When did YOU discover star wars?

Well, I'm old enough to remember the hype when SW came out in '77. My parents eventually took me to see it in August 1978 because by then I was feeling like I was the ONLY person in school who hadn't seen it. I was 5. Been a major part of my life ever since.

 

more stories! I love this...

 

The Story of how I discovered STAR WARS is kinda wired:

It was two years ago, and I was 13. It was the year my status of being ?popular? went down to ?geek,? fast enough to be clocked on an egg timer.

It was also the year Episode One came out. Anyways, about a week before TPM cam out, I had came home from going to church with a friend, and there was no one home and nothing to else do so I watched TV. I went channel surfing, since there wasn?t anything else interesting I ended up watched the end of Star Wars a New Hope on TBS. That held my interest of Star Wars for about a half an hour.

A week later after TPM, my sister diced to rent the trilogy, me being the youngest had to sit through all of them, at the time it was torture. My sister later dragged me to see TPM; I fell asleep halfway through.

Anyways about two weeks later, I was being ?shipped off? to CA to spend a whole month with my younger, annoying, bratty, little, cousins. Also to help improve my Chinese, but that didn?t work. My mom as a gift to help keep me entertain on the plane over bought me the paperback book that had the Star Wars Trilogy in it. I read it cover to cover twice on the ride over. That created sparks, a need for more. Since my annoying little cousins were boys, I had access to a whole lot of Star Wars books, toys, and games.

Told you it was a weird story, I think I has to do with the fact that I?m not really a movie person, but more of a bookworm.

 

I went to see ANH with my family and I was hooked on Luke Skywalker. I saw ESB in the 6th grade at school. I drooled over Mark Hamill for more than five years. My brother was also a fan and the one to get all the star wars figures. To satiate me, my mom bought me the 12-inch Luke Skywalker doll. He was my favourite doll to play with. He always got the Barbie.

 

I saw ANH in 1978 at a drive-in theater. I'm sure 99.9% of the people posting on this website have never been to a drive-in. My God, I'm old.

 

I first heard about it when I was in the second grade, and the Special Edition came out. My brother went to see it, and I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. (Sorry!) Then, when he got ROTJ (OT) on video from the library, I couldn't help but watch it (Hamil was so hot!) From there, I was addicted. I wanted to see the other ones, so we got them from the library as well. Now, we own them all SE, and TPM. Even my sister, who's in third grade now, knows almost every line by heart. (same as me)

 

Hey Lemon, listen to this! I saw the original release on May 25, 1977 -- at a drive-in next to the Alabama State Fairgrounds! I was only two years old, so I don't remember much about the experience, but I do remember that my dad made a pretty huge deal about going to see it. The movie must've had some impact on me, since I don't remember a single moment since then without Star Wars. Well... maybe a couple of moments

 

I first saw ESB in the theater at age 4 in 1980. It was the second movie that I had seen in the movie theater. (The Muppet Movie was first). To this day ESB is my favorite film.

I didn't become a fan howver until a few years later...I was home from school for a week, sick with the chicken pocks. My mom borrowed a taped copy of ANH from a friend so I would have something occupy myself with while battling my uncomfortable illness. I swear that I must have watched Star Wars at least twenty times that week. I quickly got over my illness...but I've never seemed able to get over my love for Star Wars.

 

I skipped school to see ANHSE - I was "sick"

 

naughty naughty! anyone else?

 

Me! I have the oddest story you'll ever read in your entire life.


My dad is a SW fan. Not a huge one, but a fan nonetheless. I had heard of SW, and I knew who Luke Skyhopper, Dark Vader, and Princess Leila were. (I'm serious, that's what I called them until I finally saw the movies.) I had never even heard of Han Solo. Anyways, I thought the hype was stupid. I guess I was around 11 when TPM came out. I remember looking at the weird soda cans I brought home. I remember looking at Qui-gon's and saying to my dad, "Who's the hippie?"
Then one Saturday morning, I woke up around 10am to the sound of a huge ship exploding. (I'm a light sleeper.) I stormed out to the living room, saw SW on TV, and demanded, "What the heck is going on here?"
My little sister, always the optimist, said, "Daddy brought home Star Wars!"
That was all it took. I ate breakfast that morning watching Star Wars, I ate lunch watching ESB, and I ate dinner watching ROTJ. I was hooked. I swear, the biggest shock in the world to me was when Vader said, "I am your father."
I didn't see TPM until it came out on video. I didn't get the actual tape until I woke up on Easter morning and found it in my basket along with my chocolate.
And, of course, I didn't own the OT until my 13th B-day. I had always rented it from the library, borrowed it from fellow Star Wars fans, or saw it on TV.
Then I got into the books. I swear, I've memorized all the lines from the YJK series. Probably the best book I've read so far is Shadows Of The Empire. The worst books were that annoying kid's series with that annoying Prince Ken guy, the grand moff with three eyes, and the incredibly bad dialogue.
Everyone was shocked when I started loving Star Wars. They looked at me like I was crazy as I rattled off the character's names AND their actors.
By the way, did you know that Darth Vader was actually played by four different people?

I'm definitely going to be in line for Episode II.

 

I feel so old reading this thread - I saw Star Wars in 1977 when I was 5, it was the first film that I EVER saw - what a way to start!!!

 

Great to read that I am not the only one with a real story of how I discovered SW. Here's mine:

I fell in love with Star Wars on September 30, 1994. (Yes, I remember the exact date!)
A couple of months before, I had been to Disneyland Paris, where I had really enjoyed Star Tours, in the first place because I was very interested in space travel.
Yet my other passion, all my life, had been stories about knights, fairy tales, etc.
And then the Dutch television had some special Scifi weeks, and broadcasted the OT.
I somehow forgot to watch ANH, but my mom saw the Trash Compactor scene, and liked it very much.
Then, on September 30, ESB would be broadcasted and my dad (a scifi fan) wanted to see it, but he had to pick me up at a school party.
He decided to tape the movie, and I just got home in time to see Luke and Vader draw their lightsabers:
"The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet!"

I was hooked!

A week later ROJ aired, and after seeing the three Jedi spirits (Yoda SITTING on the fence!) looking at the band of heroes, I was a Star Wars fan for the rest of my life!

 

I was three or four years old, and my father decided to take me to this movie called starwars...

 

I think I was 9 or 10 when my friend introduced me to the Star Wars CCG and then that weekend the SW movies were on tv and watched them.

 

This is really interesting thread - keep the stories coming!

My story is simple:
I was about 9 years old when I saw Star Wars: ANH on television. I had no anticipation towards it, heck, I didn't even know what Star Wars was those days, and I didn't know the movie was 'old' nor as popular as it is. I just happened to like Star Trek ( I watched The Next Generation -serie, wich was the best Star Trek could offer ), and got interested of the name. Star Wars... I actually first thought that it had something to do with Star Trek!

Well, I sat down on the floor of my room, opened the television, and watched the movie. I absolutely fell in love with it - and then later cussed and cursed the fact that I didn't tape it really hard. I didn't know there was sequels to it, so it was very pleasant surprise when the channel decided to show ESB few weeks after ANH. I enjoyed the movie, but didn't like it as much - as I found it boring ( nowadays I think ESB is the best of the OT ), due to the dark theme and lack of 'really cool action', like the ending battle in ANH. Still, I enjoyed watching it.

Now I was pretty sure that there would be one more star wars film, as the ESB ended in such a exciting situation ( han being captured in carbonite and all ) - and I was jumping from joy when I saw the channel was going to show the last movie of the Trilogy next week.

Again, I had no free tapes to tape on, so I forgot it ( again ) - and I cussed even harder after RotJ, as it was the best ( in my opinion back then ) of the trilogy, due to the great action-sequences, and Jabba the Hutt. I also liked the idea of forever suffering in the stomach of the sand-monster, and I was really frightened. I felt sad when Yoda 'disappeared' ( I thought he died, like he did - but I thought Luke was 'seeing things' when he saw those 'ghosts', like I used to call them ), and the ending battle was the best ever. I also loved the musics, and many times afterwards I heard the star-wars theme humming in my mind.

Later on, I saw the original video's as a trilogy on the shop, but didn't have enough money to buy them ( wich I now regret - it would be cool to own the original copies ) - and later on, when the Special Edition came out on VHS, I bought the trilogy. After then, I've watched the movies roughly 20-30 times. I've watched TPM 'bout 10 times already

 

strangely enough it was Droids TV that got me hooked...As a Child I got hooked on the two lovable droids...Then i found out they were in movies (still a child)...from then I was hooked...

 

I really can't remember. All I remember is that a lot of people were talking about it, criticising it or supporting it (sort of like the basher/gusher thing), and I sort of followed on from there. The difference is that I kind of stayed on liking it, and I landed up here also.

 

When i first saw Star Wars I didn't like it. I saw it on TBS once and couldn't sit through it, thought it was stupid and ended up changing the channel. But, when the SE came out I went out of pure curiosity, and loved them! After that I immediatly went and rented the movies, and started to watch them over and over, and started to rent form the video store every week. My mom eventually realized that it would save money if we just bought the tapes. That's when I got hooked, but, I didn't really know I was hooked until episode 1 came out. My mom diedn't like what all the thought of all those people line, she thought it was weird, and ordered me not to go, but I went anyway! I was in so much trouble when I got home but it was worth it.

Boba Une

 

When I was six weeks old, and my parents randomly abandoned me with some strange babysitter so they could go see it.....they had never done that before...and so naturally I had to see what the fuss was about. What could be worth leaving their adorable baby daughter at home for??

Han Solo, that's what. Awwww, yeah........

 

I saw spaceballs and didn't get any of the jokes. Figured i better see the movies.

 

My first memory is not my first experience...so I'll put my first memory. I remembered seeing bits and pieces of the trilogy, and I liked what I saw, mainly, a efw seconds of the speeder chase in ROTJ, and the death star run in ANH.

My first true memory was when I learned that they were going to make a special edition, so I made a point to see the movies, but I watched them backwards, TESB, ANH, and ROTJ. For some reason, I thought that was the order...

 

It was in 1977, I was 8 sitting in my bedroom and the trailer came on a commercial and I said "what the %#@$", actually I said it to myself, because my MOM would have fed me soap for days. I was so excited and the rest is history.

 

It started when I first saw Star Wars A New Hope in 5th grade in a class. From then on, I have been hooked.

 

When The SE came out I had only heard of star wars and never seen it. I went to my dad and asked him about the saga and he went downstairs and brought up the original trilogy on tape and we watched 1 a night. I became hooked, I could not get enough of Darth Vader and Boba Fett, eventully I saw the special editions, and than bought the trilogy. Than my dad introduced me to the world of comics books and the star wars EU, that only increased my love for the movies.

Now i am obsessed with the saga and have a rather large and still growing collection of toys, books, movies, cards, and all kinds of other star wars memoribillia.
And even after seeing the movies countless times each, I will forever remember sitting there with my dad and brother watching the trilogy for the first time