Talk:E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial/Archive 3

Untitled
The California wildfires of August 2009 came close to the home where the movie was shot. Any update as to whether the home received any damage? 22yearswothanks (talk) 22:43, 3 September 2009 (UTC) jingle jam Nebula onus elated Yak xrays zephir paper anglerfish 0 miffy (talk) 14:38, 24 September 2020 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.86.177.101 (talk)

Lead needs work
The lead for this article, and the article in general, could be greatly improved. In the lead, there could be some more general information about gross revenue, rank among top-grossing films (both outright and adjusted for inflation), awards won, place in Spielberg's career and more. I will open this up for discussion first before I make changes. Please post actual content here and we will hopefully come to a consensus and get it into the lead. ET is one of the most influential movies of all time; it deserves an excellent wiki article. Dougmac7 (talk) 06:00, 23 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I didn't understand a word of that. If you think the article isn't an WP:FA, please nominate it for a WP:FAR.  &mdash;Aladdin Sane (talk) 12:56, 23 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Clarify and expand remark at editor request: I feel the presumption for how the article stands now goes to the other 1116 editors that got the article to FA status.  See the edit stats for an indication of the work already accomplished.  I'm not finding an argument for "greatly improved" in any of what's written.  Having scanned the article as an editor I see one minor improvement:  The Academy Awards nominations and wins have somehow gotten de-emphasized over the years, and I think may deserve re-emphasis.  This criticism largely came about because of the footer of the article which does not mention them, making the info hard to find.


 * When speaking to the idea of "greatly improved" and the first idea given is "we need to say more about how Hollywood made a bundle off the film", I tend to react negatively: The art, not the money made, should be the emphasis in my opinion.  (Note on my comments:  I have not seen the movie in question; I do tend to use this article and a few other FA articles as a "benchmark" for writing about fictional subjects on Wikipedia.)


 * An FA tends to go into maintenance mode, and it is admitted that WP:FAR's are required sometimes because an article can go downhill, or the FA standards have changed: I'm not thrilled with the current FA standards, as they seem to mandate every lead be a WP:TLDR.  I think the lead here is "right-sized" and I enjoy the article greatly.  Most edits to the article now, as opposed to in its history (link goes to original August 2002 version of the article), seem to involve reverting unsourced assertions about ET's alternate sexual preference.  It's not that unusual, the "Hamlet" article has the exact same sourcing issue on the exact same point. But I've got to compliment User:Baseball Bugs for this recent edit to the article, the editor knocked it out of the ballpark.  &mdash;Aladdin Sane (talk) 19:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Inspiration
ET shares many themes with the 1956 British movie "Supersonic Saucer", in which "a group of school children at a boarding school spot a flying saucer and then soon meet a diminutive being from Venus. The alien, whom the kids name "Meba", communicates with the children by telepathy. Bad guys who were planning to steal valuables from the school safe try to kidnap "Meba" to make use of his remarkable abilities, but the children fight the bad guys and keep their friend "Meba" out of the hands of the crooks.  The bad guys are rounded up with "Meba"s help at the end.  There is one scene where one of the children takes "Meba" for a ride on her bike just as in E.T." -Jim Riecken, IMDB.com76.70.119.149 (talk) 19:49, 24 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The above "Supersonic Saucer" film is here on YouTube:  It was made by the Children's Film Foundation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.172.141 (talk) 08:26, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

What are ETs qualities?
Please help us come up with some of ETs Qualities comparing him to alf. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.164.18.199 (talk) 01:24, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
 * What's stopping you from doing it? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:31, 29 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Alf, the "alien life form" TV series? why compare E.T. to Alf? is Alf considered to be influenced by E.T.? in which way would the comparison of E.T. to Alf be relevant to the article? (roman e./germany) --84.154.71.153 (talk) 17:12, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Personally since I wrote the initial story of ET in 1963, I consider comparing him to Alf an insult. Alf was funny and cute in his own way, but had NOTHING to do with ET. His personality was nothing like ET. He to me was a spinoff of ET. I don't see any comparison of common traits. They were aliens and shared a similar skin color. Nothing more. Alf conversed way more and had a human personality. ET was a new entity, learning and developing all the way. Alf was cocky and maybe a little smart mouthed, totally different. There is no comparison to me, but I am biased. As I watch ET from time to time I totally relate to when I dreamed him up as a fourth grader. Alf is from another planet and on a different earth as far as I see it. CheriLee 22:37, 20 December 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cherilm (talk • contribs) 04:21, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

Influence on popular culture
In my personal experience, E.T. was the film that kicked off the BMX cycling hype. Everyone about my age (~11 at that time) wanted to have a BMX bike as a direct effect of watching the film. Kuwahara manufactured a BMX bicycle that we used to call "Kuwahara E.T.", which might have also been the actual model name. IIRC the bike at least looked (maybe in fact was) identical to the one used in the film by the main character. - can anyone confirm this experience? got some reference? worth adding to the article? (roman e./germany) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.154.71.153 (talk) 17:03, 4 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Outside of Wikipedia you could probably write a - short - essay on ET's cultural impact. It was hugely popular, but even at the time the film was generally perceived as a slightly retro one-off; moreso nowadays. It showed that there were big bucks to be made from family-friendly films, and made the video nasties seem even more unsavoury, unfortunately so in the case of John Carpenter's contemporaneous The Thing, but other than that you'll struggle to tie it in with pop culture in the 80s and subsequently. It was the golden child, the outlier, the Jesus. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 19:55, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Additional Cultural impact: I would like to make one more note of how E.T. affected culture. Since E.T. I noted many of my kids friends calling each other by their initials, instead of their names. It happened along with the BMX craze. At first I didn't think of it as from E.T. and thought maybe it was a JR flyoff, but Dallas/Dynasty were around for a long time and no one seemed to pick up on it much in a personal way. It was a kids thing. And it seems to have come from E.T. CheriLee 22:36, 20 December 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cherilm (talk • contribs) 04:11, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

Original Screenplay
The original screenplay E.T. apparently was plagiarized from a screenplay written by a young teenager in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was originally titled Pi (algebraic pi) as the alien was named. It was written by Johnny Colafrancesco and submitted to a little known producer at the time. He received a letter stating a movie could be made if he provided an amount of money in the 6 figure range. The letter also stated he would relinquish ownership of the screenplay after 7 years if he did not provide the funds. An original copy of the manuscript is kept by a lawyer with the name of Bob Hays and safely locked away in his safe in Birmingham, Alabama. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.90.92.202 (talk) 04:16, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I see no reference in Google News Search or Google Books Search mentioning a Colafrancesco in relation to this film. We would need to verify this claim with a reliable source. Erik (talk &#124; contribs) 19:46, 30 September 2010 (UTC)I do not know exactly how this works but I am stunned anyone outside of Coach Hays remembers this or would even know about it.It is a true story and he likely kept my copy of the script.I had sent copies also to Creative Artist and this was well before it was re-written by Melissa Mathinson. The only real difference was I wanted to call it PI and use the symbol for the title.The "phone home scene was a major feature of my script as I had written that part for myself.

The Alien
Anyone else think it's a bit odd that an encyclopedic article on the film E.T. doesn't contain a single clear picture of the alien itself? It's frequently invoked in the article, and there's even a section where the alien's appearance is said to have deterred Mars from condoning the use of M&Ms, but nobody, upon reading this article, would really know what the alien looked like. Not condoning the use of pictures willy-nilly - they're just there to illustrate the text, in the end - but I'd say that this is an aspect of the film that would very much be worth illustrating. Robdwebster (talk) 12:52, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

ET's shape came from an ink blot art project. My teacher probably figured everyone would write about their family, but I have always been a kind of realist, and that shape didn't fit anyone I knew. The artwork was published in the 1963-1964 book where my story was put after it was stolen from me by the school principle. She didn't actually "steal" it she asked me first if she could have the original I wrote it on. But when an adult asks a 9 year old child if they can have something, a child has no idea what that means, and flattered that she wanted to publish it in a book of children's stories, I said YES of course. SO, she STOLE it and labelled as Unknown Author. But the publisher knows which school it came from. ET was an Art and Composition project in the early Fall of 1963. I was so engrossed in writing it I passed up going outside for recess and sat alone (I wasn't aware of anyone else but the teacher) finishing it as she gave me more paper to write on. His hands were the splash of the ink hitting the paper, and his arms were the dripping as our teacher folded each of our papers in half for us. Everyone had their own unique picture to think about. CheriLee 22:34, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

It or He?
Cleverly, the article avoids giving ET - the character - a gender. It's all "ET does this" and "ET does that" rather than "he does this" and "he does that", so kudos to whoever wrote that bit. Perhaps it was unintentional, but I like to imagine that at least one of the people who contributes to Wikipedia is as clever as me. But the section about the sequel novel in Other Portrayals section is more problematic; the text talks about "its attempts to return to Earth" and "its planet". Is ET an it? Technically I suppose he doesn't have a cock, at least not that we get to see, and so concepts of gender don't apply, but it seems stilted and autistic. This must have been gone over before, what was the outcome? I could easily rewrite it as e.g. "ET attempts to return home, in the process violating the laws of his planet" - I could do that in my sleep but I like to post to talk pages like this because it boosts my public profile. Ten minutes from now I will probably make the necessary edits anyway, so don't expend too much effort replying. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 19:55, 31 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Hmmm. In fact, the plot synopsis includes many instances of "he"/"him"/"his" that refer to E.T., and several instances of "it" and "its". Rewording the entire plot synopsis to remove all of the foregoing would almost surely yield an extremely stilted result. I think the first thing to do is to research and see if we can make an authoritative determination on whether "he" or "it" is correct. I'd say the most important sources would be the screenplay, followed by any statements by its author (Mathison), followed by any any statements by Spielberg. DocKino (talk) 11:08, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * fond this on IMDB.com

Steven Spielberg stated in an interview that E.T. was a plant-like creature, and neither male or female. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.114.238.246 (talk) 17:29, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Just for the record, Ashley, I find your reference to an alien not having a cock to be highly inappropriate. Do fish have a ? Do trees and flowers? But just so you know, ET was always a HE to me, logically, because there were NO female astronauts at the time (1963). And further, ET is a CHILD's story, not considered ADULT content, Children dont even care about gender until they are teens or so. They don't make children's dolls with gender, why would an alien need one? Therefore your comment is way off and distasteful, and I waited a few years to say this, you never came back and edited it yours. Thank you for reminding me, I'm signing it here: CheriLee 22:32, 20 December 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cherilm (talk • contribs)

That question was raised and settled within the film itself
Gertie asks: Is he a boy or a girl?”, implying that, from the her first encounter, she perceived him as a he. Then Elliot confirms: “He's a boy”. Throughout the film E.T. is referred to as he or him. Gertie referred to him as “the man from the Moon” and Elliot called him “a man from the outer space”. Now if you watch the entire film, it will become clear that E.T. is Elliot's extra-terrestrial counterpart. Mutatis mutandis, he's a young boy just like Elliot.

As to why Steven Spielberg would later state that E.T. is a plant-like creature, neither male or female, I don't understand. Plants are male, female or both, with male and female parts within the same individual. They aren't genderless. But I digress. The film speaks for itself. E.T. is definitely a boy.

imaginary friends and other stories of imagination
call me a skeptic but there are certain things I hear that quite simply don't have the ring of truth to me, and it's from a perspective that I would categorize as "Occam's razor". Do I believe that it's more likely that a successful celebrity movie director dug deep into his childhood memories and came up with "new old" material to collaborate and merge with a stalled science fiction project (as this article says), or do I do I believe it is perhaps more likely that a successful and sophisticated celebrity movie director with an army of trained advisors and having experienced some previous very large Hollywood projects found it a more simply defended position against anticipated claims (be they spurious or not) of plagiarism and intellectual propery theft to recall interior memories that could predate most competing claims on a simplistic and hackneyed story for children? From my perspective, this article should say that "Spielberg says" or "Spielberg claims", unless there is some corroborating evidence for that story. Without evidence, somebody saying something about themselves is "original research", and it does not harm the story (and in this case Spielberg) to simply say "Spielberg says...". And while we're at it, just to help you form a perspective on what I'm saying, do we really think it's more likely that Steve Jobs sat in on a university class about calligraphy (original research with no records of course registration), or that the Apple Lisa and Macintosh more likely simply incorporated the typography features of Xerox's WYSIWYG computer systems that Jobs had seen. 96.224.42.141 (talk) 00:12, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

External Link: Nocturnal Fears - dead
Does someone want to take out the external link for Nocturnal Fears? It forwards to something called pitchfest, and is not the sequal treatment it refers to. --Photoactivist (talk) 21:26, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

E.T. 2
the is no talk about the planed but naver made "E.T. 2 The Return" in it E.t.s real name is known E.T. people are also seen in the new Star Wars moives. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.114.238.246 (talk) 16:28, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

John Landis
John Landis plays a role in the movie. He is one of the doctors "tending" to E.T.--Ron John (talk) 03:58, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
 * That's plausible, but he's not listed in the credits at IMDB, and their editors usually have this kind of trivia covered. What's your source? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:58, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: not moved. Favonian (talk) 09:52, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial → E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial – Seemed to be, a more precise name name for film; (based on film poster) as The Extra-Terrestrial is a subtitle to the main movie name, E.T.. Relisted. Jenks24 (talk) 04:33, 10 June 2012 (UTC) Silvergoat (talk∙contrib) 15:00, 2 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment. Using the film poster solely as the basis for this move proposal to add the colon punctuation mark is insufficient, IMO, when even the official web page from Universal Studios Home Entertainment (http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/et-the-extra-terrestrial/) does not use the colon. Some recent reliable sources do not use the colon either. Zzyzx11 (talk) 22:26, 2 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep as-is. What matters is what's on the screen, not what some bit of publicity has. For example, the title of Superman "The Movie" in 1978 is actually just plain Superman. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:38, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Oppose. A poster is not a good basis at all for determining a film's "true" name. As Bugs says, "What matters is what's on the screen." DocKino (talk) 05:20, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Support, per Amazon, Rovi allmovie, Britannica, and Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia. Did the screen title have a comma? I am hoping no one knows the answer to that. Kauffner (talk) 05:17, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I should point out that my "oppose" is based on the standard set by Leonard Maltin in his annual movie guide, which goes by what's on-screen rather than what someone thinks is "should be". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:16, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Maltin is flexible. He gives both "E.T.--The Extra-Terrestial" and "E.T. The Extra-Terrestial". Kauffner (talk) 10:36, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Oppose; movie posters are not a good source. Powers T 21:22, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * As it happens, in this case it is, in that the style and font used in the poster match what I indicated below as the way it's presented on-screen. No colon, no hyphen, no dash. Just 2 separate lines. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:17, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Addition of colon doesn't look nice, especially after the period. --George Ho (talk) 05:40, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

DVD
I have the "20th anniversary edition", which has both the original theatrical release and the tinkered-with version. Here's how the beginning unfolds:
 * Universal Pictures logo appears [in the OTR, it was played backwards, i.e. pulling away from earth and into space]
 * "E.T." in large letters fades in
 * "The Extra-Terrestial" in smaller letters fades in - all caps, E and T somewhat larger than the others
 * "The Extra-Terrestrial" fades out
 * "E.T." fades out
 * Other credits appear individually, fading in and then fading out

←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:31, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Actors with the E. T. costume
Tamara De Treaux, Pat Bilon and Matthew De Meritt were ACTORS and belongs to the CAST, not to the Development section. E.T. without the players was not possible. And the Link to Pat Bilon Wikipedia site is not working. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.66.12.54 (talk) 22:38, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Similar to something I wanted to write on this Talk page. In the Cast section, the second to last paragraph is about the voice work for E.T. The film is called E.T., so maybe that second to last paragraph should be moved up a bit. Also, the actors are mission completely. Tamara De Treaux, Pat Bilon and Matthew DeMeritt. Maybe even mention Caprice Roth who filled prosthetics to play E.T.'s hands. Or maybe a link to the Development section or move all that stuff into the Cast section as IP user 74.66.12.54 suggests. --82.170.113.123 (talk) 21:24, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Maybe even include a low quality image of the three actors with the E.T. animatronic. --82.170.113.123 (talk) 21:29, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Was there not something of a controversy over the film-makers implying in all publicity that “E.T.” was an animatronic, and refusing to acknowledge the rôle which the actors played in performing the character? Wasn’t it a reason Armistead Maupin wrote “Maybe the Moon”? Jock123 (talk) 18:51, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Claimed authorship of ET story.
(This edit was made to the article by Cherilm in this diff.) I have moved it here for discussion. --Pete (talk) 11:12, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

My edit to this piece: This is going to sound bold, but I am the original author of the child's story of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. According to the page here Mr. Spielberg and Melissa Mathison (spelling?) wrote the screenplays and additional scenes of the MOVIE and in my opinion did it with a wonderful heartwarming touch. He found my story in a book of children's stories that were written by children. I wrote it in the school year of 1963-1964 in central Ohio. I wont argue that Mr Spielberg had the feelings he had, or found himself deeply relating to the story I wrote because ET (the original unknown child's STORY) was loved by EVERYONE in my school. As a matter of fact, the principle loved it SO MUCH she essentially stole it from me, telling me she wanted to publish it in a book of children's stories. She asked me for the original, saying the publisher needed it. I have no copy of the book myself but I have a friend talking to Mr Spielberg on my behalf and he has researched the publisher and determined that I indeed am the author, even though the book says "author unknown" or something to that effect. I am patiently waiting to have a copy of the book for the first time in my life. I was not even told who the publisher was or even if the book had been eventually published. It was always a lingering thought to me about what happened after she took my story from me. In the early 80's Mr Spielberg's office contacted me at my place of work in Southern California. That should be a big clue in itself that I am the real author, but when they came to me they asked me specifically, "Did you ever write a story for a children's book?" Well, 20 years after the fact I had no idea what they were referring to, but I've never been involved with a publisher for any reason, so I said "No". Then the guy talking to me said, "Maybe you should. If you think of anything let us know," and that was the extent of our casual conversation in a hallway by a big window overlooking the office grounds. He gave me a business card but I was confused and a few days later threw it away. I had no idea what he was talking about, though in the back of my mind just before I tossed the card, I thought, 'maybe they are referring to that little story I wrote for my 4th grade class,... but I quickly brushed that off since 'what would a little nothing child's book from Ohio be doing all the way out in California after all these years'. You see, my story was not written for a children's book, it was an art and composition project for my class. Our teacher went around the room and put drops of red ink on a piece of buff practice paper for each of us (that paper is the standard for practicing cursive writing), then she folded it in half to let the ink run a little, opened it up and asked us to make up a story about what we saw in it. I immediately became engulfed in an idea. His head was too flat to be a human, and his arms were too skinny, and little splashes on the ends were his hands. His belly was too big and legs too short, so he must be an Extra-Terrestrial. There had been much talk of extra terrestrials since Armstrong walked on the moon, John Glen, and so on. Space things was a very big deal. So my mind went to work and I imagined that their ship landed down the hill at the end of the road where I lived, in a clearing in the woods, close to the river where we used to go to sled riding and kite flying. His friends were startled accidentally took off in a hurry without him and I found him alone wandering as the ship took off. I made friends with him and took him home and hid him in the third floor attic of the house where we lived. We lived in a big 3 story white house on a corner across from a little market. The house had 7 bedrooms on the second floor, two staircases (a formal one in the front and a utility staircase in the back by the kitchen that led directly up to the hallway and doglegged to the side a little to a door and up to the attic). The attic was large enough for an apartment by itself. So I put him there and brought my toys up and we played everyday after school. I had 4 brothers and my mother was divorced, so one little girl in that big house while mom was at work made for a lonely little girl. My brothers always broke my toys and gave me a hard time so I kept ET a secret from them, and I didn't want them or scientists to get him because they would steal him or cut him up and do experiments on him. I don't recall every detail of the story, but as I remember Halloween came and I took him out with me because he didn't need a costume. And I told him I was going to call him ET because Extra-Terrestrial was too hard to keep saying. He missed his people so he made a radio thing from my toys to call his people to come back for him. When they came, they hovered over our house while we said our goodbye's, and he said goodbye. I didn't want him to go. I was sad so he touched my nose with his finger and said he'd come back. Our attic had four dorm windows, one north, south, east and west. He left for his ship out of the north window. Don't ask me how, I was just 9 years old, turning 10 that next summer. That is how I remember it. It was on about 2 sheets of that buff practice cursive paper handwritten in pencil, with my name on the upper right corner - though I suspect it was erased or torn off. The picture was a third sheet. ET is actually 50 years old this year.

You can verify 'my story', and my 'other story' with Steven Spielberg. It will become public eventually. My name for the picture's sake will be "Cheri Lee Malitsky". The last name I chose is fictitious and not intended to imply a relationship with any member of the family it may actually be associated with. It sounded good with my first name so I used it. I don't want to use my real name because our family name is rare. Steven Spielberg can give you (Wikipedia) the name of my friend talking to him about this and he may want to revise the account on this site after this. I gave my friend power of attorney to handle any business matters for me regarding this. I am not a negotiator, you wouldn't want to send me in to talk about the fine details, unless you want to be eating chicken soup and bread crumbs for the rest of your life.

When the movie came out I didn't rush to the theater, I had no idea it was my story, and I hate waiting in long lines. But eventually I went and cried and loved it just like everyone else. Even then I didn't realize it was my story. It took a while to sink in and few days later I woke up on a Saturday morning and it was in my mind, there was something really familiar about that story. So I started trying to remember and I was elated, but I thought, NO WAY, it COULDN'T be my story. Then I thought, what is the likelihood that another child would come up with the exact same story. Then I figured it just couldn't be.

Next thing I knew some woman was trying to sue Mr Spielberg, saying she wrote it. So I was saddened and figured it wasn't mine after all. A short while later Mr Spielberg said in court (I think), it couldn't be her because it was written by a child, an unknown author, and we know how old she has to be. So that lady disappeared. I was nearly in shock, but I still didn't respond because I had no proof that it was me who did it and I figured no one would listen to me. And I already told them I didn't write any children's story. When they had come to me they didn't describe the story to me or I would have said yes, but they gave me no clues. Just a few brief sentences as I stated earlier. I spent a number of years looking for someone who could handle this matter for me, and my luck with lawyers has been no luck at all, don't even bring it up..., so I waited until I had a friend who was qualified and could go to Mr Spielberg and discuss the whole situation after all these years had passed. That was approximately 3 or so years ago, December of 2011, if I recall (I wrote it in my journal, so I can check if I need to). For a show of good faith to Mr Spielberg, I gave him a sequel to the first story, and an additional story unrelated to aliens that I gave him the right to vary if he wanted. I have no intention of suing him, and we will come to an agreement, if they haven't already finalized it. You'll be hearing from me! ---end of my edit. (Revision as of 14:42, 6 March 2014 Cherilm CheriLee (talk) 23:58, 8 March 2014 (UTC)CheriLee (talk) 18:27, 10 March 2014 (UTC)CheriLee (talk) 18:37, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

So, just to quiet all the other ideas people have made about where the idea for ET came from, that's my 2 cents. Eventually I will have a copy of the book with a picture of the artwork and it will be obvious where ET came from. No one lied, they just didn't tell you the whole rest of the story. CheriLee (talk) 00:07, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

One other item I would like to add. Mr Spielberg could NOT identify me because I said I didn't write any story for a children's book. So he was between a rock and a hard place. If he cited the book, it would lead back to me. Secondly, if he said the author was still unknown, he would have every desperate greedy mother in town saying her child was the author. There already was the one I mentioned, I don't know how many others. But when he said the author was a child and unknown back then, it was like a hint for me to come forward and stake my claim, but I didn't do it. This must have left him perplexed, because who wouldn't want to? You see I have been a lioness with little cubs whom I would lay my life down to protect. And I have had a relentless deadbeat vulture flying overhead of me for all this long time until recently an act of God took him out of the sky and released me from his stronghold. I'm free now and my cubs can come out and play with out any fear for their well being. That vulture would have taken away their livelihood for his own selfish interests. So I protected it for them.CheriLee (talk) 18:53, 10 March 2014 (UTC)Cherilm93 (talk) 20:54, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

I would like to add one more side comment for E.T., When I watched the commentaries and other parts of the 20th anniversary edition of the movie, I have to say I have the deepest appreciation for Steven Spielberg finding my story and developing it as they did. The way he describes the making of the alien (from the artwork) shows that he cared very much about my feelings as a child and adult. (Gertrude was my mother's name, and Michael was my older brother.) He realized I loved E.T. when I wrote Him. He discussed making his teeth rounded like a vegetarian, not carnivore, and choosing a height that would be gentle and not frightening to a child. It showed that he fully understood the character of E.T. from a child's point of view. In my opinion, it is the Director who makes the actor when they are first starting out, he sees the vision of the story because he felt it as he read it. He related to it. And his own testimony confirms that. I am so thankful that he is the one who stumbled onto the story, I have often felt he is the only director who COULD have done justice to E.T. With that said, I want everyone to know how I felt. One of the comments above says, what are the chances of this director just popping this story out of his head, or the like, that comment is the one that I was responding to when I wrote the story of how it happened above. Mr Spielberg didn't just pop it out of his head, he was inspired but he couldn't say so because I never said I wrote it, until now. I tried to tell a few people, but they just looked at me, like "sure Cheri, you wrote E.T., Ha!", and one of them was my own son! Sure mom, (wink) gotcha!! So I just kept quiet after that. CheriLee 23:32, 20 December 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cherilm93 (talk • contribs)

Is this movie hard science fiction or soft science fiction?
Please tell me so I can categorize it accordingly.--Taeyebaar (talk) 21:14, 27 February 2016 (UTC)


 * As you've been told before, like most science fiction, it has elements of both, so it should not be put in either category. Get consensus or leave it alone, or you'll be reverted as has happened at dozens of other articles. - Gothicfilm (talk) 23:27, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

So, you're now encouraging other editors to stalk me on your behalf, eh? I'll save that as evidence for your attempted meat puppetry the next time you try to start a drama on a noticeboard.--Taeyebaar (talk) 23:41, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Anyone checking the history of the many pages you've hit can see how many editors have reverted you without any help from me. - Gothicfilm (talk) 00:08, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

no that was the case with you. Reverting multiple people without consensus. If I don't get any serious responses, I will categorize it accordingly.--Taeyebaar (talk) 00:21, 1 March 2016 (UTC)


 * You can spin it however you like. You've been reverted many times at dozens of pages. Specific to this, at least four editors have reverted your "soft" science fiction category at numerous other pages that you put in without getting any consensus. - Gothicfilm (talk) 00:28, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Please upload picture
Upload a portrait photography of the ET.

A little logical mistake maybe
'It is the highest-grossing film of the 1980s.' -- this sentence may need to be removed cause it's a redundant specification. If an 80s released film acquired highest-grossing film ever record and held it until the 90s, of course it's the highest-grossing film of the 80s. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.78.209.34 (talk) 08:45, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Name of the race of ET ?! anyone...
Has the race ever been named? If not, why not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gizziiusa (talk • contribs) 04:42, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

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One of the best movies?
This page says that E.T. is one of the best movies ever made and has a link to a page containing a list of the best movies ever made, but the other page doesn't mention E.T. anywhere. Please fix this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.159.232.121 (talk) 18:09, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

It provided breakout roles for Drew Barrymore and Henry Thomas. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rectify 54 (talk) 20:37, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

When I ask people what they thought of E.T. as a movie, they tell me, "E.T. was a legend", a movie in it's own category. And the people I have asked have been random and not related to each other. CheriLee 23:00, 20 December 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cherilm93 (talk • contribs)

Production company
Is it necessary to have Universal as also the production company? Why not just list it as just distributor? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.175.89.40 (talk) 02:13, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

Front Range?
The article says that Elliott's house is in the Front Range (Colorado). But in the beginning when Elliott is trying to tell E.T. where they are, he uses a map and a globe and both times clearly points to California.

The exterior shots of the neighborhood are of the Tujunga neighborhood of Los Angeles and the house used for the exterior shots is also in Tujunga.

So why are we saying that the setting is in the Front Range? Acsenray (talk) 16:00, 15 September 2018 (UTC)