Unless you’ve been
living in seclusion for your entire life, chances are you’ve heard of Star Wars;
George Lucas’ epic space
opera that takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The film
series followed the Rebel
Alliance as they repelled the advancement and rule of the evil Galactic Empire.
The story behind the movies is as expansive as the saga itself, but we don’t
want to get into all that at this particular juncture (you can find dozens of
books about it if you really want to get deep into it). But, for our purposes,
a brief history lesson:
Lucas had tried
unsuccessfully to get the rights to Flash Gordon to
make his own film about the character (which happened without him in 1980).
That failure led to his concocting his own space epic: The
Star Wars. He had entered into a two-picture agreement with Universal Studios to produce American Graffiti and
Star Wars. While Graffiti was released in 1973, Star
Wars was rejected in its early concept stages. Lucas spent the next several
years expanding and revising his concept until he finally got a workable
shooting script. During this time, Lucas began to realize he was crafting the
second of three trilogies needed to contain and tell all the story and
backstory he was envisioning.
After Universal’s initial
rejection of the concept, Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz presented the idea to
several more studios that were put off by the potentially high budget it would
require to make. Alan Ladd, Jr.,
the head of 20th Century Fox,
believed in Lucas and financed the picture. The first film was released on May
25, 1977 to critical acclaim and financial success. The Empire
Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi would
follow in 1980 and 1983, respectively, making what has been regarded as the
greatest movie trilogy of all-time.
Before the two
sequels, however, Lucas licensed out his characters and concept to CBS who went on to produce a special variety
show called The Star Wars Holiday
Special. Airing on November 17, 1978, the special featured the entire
original cast and introduced some new characters that would make their way into
future movies; notably the Imperial bounty hunter Boba Fett (Don Francks) in a sequence animated by
fledgling Nelvana, Ltd. Nelvana was
contracted by Lucas personally for the task after the animation aficionado was
introduced to their work by uncredited Special
director David Acomba.
The special, while proving to be a
financially successful venture, was maligned by critics and disavowed by Lucas
himself, apart from the Fett sequence. The special had never been rerun nor
officially released as a result.
The franchise’s next
venture into television came in the form of two television movies starring the
teddy bear-like Ewoks from Return of the Jedi. This time, Lucas exerted full creative control
and even wrote their stories. The Ewok
Adventure (also known as Caravan of
Courage: An Ewok Adventure) was broadcast on ABC
on November 25, 1984, with Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
following a year later. The specials were well-received, with the first
getting two Primetime Emmy Award
nominations and winning one.
With Lucas feeling
technology had not yet reached a point to allow him to continue his space epic
without serious compromise, he had suspended his sequel movie trilogy
indefinitely and decided to focus on a new venture: animation. Thus Star Wars made its journey into Saturday
Mornings…
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