CT Compiling a list of TV airings of the original trilogy...

I am looking to collect airings of the Star Wars trilogy on TV with commercials.

Does a list exist somewhere?

 

Not online. Most of those airings were long ago and what's out there can be found on Youtube, if you're lucky.

 

Alrighty then. I'd love to spearhead an effort to compile one. Am I not able to edit my own first post?

Here's my list so far, compiled from my own private collecting and known dates from an article on tvobscurities.com. For collecting purposes, I'm mostly interested in airings with commercial breaks. I would list any airing just for posterity's sake (I do acknowledge that premium cable services do have some network spots before and after the film, making them somewhat collectible).

This is only for pre-1997 Special Editions. Did the non-special editions ever air on television in 1997 or after? I would rather "Special Edition" airings be compiled on a separate list. I wouldn't be that interested in compiling such a list myself, though.

There are also airings I know little about. People have offhandedly mentioned having taped the trilogy when it aired on USA Network or Sci-Fi channel in the 90s. If people can recollect the year and network of an airing I might be able to do some research and find an exact date.



A New Hope

American Airings

Sep. 1982: Pay-Per-View [1]
Winter 1983: Showtime (premium cable premiere; I've been told that the film was sold to both HBO and Showtime, and Showtime aired it very early in the morning in order to make the claim that they were showing it before HBO) [2]
Winter 1983: HBO [1]
Feb. 26, 1984: CBS (Network television premiere, included a 22 minute making-of featurette and was hosted by Mark Hamill) [1][2]
Feb. 14, 1987: CBS (preceded by "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown") [2]

Australian Airings

Nov. 1, 1985: ATV-10 (same making-of/hosting content as USA's 1984 CBS airing) [2]



Empire Strikes Back

American Airings:

Nov. 22, 1987: NBC (Network television premiere) [1]
Jun. 28, 1992: NBC [2]

Australian Airings

Feb 9, 1986: ATV-10 [2]
Feb, 1986: STW-9 (no exact date available, but possibily aired on the same night as ATV-10, which are located on opposite sides of the country) [2]

British Airings

Dec. 25, 1988: ITV (3:55 PM airing) [2]



Return of the Jedi

American Airings:

Mar. 19, 1989: NBC (Network television premiere) [1][2]

Australian Airings:

Feb. 15, 1987: ATV-10 [2]



SOURCES:

[1] http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/starwars_tv/
[2] private trading

 

Thanks for the response! I am currently beefing up my list based on some research I've done. I intend to PM the mods soon!

 

For Australian TV guides, there's this site (I think this is a modified version of a site I came across a few years ago):

http://televisionau.com/classic-tv-guides

Unfortunately, the search function seems to be pretty useless when looking for content within the TV guides, rather than just the dates. You'd probably have to just trawl through (which I imagine you already have).

I did find this little gem of a letter to the TV Times in 1979 from a disgruntled viewer, though:

Yeesh, nothing changes. Trust me, Ms B. Hawk of NSW, both you and your children would have been far more than upset if you'd actually subjected yourselves to the 'Star Wars Holiday Spectacular'...
(Here's hoping they went with The Muppet Show, for the sake of the children)

To the OP - just out of curiosity, what are you looking for? I would have imagined that the number of OOT airings worldwide would number in the hundreds. Airings of The SW Holiday Spectacular Special ( ) are one thing, as it apparently cropped up here and there years after it had been disowned by GL (according to this site, anyway: http://starwarsholidayspecial.com/memories.htm), but the OT itself? I would have thought it would have been bog-standard re-run material for any major network channel on at least an annual basis.

 

They were on Sci-Fi channel, then USA, then Spike TV. In that order, if I remember correctly. Carrie Fisher hosted the one they ran on Sci-Fi.

The SW marathons ran Fri-Sun and not W-F also.

 

I don't believe that's true. We didn't have cable at my Mom's house but when we visited Dad's on weekends we watched them a few times. I remember the USA logo on TV.

 

Can't give you an exact date, but ANH definitely screened on the 10 Network (Australia, FTA) in 1982.

 

Wow. I can’t believe ROTJ didn’t air on US broadcast until 1989. That must have been the one I had my uncle record on VHS. There was some editing for tv—If my fuzzy memories from 30 years ago are correct the scene in Jabba’s droid torture room and when C-3PO tells the Ewoks about their adventures were both cut out.

 

ANH was the very first thing Sci-Fi aired when it went on the air.

I remember my family was watching the countdown clock on the channel before it went live, and once they went live they said something like, being the sci-fi channel, there's only one obvious choice to show as our first presentation.