star wars - original cinema release

[Mattk]

one for the older star wars fans !

i am sure that when i 1st saw star wars at the cinema back in 1977 as an 8 yr old that the bit at the beginning with all the writing scrolling up the screen actually started at episode 1 and went thru ep's 2 and 3 and then hit 4 a new hope.all the newer releases ive seen start at ep 4 for obvious reasons as i guess the story has changed somewhat !

my problem is that no-one else can remember this so i am starting to wonder if i imagined it !!!!

can anyone else back me up and ideally give evidence of what the original texts would have said ?

[smorodina]

I remember seeing it when it came out, but I'm pretty sure it always started at 4.

[stoo_pid]

sorry Mattk, the very first release (in the USA) had no title for the scrolled writing but that was changed after the first few test audiences.  Since then it has always started with Episode IV, A New Hope.

[EssJay1]

I saw it when it first came out too and remember it being marketed then as the start of the middle trilogy of a trilogy (does that make sense?).  I don't think George Lucas had any clear plot lines in mind for ep 1,2 + 3 -as shown by the films!  Anyway I don't remember anything other than a the standard 3 paragraph introduction.

[LeMarchand]

A third (and, I humbly submit, the correct) answer: The original release made no mention of it being Episode 4, and just had the familiar opening crawl. The "Episode 4: A New Hope" was only added to much later re-releases, when Lucas and Fox realised what a gold mine they had uncovered.

[thecooler]

That's right, the scroll had no title originally. This was added for later releases. All very confusing.

[smorodina]

My memory was at fault. It did indeed have no title originally.

[muttsnuts]

you will only get more and more confused, cos george "dumbass" lucas Keeps changing everything!