 This is the SF Productions podcast network May the Schwartz be with you from the pub culture bunker. I'm maybe and I'm mark You can check out our audio podcast how I got my way three comics on itunes or on our website SF podcast network.com Well, we've got another Star Wars film coming out soon. Yeah Disney seems to have soured on the solo movie and is barely marketing it Yeah, I was just thinking that it's interesting that We've been conditioned now to think if a tentpole movie is coming out and we're not getting overwhelming Promotion for it. There's something very wrong So I thought this would be a good time to talk about the original movie and more importantly what it spawned Those of you who weren't around in 1977 may not realize what a see I guess or space change Chapter 4 a new hope really was Because if you look at the box office numbers the year before so it's 1976 only one movie rocky managed to get past a hundred million With number 10 Movie for that year the bad news bears earned 42 million In fact only 11 films from 1970 to 76 made over a hundred million a new hope would go on to make 322 million in its original run. So even if you adjust for inflation, it's number two of all time Just be behind gun with the wind Those kinds of numbers you really can't ignore them So every slush pile of scripts was dug through for anything even remotely similar to it And they greenlit those things ASAP American international pictures never shy about exploiting a trend gave us Star crash a space opera complete with a damsel in distress Carolyn Monroe a wacky robot a huge space station That has to be destroyed an ethereal father figure played by Christopher Plummer and his swashbuckling son Played by a young David Hasselhoff. We also get something that looks a lot like a lightsaber John Berry supplied a Star Wars-esque soundtrack. The film was rift in the new season of MST 3k Message from space is a Japanese space opera now again There's wacky robots and a space station slash planet to be blown up United Artists bought the US rights to the movie for a million dollars thinking would be though Here's here's weakness make money just print money with this not so much not so much Battle Beyond the Stars is essentially the magnificent seven in space Richard Thomas aka John boy Robert Vaughn George Papard John Saxon civil danning all-star with music by James Horner and effects by James Cameron Director Roger Corman turned all of this into a Star Wars knockoff Saxon is Vader-esque Thomas is Luke like and Vaughn is honey Space Raiders is Corman's second attempt at a Star Wars knockoff. This is 1983 Space Western using footage and music from Battle Beyond the Stars So we get another giant space station to be destroyed. Well, at least it's short. It's only 84 minutes The man who saves the world aka Turkish Star Wars is an example of how copyright laws were essentially ignored at the time in much of the world It's more of a fantasy film than sci-fi, but it actually includes footage from Star Wars Including the Death Star the Cantina and X-Wing battles The main soundtrack theme is the march from Raiders of the Lost Ark and that reminds me of a video game that was out new circa 84-85 maybe that was one of those laser disc games and it included footage From various properties. There were some Battlestar footage and there were some Star Wars and Star Trek footage Like okay, this can't be legal Star Odyssey is one of four Italian films created quickly in the wake of Star Wars Which involved ragtag bands of humans and robots There's also the humanoid from Italy starring Richard Keele and Barbara Bach It includes a very familiar text crawl at the start the bad guys black costume may remind you of someone and he Compands a triangle-shaped spaceship you might recall. Oh, and the director Aldo Lado was listed as George B. Lewis in the credits Space hunter adventures in the forbidden zone a Canadian Space Western also rode the Star Wars wave Film actually has a decent cast Peter Strauss Molly Ringwald Ernie Hudson Michael Ironside It was exec produced by Ivan Reitman and was scored by Elmer Bernstein It was also shot in 3d which was having a resurgence at that time It was time to come out the week before return of the Jedi hit the box office Well, that was bad timing. Well, no, they wanted people go. Oh, this must be the new movie But it only made 16 million at the box office. Yes Star chaser the legend of Oren is an animated film about a young miner who finds a magic sword with elements from the Star Wars Franchise thrown in the New York Times described the film as such a brazen ripoff of George Lucas's Star Wars that you might think Lawyers would have been called in its claim to fame is that it was the first full-length animated film in 3d Hg Wells the shape of things to come a 1979 film despite the name has almost nothing to do with the classic book It's just a way to get people in the theater Jack Palance Carol Lindley and Barry Moore star in this space opera again There's robots and a giant station to be destroyed If you want to see a version of the actual book you may want to try the 1936 Alexander Corta release Laser Blast a terrible teen horror flick actually has two direct Star Wars references the protagonist a Disaffected teen who found an alien gun uses it to take out a billboard for the film Later a police officer confronted by a scared teen blows him off saying he's seen Star Wars five times The film marks proto nerd Eddie Deeson's first film appearance and very late appearances for Roddy McDowell and Keenan Wynn both of whom should have kept better track of their money, and oh by the way They misspelled McDowell in the credits. Oh Laser Blast was ripped by MST in the final episode of their comedy central run The war in space while using a sound-alike name is actually a Japanese sci-fi take on a submarine drama Disney got around to their sci-fi epic the black hole in 1979 includes two robots the I am sent Vincent and Bob along with human cast Maximilian shell Anthony Perkins event menu Ernest Bork nine Roddy McDowell as Vincent and Slim Pickens as Bob It was Disney's first PG rated film and was the last mainstream film to include an overture prior to the film itself Hmm a remake has been in turn around for years Star Trek the motion picture which came out the same month as the black hole was Enormously impacted by Star Wars plans for a Trek TV movie and series with Shatner and company called Star Trek phase two Had reached the point where the cast costume sets and scripts were ready to go and then Star Wars hit The TV series was shut down and film production kicked in Star Trek the motion picture would end up costing $46 million which included the sunk costs of the drop TV series as well as money spent on a planned theatrical film prior to that Some of the phase two scripts would be reworked into next-generation episodes a decade later Think of the bungalows in the war of the planets as a three Stooges Star Wars parody Except they're Brazilians and there are four of them a Better parody would be spaceballs the Mel Brooks epic which introduced the Schwartz and characters Princess Vespa of druidia funny. She doesn't look drush Dark helmet lone star with sidekick barf along with Wisen stage yogurt played by Brooks Robot dot matrix and disgusting alien pizza the hut There's even a reference to the real power in the universe Merchandising Brooks got George Lucas to allow the parody as long as they didn't make action figures because Lucas said your action figures are going to look like mine The film might have been a bigger hit and it did not come out ten years after the original. Yeah TV cashed in on the trend as well Battlestar Galactica a space epic about a refugee ship searching for a lost colony called earth Was a project that producer Glenn a Larson had been trying to sell for years and then Star Wars hit The show which was originally intended to be a series of TV movies was extremely expensive And so only lasted 24 episodes. It was then rebooted into Galactica 1980 which was based on earth and was extremely cheap it lasted all of ten episodes Of course the show was rebooted again in the 2000s as a serious sci-fi drama running for four seasons with TV movies and various spin-offs Space Academy falls on the other end of the expense scale a Saturday morning live action series from filmation in the 70s Jonathan Harris lost in spaces. Dr. Smith Runs a space exploration school with students including TV child actor mainstay Pamela and Ferdin Like all children's TV of the time the show was all about teaching lessons There was even a spin-off called Jason of Star Command Featuring Star Trek's James Dewin which used the same sets and costumes as the other series Well, is there one of those on YouTube? Oh, yeah, they are. Yeah, I might like to see that. Yeah You might consider the cult TV parody quark to be a Star Wars knockoff But the pilot actually came out just before the movie the series though probably got a green light because of it Richard Benjamin starred as the captain of a garbage ship, which happens to get into galactic crises In reality, it was more of a Star Trek parody with some references to Lost in Space Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon Meanwhile many existing TV series added sci-fi elements In fact, you can even argue that Mork and Mindy is Gary Marshall's response to Star Wars I can see that. Also, we should note that merchandising was forever changed by Star Wars Now movies rarely got much of a merchandising push before that movie Mainly because there was a long lead period for creating toys and other non paper products like posters Since no one knew for a fact that a film would be a hit months in advance It made little sense to invest in making such things, right? So you get the most junior lawyer at a studio would be tasked to eke out whatever they could make TV was where it was in terms of merchandising Since the shit hit show would run a year or more giving you lead time for toys, etc And Star Wars changed all that Ten pole releases now get a bevy of toys games food bedsheets proof toothbrushes Radio tires, whatever it is the Star Wars franchise stole lords over them all Kenner and then Hansbrough has sold almost nine billion action figures It's two point eight billion dollars in books and five point seven billion dollars in video games Merchandising has far outweighed the actual return from the movie itself. Absolutely Hmm, maybe we should make action figures of ourselves to sell merchandise podcast network I Don't think that's gonna happen But while you're waiting you can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife three comics on iTunes or on our website SFpodcastnetwork.com from the pop culture bunker. I'm indy and I'm mark. Thanks for watching