Way back in 1977, when Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out, I theorized that the Powers That Be were acclimating us as a world to the idea that there are alien beings out there that are watching us and will reveal themselves soon. Then along came the New Star Trek series and movies, then “V” miniseries and weekly drama, Mork and Mindy, and all the Star Wars and Star Trek movies................
The mass media history on this stuff goes way back—at least to the 1950s flying saucer movies...they were quite “the thing” back then.