A New Hope For Radio
March 9, 2015 7:05 PM Subscribe
The extended NPR produced adaptation of 'A New Hope' for your listening pleasure.
The production used several original cast members and additional scenes. Bonus link: Yoda's Incredible Herb Stew!
The production used several original cast members and additional scenes. Bonus link: Yoda's Incredible Herb Stew!
You kids today…
This is our walking uphill. In the snow. Both ways. Into the Wampa's den.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:16 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is our walking uphill. In the snow. Both ways. Into the Wampa's den.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:16 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I had this on audio cassette. It is worth a listen, but it can be jarring to have some voices be "right" and others "wrong." Because the entire experience is aural it is difficult to ignore this.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 7:17 PM on March 9, 2015
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 7:17 PM on March 9, 2015
I had this as a kid too. And found it again later.
Now my kid asks for this on long rides. During our summer road trip, we listened to each of the three movie radio plays twice. I demanded some other entertainments.
That's how my little geek learned the joy of the BBC Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I highly recommend tracking down the other two NPR radio plays.
They get shorter and shorter (Jedi the shortest because Daly was dying from cancer, I believe).
But they manage to stand up.
Even with all the wrong voices (except Anthony Daniel who was the only one, I believe, to stick it out through all three).
posted by Seamus at 7:44 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Now my kid asks for this on long rides. During our summer road trip, we listened to each of the three movie radio plays twice. I demanded some other entertainments.
That's how my little geek learned the joy of the BBC Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I highly recommend tracking down the other two NPR radio plays.
They get shorter and shorter (Jedi the shortest because Daly was dying from cancer, I believe).
But they manage to stand up.
Even with all the wrong voices (except Anthony Daniel who was the only one, I believe, to stick it out through all three).
posted by Seamus at 7:44 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Six cups of parsley? The hell?
posted by sourwookie at 8:13 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by sourwookie at 8:13 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have fond memories of getting to stay up late, sitting around the wood stove in my pajamas with my dad's stereo on, the TV off, and my sister and I bouncing off the walls as we listened to this every weekend on the radio (when it aired on our local PBS affiliate). It was by far one of my earliest wowstarwars! moments.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:16 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:16 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
>Six cups of parsley? The hell?
Well, Yoda is Jewish after all. Me, I like it w/salt water as a snack.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 9:48 PM on March 9, 2015
Well, Yoda is Jewish after all. Me, I like it w/salt water as a snack.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 9:48 PM on March 9, 2015
Good news, this isn't Yet Another Star Wars Parody, which I was dreading.
Bad news, the radio dramas were a weird listen. And I recall the actors trying to put their own spin on their characters, but when the movies are so ingrained in your memory, it's just distracting (particularly Han and Leia). It may have mattered less at the time, when home video wasn't yet a thing.
On the other hand, there was the readalong story on tape/record, which I remember feeling left out way too much.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:19 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Bad news, the radio dramas were a weird listen. And I recall the actors trying to put their own spin on their characters, but when the movies are so ingrained in your memory, it's just distracting (particularly Han and Leia). It may have mattered less at the time, when home video wasn't yet a thing.
On the other hand, there was the readalong story on tape/record, which I remember feeling left out way too much.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:19 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Here's the whole thing, in one fell swoop. Not sure what "Radio Edit" means, but there you go.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 4:34 AM on March 10, 2015
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 4:34 AM on March 10, 2015
I remember listening to this when I was a kid! I'd read the novelization as well and remember being all excited that some of the stuff in there that wasn't in the movie was in the radio play.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:41 AM on March 10, 2015
posted by rmd1023 at 6:41 AM on March 10, 2015
I remember this when it first aired! My parents recorded all of them . . . the cassettes are probably still up in their attic.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:15 AM on March 10, 2015
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:15 AM on March 10, 2015
I recorded this off the air when it aired in first run on NPR (all three episodes), then later bought them all on cassette (twice because I melted the first triple set in the hot southwestern sun in my car on a road trip one summer) and finally didn't feel guilty when I pirated them.
I think they're actually quite excellent. The lack of voice congruency doesn't bother me that much, because they're pretty close much of the time, and you spend just so much more time with the new voices during each episode that it ceases to matter after a while.
There are long stretches of A New Hope and H2G2 that I can quote verbatim, I listened to them so much when I was young.
(In fact, now that memory serves, it was when the local NPR station brought out EpV:ESB that I basically informed them that our household was going to become members of that station like we had been to the local PBS station for years. I was Quite Serious about my Star Wars when I was younger. Still am in some respects.)
If JJ Abrams messes up Ep7 he gets renamed as JarJar Abrams. Pass it on.
posted by hippybear at 2:19 PM on March 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I think they're actually quite excellent. The lack of voice congruency doesn't bother me that much, because they're pretty close much of the time, and you spend just so much more time with the new voices during each episode that it ceases to matter after a while.
There are long stretches of A New Hope and H2G2 that I can quote verbatim, I listened to them so much when I was young.
(In fact, now that memory serves, it was when the local NPR station brought out EpV:ESB that I basically informed them that our household was going to become members of that station like we had been to the local PBS station for years. I was Quite Serious about my Star Wars when I was younger. Still am in some respects.)
If JJ Abrams messes up Ep7 he gets renamed as JarJar Abrams. Pass it on.
posted by hippybear at 2:19 PM on March 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I have this series on CD, which I ordered as soon as I was a Big Adult with My Own Money to Spend on Me Things.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:49 PM on March 11, 2015
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:49 PM on March 11, 2015
« Older let it go? | Dandy Jim And The Bodysnatchers--And Many Other... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by wenestvedt at 7:16 PM on March 9, 2015