The 80s called, they want their Star Wars and Disney back.

October 31, 2012 3:06 AM

Around this time in 1982, "The Wonderful World of Disney" on CBS aired Disney's Halloween Treat. In February of '83, a pre-special-edition Star Wars debuted on HBO. Later that year, what used to be known as the Disney Channel went on the air. Then in '84, Star Wars made its network debut on CBS, which included a short introduction ("We've seen Star Wars 324 times!").

"Disney's Halloween Treat" included clips from Night on Bald Mountain and The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, and the rather dark short, Pluto's Judgement Day.

The special was later expanded and modified for (then-)annual Disney Channel airings, under the name of A Disney Halloween. This included shorts such as The Old Mill, Lonesome Ghosts (with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy), and the classic Trick or Treat (with Donald and his nephews).

If you're like me, you also remember being terrified by the constant promos with a bearded Jonathan Pryce in Something Wicked This Way Comes, and that creepy blindfolded girl in Watcher in the Woods.

If, unlike me, you're the type who feels it's never too early for Christmas, you may be interested in A Disney Christmas Gift or A Disney Channel Christmas. Or save 'em for later.

The Disney Channel bids you a good night, and the Ewoks bid you a yub nub.

posted by TheSecretDecoderRing (22 comments total)

This thread is really about Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the likelihood of Episodes 7-9 happening, right?
posted by vhsiv at 3:24 AM on October 31, 2012

This could be a new trend; not actually posting what the FP is really about. Instead of going for the long set up to just sneak that link in there, stick to just the set up.

I kinda like it.
posted by Bovine Love at 3:29 AM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Around this time in 1982, "The Wonderful World of Disney" was much loved by me.

I may as well throw in my love for "an After School Special" that told a trilogy of tales, hosted by Vincent Price: Once Upon A Midnight Scary - The House With A Clock In It's Walls, The Ghost Belonged To Me anmd The Legend of Sleep Hollow (starring Odo!).

Scared me silly. And since it is Hallowe'en....
posted by Mezentian at 3:38 AM on October 31, 2012

This thread is really about Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the likelihood of Episodes 7-9 happening, right?

More like an antidote to a story that was hard to avoid.

But it was the right time of year for the Disney stuff anyway, and I came across the Star Wars vids literally a few days ago.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 3:51 AM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I particularly enjoyed the 'Star Wars airing on CBS' clip, in which it appears that Mark Hamill may have, in fact, had a gun pointed at him while he read copy that he may not really have wanted to read.
posted by kuanes at 4:09 AM on October 31, 2012

in which it appears that Mark Hamill may have, in fact, had a gun pointed at him
You have seen the Holiday Special, right?

I am a bit confused that SW didn't turn up on Network TV in the US until '84. I'd seen it here at least twice by that stage.

And I watched, each time, hoping beyond hope I'd see Biggs.

AND I NEVER DID GEORGE. I NEVER DID!

(Of course, I would have watched anyway, but I was confused by the picture book)
posted by Mezentian at 4:14 AM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Somewhere on a dust covered VHS, I think my family has a copy of the '84 broadcast. Gawd, I need to find it and transfer it to DVD.
posted by Atreides at 6:19 AM on October 31, 2012

I used to love the Disney Channel. Whenever someone mentions "Disney", some part of my brain starts to hum the listing theme that starts around 4:17 in the third link.

And now I want to watch some Danger Bay.
posted by curious nu at 6:31 AM on October 31, 2012

My first experience watching Star Wars was in 83 on HBO. I was 7, and I swear they must have played it twice a day for two weeks and I watched every viewing. There's a certain nostalgia to selecting row 2 and clicking button 18 on the old set-top cable receiver, and then seeing the HBO space station intro. I still love the latent disco orchestra music!
posted by hanoixan at 6:53 AM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

How could you possibly watch a single movie over 40 times? Were people hard up for entertainment in the early 80s, or what?
posted by LSK at 7:13 AM on October 31, 2012

Yeah the latent disco orchestra music was da bomb! You knew there was a 1 in 3 chance you were about to see boobies when that came on.
posted by Mister_A at 7:16 AM on October 31, 2012

I'm sorry, 12-year-old me hijacked my account there.
posted by Mister_A at 7:17 AM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am horribly confused, because I'm pretty freakin' sure I saw Star Wars before I saw Return of the Jedi, and that I saw it on TV, and that I had to go to bed before it finished, so I didn't know they got off the Death Star until, like, '87 or so, when we finally got a VCR.

I remember seeing Star Wars. I remember seeing it on TV. And seeing it before 1984. But we didn't have cable.

I am so confused now. It really wasn't on TV until 1984? Really?

God, was my entire childhood a lie? WHO AM I? WHERE DID I GROW UP? DID THEY GET OFF THE DEATH STAR?
posted by Katemonkey at 9:57 AM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I remember once being urged to go to bed, and waiting until the medal ceremony was over. The ending, and the stark white walls in the opening, are my most vivid memories of the HBO viewings.

I was confused by the timing too, in that I thought HBO had it a lot earlier before Jedi came out, but we both might be thinking of the rerelease in '84,which was typical of big movies before home video was common.

I think ET was rereleased in '83 (if that's when McDonald's had those mini-posters?)
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:17 AM on October 31, 2012

How could you possibly watch a single movie over 40 times? Were people hard up for entertainment in the early 80s, or what?

In the dark ages we had to watch what was on TV when it was on. In HBO's case, that was often the same dozen movies over and over for weeks or months at a time.

On the other hand I also have memories of popping a VHS copy of Amadeus I'd taped from HBO into the player every single day after school for I don't know how long until the tape finally disintegrated. (Why Amadeus? I honestly have no idea. It was a good movie, but not that good.) After that I switched to Blade Runner. (Which is a bit more defensible, maybe.)

Maybe we really were just that hard up for entertainment.

On the other hand I have a handful of books that I've reread at least a few dozen times each. So maybe I'm just boring and repetitive.
posted by ook at 10:52 AM on October 31, 2012

Yes, yes, I know. Metafilter: maybe I'm just boring and repetitive
posted by ook at 10:52 AM on October 31, 2012

How could you possibly watch a single movie over 40 times? Were people hard up for entertainment in the early 80s, or what?

I did that with the Star Wars trilogy in the 90's.


...

With even MORE cable channels available. MUWAHAHAHAHA....I regret nothing.
posted by Atreides at 11:53 AM on October 31, 2012

I think I watched National Lampoon's Vacation 324 times.

I had so much fucking fun I needed plastic surgeory to remove my goddamn smile. I whistled 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of my asshole! Praise Marty Moose!
posted by not_on_display at 2:19 PM on October 31, 2012

I had the good fortune to "acquire" copies of both Star Wars and Empire (on betamax) as early as fall of 1981.

Obviously they were 10th generation bootlegs of lousy copies, but damn if I wasn't the most popular kid in my neighborhood for a while there.

No scenes of Biggs at Tosche Station or anything cool like that, but my copy did have the distinction of having the original, undubbed voice of Aunt Beru, which was next to impossible to find in the pre-Internet era.
posted by ShutterBun at 5:53 PM on October 31, 2012

, but my copy did have the distinction of having the original, undubbed voice of Aunt Beru, which was next to impossible to find in the pre-Internet era.

Wait? WAIT? They dubbed Aunt Beru's voice? Why? How did I not know this?
(I assume the tsunami of changes over the years have confused me).

When I get home tonight, I'm dusting off my Story of Star Wars LP, my videos (non-special editions) and my DVD (sigh... SE-fied) and I'm going to check.

I might also re-watch Star Wars. It's been a few years now. I might be able to recapture that moment when we were at the films (watching Star Trek First Contact on opening night), they showed the SE trailer for "A New Hope" and the entire cinema went deathly silent.

There was hope, and awe, and excitement as we all enjoyed Star Wars as it was meant to be seen (little did we know....) and then some guy behind me said in sotto voce (but it was so quite we all heard:
"Man, that was better than sex".

And we all nodded sagely. Because it *was* comparable in that minute.

Oh, how we were to be disappointed in years hence when Jar Jar first emerged from that swamp.
posted by Mezentian at 6:04 PM on November 1, 2012

Yep, Shelagh Fraser's voice was dubbed on pretty much all the video releases as well as the theatrical re-releases. In fact there's some speculation that both versions were dubbed.

At least one of the fan edits has the "original" version of Beru's voice (probably the de-specialized edition, or Adywan's Star Wars Revisited)
posted by ShutterBun at 3:48 AM on November 2, 2012

At first I was all "No, that's not true, that's impossible", but then I searched my feelings and I knew it to be true.
posted by Mezentian at 4:27 AM on November 2, 2012