CT Anyone remember SW Trilogy on USA Network circa 1993 - 1995 ??

This is my absolute most fondest memory of Star Wars....

I was just a kid and the USA Network would broadcast the entire trilogy on Christmas day... I remember putting that on tv and really loving it. Each year they would do it - and that is how I fell in love with Star Wars and I also to this DAY (2015) - STILL associate Star Wars with Christmas...

Its weird.....I will watch Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, Christmas Story, Elf, Home Alone, and then Star Wars Trilogy each December all month long !

The coolest was 1995 when Hasbro put out the new line of SW toys (with the stupid buff Luke and buff Han) - but I still got all of those for Christmas and watching the trilogy on tv was fantastic.

Also - if any of you remember this and want to relive that moment - someone uploaded the commercials of the Christmas broadcast on youtube - so it has the USA Network commentator saying "We now return to George Lucas classic sci fi trilogy" and all the Christmas commercials.

God I miss being a kid......

I heard Spike TV airs the entire Prequel Trilogy on Christmas... That upsets me because that would ruin kid's Christmas instead of making it special.

 

As a kid, I think this was my versions of SW (taped off the tv). I remember the commercial bumpers fondly (especially the one with scenes from Hoth playing). I'll have to seek out that Youtube video...

(Let's not bash the PT here, but instead just celebrate memories of watching the CT in this way.)

 

This was actually my introduction to Star Wars. You're right, it was usually Christmas day, or I swear even on Thanksgiving, but they'd show all three movies. Syfy (back when it was the Sci-Fi channel) even got in the action in the pre-SE days, and would show not only the original trilogy, but also the amazing documentary, From Star Wars to Jedi.

 

i remember it 94-96 on christmas or right before.

 

Yea, for the past 5-6 years Spike TV ran Thanksgiving weekend or Christmas/Holiday marathons of the entire saga. They didn't do it this past year though. Sometimes they also did Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or other random weekend marathons. I think Spike's licensing rights to air the marathons has expired though.

The last one was during the 2013/2014 holiday season and aired a few days after New Years:

 

seems spike doesn't have the right's anymore? i havn't seen any of the films on tv in the past year.

 

That's what I've figured. They haven't aired the movies since that last holiday marathon two Christmases ago. They also used to have a dedicated Star Wars section on their website but that seems to have been taken down as well. My guess is their right's for it have expired. It'll be interesting to see eventually which network Disney grants the license to air the movies again, if not one of their own.

I imagine some weekend from now until Dec 18 would be an ideal time to air a Star Wars marathon, maybe adding tidbits of TFA marketing during the commercial segments, requiring people to tune in to catch it. So we may see one before TFA comes out.

 

I do remember the Christmas Day marathons of the OT movies in the mid 90's. The first time I saw a SW marathon back to back to back was on SciFi Network, Presidents Day weekend 1990.

I believe this was the first time SW was shown in letterbox format:

'Star Wars' Marathon on Sci-Fi Channel
July 17, 1993
"Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" will be shown unedited and back-to-back on the Sci-Fi Channel beginning at 4 p.m. today.
Carrie Fisher will host the "Star Wars" marathon, which will be introduced with a one-hour special at 3 p.m. called "From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga."
The entire slate of programming, hosted by Fisher, will repeat on Sunday at noon.

 

Spike TV stopped showing the films in 2013. I think Disney and Lucasfilm waited until the rights renewal lapsed and then took back the rights. But in general, yes, I remember watching these on USA during the mid 90's. I would sometimes watch them if I didn't get to do so on tape. They would air twice a year. First in August, right before Labor Day and then again right before Christmas and on Christmas Day.

 

Yah I haven't seen the movies on TV since Disney bought them.

 

I remember on Thanksgiving day when I was younger I would always watch the old school Godzilla and King Kong movies all day long. I know it's not SW related but that was a tradition I had like others have with the SW films.

 

I remember them being on Thanksgiving probably early 2000s? I remember fighting with my sister about putting them on over the Parade! It was the first holiday her now husband spent with us. He sided with me.

 

I dont remember Star Wars or even at least Empire Strikes Back airing on USA Network back in 1984-1985 or whatever.

I do still remember Empire Strikes Back came on HBO back the day during 1983 or 1984. Then Return of the Jedi made its tv debut on HBO. Good times back then. Star Wars aka New Hope was more of a thing coming on ABC every now and then.

 

I'm sure those USA airings introduced a whole new generation to SW. A kid who was 10 or so at the time - the perfect age for SW - wouldn't have grown up with them during their initial release.

I don't have any specific memories of watching them on USA (though I vaguely recall it), but like patrickurrutia, I definitely remember them hitting premium cable (HBO anyway. I don't think they ever aired on Cinemax). We had Cinemax at my Mom's house, but my Dad had HBO, and I remember staying at his house on Sunday night because they were airing SW at 8 o'clock that night. I also have a very find memory of one of the "big 3" networks here in the States running the three films over the course of three consecutive nights during the Summer of '92. That was the Summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college. My mom and Step-Dad were out of town and I had the house to my self, so what did I do? Throw a huge party? Nope. I went to McDonalds each evening and loaded up with chow and sat down and watched them over the course of those three nights.

 

Cinemax did air TESB and ROTJ in the mid 80's. CBS had aired ANH around 1979 and up til about 82 or so. NBC had TESB and ROTJ back to back in 1989. They would continue until 1993, by which point the rights would go to USA. ANH wasn't on ABC, NBC or CBS in the late 80's. ANH would be on Showtime in 1998, before moving to TBS, WGN and various syndicated channels, later that year. Beginning in 2001, Fox would have the rights to three of the films. The MTV and Spike TV showings would be the first time all six films would appear on cable television. HBO and Cinemax would have all six films in 2006 and 2007.

 

i know cbs broadcast ANH in 1984 and mark hamill hosted it. are you sure they didn't air it later on around 86 or 87? i think i have a vhs that was taped off tv around then

 

Oh man...this thread is really a throwback... It's amazing how the network airings of a movie won't be anything to anyone anymore with all the technology and ppl going to be able to stream or DL movies into their phones or computers or even tv. No more commercials or anticipating the rest of the movie type of thing. That stuff was def in the past and its kinda sad for us older folks who are above our 20's.

Gosh, I remember paying for a ticket to a movie just because a trailer was playing there. These days, its online and you can play it a million times before its even in the theater.

 

Hmmm, I sure don't remember them ever airing on Cinemax. That would've been a BIG deal for me at the time and seems like something I'd have remembered. Huh. Old age I guess.

I do remember my Dad and Step Mom recording TESB for me off of HBO in the mid-to-late 80s so I could take it home and watch it whenever I wanted.

 

I remember ANH being on TBS back in the day, but that's about it.

 

I could be wrong about how late ANH was on the big three networks, but I have no recollection of it being on in 86. It is possible and if it was, it would be in 86. I'm certain it wasn't on in 86, because around that time period, I had a hankering for watching it and it wasn't on. So when we went to my uncle's house for the weekend, I watched his copy that he had recorded off of HBO, way back when. That would be the last time it was on until it came on USA in the 90's. The 84 showing would be accurate since that is later than 82 and well before it stopped showing for a long stretch.

This I can recall accurately as the town that I lived in only carried HBO and Cinemax as part of their premium movie channel packages. In early 86, it was on HBO as that was the first time I saw the film. When it was on Cinemax, we had moved from where we were when it was on HBO to a different house. And we had the cable turned on at this place, and while flipping the channels around in the living room, found that it was on Cinemax. Now, we didn't have it. We only had HBO, but the signal for Cinemax was visible in the living room, but no audio other than a persistent noise that drowned out the audio. It was like watching scrambled adult film channels. When I came across the film, it was when the Falcon was in the slug, just after landing. Back in my room, the cable box was different and with a simple roll of the tuning device, I could get both picture and audio for Cinemax. Though I didn't learn of that until the middle of the summer. It came back around to HBO by that point.

 

Disney would be smart to air the entire Saga on ABC the weekend before The Force Awakens drops, with an exclusive trailer/TV spot with new footage airing in between the trilogies. I think it'd be a ratings success and would drum up a lot more hype than the "Global Unboxing Event" they did on Youtube recently. Though, maybe it would be WAY too big of a scheduling block to do 6 movies on a network as big as ABC, but maybe just the entire original trilogy could run, with a special trailer airing at the end of ROTJ? I'd prefer all 6 films though.

 

ABC can show the films over a week long period, in December and after all the shows go on hiatus. That's if Disney has worked out all the television rights for the films by then.

 

I remember SW being shown on USA and SciFi channel. The very first thing SciFi channel showed on its launch was ANH. I also remember TBS showing ANH while USA networks still has TESB and ROTJ.

 

Not bad - but they shouldn't do the prequels at all.... Despite what forum members here believe, a majority of people feel the PT is terrible. The Global Unboxing Event was kinda silly. Airing the Original Trilogy on ABC three nights in a row with each movie getting a 'sneak preview of TFA' - would be a great move on Disney / LucasFilm / ABC . . . . Much better than unboxing youtube event that did not attract any of the casual movie goer. If you aired the OT on ABC - that would get a bigger audience to hype TFA.

I dont know about you guys, but TFA does not have a lot of hype at all. . . No full trailer and its October already with only two months away. Disney would have to do something like that to get ppl excited. They haven't even shown Luke or Leia yet. This leads me to believe either the movie is so epic and amazing that the movie will speak for itself and create word of mouth - or they are just saving dough on advertisements because as we all know Star Wars is a brand name and will sell itself.

But the interesting thing is I always relate Star Wars to Christmas / December - so Force Awakens is the first movie released near Christmas which in my mind is kinda cool bc its an old throw back to my earliest memories of USA Network airings of Star Wars.