A day long remembered: Star Wars comes to television

The UK's TV Times heralds the 

arrival of Star Wars on television

Several years after it changed film-going forever, Star Wars came to television. 

George Lucas was angry about it, we were told. But for the young fan, the arrival of Star Wars on the small screen was a huge event. Today, Episode Nothing takes a look at the very different experiences in the US and the UK as Star Wars made its TV premiere on HBO, CBS and ITV.

Star Wars comes home: The history of the 1977 film on VHS and Beta

Star Wars at home: the original US
VHS version from 1982

The history of Star Wars on home entertainment formats is long and complicated, but for a long time it could be boiled down to one simple rule:

Every time you bought the film in what you confidently believed to be the ultimate, definitive edition, Lucasfilm would release another one.

That was the rule of thumb for a long time, but later it became clear that a rider had been added, which was this:

While George Lucas was happy to release all kinds of enhanced deluxe versions of the film, he was never again going to release the movie as seen by the original audiences in 1977-78.