One actor seems to signify entertainment in the seventies in two words: JOHN TRAVOLTA.

He started out in television ads for Wheaties and was quickly noticed by Hollywood. After moving to Hollywood, he was quickly cast as the dim-witted Vinnie Barberino on the hit television show Welcome Back Kotter in 1975. This propelled him to his pivitol film role as Tony Manero in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. Later he was cast in the equally successful motion picture Grease in 1978.

But by far the most successful movie of the seventies came in 1979 with George Lucas' and Stephen Spielburgs' Star Wars. It broke all box office records for that decade with its futuristic depiction of Luke Skywalker's struggle to avenge his fathers death and his fight against the Empire's Darth Vader. George Lucas continued his success in the seventies with movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and American Graffiti, an independant venture earlier in the seventies. These movies started the careers of people such as Ron Howard and Harrison Ford. Stephen Spielburg went on to success with his movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Other popular movies were: The Godfather I & II starring Marlon Brando, Al Pachino, Dianne Keaton, and Robert DeNiro; One Flew Over the Coocoo's Nest starring Jack Nicholson: The Canidate starring Robert Redford; Rocky starring Sly Stallone: The Sting starring Robert Redford; etc.

In television, shows such as MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newheart Show, That Girl, Rhoda, Charlies Angles, Star Trek, Good Times and Happy Days gain the public's attention. It was in this period that producer Aaron Spelling began spitting out shows that became hits through the seventies, eighties and even in the nineties, Spelling has a handful of hit t.v. shows.

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