Hello, and welcome back to another article from The Nostalgia Oasis, brought to you by The Retro Resurgence Podcast! This article is going to be the first in an ongoing series of articles we’re calling Icons of Pop Culture. We’ll feature a vast variety of retro pop culture icons…from movie and TV characters & actors, food, video games, toys…the possibilities are endless! So, to kick this one off we’re going to re-visit one of the most popular and recognizable characters that spans over 44 years in the pop culture lexicon: E.T.-The Extra Terrestrial. We’ll talk about the movie, merchandise and the impact the character had on pop culture in the 80s and still to this day.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Directed by Steven Spielberg and released on June 11, 1982, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is one of the most definitive family films of the 1980s. The story begins with Elliott, a somewhat lonely 10-year-old boy living in a suburban California neighborhood with his mother, older brother Michael, and younger sister Gertie. One night, Elliott discovers a small alien who has accidentally been left behind when his companions flee Earth. Elliott names him E.T. and secretly brings him into the family home.
As the movie progresses, Elliott and E.T. become friends, and develop a strange emotional and physical bond, with Elliott sometimes feeling what E.T. feels. E.T. teaches himself basic English, by way of a Speak and Spell, and cobbles together a primitive communicator so he can “phone home” and contact his alien family. Elliott, Michael, and Gertie work together to keep E.T. hidden from their mother and from government scientists who are searching the neighborhood for traces of any evidence of the alien.
But something begins to happen, as E.T.’s health begins to deteriorate the longer he remains on Earth, and Elliott himself becomes sick as well. The government agent’s persistence finally pays off, and they eventually find E.T., temporarily taking control of the family home and attempt to study him. E.T. appears to die but suddenly comes back to life after receiving a signal that his spaceship is returning to Earth.
Elliott and his friends make a plan for escape, riding their bicycles through the neighborhood while being pursued by government agents. In one of the most famous and iconic movie moments of all time, E.T. uses his powers to lift the bicycles into the air, allowing the kids to escape. They reach the open forest, where E.T.’s spaceship arrives. After saying goodbye to Gertie and Michael, E.T. tells Elliott, “I’ll be right here,” touching Elliott’s forehead boarding his ship and returning home.
If you truly think about it, at the movies core, E.T. isn’t really a movie about aliens at all. The story is about friendship, childhood, family, loss and saying goodbye. Spielberg presented most of the story from a child’s point of view, which then gives the movie its sense of wonder and makes E.T. feel less like a science-fiction “creature” and more like a childhood friend. Being 8 years old myself at the time of seeing this movie, I felt the same way.
Impact on Pop Culture
E.T. became a huge pop culture phenomenon almost immediately. The movie was produced for only around $10.5 million, and went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time shortly after its release, passing up Star Wars, which was definitely a huge accomplishment for the time. It remained near the top of the worldwide box-office rankings for years and became one of the movies most strongly associated with Steven Spielberg’s career. Which is saying something, considering that Spielberg had huge hits like Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind already under his belt.
The image of Elliott and E.T. flying across the moon on a bicycle became one of cinema’s most recognizable images. Spielberg later used and put a variation of that imagery into the logo for his company Amblin Entertainment, making the silhouette an enduring part of Hollywood brand recognition.
Several lines and images entered everyday 80s popular culture. “E.T. phone home” is probably the most popular line and became one of the most frequently referenced movie phrases of the decade and still used today. E.T.’s glowing finger, glowing heart, long neck and bicycle ride across the moon were endlessly recycled and parodied in cartoons, television shows, commercials and comedy skits.
The film also had a big impact on the candy Reese’s Pieces. Elliott uses the candy to bring E.T. out of hiding, creating one of the most famous examples of product placement in movie history. Reese’s Pieces sales and profit increased dramatically following the film’s release, and the association between the candy and E.T. still continues to this day decades later.
E.T. became so recognizable that the character appeared in television specials, advertisements, theme-park attractions and anniversary campaigns. The E.T. Adventure attraction at Universal Studios Florida, which opened in 1990, became one of the longest-running attractions associated with Spielberg’s movies. I can personally attest because my wife and I went on our honeymoon to Universal Orlando in 2000 and experienced this ride. Such a great time!
E.T. Merchandise
As many major motion pictures of the early 1980s did, E.T. generated a large amount of merchandise. Unlike franchises such as Star Wars, E.T.’s merchandise wasn’t based solely around action figures and vehicles. The charcter himself became the collectible.
Toys and figures included vinyl E.T. dolls, stuffed animals, wind-up toys, bendable figures, plastic figurines, talking dolls and electronic toys. Some products even recreated E.T.’s glowing finger (which is a completely weird topic on its own!). Manufacturers produced E.T. toys in numerous sizes, ranging from tiny PVC figures to large stuffed versions of the character. I’ve gone to a local vintage toy store and have seen lots of different E.T. merchandise there. I may have to grab a few things next time I’m there.
Lunch boxes and school supplies were especially common. Children could buy E.T. metal and plastic lunch boxes, thermoses, notebooks, folders, pencil cases, rulers, backpacks and other school products. Many featured Elliott and E.T. riding across the moon. Anything school related, you could bet E.T. had it’s fingerprints all over it.
There were also trading cards, stickers and albums, including sets featuring still photographs from the movie, character images and behind-the-scenes information. I have a full set of E.T. trading cards in my personal collection and remember having a sticker album as well. Let’s also not forget food tie-ins from the movie as well, like E.T. Cereal!
Books were another major category. Consumers could buy storybook adaptations, novelizations, coloring books, activity books, photo books, sticker books and children’s readers based on the movie. E.T. also appeared on bed sheets, blankets, pillows, curtains, lamps, clocks, radios, telephones, posters and bedroom decorations, allowing kids to essentially create an E.T.-themed bedroom.
Collectors could find ceramic figurines, glasses, mugs, plates, banks, watches, jewelry, buttons, pins and keychains. Because there was so much licensed merchandise, vintage E.T. items remain a sizable collecting category today. I can even remember making an E.T. figurine out of paper mache in one of my Home Economics classes in about 6th or 7th grade.
The Infamous Atari E.T. Game
What would an article written about E.T. be without discussing one of the most infamous urban legends, later discovered to be completely and 100% true! One piece of E.T. merchandise became famous, but sadly for all the wrong reasons: Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game for the Atari 2600, released during the 1982 Christmas season.
A game that should have been handled with care, Atari rushed the game into development, and within only a matter of weeks it was made and ready, so it could reach stores for Christmas. Designer Howard Scott Warshaw faced an extraordinarily short production schedule.
The finished game had video gamers confused on actually what the objective of the game was, and how to play it! This in turn developed a reputation as one of the worst video games EVER released. Atari produced a massive number of cartridges expecting E.T. to become a blockbuster video game hit, but large quantities went unsold or were returned. I can remember going in to a local Zayre store and seeing the signage up all over the place promoting the game! I never owned this game, but remember a friend from grade school having it, and being very confused while playing it.
The game became widely associated with the North American video game crash of 1983, although the E.T. Atari game certainly wasn’t the sole cause, I’m sure it didn’t help. For decades, rumors flied that Atari had buried truckloads of unsold cartridges in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The truth would indeed come almost 40 years later, when in 2014, an excavation confirmed that Atari games—including copies of E.T.—had indeed been buried there! Today, ironically, the game’s notorious reputation has made original E.T. Atari cartridges a recognizable piece of retro-gaming history and somewhat valuable now!
Why E.T. Still Matters
As we start to wind down, let’s end by asking why E.T. still remains relevant more than four decades after its release. To me, being a child of the 80s, I think the most important reason is that E.T. remains one of the movies most closely associated with 1980s childhood nostalgia. The movie is just dripping with all kinds of 80s pop culture nostalgia. The suburban setting, the BMX bikes, children acting independently of adults, “evil” government agents, and a mysterious creature. All of which would become a major blueprint for an entire style of entertainment.
For many people who grew up during the early 1980s, like me, E.T. wasn’t simply just a movie character. E.T. was everywhere—on lunch boxes, toys, bedsheets, cereal promotions, trading cards, T-shirts, posters, video games and television commercials. All things that made being a kid of the 80s so very special!
I think that the combination of a hugely successful movie, an unforgettable character and a huge merchandising campaign helped make E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial one of the defining pop-culture phenomena of the 1980s and one of my most treasured memories of being a kid back in 1982! Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed taking a trip back in time as much as I enjoyed putting this together! See you soon! -KEN
