The making of Star Wars...

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...as told by C-3PO and R2-D2.

Details:
In the Fall of 1977, after a successful summer, ABC decided to produce a Star Wars prime-time special.
R2-D2 and C-3PO hosted it, while Cannon's William Conrad narrated it. Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew, and George Lucas also contributed with small bits featuring their thoughts and feelings about Star Wars.
The show ran about 45 minutes long, and preceded the ABC Firday night movie, on a night in September.
Most remarkable, The Making of Star Wars also featured a split second of missing Biggs footage. Biggs and Luke are seen walking together behind a mechanical creature.
In 1995, Lucasfilm 'updated' the special a little, by changing the narrator's voice. The deceased Conrad was replaced by a new announcer.
Virtually none of the script was touched, and that was one of the problems. It seemed as if much of the dialogue was developed for Conrad's harsh and simple voice, and because of that, the new version sounds a little odd. The new version was made for a 1995 Corn-Pops mail-away exclusive, that went along with the highly successful 1995 Star Wars video release.

Some stills of the Show.
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Images are property of Lucasfilm Ltd. and ABC © 1977.
Snapped by: Michael Streeter

 

I saw the original one not to long ago, a friend of mine has a copy.
I loved it, the missing Biggs footage is (imo) not that great, but the rest of the show makes up for it, great interviews, some verry humorus.

I've never seen the new version, so i can't comment on the narration difference.
Anybody here seen both?

 

I've never seen any copies. I would like to get my hands on it though. I like documentries on how movies are made, and its even more interesting when I like the movie.

 

If you want to get a copy [no not a bootleg] go to E-BAY. There are plenty of them there and they're the real thing not bootlegs. That's where I got mine. Only cost me $3.00.

 

I have that video. I got it in a mail-away offer from Corn Pops cereal. Very cool special, but Mark Hamills hair was scary as hell.

 

Hey, it was the seventies. Everybody's hair was scary.

 

The2ndQuest - The ESB diary. Are you talking about "Once Upon A Galaxy: A Journal of The Making of The Empire Strikes Back" (damn what a long title) by Alan Arnold?

I have an original copy. My dad bought it way back in 1980 when it first came out, and we found it in 1999 when we were moving. It's fantastic. I read the whole thing in one day. There's some nice behind-the-scenes pictures, including one from a deleted scene where 21B removes a Tom Cruise/VANILLA SKY-like bacta mask from Luke's face in the medical center. (Which also appears in the big-size Marvel comics adaptation of the film that I have.)

It's a great book that is worth picking up if anyone ever finds it in a used book store or at a garage sell. I saw one a couple years ago at a flea market, and the girl wanted .50 cents for it!!

There's also the cool "The Special Effects of The Empire Strikes Back," hosted by Mark Hamill. We watched it in my Film As Lit. class back in high school, and the teacher was nice enough to let me borrow it over a weekend so that I could make a copy (along with "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark.") The quality is less-than-stellar on both, so I'm hoping these documentaries--from a time when people knew how to make good documentaries on the making of films--eventually see presevation on DVD.

 

I saw that one with C-3PO and R2-D2. It was quite good and explained alot of the trilogy. and the ideas behind it.

 

Every time I think of The Making of Star Wars, the first image that pops into my head is of a bunch of people dancing to the disco remix of the SW theme.

Scary stuff.

 

I just brought a mint condition original 1995 copy of it of ebay for $5.00.
I have since been told that it is a rariety to buy these days. Does anyone know if this is true? I just assumed that the video would have been made by the thousands. Im from Australia and Im not sure if they were available through any mail away cereal promotion.

 

i remember watching the making of star wars years ago then the other day i saw a trailer for revenge of the jedi were luke had a blue light sabre. this was on a boot leg but im hoping that old trailers and footage will make it onto the ot dvds when george lucas decides to release them.

 

I have a copy on video. I found it at a used video store for about $5, I think. I had no idea where it came from; I didn't know about the mail-away thing. I never knew about the narrator change either.