Exactly. 'cept I was in my sophomore year of high school back then, and had a Tolkien freak for an English teacher. So naturally we read the Two Towers and he got the class (and some people who wanted to ditch their other classes) tickets to see the movie a week before release. It was probably the greatest theater experience I've ever had. The march of the Ents and the anticipatory buildup to Helm's Deep were just insane.
I'm d/ling the first season of the Wire, presently.
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Oddly enough, my Grade 9 teacher did the same thing. Most of the grade went, so we had almsot 250 people there. We each had to pay our own way, but we got to get out of 3/4 of the school day for about $10 ^_^