Watch Mark Hamill's 1984 introduction to the Star Wars premiere on TV

By Rick Marshall Updated January 6, 2016

Star Wars 1984 TV premiere intro hosted by Mark Hamill

Just a few decades ago, the premiere of a major movie on television was a very, very big deal — and back then, no movie was bigger than Star Wars.

With Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens breaking box-office records and everyone talking about the sci-fi saga’s history, a video has found its way online featuring the introduction to the 1984 television premiere of the movie that started it all, 1977’s Star Wars.

The Star Wars intro video was uploaded to YouTube in 2012, but resurfaced recently amid all the buzz surrounding The Force Awakens. It features a tuxedoed Mark Hamill providing a dramatic lead-in to the film’s small-screen premiere, complete with interviews with fans young and old, some behind-the-scenes footage, and clips from various press segments featuring Star Wars director George Lucas.

There’s even a brief profile of a family deemed to be the biggest Star Wars collectors of all time, and it’s difficult not to wonder what their collection — estimated to be worth around $15,000 in the video — would actually be valued at now.

It’s also worth noting how many times some of the Star Wars fans claim to have seen the film in theaters, with several fans indicating they’ve seen it anywhere from 50 to 100 times. Given the current price of movie tickets, it’s hard to imagine anyone seeing The Force Awakens that many times in a theater these days.

Still, even with people seeing The Force Awakens just a few times, the film remains on an impressive pace to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. The latest box-office report had the film already past the $1.5 billion mark worldwide, and moving into second place on the all-time domestic box-office ranking with $750.2 million — an amount that it earned in just three weeks.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Entertainment

The 10 coolest Star Wars TIE fighters, ranked

star wars squadrons release date trailer gameplay news ties

Star Wars may continue to divide fans on a number of fronts, but if everybody agrees on one thing, it's that the ships and vehicles remain awesome, even the new ones. For example, The Mandalorian introduced the instant classic "Razor Crest," which was the equivalent of an Airstream RV for Mando and 'lil Grogu to tour the galaxy's hot spots. When the Crest met an accident that severely compromised its resale value, Mando came into possession of a midlife crisis upgrade: A tricked-out chrome Naboo N1 starfighter so snazzy it achieved the almost impossible feat of making something from The Phantom Menace cool.

If one ship epitomizes Star Wars above all others, continuing to appear both in updated and classic forms in virtually every new addition (they can be seen currently in both Obi-Wan Kenobi and the trailer for Andor), it's the TIE fighter, the Twin Ion Engine starfighter used by the Empire and later the First Order. Designed for a single pilot (wearing the coolest flight suit ever designed) TIE fighters are used for combat and patrol, their speed and maneuverability making them the perfect foil for Rebel ships like the X-Wing (though never, alas, the Millennium Falcon). Here, we rank the top 10 styles of TIE fighters (yes, there are even more!), according to sheer coolness.
10. The classic TIE fighter

Entertainment

Star Wars: Obi-Wan’s best allies, ranked

Obi-Wan Kenobi watching over a young Luke Skywalker

Obi-Wan Kenobi is arguably one of the most significant characters in the history of Star Wars. Throughout six movies and an animated TV series, the Jedi Master has helped many characters in the franchise grow to their full potential. Young, old, father, or son, Kenobi has taught them all. Some of these characters were even romantic interests that Kenobi couldn't fully pursue due to his adherence to the Jedi Code.

In case you don't have time to catch up on all the movies and The Clone Wars episodes before watching the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries on Disney+, here's a ranked list of his allies from over the years based on how strong his bonds are with these characters.
9. Hondo Ohnaka

Entertainment

How to watch the Star Wars movies in order

Kylo and Rey fighting in Rise of the Skywalker

Are you a Star Wars fan considering options for a movie marathon? Are you trying to get a friend or a significant other into the franchise, but you aren't sure in which order to introduce the stories? We get it. When the original trilogy concluded in 1983, the order was pretty simple, and the home-viewing options were fairly limited. Today, the number of live-action Star Wars films has increased to the double digits, and almost half of those movies are prequels.

To help you decide, we've considered the three most popular options: Release order, chronological order, and the so-called machete order. We'll give you the pros and cons of all three options and tell you which one we ultimately think is the best choice.