STAR WARS Audio Dramas on NPR

Anyone else remember these? Late 70's early 80's they released Audios of the Star Wars series. I remember some of the original actors like Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their rolls while others were filled by other actors such as Brock Peters (Darth Vader) and Perry King (Han Solo). I remember hearing these and loved the expanded story to the original and through the actors were different the voices were close enough that it still transported me away. I have been wanting to listen to those again. Great stories.

Karsten

I believe you can still find cassettes and CDs of them, and RotJ was produced, but don't know if it made it to NPR. It is odd listening to how the writing was done to accommodate for the medium, but that also added to the fun. Sigh, I also used to have the original posters for the first run on NPR stations. Sold them for a decent amount about 8 years ago...

"The Force.... calls... my lightsaber... TO ME!"

Great stuff back then.

Yep. I loved 'em. I remember listening to ESB broadcasts when they were first on. When I was in college, I used to listen to them on the long drives between Philly and Nashville. That and the BBC radio drama of Lord of the Rings are just fantastic entertainment.

You can definitely still find them.

Here's the Amazon link for the full CD set of the whole trilogy:

Full Trilogy

It's actually cheaper than buying the three other sets individually.

Just FYI, Mark Hamill did NOT return to play Luke for the ROTJ adaptation, and the ROTJ one is only something like 3 hours long, as opposed to the roughly 6 hrs of the other two.


But anyway, great great series.

Solo4114 said:

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Yep. I loved 'em. I remember listening to ESB broadcasts when they were first on. When I was in college, I used to listen to them on the long drives between Philly and Nashville. That and the BBC radio drama of Lord of the Rings are just fantastic entertainment.

You can definitely still find them.

Here's the Amazon link for the full CD set of the whole trilogy:

Full Trilogy

It's actually cheaper than buying the three other sets individually.

Just FYI, Mark Hamill did NOT return to play Luke for the ROTJ adaptation, and the ROTJ one is only something like 3 hours long, as opposed to the roughly 6 hrs of the other two.


But anyway, great great series.

Interesting, I never listed to ROTJ, only the first two, how did the voice of Luke in ROTJ? How was he in that roll?

Karsten

Wow, I had forgotten all these people were in it.

Ann Sachs, Perry King, Brock Peters, Paul Hecht, John Lithgow, Ayre Gross, Joshua Fardon, Ed Asner, David Dukes, Peter Michael Goetz, David Birney, Ed Begley Jr

SW and ESB are fantastic. I still listen to them sometimes. IMO, ROTJ sucks. it just doesn't compare. I've hardly been able to finish it on two occasions. As goofy as Hamill can be, he IS Luke Skywalker. The other guy just doesn't cut it.

-John

I never heard Jedi...wasn't it done later and went directly to tape, just to round out the trilogy?

Anyway, I LOVED the first two and listened to them often in the 90s when I was drawing or just chilling or whatever.

karstva said:

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Interesting, I never listed to ROTJ, only the first two, how did the voice of Luke in ROTJ? How was he in that roll?

Karsten

wooten said:

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SW and ESB are fantastic. I still listen to them sometimes. IMO, ROTJ sucks. it just doesn't compare. I've hardly been able to finish it on two occasions. As goofy as Hamill can be, he IS Luke Skywalker. The other guy just doesn't cut it.

-John

I wouldn't say he sucks, but you can't do back to back listenings AT ALL. I think the problem is that they changed voices mid-story. Well, sort of. I explain more below.

I can't remember making it through the whole thing either. Part of the problem is it's only 3 hrs long/6 episodes long, so it's a LOT shorter than the others. You have far less time to get used to the guy's voice. I mean, I had issues with John Lithgow as Yoda, and he was around for both ESB and ROTJ. I find Perry King's performance to be just a wee bit forced (although Harrison Ford is such a minimalist anyway that I may not be being entirely fair). Ann Sachs SERIOUSLY chews the scenery in a few scenes (well, imaginary scenery anyway). But after a while, you kinda just roll with it. With Josh Fardon (the "new" Luke), you don't have the time to adjust and accept it.

cayman shen said:

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I never heard Jedi...wasn't it done later and went directly to tape, just to round out the trilogy?

Anyway, I LOVED the first two and listened to them often in the 90s when I was drawing or just chilling or whatever.

Yeah, the ROTJ one was done in...1996, I think? And as I said, it's about half the length of the others. It does include the "Luke making the sabre" scene, but it's a bit slapdash as I recall. I tend to prefer listening to the first two, although the third one doesn't SUCK per se. It's just not as good. Rather like the films themselves.

Oh, it's also ABUNDANTLY clear from the first one that Lucas did NOT originally intend Leia to be Luke's sister. Not at ALL. Or if he did, he sure forgot to give that note to Brian Daley (yes, the Brian Daley who did both the Lando and Han adventure books).

Brian Daley was on his death bed when ROTJ was made. I understand the cast sent him some audio messages in the hospital when they wrapped to wish him well for the work. All of Daley's works have been excellent from a story telling standpoint as he had that rare gift of sticking you right inside the action.

I remember first hearing a rebroadcast of ANH in the late 80s on the local NPR station. That was fun. They followed it up with ESB, although I started falling asleep through them as it was rather late at night when the station broadcasted them. I would love to get them on CD as they are indeed perfect for long drives. Considering Perry King was one of the actors being considered for Han Solo and the fact I liked his acting in Rip Tide made his portrayal of Solo a fun one for me to listen to.

I missed them when they were first broadcast on NPR in the early 80s. The adaptation of Star Wars is fantastic and I would probably like Empire just as much if it weren't for the aforementioned John Lithgow as Yoda (which is a pity because I really like John Lithgow). I wish I had heard them back then because I would have gone nuts over them. Even at that age I was collecting vintage radio shows and to have Star Wars as a radio show--I would have worn out the tapes. As it is I had Star Wars recorded on a cassette that I made by putting my tape recorder next to the TV (ah, the days before the VCR).

They did a box set of the shows on CD that I picked up in the early 90's which has an extra disc of music cues and interviews. I got the Jedi adaptation to round out the collection when it was released (and yeah, Jedi isn't good--Ed Asner as Jabba?? Hmm, maybe it was typecasting).

I have the poster too.

Now here's the question that needs to be asked: Where are the radio dramas for the Prequels? It might be fun to hear them flesh out some of the storyline, maybe add some new points of view, and of course hire some new actors to put a new slant on the characters.

Hedjii72 said:

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Now here's the question that needs to be asked: Where are the radio dramas for the Prequels? It might be fun to hear them flesh out some of the storyline, maybe add some new points of view, and of course hire some new actors to put a new slant on the characters.

>smack<

Bad Hedjii!!

They can be found using non conventional methods.

Solo4114 said:

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>smack<

Bad Hedjii!!

Owwwwww...

I love the Star Wars Radio play... It brought a lot of interesting information into the picture.In fact, when I found the Radio Play scripts published as a book, I picked that up as well.

Star Wars was really well put together. I kinda wished there was more info added to Empire. Still, its a great piece. When I have a restless night, I turn Star Wars on, and fall asleep listening. Not a bad way to drop off...

-Skyler101

I have all of these on cd. About the only time I listen to them is if I'm going on a long road trip alone.

The Star Wars one is the best, however I really think Han Solo's part was written kind of poorly. Yes, Han is the lovable rogue pirate, but in the radio drama he is written as a total and complete *****!! It's only Chewie that keeps him from just abandoning Luke and the others on the Death Star and a few other times. IMHO he is not lovable AT ALL in this version. I listened to these about a year ago and I just wanted to punch out Han Solo many times during it. If he had been this way in the movie it just would not have worked.

At least that's my take on it.