The Popcorn Stand: Star Wars and Happy Days

Wednesday, May 4 is Star Wars Day so of course I have to write about it so I can start out with the joke I use every year at this time. Star Wars came out in 1977, so of course in 1977 Chewbacca was the “Wookiee of the Year.” And yes, I always have to look up the spelling of Wookiee with two es like Zelenskyy with two ys. Must have been a misprint on their birth certificates or something or other.

Which already leads me off on the tangent that Oprah Winfrey was actually supposed to be named Orpah, who was the sister-in-law of Ruth in the Bible. But because of a misprint on her birth certificate she ended up with the name Oprah.

Anyway after almost 40 years after making the mistake the New York Times ran a for real correction, stating it had misspelled Wookiee with just one e. I still don’t know, though, if Wookiee is a proper noun and should always be capitalized, but I’m not taking any chances.

Evidently it’s not the only time the New York Times got in trouble and got its reporting on Star Wars wrong. Almost 40 years after it originally appeared in the Times, it reprinted a 1976 profile of George Lucas that originally appeared more than six months before Star Wars came out.

For those of you who don’t know or are living under a rock, George Lucas is the director of Star Wars that established the franchise. Even I know that.

But along with the reprinted story the Times ran a photo and the caption underneath the photo. A few people who read the caption — I’m sure they were all Star Wars fans who caught the error — noting the Times had referred Stormtroopers as “robots.”

I don’t but my guess is that’s as bad as spelling Wookiee (notice I capitalized it) with one e. Of course the Times actually had fun with this correction as well.

This was the Times actual correction: “Correction: Imperial Stormtroopers descend from clones of Jango Fett & may also include other enlistees, they are not robots.”

I’ve also learned it’s not “Hans” Solo but “Han” Solo. But seriously in writing this column I learned for the first time Chewbacca was Han Solo’s copilot.

As you can tell by now I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies or television shows or whatever else Star Wars related has appeared on the big screen or small screen. I know I’m a cultural moron.

I’ve had the experience before in which I’ve told someone I’ve never seen Star Wars and they give me that look, like, well they want to ask me have you been living under a rock?

I must admit though when going to Disneyland to begin the year and receiving the chance to go on the Star Wars ride, it was amazingly cool.

And I do know enough to know Lucas came up with the idea of Star Wars because he wanted to provide an updated version of a fairy tale for a cynical generation at the time he felt didn’t have any fairy tales.

My favorite fairy tale of all time is “The Princess Bride,” based on the book designed to provide a more realistic slant to the fairy tale genre. (Did I sound enough like a film critic with that statement)?

Going on another tangent I’ve only seen one George Lucas movie and it ain’t Howard The Duck. It’s my favorite George Lucas movie I’ve ever seen, which of course makes sense since it’s the only George Lucas move I’ve ever seen, but it’s also one of my favorite movies anyway and that’s “American Graffiti.”

Of course American Graffiti led to the television version of “Happy Days,” which actually wasn’t a ripoff of the movie.

Garry Marshall had come up with the idea of “Happy Days” years before American Graffiti came out and the Cunninghams actually made an appearance on “Love American Style.”

But network executives still weren’t sold on or totally understood the idea of “Happy Days,” which they thought would just be an outdated version of “Ozzie and Harriett” or “Father Knows Best.”

But of course that all changed with the popularity of “American Graffiti.”

So in honor of George Lucas on May 4 I may finally, actually watch — American Graffiti again.