The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 76

CALENDAR Cos Angeles ''imes Wednesday May 25 1983 Television Listings Part VI LARRY BESSELLos Angeles Three MOVIE REVIEW 'STAR WARS' CONTINUES WITH AN INVENTIVE IEDI' "MP PPM! 'I 001-- 1 --IP -o- 1r1tt 'fit 4 4 Ili i 1 Noe '1 '1 4A: s'-- i elf 'i i pl bt Itt te I i 1 i i0 '--1 Ikko00: i a I 0 -0---1114 A 40 1 '1t 3 itnn K'e4e 4i ---ri 'Bpi roblt 441 4 4 N1' imm :1: iitgy brey Beardsley Our tour of the nastier corners of Jabba's world is a smart move it gives the film dimension We can see for ourselves just what the Rebels oppose Adults on the other hand are likely to fall heavily for the small furry Ewoks who make "Return of the Jedi" feel like "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" These tree-dwelling cuddly primitives from the redwood-forested planet of Endor have all sorts of jobs there are noble bowmen a shaman mother and baby Ewoks But their true function is to link the Rebels to a real (if calculatedly adorable) world with simple beginnings and this they do effortlessly (It's a good thing the Ewoks are so lovable I suspect that they will jump into our children's lives probably no later than Thursday to become classic toys on a comforting par with the teddy bear) For the light-saberhyperspace crowd there's an aerial "speeder-bike" chase through the redwood forest accompanied by sound et-Please see1JEDI' Page 2 AVCO CINEMA DIGS IN FOR 'RETURN' ONSLAUGHT America and the free mind working and we're getting better entertainment for it" The other afternoon Szabo sat in his office at the triplex (the other screens are playing "Blue Thunder" and "Dr on Wilshire Boulevard and expounded on a theater readying itself for a potential blockbuster like "Return of the Jedi" With emotion he would occasionally bang his hand down on the desk to make a point accidentally knock over the wastepaper basket in mid-gesture blatantly successor "The Empire Strikes Back" in 1980 He is a man with high energy and almost a cheerleader's intensity when the subject is George Lucas the mind behind the "Star Wars" trilogy "He is in the mold of Louis Mayer Jack Warner Adolph Zukor Darryl Zanuck the great pioneers of the industry" said Szabo who still carries the accent of a boyhood in Hungary "He's absolutely one of them No one tells George Lucas what to do or how to do it He is the epitome of "Jedi" ready are from left Avco manager Albert Szabo projectionist Ivan Rothberg and cashier Susan Stanley ignore the buzzing telephone The theater is equipped with the new THX speaker system designed by Lucas' company and that said Szabo in a fit of excitation "is the greatest improvement in film exhibition since the 70-millimeter screen It is absolutely outstanding sells a lot of tickets itself and will help sustain the motion-picture industry "Lucas has brought fresh blood into the industry He cares about details He doesn't rush his productions He's a great leader and has tapped today's movie-going audience" For the past couple of weeks telephone lines into the theater have been ringing an average of once a minute Callers want to know if "Jedi" tickets will be sold in advance no only two hours prior to each show and how long the lines will be avalanche" Szabo said) "The Empire Strikes Back" holds the Avco house record and Szabo expects "Jedi" to break it These films he said have touched a nerve in the public "It's simply the basic human conflict" he said "good and evil It's 'Red River' in space John Please see AKA Page 6 By LEE GRANT Times Staff Writer For Albert Szabo manager of the Avco Center Cinema in Westwood "Return of the Jedi" means a return to packed houses every show every day for weeks It means a return to youngsters and some not so young camping outside the theater overnight to be first in line and it means a return to the excitement that brought Szabo into the motion-picture theater business 37 years ago "When the crowds are gathering here it's almost like the birth of a the anticipation then the excitement and the enjoyment There's a rejuvenation as one crowd leaves and another comes in" Szabo 64 has been preparing months for the arrival of "Jedi" He and staff members like doorman Bill Crowell 20 and cashier Susan Stanley 21 both of whom double behind the concession stand and projectionist Ivan Rothberg 34 are at the ready for the mobs that are anticipated to descend on the theater beginning at 9 this morning The last show starts at 1230 am "Jedi" also is playing at the Egyptian in Hollywood and a number of other theaters in Southern California Szabo a fixture for 13 years at the Avco experienced the original "Star Wars" mania in 1977 and its wrrqr ic ki )N A-0 1 fr') r-tv i 40000000011 fp i 70 I I 1 'n' 4 IMI a lia k111 i- '4ft cv 4Ncia e1400---F if 1 Bill Crowd dishing up Milk Duds: "I'm kind of scared in a way" By SHEILA BENSON Time8 Film Critk The Jedi return to us at last older wiser and frankly irresistible Of all its many qualities "Return of the Jedi" (at selected theaters) is fully satisfying it gives honest value to all the hopes of its believers With this last of the central "Star Wars" cycle there is the sense of the closing of a circle of leaving behind real friends It is accomplished with a weight and a new maturity that seem entirely fitting yet the movie has lost none of its sense of fun it bursts with new inventiveness With "Jedi" George Lucas may have pulled off the first triple crown of motion pictures While we press on with the business of Jedi knighthood and Rebel-battles with the question of Luke Skywalker's parentage and with Luke's confrontation of his own dark side and his attempt to master it director Richard Marquand of the and writer Lawrence Kasdan of the Lost who shares screenplay credit with Lucas see to it that the screen is full to the gunwales with the galaxy's best inventions yet Kids with their wriggling love of the really gross may have the best time with "that vile gangster" Jabba the Hutt and his netherworld attendants his major-domo Bib Fortuna and the hulking blue Garmorrean Pig Guards who could have wandered in out of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" Hutt you may remember is the owner of a life-size wall decoration that is really our dashing Han Solo now bronzed as a baby shoe (OK OK carbon frozen) Licentious disgusting cruel Hutt is an amazing creation a massive golden-eyed blue-green embodiment of evil part sea slug part Sydney Greenstreet entirely Au trial Light Magic to complete the complicated effects on director Michael Mann's film version of Paul Wilson's Gothic horror tale Generally considered the state of the art special-effects house Industrial Light Magic created the special effects used in "ET" "Raiders of the Lost Ark" all three "Star Wars" films and "Dragon-slayer" among others WENT OUT IN By ALLAN PARACHINI Times Staff Writer Afew seconds after 12 am Tuesday sitting alone in a small cubicle on a ridge in the San Gabriel Mountains 512 miles north of Claremont a man named Stan Lehman reached up pushed a small green button and with no audience to watch him accomplished two things no one else has achieved in the United States in eight years Lehman is a transmitter engineer for KHOF-TV Channel 30 the flagship station of the Faith Broadcasting Network the television ministry of eccentric Glendale preacher Gene Scott With the flick of the switch Lehman turned off the transmitter allowing KHOFTV to become the first American television outlet to go dark since 1975 Lehman also became the only person ever to successfully interrupt Scott's often seemingly endless diatribe against the federal and state governments in general and A DISNEYLAND KNOTT'S SEE TURNSTILE UPTURN FILM CLIPS A LIGHT MAGIC TOUCH WILL RESCUE 'THE KEEP' And this summer both Disneyland and Knott's are bringing up their latest big-gun projects to recapture the masses: the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim will reopen its "new" Fantasy land The five-acre sector part of the original Disneyland that opened 28 years ago has been renovated and expanded at a cost of $45 million July 1 Knott's in neighboring Buena Park will open its new S8-million Camp Snoopy This five-acre great-outdoor-themed sector is billed as the first and only theme park to use the Peanuts characters of Charles Schulz Please see TURNSTILE Page 5 Mark Hamill as Luke Sky-walker in "Return of the Adj" In March "The Keep" was at the point in post-production where special effects were to be implemented when the 65-year-old Veevers suffered a fatal heart attack Paramount subsequently decided to push the movie's release date from June to later this year in order to complete the film properly Many notable special-effects people pitched in to follow through on Veevers' concepts Industrial Light Magic has formed a "Keep" team of optical magicians to undertake eight of the most complicated visuals "The Keep" is set in German-occupied Romania in World War II Please see FILM CLIPS Page 4 GLENDALE the Federal Communications Commission in particular Faced with an FCC order to shut down his Channel 30 flagship station Scott elected to silence its signal 60 seconds before the FCC deadline But the shutdown came only after the preacher angry and defiant as ever had ceremoniously beaten the heads of dozens of toy monkeys that serve as his sort of voodoo dolls for bureaucrats and proclaimed that what almost anyone else might see as a major defeat was really a significant victory For Scott he and his broadcast empire were the Jews holding out against starvation and the Romans on the mountaintop at Masada overlooking the Dead Sea in AD 73 The Jews all died of course but Scott figures that's a narrow view "Look around" Scott observed into a camera that held to the same tight close-up that has been a feature of his nightly "Festival of Faith" telecasts since 1977 "and where are those Romans today? The Jews just keep going! Please see GENE SCOTT Page 10 By DEBORAH CAULFIELD Times Staff Writer George Lucas' Industrial Light Magic has come to Paramount Pictures' rescue: Paramount's "The Keep" withdrawn from its scheduled June release after the sudden death of optical effects wizard Wally Veevers acquired the services of Indus national trend blamed on the recession gasoline prices weather the proliferation of video entertainment concert arenas blockbuster movies and other leisure competitors But theme-park people now talk of a substantial if not dramatic revival this summer The opening of the Epcot Center at Disney No 1 already boosted the 1983 turnstiles pace at the Florida park roNy BARNARD bm Angeles Times Jr Television preacher Gene Scott blasted the FCC and went off the air on KHOF-TV but a minute after transmitter shut down at midnight Monday callers making donations jammed banks of telephones 6 444- 1 v------r-' IA' 11 14 ii I -410 04141 kv1A gip N': Television preacher Gene Scott blasted the FCC and went off the air on HOF-TV but a minute after transmitter shut down at midnight Monday callers making donations jammed banks of telephones i frt1'i z-- i' ow 4 I-- i 4 7 I l'1 i 4 r'' i-0- e- By HERMAN WONG Times Staff Writer To Disneyland and Knott's Berry No 2 and No 3 turnstiles leaders in the theme-park industry-1983 may be the year that the industry breaks out of the attendance doldrums Like nearly every other major theme park the past two years attendance at the two Orange County parks dropped markedly a HOWARD ROSENBERG MAN WHO ASKS HARD QUESTIONS The "CBS Morning News" has been running full-page newspaper ads showing Bill Kurtis and Diane Sawyer beaming like a TV Gothic couple above a caption that says: "Because they ask the right questions you get the answers" Not always Proof of that came last week when those titans Mike Wallace of CBS and Barbara Walters of ABC briefly descended to earth for videotaped appearances on the "CBS Morning News" where they were interviewed by Sawyer about interviewing The celebrated interviewers were asked to identify their worst interviews and Mighty Mike said that his had been that fruitless one-on-one with Watergate star HR (Bob) Haldeman for which CBS News dished out $100000 CBS News should not have paid Haldeman Wallace said because Richard Nixon's former chief of staff was a lousy interview and "didn't earn his money" Oh But what of the much broader ethical question of the propriety of news organizations paying for interviews in the first place? Wallace didn't answer that question because he wasn't asked it The intent here is not to sling arrows at Sawyer who is usually terrific but to note what a precious Please see TED KOPPEL Page 10 WHEN LIGHT 11112 444-'- 1 8 7 6 5 4 441 110- 4 1 711m- 1C4 e-''''''' 4 i '1'441 4' i toe 1 '1-- I 7 i i' I 1 4 0 T' 4 -0 I 1k e7( AI 4 e717 7i1 I -i-A 1 1 4 Amu ti 11 41 '14'--' tl 13-1-1' tl''' ei A i elk -7 7 7 1 rf N-7- S' 4 i I 4 14 I 1 idot4 i 0' i 4 fr 0 1'' 409' i 1 I ACom le I' 1 4 I Itoet tr I Illtup ffi Or' -1 ril 1 1 1 1 4 tt '7 '''14-iA I 1 Aiier 4 i 4V11111w4kif 4 11'' Ir-41 WHEN LIGHTS i 1 ---'It (6 4 SJ INSIDE CALENDAR FILM: "La Bourn" reviewed by Kevin Thomas on Page 4 MUSIC: Independent Composers Assn reviewed by Colin Gardner on Page 9 TV: Today's programs Page 8 FCC chairman urges hands-off policy Page 2 Baritom Jan Opalach appeared at Ambassador Auditorium in recital this week and Daniel Cariaga was impressed See review on Page 5.