Looking back at the original release of Star Wars

Crowds wait to see Star Wars first time around

I'm taking a break from creating new material for Episode Nothing during August, in order to devote some time to other projects and to research new posts which will take us into the autumn.

But to show I haven't disappeared entirely, I'm still going to check in each week, and will use the opportunity to point to some of the older content on the site. With 152 posts, going back to 2013, I hope there's some material there that's worth bringing to people's attention.



This blog was launched with one mission: To celebrate and discuss Star Wars as a single film, released in 1977, without letting its enormous legacy cloud our view.

In my very first substantial post, I tried to set the scene by discussing what life was like in 1977, in both the US and the UK.

In my next post, I described my own first viewing of Star Wars and got some very good stories from readers about their own experiences.

In a follow-up, I looked in a little more detail about May 25th, 1977, and how the success of Star Wars took the world by surprise.

A much more recent post looks at exactly when and where Star Wars played in those early days, while another post looked at the other films on release at the time.

Several accounts have suggested 20th Century-Fox didn't know how to promote and release Star Wars, but in this post I looked at the riposte by Fox chief Peter Myers, who argued that the studio was giving the film a slower, prestige roll-out.

Finally, for UK readers, I first discussed the British release of the film here and returned to the subject on the 40th anniversary of its London opening. But for those wanting more information about Star Wars in the UK, I can't recommend too highly Craig Stevens' book The Star Wars Phenomenon in Britain (and not just because I'm quoted in it).

If there's anything about the original, unaltered 1977 Star Wars that you'd like covered in future posts, do let me know in the comments. I always appreciate feedback.