1: on the network, co hosting a show with Darren Moser
28:00
Speaker 1: and Tristan Riddell called house Lights. We have a time.
28:03
Speaker 1: We have a lot of fun talk about the different
28:06
Speaker 1: works of different directors and everything like that. And as
28:10
Speaker 1: we're recording this, Matt, we're wrapping up our Zamechas series,
28:14
Speaker 1: Robert Zamechis, which is you know, it's a lot of
28:19
Speaker 1: fun Mecchas of the nineties. But I also have a
28:22
Speaker 1: great time going over and joining you on occasion on
28:26
Speaker 1: one of your many shows that's out there. But where
28:29
Speaker 1: can people find you?
28:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can find me all over the place under
28:32
Speaker 2: the social media moniker Matt Rushing Zoe too. You can
28:37
Speaker 2: also find me on the TFM network doing a bunch
28:40
Speaker 2: of shows. One of those where John is a frequent
28:42
Speaker 2: guest is the six or two Club. His seat is
28:45
Speaker 2: especially saved for him, so nobody ruins his butt print.
28:48
Speaker 2: We talk about all of those franchises we love outside
28:51
Speaker 2: of Star Trek, and then Chris Jones and I do
28:54
Speaker 2: a great deal of Star Trek talk there as well,
28:57
Speaker 2: So check all of those shows out, and of course,
29:00
Speaker 2: or here on the Nerd Pardy Network. I've got a
29:01
Speaker 2: completed show called owl Post where Dreya Kaufman and I
29:04
Speaker 2: talked about every single chapter of the Harry Potter series,
29:08
Speaker 2: one chapter at a time. But John, you know what.
29:10
Speaker 2: I think They're serving a special version of Mando stew
29:18
Speaker 2: Over at the Jedi Temple tonight, and I don't want
29:21
Speaker 2: to miss it. So I think it's time we close
29:24
Speaker 2: these negotiations.
29:25
Speaker 1: Just remember in the special edition of Dinner Time Kessel
29:28
Speaker 1: Junkie eight first Master Rushing negotiations are closed.
29:38
Speaker 3: Join the Revolution, Join the Nerd Party,