In the Fall of 1977, after a successful summer, ABC decided to produce a Star Wars prime-time special.  Aired on the day that Maria Callas died (happened to be in the newsbrief after the show), R2-D2 and C-3PO hosted it, while Cannon's William Conrad narrated it.  Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew, and George Lucas also contributed with small bits featuring their thoughts and feelings about Star Wars.  The show ran about 45 minutes long (1 hour with commercials), and preceded the ABC Firday night movie, on a night in September.
Most remarkable, The Making of Star Wars also featured a split second of missing Biggs footage.  Biggs and Luke are seen walking together behind a mechanical creature.
In 1995, Lucasfilm 'updated' the special a little, by changing the narrator's voice.  The deceased Conrad was replaced by a new announcer.
Virtually none of the script was touched, and that was one of the problems.  It seemed as if much of the dialogue was developed for Conrad's harsh and simple voice, and because of that, the new version sounds a little odd.  The new version was made for a 1995 Corn-Pops mail-away exclusive, that went along with the highly successful 1995 Star Wars video release.
To judge the difference between the narrator's yourself, I recorded the same piece of both of the versions.
Click here to download William Conrad's version
And here to download the Corn Pops version

Click on any image you would like to see enlarged.

Page Credits

Images are property of Lucasfilm Ltd. and ABC © 1977.
Snapped by: Michael Streeter
HTML, text, content, and layout by:  Michael Streeter
copyright © 1998
All images and properties were used without permission
No infringement is intended