1. Star Wars: I was born 3 weeks later, so I didn't see it in theaters until 1997. However, I saw it for the first time on accident, as I accidentally turned on HBO instead of kids programming at the age of 5 (March of 83). I sat down on the couch and quickly saw my mistake as the HBO logo spun across the screen. I went to change the channel before I got in trouble, but the 20th Century Fox drums and visual quickly caught my attention. The initial words then hit the screen: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
I was hooked! My mom came into the room as C3PO and R2 were walking through the sands of Tatoine. I quickly apologized. She asked me what I was watching, so I told her. She responded, "Oh! Star Wars is really good! You'll love it!" I remember thinking that my mom was keeping things from me! I watched it on HBO countless times over the next month or two.

2. Return of the Jedi: Soon after I had watched Star Wars for a 10th or 15th time, a friend told me that a new Star Wars was coming to the theater! I was nearly 6 and ready! I was super excited to see what Luke, Han, Leia, Chewy, Vadar, and the droids were now doing! What new adventures! What have they gotten themselves into? I can remember standing in line at the San Jacinto, Tx Mall theater for what seemed like forever! My mom, my best friend, his mom, and hundreds of other people. Many dressed like jedi knights!

...And SHOW TIME!

WTF??? Why was Han frozen in carbonite? How'd that happen? Vader's Luke's father!!??? He seems fairly nonchalant about it. Luke's a well trained Jedi? Yoda died!!?? Where did this Emperor come from? I was somewhat baffled, but LOVED the film!!! I was in Heaven!!! I bought so many toys!!!

3. Empire Strikes Back: Many months (maybe a year) after seeing the "2nd installment" of my favorite movie series (only series I knew at the moment), my family and I found ourselves in a small video store. I was walking around by myself, admiring all the showcase movies set up on special tables. They had the VHS and Betamax versions of each, so consumers could choose between the battling platforms. It was all so fascinating...but wait! What did I see??? There was this film called "The Empire Strikes Back," and the characters on the Betamax box looked just like my beloved Star Wars and Return of the Jedi heroes! I quickly brought it to my dad to share my excitement. He waved me off, basically telling me it was simply a straight to video film that had nothing to do with my favorite movies. I turned over the box and read the description to him, which included excerpts about our brave rebels and the evil empire! Luke! Vader! Han! I said, "Dad! It is the same characters!" He shook his head and said to go ahead and rent the movie and that I'd be disappointed when I realized I was wrong...

I watched that movie twice...in a row! It was PG, so I was allowed to watch it late at night by myself. I then woke up early the next morning and watched it again, missing some of my Saturday morning favorite cartoons! I was blown away! I was confused at first, but I quickly realized that this was a MIDDLE FILM!!! When I explained this to my father, he still didn't believe me. He refused to watch it. It was weeks later at a party where other grownups were discussing the trilogy that my father admitted he misunderstood me... That SOB!
Empire became very special for me, especially since I saw it out of sequence!