George Lucas's Star Wars

Between bell-hopping at San Francisco's finest hotel and videotaping depositions for high-profile lawsuits, Ted spent some time working for George Lucas. Lucas was re-releasing the first 3 Star Wars films and put Ted on a team of specialists in charge of updating the special effects. Ted and the team came up with ingenious effects like rotating q-tips to stand in for crowds of Storm Troopers and poking holes in a big black blanket to mimic the sky in outer space.

He did such a great job, Ted was rehired to assist on the filming of the newest Star Wars film of the time, The Phantom Menace. You might be surprised to know that much of it was actually filmed on Hi-8 cameras.

At the end of the shoot, Lucas gave Ted and every other member of the crew a complete collection of every Star Wars toy. Ted gave his collection to his son, who then distributed the toys to all of his friends at school. If only he'd held on to them, it might have covered his future retirement.