Star Wars (radio)

History

In the 1980s, radio drama was in decline in the USA. An associate dean of the University of California School of the Performing Arts, Richard Toscan, was keen to champion this art form. Toscan was supported by John Houseman, the producer responsible for Orson Welles's 1938 radio production of The War of the Worlds. He began with the dramatisation of short stories by Raymond Carver on KUSC-FM, a campus radio station affiliated to NPR. Following this production, Toscan collaborated with Houseman and NPR producer Frank Mankiewicz on a project to revive the fortunes of NPR Playhouse, the umbrella title for drama productions on NPR. At the suggestion of one of Toscan's students, Joel Rosenzweig, they developed an idea for adapting the 1977 epic space opera film, Star Wars, for radio. The popularity of Star Wars would certainly attract new, younger listeners, but they feared that the production costs would be prohibitively high. However, the production team's academic connections proved to be advantageous; USC was the alma mater of the writer and director of Star Wars, George Lucas, and Lucasfilm quickly granted the rights to KUSC, including the rights to the use of original Star Wars music and sound effects, for a token fee of one dollar.

Despite Lucasfilm's generous offer, NPR was still faced with the costs of writing scripts, hiring actors and renting studio space. With no funding available to cover the $200,000 budget, NPR entered into a co-production deal with the British broadcaster, the BBC, which had a long tradition of radio drama production. The BBC provided a production team, including director John Madden, and in exchange received broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom. From the outset, the NPR producers felt that the script would lend itself well to an episodic treatment, drawing on the format of the 1930s movie serials such as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers that had originally inspired Lucas when he wrote Star Wars.

The American science fiction novelist Brian Daley was brought in to write the script. Daley had access to Lucas's early drafts of the Star Wars scripts, and expanded the narrative to include material which had been cut from the final edit of the film so that the 13-episode radio adaptation ran approximately four hours longer than the film version. Casting the audio serial was not as easy as had been hoped; while the producers were able to secure the actors Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels from the original film, Harrison Ford was unavailable as he was filming Raiders of the Lost Ark at the time, and his place was taken by Perry King, an actor who once auditioned for the part of Han Solo in the 1977 film.

Led by Mankiewicz, NPR's promoted the Star Wars serial with a successful publicity campaign, attracting coverage in Playboy, The New York Times and Time, who hailed the production with the headline, "Radio drama is making a resounding comeback". Star Wars was launched at a special NPR event at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, in which the drama was played under a starry light show. Broadcasts began in March 1981 to critical acclaim, and the drama instantly attracted 750,000 new listeners, representing a 40 percent increase in NPR audiences and a quadrupling of the network's youth audience. On the basis of this success, KUSC went on to produce popular adaptations of the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. An adaptation of Return of the Jedi followed over a decade later, produced by many of the same people who produced the KUSC/NPR productions.

Canonicity and continuity

The Star Wars radio dramas were authorised adaptations of Lucas's scripts, and were originally considered part of the official Star Wars canon. Commentators have argued that, while the radio dramas vary somewhat from the film scripts, they should be considered canon insofar as they do not directly contradict the films. In 1994, Lucasfilm's continuity editor, Allan Kausch, stated that "'Gospel', or canon as we refer to it, includes the screenplays, the films, the radio dramas and the novelisations."

In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm and all the rights to Star Wars. Disney made an announcement in 2014 that previous works set in the Expanded Universe (including comics, novels and videogames) were to be re-branded as Star Wars Legends, and confirmed that only the existing cinema films, The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels television series were to be considered canon, "the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align".

Other commentators have since noted that the first radio drama relates the backstory immediately preceding the narrative of the original 1977 film, and that this backstory overlaps with the Expanded Universe novelizations Jedi Dawn, Rebel Dawn and with the 2016 film, Rogue One. Both the radio drama and the novel contain accounts of Princess Leia acquiring the secret Death Star plans from a transmission sent by Rebel Alliance agents from a planet called Toprawa, but in the revised narrative of Rogue One, the action takes place above the planet Scarif. 2015 saw the release of another adaptation of A New Hope called The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy. The author, Alexandra Bracken stated that she was reading the Expanded Universe to try to "sneak elements in" to the canon and specifically mentioned the radio drama.

Star Wars

Star Wars is a 13-part (5 hour, 57 minute) radio serial originally broadcast on National Public Radio on March 9, 1981. It was adapted by Brian Daley from the 1977 film, and directed by John Madden, with music by John Williams and sound design for Lucasfilm by Ben Burtt. The serial was recorded in 1981 at Westlake Recording Studios in West Hollywood, California.

Daley adapted the script partly using material from earlier drafts of Lucas's scripts, and restored several scenes cut from the final edit of the film, as well as adding original new scenes created specially for the audio version. The narrative of the first two episodes takes place entirely before the opening scene of the 1977 film, and expands the background to events leading up to the capture of the Tantive IV spacecraft above the planet Tatooine. Episode 1, largely based on cut scenes from the original, explores the life of Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. During the story, Luke's skyhopper (a vehicle seen in the background in Luke's garage during the film) is damaged during a desert race; Luke sees the distant star destroyer battle in the sky; and he is reunited with his childhood friend, Biggs Darklighter. Episode 2, made up of material written entirely by Daley, provides backstory to Princess Leia's acquisition of the Death Star plans from agents of the Rebellion on the planet Toprawa. In scenes set on the planet Alderaan, Leia discusses the plans with her father, Bail Organa (in this adaptation, he is named Prestor Organa) and determines to go in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Later episodes mostly follow the storyline of the film, but additional scenes expand the narrative. In one scene, Han Solo has a meeting with an agent of Jabba the Hutt called Heater; this dialogue is based on a scene in which Solo meets Jabba in the docking bay, cut from the original film but later reinstated in the 1997 special edition. In another episode, Daley inserts a conversation in which Admiral Motti attempts to convince Grand Moff Tarkin to leverage the Death Star as a political tool.

When the series was re-issued on NPR several years later, it was retitled The New Hope (as opposed to the official alternate title, A New Hope), keeping in line with the subtitles of the episodes of the original trilogy films.

Episode titles:

1. "A Wind to Shake the Stars"
2. "Points of Origin"
3. "Black Knight, White Princess, and Pawns"
4. "While Giants Mark Time"
5. "Jedi that Was, Jedi To Be"
6. "The Millennium Falcon Deal"
7. "The Han Solo Solution"
8. "Death Star's Transit"
9. "Rogues, Rebels and Robots"
10. "The Luke Skywalker Initiative"
11. "The Jedi Nexus"
12. "The Case for Rebellion"
13. "Force and Counter Force"

Cast

Several actors reprised their roles in the film. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels returned to reprise their roles as Luke Skywalker and C-3PO, respectively.

The supporting cast included James Blendick, Clyde Burton, Bruce French, David Alan Grier, Jerry Hardin, John Harkins, Scott Jacoby, Meshach Taylor, Marc Vahanian, John Welsh, and Kent Williams. Ken Hiller provides the narration.

The Empire Strikes Back

The success of the first series led to a 10-part, four hour 15 minute series based on the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back, again written by Daley and directed by Madden. It was recorded in 1982 at A&R Studios, New York City. The series debuted on NPR on February 14, 1983.

Like the preceding series, The Empire Strikes Back expands on the movie's story and incorporates new scenes such an Imperial attack on a Rebel convoy taking place before the film's original opening scene and a tense conversation between Solo and Skywalker when the two are stranded in the Hoth wastelands.

National Public Radio's promoted the series in part by getting Craig Claiborne to create his version of Yoda's rootleaf stew recipe, which the Jedi Master serves Luke in the hut on Dagobah. The recipe ran in magazines and newspapers across the country.

Episode titles:

1. "Freedom's Winter"
2. "The Coming Storm"
3. "A Question of Survival"
4. "Fire and Ice"
5. "The Millennium Falcon Pursuit"
6. "Way of the Jedi"
7. "New Allies, New Enemies"
8. "Dark Lord's Fury"
9. "Gambler's Choice"
10. "The Clash of Lightsabers"

Cast

Billy Dee Williams reprised Lando Calrissian, and John Lithgow played Yoda at the same time Madden was directing Lithgow in the play Beyond Therapy. Hamill and Daniels returned to voice Skywalker and C-3PO.

The supporting cast again included David Alan Grier and also included Sam McMurray, Steven Markle, Stephen D. Newman, John Pielmeier, Geoffrey Pierson, Gary Tacon, and Jerry Zaks. Ken Hiller provides the narration.

Return of the Jedi

NPR's plans for a Return of the Jedi radio serial were put on hold when federal funding for NPR was dramatically reduced. However, NPR was never the producer of the radio series nor was it ever granted the rights to produce the radio adaptions nor did NPR fund any of the radio productions. Plans for a Jedi radio adaptation fell apart in the 1980s due to a disagreement (believed to be financial) between KUSC, Los Angeles (the producer of the two previous radio adaptations and to whom the rights were granted for production) and Lucasfilm. NPR was granted limited rights to air the two previous radio series because KUSC, Los Angeles provided the radio adaptations to NPR as part of NPR's National Program Service that allows any NPR member station rights to air the series as part of the annual dues already paid (rather than the 3rd party Extended Program Service where KUSC could have charged each station a fee for rights to air cutting out NPR). It was not until 1996 that a six-part adaptation of Return of the Jedi was made by Highbridge Audio, the company that had released the first two series on tape and CD. The production returned to the Westlake Recording Studios, where the original series had been recorded.

Like the preceding series, Return of the Jedi expanded its story by incorporating new scenes. One depicts Luke Skywalker constructing a new lightsaber for himself. The audio drama also introduces a dancer calling herself Arica in Jabba the Hutt's palace with the intention of later revealing "Arica" as in fact the Star Wars Expanded Universe character of Luke Skywalker's future wife Mara Jade. Jade was established to have been present there in the Timothy Zahn trilogy of novels beginning with Heir to the Empire.

The audio play's adapter Brian Daley died only hours after recording had concluded; "additional material" was contributed by John Whitman, who introduced changes required for continuity with the newly developed plan for the prequels, as well as changes identified by the director and cast. The series was dedicated to the memory of Brian Daley.

The show's cast recorded a special get well message for Daley after the author left the studio, unaware that he would never hear it. The message is included as part of the collector's edition box set.

Episode titles:

1. "Tatooine Haunts"
2. "Fast Friends"
3. "Prophecies and Destinies"
4. "Pattern and Web"
5. "So Turns a Galaxy, So Turns a Wheel"
6. "Blood of a Jedi"

Cast

The adaptation used many of the original radio cast, though Joshua Fardon took over as Luke and Arye Gross replaced Billy Dee Williams as Lando. Ed Begley, Jr. was the voice of Boba Fett and Edward Asner, speaking only in Huttese, voiced Jabba the Hutt. The only actor who starred in all the feature films as well as all three radio dramas was Anthony Daniels.

The supporting cast included Rick Hall, Andrew Hawkes, Sherman Howard, Karl Johnson, John Kapelos, Ron Le Paz, Joe Liss, Paul Mercier, Steven Petrarca, Jonathan Penner, Gil Segel, Nia Vardalos and Ron West. Ken Hiller provides the narration.

Other broadcasts and releases

Existing radio promos, deleted scenes, and additional music tracks are available which originated on previous releases of this collection and in the NPR broadcast versions.

Spin-off merchandise

In 2013, two special sets of Topps trading cards were released called Star Wars Illustrated, which featured illustrations of scenes from the first Star Wars radio drama. The Topps artwork was also used to illustrate two collectors' editions of the Original Radio Drama released at the same time by HighBridge Audiobooks.

International broadcasts and releases

In July 1981, the Star Wars radio adaptation was broadcast by BBC Radio 1.