TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE

{LUCAS FILMED 3}

With the animated series of 'Droids', 'Ewoks', and 'The Clone Wars', it could be argued that George Lucas has placed a version of the "Star Wars" empire into a Toobworld off-shoot, the "Tooniverse". Or we can apply the argument that animation is just the stylized rendition of real life in the main TV Land.

But Lucas also has plans for a live-action series in much the same vein as his 'Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' That would definitely anchor the movies into the TV Universe.

Not that he really needed the boost, as he's already firmly planted in Toobworld. Nearly thirty years ago, Luke Skywalker and his droids C-3PO and R2-D2 materialized in the theatre where 'The Muppet Show' was performed in search of actor Mark Hamill.

The droids also spent some time on 'Sesame Street' with other Muppets. And the moon of Endor, inhabited by the Ewoks, is firmly planted in the Toobworld firmament, thanks to two TV movies.

Oddly enough, "Star Wars" characters like Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Yoda, and the two droids have been showing up in diners drinking Pepsi, playing scratch and win games at Burger King, and recording ringtones for Cingular.

The Burger King spots are a step-up to be sure; the droids once sold their cyber-souls to a little-known fast food chain known as Burger Chef. At Burger Chef, you got Coke, no Pepsi. And yet now they're schilling for Pepsi, no Coke.

Sounds more like "Star Whores" than "Star Wars"!

The droids even did an anti-smoking PSA! (I think this is why C-3PO especially wanted to reach Earth. It's not enough to have gold-plating; better to cross his palm with silver. Threepio apparently even hawked his own line of breakfast cereals!)

Since commercials are a valid component of Toobworld, their shilling supports their rerun residency.

But even if we shunted the commercials off to an alternate dimension for television advertising, a place Hugh Davis has dubbed the "Blipverse" (after the term "blipverts" from 'Max Headroom'), George Lucas cannot escape his video past. As much as he hates it now, he okayed and produced a horrible holiday special celebrating "Star Wars".

Although the three main actors (Hamill, Fisher, and Ford) did work on it in cartoon form, it focused mostley on Chewbacca and life on his home planet; with appearances by Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, and Art Carney (at least he had a valid, interesting character in the show).

And now, coming full circle, Lucas embraces his past and re-visits that planet in this last movie, "Revenge Of The Sith".

How do we reconcile the fact that George Lucas and Darth Vader are both now members of the TV Universe? Easily. If Luke Skywalker crossed over from his side of the galaxy to interact with Mark Hamill, perhaps someone else did so earlier and gave George Lucas the knowledge for him to write up their story, "fictionalizing" it slightly for the movies.

And now that 'The O.C.' has been visited by the Jedi Master himself, perhaps they should take the next logical step.......

Dress up Mischa Barton for a Princess Leia fantasy!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby Wan Kenobi