''The Making of Star Wars'' is a television special produced by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, which aired on the

ABC Television Network The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Califor ...

on September 16, 1977. It was written by Richard Schickel and directed and produced by Robert Guenette.

Synopsis

Premiering four months after the release of the film, the special was the first ''Star Wars'' documentary ever made. The special was hosted by

C-3PO C-3PO () or See-Threepio is a humanoid robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise who appears in the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Built by Anakin Skywalker, was designed as a protocol droid intended to assis ...

(voiced and played by

Anthony Daniels Anthony Daniels ( ; born 21 February 1946) is an English actor and mime artist, best known for playing in 10 '' Star Wars'' films. He is the only actor to have either appeared in or been involved with all theatrical films in the series, and ...

) and

R2-D2 R2-D2 () or Artoo-Detoo is a fictional robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical ''Star Wars'' films to date. At various points throughout the course of the films, R2, ...

. A voiceover narration was additionally supplied by William Conrad. It features behind-the-scenes footage from '' Star Wars'', and interviews with writer/director George Lucas, producer

Gary Kurtz Gary Douglas Kurtz (July 27, 1940 – September 23, 2018) was an American film producer whose list of credits includes ''American Graffiti'' (1973), ''Star Wars'' (1977), ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''The Dark Crystal'' (1982) and ''Retu ...

, and castmembers Mark Hamill,

Carrie Fisher Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983). She reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''The Last ...

, Harrison Ford, and Alec Guinness. Among the behind-the-scenes footage is a brief glimpse of a deleted scene between

Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The E ...

and

Biggs Darklighter Rogue Squadron is a fictional starfighter squadron in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Many surviving members of Red Squadron, the Rebel attack force that Luke Skywalker joins during the Battle of Yavin in ''Star Wars'' (1977). The squadron app ...

Tatooine Tatooine () is a fictional desert planet that appears in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It is a beige-colored, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars, and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life forms. The planet was first ...

Home media

The special was the first ''Star Wars'' material to be released to the home video market (in 1979, by

Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. History Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay, an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nichols ...

). It was reissued to video in 1980 with a trailer for ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...

'', which had been released that year. This trailer was not featured on the DVD box set issued in 2004. In 1982, it was reissued again by 20th Century Fox on VHS, Betamax, CED, and Laserdisc as part of a double feature with the 1980 special '' SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back''. It was reissued separately in Japan on Laserdisc in 1992, and was reissued as a triple feature with SPFX and the 1983 special '' Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi''. The special is included as an additional feature in the ''Star Wars: The Complete Saga''

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

box set, which was released in September 2011. The version included is the original version with William Conrad's voiceover.

Alternate version

In 1995, an alternate version of the special was released to VHS as a special mail-in offer with Kellogg's to tie in with the last video and laserdisc releases of the original versions of the '' Star Wars Trilogy''. This version is almost identical to the 1977 version but replaces William Conrad's voiceover with that of famed movie trailer announcer

Don LaFontaine Donald Leroy LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers over four ...

. This version has not been issued on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

nor any other format. Some portions of the special were edited into '' The Story of Star Wars'', a DVD that was issued as a promotional bonus available at

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

stores for the DVD release of '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith'' in 2005.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Making of Star Wars, The Star Wars documentaries American Broadcasting Company original programming 1970s American television specials Star Wars (film) Television shows directed by Robert Guenette 1977 television specials 20th Century Fox Television films 1977 documentary films Television shows shot at EMI-Elstree Studios