At the suggestion of one of Toscan's students, Joel Rosenzweig, they developed an idea for adapting the 1977 epic space opera film Star Wars for radio.

With no funding available to cover the $200,000 budget, NPR entered into a co-production deal with the British broadcaster, the BBC, which had a long tradition of radio drama production.

The BBC provided a production team, including director John Madden, and in exchange received broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom.

From the outset, the NPR producers felt that the script would lend itself well to an episodic treatment, drawing on the format of the 1930s movie serials such as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers that had originally inspired Lucas when he wrote Star Wars.

[6] Star Wars was launched at a special NPR event at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, in which the drama was played under a starry light show.

The author, Alexandra Bracken, stated that she was reading the Expanded Universe to try to "sneak elements in" to the canon and adapted material from the radio drama.

The narrative of the first two episodes takes place entirely before the opening scene of the 1977 film, and expands the background to events leading up to the capture of the Tantive IV spacecraft above the planet Tatooine.

Episode 2, made up of material written entirely by Daley, provides backstory to Princess Leia's acquisition of the Death Star plans from agents of the Rebel Alliance on the planet Toprawa.

In scenes set on the planet Alderaan, Leia discusses the plans with her father, Prestor Organa, and determines to go in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

In another episode, Daley inserts a conversation in which Admiral Motti attempts to convince Grand Moff Tarkin to leverage the Death Star as a political tool.

National Public Radio's promoted the series in part by getting Craig Claiborne to create his version of Yoda's rootleaf stew recipe, which the Jedi Master serves Luke in the hut on Dagobah.

[citation needed] It was not until 1996 that a six-part adaptation of Return of the Jedi was made by Highbridge Audio, the company that had released the first two series on tape and CD.

A scripted scene between C-3PO and Boba Fett in Jabba the Hutt's palace was rejected by Anthony Daniels, who felt that the golden droid should not be on friendly terms with a bounty hunter.

Fett was replaced by the dancer "Arica" (actually Mara Jade in disguise) from Timothy Zahn's Tales from Jabba's Palace short story.

[20] The audio play's adapter Brian Daley died only hours after its recording was concluded; "additional material" was contributed by John Whitman, who introduced changes that were required so the series could have continuity with the newly developed plan for the prequels, as well as changes that were identified by its director and cast.

Episode titles: The adaptation used many of the original radio cast, though Joshua Fardon took over as Luke and Arye Gross replaced Billy Dee Williams as Lando.

Existing radio promos, deleted scenes, and additional music tracks are available which originated on previous releases of this collection and in the NPR broadcast versions.