Hi
this is my 1st post here after lurking for many years
Found this interesting post from usnet from 1984:
Apparently CBS were gonna broadcast a vesrion of star wars with an extra whopping 22 minutes?!
From: rakrie...@watcgl.UUCP (Rob Krieger)
Newsgroups: net.movies.sw
Subject: 22 min of extra scenes in Star Wars on CBS on Feb. 26
Date: Thu, 23-Feb-84 22:43:58 EST
x
The March,1984 issue of Video Review magazine, in its
Upcoming Television reviews claims that CBS will be showing
a version of "Star Wars" with 22 minutes of never before
seen footage.
Running time is listed at 143 minutes.
We'll see this Sunday.
Stephen Trutiak
{ allegra!watmath!uogvax2!strutiak }
{ thanks to R. Krieger for posting this }
I saw Star Wars in 1977. Many, many, many times. For 3 years it was just Star Wars...period. I saw it in good theaters, cheap theaters and drive-ins with those clunky metal speakers you hang on your window. The screen and sound quality never subtracted from the excitement. I can watch the original cut right now, over 30 years later, on some beat up VHS tape and enjoy it. It's the story that makes this movie. Nothing? else.
http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=SkAZxd-5Hp8
Link can be found here:
I saw Star Wars in 1977. Many, many, many times. For 3 years it was just Star Wars...period. I saw it in good theaters, cheap theaters and drive-ins with those clunky metal speakers you hang on your window. The screen and sound quality never subtracted from the excitement. I can watch the original cut right now, over 30 years later, on some beat up VHS tape and enjoy it. It's the story that makes this movie. Nothing? else.
http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=SkAZxd-5Hp8
Wasn't that the one with Mark Hamill hosting? I'd say its either those interstitial bits included, or its just a plain typo. I don't even think the deleted Biggs and Jabba scenes would add up to more than 10 minutes combined, so I would say there isn't even 22 minutes of extra scenes in the first place.
Hehehe, saw that too as I was researching zombie84's Media review thread. A guess is that in addition to Hamill introducing segments maybe there was the idea to include segments of the Making Of special.
here's the aftermath thread with explanation of the extra minutes:
http://groups.google.com/group/net.movies.sw/browse_frm/thread/e524b3acb522c4bc/34593f4be7f4fbe5?lnk=gst&q=cbs#34593f4be7f4fbe5
think the CBS showing was fully intact, however, I found all the
little speeches by CBS "personalities" about their reactions and
memories of Star Wars rather annoying and distracting. I mean, who
cares what Kate Jackson or Valerie Bertinelli thought about the movie,
or about anything at all, for that matter?
Actually, CBS snipped one tiny little thing. Vader's gesturing at Tarkin as if he was speaking, right before Tarkin's line "Terminate her! Immediately!"
That could be considered the first fan edit. ;)
Sadly, no Biggs or Jabba scenes added back in. The footage of a family whose devotion to SW merchandise had taken over their entire house was unique to the broadcast, IIRC. The rest were the celebrity "testimonials" (mostly people with shows on CBS at the time) and bits from the documentaries. Commercials made up the rest of the three hour timeslot.
In spite of the hype, SW had been shown so many times on Cable and pay per view at this point, it was beaten in the ratings by the trashy miniseries "Lace". I still watched the whole thing though.
Where were you in '77?