What do Star Wars, Rick and Morty and Gilmore Girls all have in common? Well, yes, the hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Made? are big fans of all three. But if you dig a little deeper, each were inspired, in ways big or small, by the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell.
On Gilmore Girls, nerdy college students everywhere felt seen when Rory and Paris decided to sit out spring break bacchanalia by watching the PBS series JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE POWER OF MYTH in their motel room. Whether or not you think these two Yalies knew how to party, THE POWER OF MYTH, a series that explores Campbell’s groundbreaking theories about the story cycles and character archetypes that exist in myths around the world, is more fun to watch than it has any right to be. Joseph Campbell is an absolute sweetheart of a man and Bill Moyers is a compelling conduit for the audience, full of insightful questions.
In 1988, when the series was shot, Joseph Campbell was well known as the man whose academic work shaped how George Lucas wrote Star Wars. THE POWER OF MYTH was actually filmed at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch.
In more recent years, comedy writer Dan Harmon, best known for Rick and Morty and Community, has said he uses a modified version of Campbell’s story circle to construct his scripts. Even New Hampshire native and author Dan Brown credits Campbell’s work with inspiring him, using Campbell as one of the inspirations for Robert Langdon, the hero of The Da Vinci Code.
Even if you’re not a writer, Joseph Campbell has something for you. You may have seen his personal motto, “follow your bliss,” on a dorm room poster before, but it was advice he truly believed in. The important thing, he said, is to start, however clumsily, on the path that feels like yours. “You begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss and they open the doors to you,” Campbell explained. “I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
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