zombie84 said:
The early 1990s, as far as my study shows.
www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com/originaltrilogyreception2.html
Th signs were starting to show by the late 80s but only in some quarters, but really it is the early 1990s that this becomes widespread, so that by the mid and late 90s it has become a sort of consensus.
As a kid who grew up with the OT from 77-83, you either loved or hated ESB back in 1980 for many reasons.
I loved SW in '77 and didn't really like ESB in '80:
-darker tone: Too much for an 8 year old like myself at the time.
-Good guys losing: at that age, I didn't want my beloved heroes getting their ass kicked for 2 hours!
-Yoda scenes: Wow, I thought they were slow and boring at that time
-No ending: You have to remember in 1980, alot of fans felt sort of cheated because there was no ending.
After 1983, I kinda got out of Star Wars, and probably didn't watch the Trilogy that much in the late 80's.
Fast forward to about 1990, and I remember the OOT being showed on Scifi channel on Presidents Weekend as we were off from school for 4 days. I am now in Highschool and I remember to this day after watching ESB being totally blown away, and realizing how fucking good it was. All of the stuff I complained about in 1980 as a kid, were now a positive in 1988.
I still love Star Wars more because you can watch it as a standalone movie and its the only movie you can watch without the context of Lucas's saga. But I would put SW & ESB in my top 10 favorite movies of alltime.