This is the amazing true story of how I was supposed to appear in a t.v. special for The Sci-Fi Channel called "Episode 1 Unauthorized: The Phantom Menace" back in 1999.

Back in April 1999, SW-mania was at a fever pitch with TPM's release only weeks away. I got a phone call on Easter Sunday from a young man who was a producer of an upcoming SW special for Sci-Fi, or what was then called The Sci-Fi Channel. He wanted to know if I was interested in coming up to New York the following Sunday to tape a panel discussion on SW.

I'm not sure where or how this guy found out my contact information. I could've been referred by the official SW fan club's Jon Bradley Snyder, who referred me to a journo around the time the Special Editions were released in 1997, or I might have responded to a post on The Force.Net or some other message board.

The associate producer was very talky and he was concerned I was a little quiet on the phone. He asked for reassurance several times that I would be more loquacious on camera. Admittedly, I'm very shy and reserved by nature, but get me going on SW and I could talk your ear off. I said I would do the show and he then gave me the details. They would reimburse me for gas or however I planned to get to New York short of renting a Gulfstream. They could not however book me in a hotel. Given that I was coming from the Washington, D.C. area, where I lived at the time, I could theoretically go and come back within a day.

Read the rest of it here:

http://starwarsprequelappreciationsociety.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/i-was-a-star-wars-pundit/#more-56