Page 40 - Star Wars Insider #175

BACK TO 1977

SEVEN
SENSATIONS
FOR ’77

Star Wars wasn’t the
only smash hit of 1977.
These now-familiar
cultural artifacts all
made their debut in
that year, too.
1 / ROOTS
An unfl inching dramatization of
African-American history from
enslavement to the late 20th
century, this landmark miniseries
remains one of the most-watched
TV shows in American history.
2 / THE SHINING
Stephen King’s fi rst hardback
bestseller established the author
as one of U.S. publishing’s biggest
names. In 1980, Stanley Kubrick
adapted the book into one of the
greatest horror fi lms of all time.

3 / CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS OF THE
THIRD KIND
With state-of-the-art special effects
and a John Williams soundtrack,
Steven Spielberg’s tale of aliens
contacting Earth set itself apart
from Star Wars with its everyday
setting and everyman characters.
4 / RUMOURS
Only a handful of albums have sold
more than 40 million copies, and 06
three of those date from 1977:
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Meat
Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell, and the and the promise of four (four!) Star Wars action marketed, and 06 This rare
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

figures by mail in 1978, before the rest of the experienced. pre-production
poster helped
5 / THE COMPLETE general public. For all its needs-must origins, in Nowadays, build early hype
BOOK OF RUNNING a way, the Early Bird box was the perfect end to audiences carry for the new
Written by exercise evangelist Jim the Star Wars phenomenon in 1977—because fi lms with space fantasy.
Fixx, this million-selling manual can

be seen as kick-starting the keep- it spoke confidently of the continuation of Star them on their
fi t boom of the 1980s, as well as Wars mania in 1978. smartphones, and can call them
much of today’s health-conscious, up on demand. Star Wars was
self-help culture. Just the beginning ahead of its time in offering its
6 / SATURDAY NIGHT Where other pop-cultural crazes had burned own version of that experience,
FEVER brightly only to prove short-lived, artifacts with endless ways to take the fi lm

The movie that made disco such as the Early Bird Certificate proved that home with them.
mainstream and inspired millions of Star Wars was not only going to burn even No matter what else was going
medallion-wearing movers is also
a complex critique of cultural and brighter, but for even longer. In fact, before on in the U.S.A. in 1977, you were
class barriers that still stands up to Star Wars, being short-lived was almost the never short of a Star Wars moment
scrutiny today. point of pop culture, but in the space of one to take you far, far away from the
year, everything had changed. stresses of this galaxy. And with
7 / SLIME
A must-have for school kids, Slime No one could have guessed in 1977 that Star constant reminders of that story
was viscous, bright green goo sold Wars would remain a multimedia megabrand full of heroes, humor, and hope
in miniature trashcans. It remains four decades later, but no one could have for the future, it was possible to
intermittently popular.
been in any doubt, either, that something believe there was hope for us all in
had shifted in the way movies were made, the real world, too.

40 / STAR WARS INSIDER

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