Despite playing one of the greatest bad guys in movie history, David Prowse is only a household name to people who have a “My other car is the Millennium Falcon” sticker on the back of their mom’s station wagon. Prowse hid under Darth Vader’s mask, and his voice didn’t even make the film, so it’s not like George Lucas was running plot points by the guy. Nonetheless, Prowse went ahead and spoiled the entire series, and he didn’t even know it.
A local newspaper interviewed Prowse in Berkeley, California, in 1978. He must’ve been thrilled that they’d even talked to him because he spilled the beans on the entire plot of Empire two years in advance. Vader was Luke’s dad, Prowse mentioned nonchalantly.
Except, Vader wasn’t Luke’s father in the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back. So seeing as how Dave Prowse didn’t have “script pitchman” on his resume, he just lucked out on one hell of a guess.
Laugh-In wasn’t the only sketch comedy show in the futuring business. Saturday Night Live has taken a few stabs at what’s coming up down the road as well.
In 1998, one sketch featured Alec Baldwin and dealt with the ramifications if he didn’t end up hosting the show that evening. Jimmy Fallon, then a bit player in his first season on SNL, took Baldwin on a journey to 2011, where, according to Fallon, he became “a big star.” Fallon explained to Baldwin that he himself would come back and host SNL in 2011 — just like he really would go on to do.
Baldwin’s skit aired on December 12, 1998, and Fallon hosted on December 17, 2011. When you look at the 1998 SNL cast, the prediction seems more incredible. With big names like Will Ferrell and Tracy Morgan, they decided Fallon, a “featured performer” (which means a nobody) would host the show in 2011? Good call, SNL.
Laugh In was way ahead of its time. Dan Rowan and Dick Martin’s sketch comedy show featured a bevy of funny folks, including Goldie Hawn, and even had Richard Nixon in a skit saying their trademark line “Sock it to me.” One of their regular skits told of News of the Future, which was exactly what it sounded like. They were often humorous, but occasionally, they were just straight-up predictions of real-life events.
One such prediction mentioned Ronald Reagan as president. At the time, he was the governor of California but still primarily famous as an actor, so it was a said as a joke. But more impressive than the Reagan prediction was something that seemed impossible at the time. Rowan accurately predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, getting the year exactly right. He made his prediction in 1969, 20 years before the fall. Not too shabby for a comedy show.
When it comes to The Little Rascals, Leonard Maltin — along with Richard W. Bann —…
Disney announced a fifth Indiana Jones movie due out in July 2022. Harrison Ford is…
By the time the original One Day at a Time premiered on December 16, 1975,…
If you were try and figure out what the first TV ancestor of Law &…
Richard A. Lertzman, co-author of the new book Deconstructing the Rat Pack delves into the…
Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary Ingalls on the series Little House on the Prairie. The…