No, there was a clip of it on starwars.com or something.

i replied to your post in the CED thread but i thought it would be suitable to post it in here too.

I'm sorry clone_wolf, but you are completely wrong with it being in there only in the theatrical release prior to ANH being added. It wasn't and there is physical proof with the 1977 bootleg of star wars. You also need to listen to the commentary again because NOWHERE does Burtt mention that in ANH luke initially misses. here's what Burrt says:

We had at one time a scene where Obi-Wan and Padme fire a wire across an abyss and swing across together. It very much recalls the fun of the first Star Wars. And they were quite charming in the scene, 'cause she had to hang onto him. He had trouble getting the cable across. It kinda bounces off the first time and he has to reel it in and shoot a second time and she's kinda like, you know, "Jedi, huh?"

He's talking about the Obi-Wan/Padme scene and NOT the original star wars scene with Luke and Leia.

I'm also one of the "old farts" that saw it countless times in 1977 and that scene was never in there. At 10 years old i saw it so many times that i could recite the script word for word. I was also given a bootleg VHS the following year and there was nothing different in the chasm scene. The only differences were the lines of dialogue between the monomix and the stereo mix, and these differences were in there in 1977 and not changed when they added the A New Hope title.

There is also proof with the musical score. There is no section that this could be placed

And if that interview ever existed with Lucas admitting that scene was originally in the film on such a national talk show then some proof of this would have emerged by now, but it hasn't.

Yet another case of "Phantom Grappling Hook Syndrome". Check out this link for an article on the nature of memory.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18704_5-mind-blowing-ways-your-memory-plays-tricks-you.html

It might surprise people just how much Star Wars stuff is preserved from the early 80's and some record of a George Lucas interview (video or magazine article) would have surfaced by now.

As for visual evidence of the missing scene, bootleg videos taken from 1977 prints are available on the net and believe it or not, actual film prints (both 35mm and 70mm) exist in the hands of private collectors. If the scene existed, news of it would have leaked onto the internet following one of the many "private screenings" we often hear about.

I'll throw down a challenge open to anyone all over the world.

You find and post video evidence of this scene , then I will give you 100 English Pounds for finding it.

However, my guess is it's as rare as rocking horse poo !!!

Sorry to beat a dead horse but I've just found this article about a Star Wars bibliographer.

http://www.starwars.com/fans/profiles/20090211.html

If someone would go to this much trouble to collect every single printed reference to Star Wars, don't you think that someone would have collected every TV appearance of George Lucas? Especially a late 70's/early 80's interview in which he talks about the changes he's made to the films.

That's why we doubt this interview aired.

I remember the missing the grappling the first time too. Wow that brought back memories.

Also I clearly remember the Han torture scene extended in Empire. Not just the stills of it but of the actual whole scene in the movie.

A long time ago that was.

Kurgan said:

A false Star Wars movie memory from me:

I always recalled in RoTJ since I was a kid that after the Ewok glider gets shot down that you see a shot of the Ewoks watching from the trees and then you see the AT-ST stomp on and smashing (walking over) the fallen glider.

Once I got the DVD I realized we never actually see this happen, though its pretty clearly implied by the editing. Glider falls... we see the ewok reaction shot and a close up of the fallen glider and then we see the walking legs. No actual smashing going on (and no, as a kid I didn't cover my eyes!). Obviously my imagination filled it in, though!

Less of a false memory and just forgetting, my younger brother and I listened to the ROTJ storybook & record so much (before we had a recording of the actual movie), we forgot that many of the lines in it are different from the film.

I liked that one so much I plopped it into the Wishlist thread.

I read the nerd blog Topless Robot regularly and whilst reading the SW Blu-ray FAQ I noticed this conversation going on in the comments:

I saw Empire Strikes Back when I was 9.

I could swear to God, Satan, Jesus, Dumbledore, Vishnu, Allah, Zeus and Tom Cruise's sopping bunghole that in the version I saw in the theater, the scene where Luke falls off the antenna thing on Bespin onto the Falcon, included Lando GOING OUT ONTO THE SHIP to get him and saying, "I got you, kid."

I have never seen that version ever again. Am I nuts? Why would I dream that? Did anyone else ever see that version?

I remember that scene too.

Same here. I thought it was still in the film, actually (can you tell I only watch the originals? ;)). Did they remove it? oO

that's what i remember

I too remember that scene. I think that was from it running on TV when I was about 6 or so (would have been around the time when Jedi came out in the theaters)

I remember that scene too.

ive seen it i though perhaps i was mistaken   thank god im not crazy

I don't think I've heard of this before, but that's quite a few people misremembering the same thing. Is there any explanation to this?

Possibly the novel, comic adaptation, radio play etc?

A lot of people also misremember getting abducted by aliens.

Just saying.

One person "remembers" that scene based on decades-olds memories conflating deleted-scene-pics, parts from the comic or novel, or just plum made up (I mean, Lando had to go out there and get Luke, so it's natural to imagine how that would have gone).

Then, based on the suggestion from that one guy, it triggers or creates the same phenomena in others.

It actually happens all the time.

Notice it's "when I saw it in the theater" (thirty-one years ago!) or "on TV when I was five or six". Or they had it on tape but haven't seen the tape in twenty years. Always, without fail. It's always some vague half-remembered thing from early childhood or from so long ago that most of the people reading the posts weren't even alive yet. This is no coincidence.