So Turns a Galaxy....
"The Sounds of theatre.....on National Public Radio"
During the summer of 1983, when I was a mere 13-years old, I had the pleasure of recording NPR's production of "The Empire Strikes Back" Radio Drama Series off the air using one of those Radioshack not so powerful Boom Boxes of that era (a Realistic SCR-2, I believe? ) while listening to it in the dark of night - in my closet no less - in order so that I could actually hear it. ( Needless to say - that's another story in and of itself. )
I had never actually heard "Star Wars" when it originally when out "over the air".
However, the parents of one of my best childhood friends at the time had bought, at $5 bucks a cassette tape ( which, was like $$$$$$ in the early 80's) some extremely good, shall we say?, "bootleg" recordings from an employee who worked @ our local NPR radio station and
I later used my 1986 Radio Shack (13-1219) Realistic-Clarinette's 115 double tape deck - ( my 1st stereo system ) to dub them using, in this case, some rather cheap Scotch 3M Highlander cassettes; you know -the ones with the semi-translucent see-through blue shells. Sigh. I was a kid, ok?
Cassette One (Episodes 1 & 2 - A Wind to Shake the Stars & Points of Origin ) was one of my favorites, mainly because most of that material came from the "missing" 1st ( and as of yet, unfinished) 20-minute reel of film - which reveal glimpses of Luke's life on Tatooine - working on his Uncle Owen's moisture farm, dreaming of entering the Imperial Space Academy, and racing his Skyhopper in the dangerous stretches of Beggar's Canyon. In Episode 2, we get Princess Leia's backstory with her involvement in the Rebellion. This was the 1st attempt at the Expanding Universe - so yeah-it's different than the way the story was portrayed in Rogue One, which is too bad - because THIS, I dare say - is better! Although, I must admit, having just finished listening to this series again when I was traveling cross country two summers ago with my friend Matt, that I believe Episode 4 of Empire - titled "Fire and Ice" - is easily the best-produced episode of the entire series, just in terms of sheer production value.
Speaking of which, the audio in this series is better than in the films. Rest assure this simply isn't just some "book-on-tape" with added background music to accompany the narration and dialog. No, no, no. Utilizing both Lucasfilm's sound effects library, and the world' 1st Digital Sound system manufactured by 3M - sound mixer and series producer Tom Voegeli built this series "from scratch". This is truly "theatre of the mind's eye" with an audio landscape so rich in detail the scenes allow the listener to build / visualize great images.
Keep in mind this program was produced not that long after former President Ronald Reagan just took office, and the VCR was just starting to sell. It be a couple years yet til Star Wars was available on VHS for retail sale - those early tapes ran upwards of $100 -( yeah -good luck in getting my parents to buy that ) and oh , Blockbuster Video wasn't on every corner yet. Not to mention, other than the film's soundtrack, the only other way to "get" "Star Wars" back then was to listen to the famous "Story of Star Wars" record (or cassette, open reel - or if you were one of those lucky few, 8-track). While taken directly from the film's audio track, it timed out @ just under 50 minutes. Also, the film's Original Soundtrack itself only contained about half the music used in the film. The Radio Drama times out just shy of six-hours just for Star Wars alone!
I'll never forget that day in 1993 when I I walked into Books-a-Million and laid eyes on the Highbridge Audio version of this. I had no idea it was being released. Seeing it was a shock. Finally! There IT was! OH - "Hello there" Ear candy! It was mine, and to this day, I still have that receipt.
Now- I will say that for some odd reason - the only thing I didn't like about the packaging was that fact that pictures of the characters from the film were placed inside the program booklet. I always felt that one of the key advantages of The Radio Drama was that you, the listener, could make up both what the character's and the scenes looked like yourself. So my version of the story "looked" different in my head than the film. Also, and I'm willing to bet that many young listeners don't know this, but this release is actually Missing the original "An adaption for Radio in 13-parts" opening tagline from the original broadcast version.
Truth be told, these store bought CD's will never replace the fond childhood memories of those old home-recorded cassette tapes - of that great adventure that once took place in my head, a long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far, away.