Does anyone remember when “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added to the scroll at the beginning? I know it wasn’t there when I first saw the movie — Lucas later explained he had no idea how successful it would be, and wasn’t sure there would be more episodes. He added “Ep IV” only after Fox agreed to fund additional episodes.
I do remember seeing the “Ep IV” (sometime after 1977 but before 1980 when TESB came out), and being shocked, then hopeful, knowing that it meant more would be forthcoming, as well as confused that the series we were seeing started in the middle of the story.
I remember it all being kinda confusing at the time (there was no public internet in the late 70s to get the word out — it was all word-of-mouth and home-brewed fanzines).
I remember it and it made sense to me. I remember Lucas saying he started where he started because it had a planet blowing up.
If I’m a film maker, and I have this massive story I don’t know if I’m going to be able to tell the whole thing, I’m going to want to start with blowing up a planet.
Of course, after Return of the Jedi, I wanted it to stop there. I hated the whole “cute puppy” things and I wasn’t too thrilled with the redemption of Darth Vader. And after suffering through the first three episodes, I don’t really think he deserves redemption. Especially not such a hokey redemption