Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Star Wars on NPR Playhouse


This was a licensed part of the franchise, adapted by Brian Daley, directed by John Madden and with the cooperation of George Lucas. Lucas for his part actually donated the rights to NPR and allowed the use of sound effects and music directly from the three original films.

If you tuned in you might have noticed that some very familiar voices reprized their original roles. Mark Hamill was Luke Skywalker, Anthony Daniels was C-3PO, but Harrison Ford didn't play Han Solo, and let's not discuss Princess Leia.

The series had thirteen-parts clocking in at a total of  6.5 hours... creating as much content than the original 3 movies combined. Attention sticklers: for the record, the lengths of the original 3 films are Star Wars (2:16), Empire Strikes Back (2:07) and Return of the Jedi (2:16) that does clock in at 3:39... but some of that is credits. can we agree that it's comperable and move on?
  1. A Wind To Shake The Stars
  2. Points Of Origin
  3. Black Knight, White Princess, And Pawns
  4. While Giants Mark Time
  5. Jedi That Was, Jedi To Be
  6. The Millennium Falcon Deal
  7. The Han Solo Solution
  8. Death Star's Transit
  9. Rogues, Rebels And Robots
  10. The Luke Skywalker Initiative
  11. The Jedi Nexus
  12. The Case For Rebellion
  13. Force And Counter Force
 The first episode was produced and broadcast in 1981 National Public Radio on NPR Playhouse. It's was a bit of a hit, and two more radio dramatizations were produced of The Empire Strikes Back (1983) and Return of the Jedi (1996) completing the iconic first three films. NPR has not serialized any of the less iconic sequels and prequels. But I've refused to see them myself on general principle.

No comments:

Post a Comment