I don’t really have a clear memory of seeing Star Wars for the first time the way a lot of you do.
I got into Trek first. My mom rented Search for Spock when I was 5 (1990/91) and from then on I was hooked (I detailed this recently in the Star Trek thread in off topic).
Star Wars was just something I always kinda knew about, and it was finding out relatively early on that ILM had also worked on several of the Trek films that I think helped me avoid the “Trek vs Wars” thing, though I was definitely the outlier in my class of 30 for liking Trek. All the cool kids were “down with the trilogy” (they didn’t actually say that, I’m just quoting Clerks II).
There was another connection to a separate “franchise” I remember finding out about. Really random memory time here, but back in the early days of Sci-Fi Channel there was this mini-vignette they would always play during commercial breaks. Voiceover guy was talking about so-and-so who won such-and-such awards for his work on Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, and I remember very clearly they played the shot of Artoo and Threepio crossing the Tantive corridor as blaster bolts somehow miss them. It was only in recent years that I realized they must have been interviewing John Dykstra. In any event, I don’t really have an earliest Star Wars memory.
One thing I do remember quite clearly is being in first or second grade (91/92) and looking through one of those children’s story books lying on the shelf in the classroom. It had photos from the movies (possibly it was only from RotJ). At one point, I was on a page with that photo of Jabba with Leia in the metal bikini. A friend of mine goes “you know who that guy is?” as he points to the green-armored person with the helmet standing by Jabba’s side. “That’s Boba Fett,” he tells me.
I must have seen the original movie or at least gotten the gist of it, because I remember staying over at my relatives’ place and popping in their vhs of RotJ they’d recorded off a tv broadcast. They had a whole drawer full of movies they’d taped off tv years earlier before they had ditched cable. Smart thinking, really. Since it had the word “Return” in the title, I incorrectly assumed it was the second movie of the trilogy and not the third. By the scene where Han still frozen in carbonite was revealed, I realized I had no idea what was going on. Must’ve ejected the tape not long after that.
I must have just sorta known Vader was Luke’s father, because I definitely saw RotJ first. It must’ve been when USA network was airing them in the early-to-mid nineties, or possibly when Sci-Fi Channel showed the movies letterboxed. Actually, I remember vividly my first time seeing the “I am your father” scene from ESB and I’m pretty sure it was as a clip in some retrospective vignette they were playing on Sci-Fi channel right around that same time (early to mid 90’s).
So yeah, my first clear memory of watching the OT would probably be as the USA network P&S broadcasts. I still remember it cut to commercial right after the Emperor’s “So be it … Jedi” and my dad echoed the words.
VHS rentals helped fill in the gaps, of course. I’m pretty sure that’s how I actually sat down and watched the first two films properly for the first time. My mom also ended up getting me the Faces VHS of ANH for Christmas of '95.
I saw the SE’s once each in the theater (was eleven, same age as JJ in '77) and got the widescreen vhs SE trilogy “silverbox” for Christmas that year. For seven years, that was my Star Wars. I actually have to credit my mom with getting me fascinated with aspect ratios, whether she meant to or not. Funny how almost every time I saw the SE vhs set sitting on someone’s shelf it was almost always the fullscreen “goldbox” when seven years later it was jarring to see an '04 dvd set that was gold instead of silver.
We got the ‘04 dvd set of course, a month or so after it was released. It was sheer curiosity about the fanmade bootlegs that led me to this place. During the couple hours’ wait before the midnight opening of RotS, I noticed someone in one of the rows closer to the screen watching ESB on their laptop … and it was the original version. Started lurking here later that summer, finally got around to downloading Cowclops v2 in March of '06. That was an experience, and what I would probably call my first time seeing these movies in something halfway resembling how they were originally shown in theaters.