1981’s Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama provided an expanded adaptation of the first movie that proved popular with its initial release and is still worth a listen.
What Is It?
This radio series aired on NPR in 1981 and adapted the story of the first Star Wars movie over thirteen episodes. It expanded on that film in some places and had two of the original actors reprising their roles, and it ended up drawing a huge audience in its initial run.
Voice Cast: Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Perry King, Ann Sachs, Bernard Behrens, Brock Peters
Crew: Brian Daley (Writer), John Madden (Director)
Originally Aired: 1981, One Season Totaling 13 Episodes
Legacy:
This radio adaptation of the first Star Wars movie has been mostly forgotten, but it proved hugely popular at the time it was released and expanded on the story of the film.
A Closer Look:
Star Wars was a huge phenomenon when it came out back in 1977, and in short order it started to appear everywhere including comics (the Marvel movie adaptation and continuing series), television (the best-left-forgotten Star Wars Holiday Special, more on that at this link), books (novelizations of the movies and A Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, more on the latter at this link), and in 1981 it showed up on NPR as a thirteen-part radio drama serializing the first movie. The resurgence of interest in the genre that followed the arrival of Star Wars on the big screen had led to a brief renaissance of sci fi radio in the late ’70s/early ’80s and gave us such memorable productions as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the Alien Worlds anthology series before the NPR entry that brought Luke, Han, and Leia to the airwaves. The radio series showed up in 1981, a year after Empire Strikes Back hit the theaters, and even though the franchise had already risen to monolithic proportions, there was not a ton of Star Wars material to be found at the time. So anything that offered a little more exposure to the universe that Lucas had created was eagerly welcomed by fans at that time. And this series did just that, stretching out the story of the first movie to thirteen episodes and around five hours.
For the most part, expanding on the story was definitely a good thing as it adds in some background, fleshes out a few of the scenes, and fills in a few blanks along the way. That works against the series early on, though, with the first two episodes dedicated to providing back story for both Luke and Leia (separately). These installments really drag and could discourage some listeners from sticking around for the full series. But by the third episode, the radio show picks up where the film began, and it’s at this point that the series starts to fly. For this and the subsequent ten episodes, the radio series relives the movie while also expanding on the story. The additional scenes are mostly fill-in-blank with some backstory here and there, but no grand revelations. They cover some of the scenes from the novelization–which we also saw in the comic book adaptation–and a couple of those Lucas would later add back into the movie.
One thing that may set some fans back on this production is the voices, as not all of the original cast reprised their roles for the radio series. In fact, the only two actors from the movie that jumped onboard are Anthony Daniels (who made a career out of playing C-3PO) and Mark Hamill (who had nothing else major going on in the early ’80s). The other voice talents mostly do a good job of taking over for the better-known actors, and if you didn’t know it you would swear that Alec Guiness had returned as Obi-Wan Kenobi (it is actually Bernard Behrens) while Keene Curtis also does a great job taking over for Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin. The two least palatable voices are Brock Peters as Lord Darth Vader and Perry King as Han Solo. Not that they are bad, it’s just that they sound very different from what we expect. Peters’ performance is much removed from James Earl Jones’ resounding Vader voice, though he does grow on you as the series progresses. And King plays Solo too much like a heartless asshole and does not bring out the human side that Ford gave to the character. These are mostly quibbles, but they will impact the listenability of the radio series since we have become so accustomed to having the voices of the original actors attached to these characters.
Ultimately, the Star Wars radio series delivers a fun listen, even if it does not add too much of significance to the original story. The additional bits of backstory might be of interest to diehard fans, but they are not essential and in some cases even contradict what we saw in the movie (the radio series actually suggests that Governor Tarkin wanted to take flight from the Deathstar when the rebels attacked). But for those of us such as myself who love the original movie and consider it the best of the series, it does a good job with the story and is worth a listen.
The Story Continues:
Radio adaptations were also produced for The Empire Strikes Back (1983, ten episodes) and Return of the Jedi (1996, six episodes). Anthony Daniels lent his voice to both of these and Hamill stuck around for Empire. Billy Dee Williams reprised his role as Lando Calrissian in the Empire radio series but not Jedi. John Lithgow voiced Yoda in both of these productions. The other movies have not made it to radio, and it seems unlikely they will get that treatment now that the property is owned by Disney.
Interesting Facts:
George Lucas donated the rights for the story to NPR and he sold them the rights for the sound effects and music for only $1. BBC came onboard as co-producer because NPR did not have the funding needed for the radio drama and the show would go on to become one of the most popular productions ever for the public broadcaster, pulling in around 750K listeners per episode.
The radio series proves that Han Solo did indeed shoot first (which we all knew anyway). In the encounter with him and Greedo, you only hear one shot which means at worst they fired simultaneously which is essentially the same thing, though the implication is that Han fired the only shot. Apparently, George Lucas never got around to doctoring up the tapes for this production!
According to the Wikipedia entry for the series, all of the events–including the additional scenes–were considered cannon to the franchise prior to the Disney buyout. But now they have been lumped into the Star Wars Legends continuity.
Where Can You Listen To It?
Each of the radio series had been issued on CD at one point including a compilation that collected all three. Those have since gone out of print, though, and are fetching pretty high prices from third-party sellers. Audible had them available for download at one point, but not anymore. It’s likely there are rights issues with Disney buying out the Star Wars franchise (they will own you and me at some point as well), so these may not be readily available until all of that is worked out. You can find them on YouTube, though.
