chosen1 said:

I believe the expanded universe put a damper on the original trilogy's thunder. It tool all of the fans imagination out of the plot. What's your perspective?

I wanted to address this separately and Bingo has discussed it as well. Lucas took care of shutting the door on the fans' imaginations long before the EU was anything more than a few late 70s\early 80s novels. Novels which, at the time, were almost completely unrelated to the original story other than an occasional name-check or reference to the first films.

Lucas controlled what little EU was allowed so he could control the story. He decided what level of imagination was allowed, not the EU. If anything, the early EU - Foster, Daley, and Smith - was truly an Expanded Universe - new characters, new enemies, new adventures.