‘A day long remembered: Star Wars comes to television’
^ a 2016 article at the excellent Episode Nothing blog - with a few images and advert videos from the time.
It also chronicles the early US TV appearances - and also quotes from Lucasfilm seemingly not happy and also not wanting Star Wars to be on tv…
Thanks, that was a good read and I now understand why ITV routinely screened ANH during the 80s but didn’t air TESB till the very end of 1988. Speaking of which, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this forum, the 1988 ITV premiere of TESB was “edited to run in the time allotted” - with several scenes removed so that the film could fit their schedule. As Brits who were around during that period will be well aware, this was standard procedure for ITV, with numerous films being similarly hacked to pieces till the network eventually discovered the marvels of time compression.
From the comments section…
My folks got us a VCR at Christmas 1985. My first thought was ‘Star Wars is on at New Year’, which it was in STV-land.
Another date to add to the UK broadcast chronology. 😃