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| MY TWO CENTS - 4/1/91 - by Analog Bits editor Bill Hunt |
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Wow, is it April already? Time sure does fly! With the new month comes the promise of another new issue of The Analog Bits Newsletter. We just dropped the April issue off at the Post Office yesterday, so you should all have it soon. (Knowing the Royal Mail, it'll be May before copies of The Analogue Bits Leaflet reach our U.K. subscribers, but hang in there folks!)
For this month's My Two Cents column in the newsletter, I really needed to get something off my chest. You see, faithful readers... something's been bugging me in recent days. After a marathon Laserdisc viewing of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi last week, with my old friends Matt Rowe (founder of the legendary MusicTAPE! Magazine) and Weekend Weatherman Dave, I got to wondering: Why in the heck aren't the Star Wars films available on "special edition" Laserdisc? I mean, let's face it: George Lucas is a filmmaker who claims to embrace new media technology, and I have no reason to doubt him, but these Star Wars Laserdiscs just don't have any of the state of the art features now seen on the latest discs from Voyager's Criterion Collection and the Walt Disney Company. Why aren't there alternate "lecture tracks" with Lucas to provide fans with valuable annotation and discussion of the subtext of these films? Where are the original "Somewhere in Space... this may all be happening right now!" TV spots that still fill our hearts with joy? Shucks, some of these new Criterion Laserdiscs even include video interviews, rare "cut" footage, trailers and even still frame picture galleries! So having now spent nearly $200 per film on used, rental-priced VHS tapes and these recent widescreen Laserdiscs - not to mention Star Wars action figures, bubble-gum cards, record LPs and T-shirts - am I the only one who feels like Uncle George owes us a little more? I, for one, am sick of Lucas playin' me like a Phil Collins drum solo. So this month, The Analog Bits is officially kicking off the Star Wars on Special Edition Laserdisc Campaign! It's time to let Lucas and everyone at CBS Fox Home Video know that we fans deserve to be treated better! We want lecture tracks! We want The Star Wars Holiday Special! And gosh darn it, we want Biggs back!! I'd bet my LIFE that I saw that damn scene of Biggs and Luke shootin' the breeze at Tosche Station when I first saw Star Wars in the theater back in 1977, but when Lucas added this whole "Episode IV: A New Hope" business he snipped the footage and that ain't right. We want better quality too! The current Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back laserdiscs suffer from skewed widescreen matting! Doesn't anyone else find that unacceptable? Anyhoo... if you agree with us that it's time for a REAL Laserdisc release of these films, then we hope you'll join the Campaign. I'll have lots more on this for you in the newsletter, so be sure to watch your mailboxes. Special thanks to our friends Guido Henkel of LD Review, Steve Tannehill of The Laserdisc Resource Page, Pete Bracke of LD File and everyone over at The Home Theater BBS and E-Town's It's All VHS bulletin board for their support. 
See you all again next month. Until then... Spoooooon! Bill Hunt, Editor The Analog Bits billhunt@theanalogbits.com  |
