A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 4
Moving from 1979 into 1980--Eric and I both enjoyed Star Trek, and so the first movie was a big event. Our parody (Star Trip) included special effects--like holding down extra buttons on the recorder so we sounded like we were on helium.
I've always been a fan of the Olympics--the only sports stuff I'm really into. So, we took a shot at the 1980 Winter Olympics (good thing we did, since the US boycotted the summer games). We spent most of the time doing the "close up and personal" segments, and the Atari got another workout. The event ended with all the athletes being killed--a group unhappy about not getting medals pulls out their machine guns--leaving rows of coffins for the closing ceremony. Kinda dark, huh?
1980 was also the first time I was following Presidential politics (I was the official John Anderson campaign coordinator for my town, which gives you an idea of how desperate they were), and I always enjoy watching silly media events, so we "visited" the Independent National Convention. In order to get "into character" of being on the convention floor, I fashioned a clunky headset from a broken pair of headphones, a CB radio mike, and various cables. Both Eppi and Martha Hick made appearances. We then pulled the old chestnut of the "clip show" for our 13th tape.
I had been disappointed that we got together too late to make fun of the first Star Wars movie when it first came out (yeah, I know, it was really Chapter 4--A New Hope). We got another chance when Empire Strikes Back hit the theaters, so we gave that a shot (Star Laughs II) with Luke as a druggie (how he gets the Force--hey, that sounds like midachlorians! Let's add Mr. Lucas to the royalty demand list). We followed that up with our second NBS Fall Schedule preview.
Up next--the cast grows just in time to tackle Tolkien.
Meanwhile, here's a special report showing how the world reacts when SF disappears.