USA Today reported that, at his appearance this weekend at the Star Wars Celebration III convention, director George Lucas officially announced that he has...

"given the green light to two Star Wars television series. First up will be a 3-D animated half-hour series based on his popular Clone Wars cartoon shorts. The second and most ambitious project will involve a live-action series. He wants it to be similar to the serialized The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series he executive-produced in 1992. Lucas plans to film the entire first season all at once, with shooting to begin in about a year. Lucas says he will set up the show, but then plans to step back and move on to other projects."

While most of the Star Wars TV endeavors based on the Original Trilogy were not commercial successes, the Clone Wars mini-episodes from Cartoon Network have proved otherwise. While the animation is more streamlined and caricatured that what you would expect for Star Wars, the writing and action sequences was done in a way to make it entertaining to adults and children alike.

However, despite being a modest fan of Star Wars (meaning I don’t dress up in costumes or attend conferences), I’ll be honest and say I’m not initially crazy about the idea of a live action TV show for Star Wars. Now, before all of you Star Wars-aholics strike me down with all of your anger, please allow me to explain.

First and foremost, going from Film to TV is usually a recipe for disaster. Remember, there were TV shows made of: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing, Clueless, and Stargate (Yes, I know that show has lasted a while, but it’s only because of MacGyver fans.) The only recent Film to TV success I can think of is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But with Buffy, the movie was really bad, while the TV show got a better actress (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The only all-time Film to TV success is M*A*S*H. But 2 out of 50 isn’t good odds on TV.

Second, with TV budgets not necessarily being the same as the movies, I worry the special effects necessary to maintain a multi-episode show will have to be compromised. Come on, let’s face it, one of the reasons so many live action sci-fi TV shows cannot compare to the movies are because the effects are sub-par. I give a lot of credit to channels like Sci-Fi for producing original programming, but one of the reasons they come out somewhat cheesy is the lack of budget.

Lastly, if there are to be any characters that carry over from the movies, I doubt they’ll be able to secure the same actors to play them, thus convoluting the original impressions you know so well from the movies. Think of George Clooney or Val Kilmer taking over in the Batman movies after Michael Keaton left, or better yet think of Sammy Hagar taking over vocals for Van Halen after David Lee Roth left. Yes, I know, those are different genres, but I think you get the point.

All in all, Episode III is sure to please, and fans can speculate the future later. Hypothetically, Lucas could put out an Emmy award winning series for all we know. So let’s hope that his sorcerer’s ways have the clairvoyance to avoid the pitfalls of cheesy sci-fi TV.