Newsradio Concordance

Star Wars (original trilogy) – The 1977 release of Star Wars set the standard for all space-based science fiction movies to come. Borrowing from the space operas that creator George Lucas enjoyed as a child, the original trilogy of Star Wars films told a simple morality tale with complicated special effects. Part of its charm was its clear-cut delineations of good and evil: light versus dark. In essence, the story recounts a young man’s quest to avenge his father’s death only to find that the evil man he is hunting down is the father himself. With the aid of a mystical power known as “The Force,” the young hero and his friends try to unseat the tyrant and the armies that mercilessly control the galaxy.

There are dozens of Star Wars references throughout Newsradio, some of them overt, some of them subtle. For example, when Joe Gorelli places a small camera in a Boba Fett action figure to help Lisa cheat at poker, she recognizes the character and correctly labels him an "intergalactic bounty hunter featured in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi." When Joe actually uses the “Boba-Cam” to hone in on an opponent’s hand, he says, “I have you now”—subtly quoting what Darth Vader says about Luke Skywalker’s spaceship in the final battle in the first film. (Episode 26, "Presence"). Being that Star Wars scripts are among the most memorized in history, such jokes were not lost on serious fans of the sci-fi series. ["Jack Ass Junior High", "Kids", "Led Zeppelin", "Presence", "Sleeping", "The Song Remains the Same", "Space", "Stocks"]