Dungeons & Dragons in E.T. (movie)

[OchreJelly]

How would you classify the OD&D Gary Gygax tribute in the recent Futurama movie (Bender's something or other, can't remember title). that was relatively mainstream and quite recent at that...

Futurama's geek references is basically its raison d'être. The show is absolutely swimming with nods to science fiction, or science in general. Even the title of the Futurama movie you reference "Bender's Game" is sci-fi wordplay.

While it's very cool that Futurama makes these references (they've had Gary, rust monsters, and beholders in the past), I wouldn't say it counts as a mainstream example, unless the mainstream can get all the jokes.

 

[Mark Chance]

First, there’s no mention or showing of D&D. Second, only D&D players would recognize the table talk as vaguely D&D-like; to 99% of the U.S. population, it was gibberish.

I'm suddenly reminded that 89.7% of all statistics are made up.

 

[Vorput]

All the clip proves to me is that D&D players are jerks!

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

First, there’s no mention or showing of D&D. Second, only D&D players would recognize the table talk as vaguely D&D-like; to 99% of the U.S. population, it was gibberish. (And as has been said above, it wasn’t even actually D&D, anyway.)

In the first 20 seconds they roll dice, talk about death spells and the undead, and getting an arrow in the chest.

Even in the 80's (maybe especially in the 80's?), I suspect any of that would have been recognized as fantasy roleplaying, even if the listener didn't really understand what that actually meant. And of, as has been discussed in depth here at ENWorld, I think most people conflate "D&D" and "roleplaying games"; the two are basically synonymous in general culture.

Actually, what I doubt is that anyone at the time would have considered that it was anything other than D&D!

(By the way, notice all the smoke in the scene. It looks like middle-age men playing poker.)

Haven't your D&D sessions always been like that?

 

[OchreJelly]

All the clip proves to me is that D&D players are jerks!

And yet, that scene almost perfectly describes my introduction to the hobby. Sadly, I was the "annoying little brother" the older kids didn't want to have around.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Sadly, I was the "annoying little brother" the older kids didn't want to have around.

I can only dream that my little brothers had been so interested in playing D&D

 

[Wik]

Henh. I was the "mean older brother" who would try to keep his little brother out of his games. Mostly because he had the attention span of a gnat.

(Imagine, if you will, a human warrior with a katana - my brother. Now, imagine there are three orcs, arranged at the points of a triangle. Imagine this warrior attacking Orc #1, missing, and then charging orc #2 - getting Opportunity Attacked in the process. Then, imagine him missing orc #2... only to charge orc #3 and getting hit by another OA. And, upon hitting - but not killing - orc #3, he then charges orc #1. And so on, and so forth.)

Moral of the story? My brother is now one of the regulars at my gaming table, and has been for around two or three years.

 

[Oryan77]

you will learn that the child actors actually did play D&D.

I don't believe that. None of those kids really play D&D. None of them are wearing a Storm Trooper helmet while playing and I didn't see a single plastic lightsaber anywhere on the table.

 

[Celebrim]

Gary was the one who refused. I remember this because Monte Cook once posted a journal entry wondering how dumb it was for TSR to refuse publicity. I posted his answer long ago on Monte's forum.

The Scoop on why ET didn't have D&D - Line of Sight and Monte's Blog - Montecook.com - Okay -- Your Turn - Message Board - Yuku

For those that think Gygax had unreasonable product concerns about the placement, the novelization of the movie based on the early script was far harsher and contained explicit drug references and the mother worrying about whether the boys are using drugs. The inference one gets from the novelization is that the play of D&D is just one example of the boys anti-social and increasingly dangerous behavior as their lives spin out of control.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Yeah, it's often talked about how brave Hershey's was to allow reases pieces in given how little information they were given so I wouldn't call TSR's move stupid, or even M&M's move.

Gary talked about how little he was told.

Hershey's (and presumably Mars) was told, the movie features an alien, the alien is friendly, and the alien will eat a trail of your candy. Any further requests for information was denied. They were being pretty secret with the whole thing.