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"Making of Star Wars" (1977) taped from ABC??

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Hello.

I still have a manufactured VHS copy of "The Making of Star Wars" TV documentary (no commercials) from the 80's; I bought it off of ebay.

I am interested in knowing if there's someone on this message board who has the original TV broadcast of "The Making of Star Wars", when it first aired on ABC back in '77.

I saw the original TV broadcast, with all the original commercials (for Levis, Ford Trucks, etc.) at the Museum of Television & Radio out in California last March. Since I am unable to obtain a copy of that from their archives, I would like to know if there are ANY star wars fans out there on the internet that have this documentary taped from TV, with all the commercials in tact. I loved all those old campy commercials that went with it, and I'd love to see them all again.

I imagine most people probably taped it on a beta cassette back then. Well perhaps anyone here (if you have it) can make a copy of the '77 broadcast on a VHS or DVD for me? I am willing to pay if needed.

If nobody here can find what I'm looking for, perhaps some of you know who I can talk to that might actually have this?

--Matt
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Is this the same one that was released on video, with William Conrad narrating (that was later re-released with a different narration)?

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Yes, William Conrad did the original narration from 1977, when it first aired on TV. I have a manufactured copy of that, but not a taped copy of the original broadcast when it aired.

The 90's re-issue of that special was a VHS tape made available through a 'corn pops' mail-in offer. Famed movie trailer voice artist Don LaFontaine did the narration for that issue.

Again, all I'm looking for is the original broadcast recoridng of the original 1977 special. Still waiting...

--Matt
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Yeah, I have the VHS tape of the Conrad version that was on the same tape with the "SPFX" Empire special, and I also have the "corn pops" version that has the cover that matches the "faces" VHS tapes.

Have you tried asking in the SW preservation forum? That would be the place to look.

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now all they have to do is make a documentary called "the wrecking of star wars from 1994 -to 2006"

it would encompass the horrible writing of the prequels, the horrible bastardization and butchering of the oot called the special editions, the three crappy movies called prequels and top it off with a 1993 state of the art laserdisc non anamorphic transfer of the oot in 2006.

star wars trilogy r.i.p 1977-1983.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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Originally posted by: skyjedi2005
now all they have to do is make a documentary called "the wrecking of star wars from 1994 -to 2006"

it would encompass the horrible writing of the prequels, the horrible bastardization and butchering of the oot called the special editions, the three crappy movies called prequels and top it off with a 1993 state of the art laserdisc non anamorphic transfer of the oot in 2006.


That's actually a GREAT idea for a documentary. There are lots of capable, talented people here....(and I'm available for an on-camera interview)

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I've had that very idea ever since last year. Would be awesome if it actually happened.
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Originally posted by: kc86
Yes, William Conrad did the original narration from 1977, when it first aired on TV. I have a manufactured copy of that, but not a taped copy of the original broadcast when it aired.

The 90's re-issue of that special was a VHS tape made available through a 'corn pops' mail-in offer. Famed movie trailer voice artist Don LaFontaine did the narration for that issue.

Again, all I'm looking for is the original broadcast recoridng of the original 1977 special. Still waiting...

--Matt


One might have to settle for the manufactured copy of this. Since it was released officially, I would think that it wouldn't of been held onto or distributed unofficially as much as something like the Star Wars Holiday Special.

As for preservations, I'm surprised nobody has done a version of the Making of Star Wars with selectable narration, by either the original William Conrad or the re-release by Don LaFontaine.
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Originally posted by: skyjedi2005
now all they have to do is make a documentary called "the wrecking of star wars from 1994 -to 2006"




There is a way to watch the wrecking of SW: Watch TPM, AOTC, ROTS, ANH/SE, ESB/SE, and ROTJ/SE in that order .

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'The Wrecking of Star Wars' would be great to see. Excellent idea. I'd love to see interviews with the original ILM effect artist and what they think of how George talks down all their ground breaking work and replaces it with CGI for the SE.
We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger.
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Originally posted by: Forbidden Zone
'The Wrecking of Star Wars' would be great to see. Excellent idea. I'd love to see interviews with the original ILM effect artist and what they think of how George talks down all their ground breaking work and replaces it with CGI for the SE.



1977 Academy Award Winners for Best Visual Effects:

John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune and Robert Blalack, Star Wars



This is the most insulting thing by Lucas, the fact that the damn movie won an Academy Award for its Visual Effects, and that version doesn't exist anymore! Oh well, I guess Star Wars only won 6 Academy Awards instead of 7!

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As for preservations, I'm surprised nobody has done a version of the Making of Star Wars with selectable narration, by either the original William Conrad or the re-release by Don LaFontaine.


I was thinking about that as well. Are there any changes other than the audio? It should be possible, right?
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Originally posted by: marioxb
As for preservations, I'm surprised nobody has done a version of the Making of Star Wars with selectable narration, by either the original William Conrad or the re-release by Don LaFontaine.


I was thinking about that as well. Are there any changes other than the audio? It should be possible, right?
The best preservation I've seen out there of the "Making Of" specials is probably on the EditDroid 4-disc Bonus Materials set. But babyhum has talked about doing these in his series as well. It would be nice to have a switchable audio track on that.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]