Some of my best memories of Star Wars as a kid come from listening to the Star Wars and Empire Radio Dramas on NPR. The latter debuted on February 14th, 1983, and told an extended story of The Empire Strikes Back in 10 weekly episodes and built excitement for the upcoming Return of the Jedi theatrical release. Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Anthony Daniels reprised their film roles and were joined by the talents of John Lithgow as Yoda, Brock Peters as Darth Vader, and Perry King as Han Solo among others. The music of John Williams and the sound design of Ben Burtt are heard throughout the serial which runs over four hours.
In 1993 Highbridge Audio released the first CD and cassette versions of the
ESB Radio Drama, then in 1995 the
Radio Play by Brian Daley was released by Del Ray. The Star Wars Radio Dramas are now also available for download from
Audible.com.
For my personal Star Wars canon the radio dramas are only trumped by the actual movies.
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