STAR WARS: DROIDS – THE ADVENTURES OF R2-D2 AND C-3PO
(ABC, September 7, 1985-June 7, 1986)
Nelvana, Ltd., Lucasfilm, Ltd.
MAIN CAST:
Stephen Ouimette - Narrator
George Lucas had always
been interested in animation. Once his Star
Wars trilogy had concluded with 1983’s Return of the Jedi, Lucas decided that technology had not yet
reached the point that could do his vision justice and opted not to continue on
with his sequel trilogy. However, animation, not restricted by the same
physical limitations, could allow him to do just what he wanted. Or, at least,
an extension of it.
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| Droids and Ewoks, together again. |
Lucas conceived of two shows; one focusing on C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and
R2-D2 before they
encountered Luke
Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
in Star Wars (now known
as Episode IV: A New Hope), the other on the teddy bear-like Ewoks from Return of the Jedi. The idea was to focus
on characters that had no important ties to the overall plots of the films,
allowing more creative freedom while not hampering the continuity of any future
theatrical efforts. Also, both sets of characters would lend themselves well
and benefit from animation, as well as greatly appeal to young audiences.
 |
| Starlog Droids promo image. |
Lucas wanted his shows to be the best seen on Saturday morning, raising
the bar for animation quality and voice acting. This desire is what convinced
Daniels, initially hesitant, to sign on to the project. Daniels was also
allowed to rework some of his dialogue in order to make it better
representative of the character. Pre-production began in 1984 and Lucas met
with the producers, directors and writers of both series to collaborate on
story ideas. A lot of influence was drawn from the science-fiction stories of Jean Giraud (aka Moebius), specifically from The Airtight Garage. After
the initial planning, Lucas wasn’t involved in the day-to-day production of the
shows, although he was screened the rough cuts of episodes as they were made.
 |
| R2-D2 and C-3PO creating a distraction. |
The show’s writing staff included Richard Beban, Ben Burtt, Sharman DiVono, Joe Johnston (who also handled
the visual effects for the films), Gordon
Kent, Michael Reaves, Peter Saunder, Steven Wright and Paul Dini. Dini also served as
an associate producer and story editor. Writing for the series was not without
its challenges. Not only did they have to adhere to the broadcast standards set
by the FCC, but by ABC’s own Standards and Practices Board. ABC
wanted safe children’s programming and fought the writers every step of the way
when they tried to push the envelope even the tiniest bit.
 |
| The droids fleeing Boba Fett and Vlix. |
Lucas contracted Nelvana, Ltd. to
produce the animation for both shows; his having been impressed by their work
on the Boba Fett animated
segment of the much-hated The Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. Nelvana, in turn,
contracted the Korean animation company Hanho
Heung-Up to provide the artwork for the series. However, they struggled
with the shows’ designs and the massive amount of work involved (up to 24,000
cels per episode), which forced Nelvana head Clive Smith to move to Korea for
the eight months of production to assist them. Droids proved the bigger
challenge of the two shows due to the need for more locations, perspective
drawings, and recognizable humanoid characters. Producing episodes for both
shows ran $500,000-600,000 per pair, making them two of the most expensive
animated series to produce.
Star Wars: Droids – The Adventures
of R2-D2 and C-3PO (known originally as simply Droids) was previewed on Friday, September 6, 1985, in the preview
special ABC Saturday Sneak Peek and Fun
Fit Test with Tony Danza, C-3PO and R2-D2. As the title suggests, it was
hosted by Tony Danza,
then-star of Who’s the Boss?, who was taught gymnastics along with the titular droids by
Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton. It made
its official debut the next day on September 7. The series’ theme, “Trouble
Again,” was performed by Stewart
Copeland of The Police, who wrote it
with Derek Holt. The show’s
score was handled by Patricia
Cullen and David Shaw.
 |
| Thall and Jord. |
While each episode was a self-contained story, there were three
continuing storylines that spanned four episodes each known as “Cycles”. Each
Cycle saw the supporting cast and foes changing as the droids continually
bounced from master to master. After they were abandoned by Raymus Antilles,
the droids were first found by speeder racers Thall
Joben (Andrew Sabiston) and Jord Dusat (Peter MacNeill & Dan Hennssey).
They were often at odds with the Fromm Gang, a local crime
family, and had help from resistance fighter Kea Moll (Lesleh Donaldson). When
Thall and Jord declined a lucrative job that required memory-wiping the droids,
the droids left their masters.
 |
| Mon Julpa, Gordy and Jann. |
In the next Cycle, they were rescued by Jann Tosh (Don Francvks) along
with a kidnapped prince, Mon Julpa (Chris Wiggins), whom they returned to his
kingdom with the help of freighter pilot Jessica Meade (Taborah Johnson). When
Jann was accepted into the Imperial Space
Academy, he parted ways with the droids.
 |
| Mungo. |
In the final Cycle, the droids were in the command of merchant Mungo
Baobab (Winston Rekert), who came into conflict with Imperial forces
under the command of The Great Heep (Long John Baldry). With his family fleet
facing financial ruin, Mungo and the droids set out on a quest to establish a
trade route to Roon,
planetary home of valuable Roonstones.
Unfortunately, a maniacal despot named Governor Koong (Hennessy) wanted the
stones in order to keep in good favor with the Empire and continue on with his
illegal activities. Ultimately, the series ended after the third Cycle with the
two-part special “The Great Heep” (which was actually set before the 10th
episode). It did air for a second season of reruns alongside new episodes of Ewoks as part of the Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour beginning on March 1, 1986.
 |
| Droids figure preview sheet. |
Kenner, who
had the license to produce Star Wars toys,
made various products related to the show such as action
figures, ships and more. The toys, however, came during the decline of Star Wars’ popularity and sold poorly as
a result. A second wave of figures was in the planning stages until the line was
cancelled. Glasslite in Brazil bought out the remainder of Kenner’s stock and
released their own
limited run of Droids and Return of the Jedi toys in 1987, including
an exclusive Vlix
action figure whose mold was made but never produced by Kenner.
 |
| The Droids book adaptation. |
Random House published a series
of children’s books based on various episodes, while the series’ music was
released on an LP and cassette in France. Plans for the release of a storybook
and cassette by Rainbow were abandoned when they lost the rights to the
franchise due to the poor sales of Buena Vista Records’
Further Adventures series. Editorial Roma also had a
series of Spanish pop-up story books. Mungo was featured as a character in the
short story Lando Calrissian: Idiot’s Array written by Rich Handley, which was
published in 2008 on Hyperspace,
the official Star Wars fan club, and
later reprinted on Suvudu by Random House.
 |
| The Marvel Droids comic. |
In 1986, Marvel Comics published a comic based on
the show as part of their Star Comics imprint,
although it was set a few years after the chronology of the series. Running
only 8 issues, the comic crossed-over with Marvel’s Ewoks series and gave
a droid-centric retelling of the first movie. Spanish publisher Editorial Gespa
produced an anthology series called MyComyc which
featured 2-page
stories centered around Droids. The
strips, drawn by studio Beaumont C. de B.,
were later collected
but have yet to see an English translation or North American reprinting due to Lucasfilm’s inability to determine the
legitimacy of their being properly licensed. Translations were made available
by Handley on his website
and translator Abel Pena’s. Dark Horse Comics would publish two mini-series, a one-shot
and a special with a
similar theme a decade later, as well as collect the two Marvel series together
in an omnibus. After Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise,
Marvel, also owned by Disney, printed their own omnibus collection in 2016.
In 1988, Mastertronic
developed a computer game loosely based on the cartoon for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The game was
under-promoted and largely went ignored for the brief time it was available.
The game was eventually pulled from production due to licensing issues with the
end title theme used. In 2007, Gentle
Giant, Ltd. created a maquette
of Boba Fett based on his appearance in an episode. The maquettes were sold
at Celebration IV, where some Droids merchandise was auctioned off
from the Lucas Licensing archives, and Celebration
Europe. In 2015, Gentle Giant reproduced
several Droids figures as 12”
convention exclusives for the series’ 30th anniversary.
In 1995, an Easter Egg was included by LucasArts on the game Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden
Empire. In it, entering a code would allow R2-D2, C-3PO and Darth Vader (Scott Lawrence) to watch the cut
scenes and comment on
them in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
One of their comments was delivered in an impersonation of the playable character
Rookie One and
mentioned the “…Ewoks/Droids cartoon
hour!”
 |
| The Droids compilation movie VHS. |
CBS/Fox Video
handled the international
releases of the series to VHS in 1988. They released 12 of the episodes to
England and Germany and eventually released the entire series to Mexico. J2 Communications
released The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection in 1990, which featured three VHS tapes
that featured five episodes between them (one repeated twice). In 1997, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox
edited together he episodes from Cycle 2 to create the film The Priates and the Prince and
released it to VHS under the title Star
Wars Animated Classics, complete with a commercial for it and its similar Ewoks release. In 2004, Star Wars Animated Adventures: Droids came to DVD collecting the previous
movie and the additional compilation film Treasure of the Hidden Planet made from the episodes in Cycle 3. The
edits led to several scenes and the intros being removed and some of the
soundtrack being altered. The entire series has yet to see a modern release.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The White Witch” (9/7/85) – The droids’ new master Jord Dusat is kidnapped by Tig Fromm and they have to help their other master Thall Joben save him.
“Escape into Terror” (9/14/85) – The droids, Thall and Kea Moll sneak into the Fromm gang base to steal the Trigon One weapon.
“The Trigon Unleashed” (9/21/85) – Tig kidnaps Jord and Kea’s mother for the weapon, which Thall gives to him after having sabotaged its controls.
“A Race to the Finish” (9/28/85) – The Fromms contract Boba Fett to take out the speeder racers, but finding it too difficult Fett decides to claim a bounty on them set by Jabba the Hutt.
“The Lost Prince” (10/5/85) – The droids and their new master Jann Tosh are captured and put to work in the mines on Nergon-14 where they meet Mon Julpa, prince of the Tammuz-an.
“The New King” (10/12/85) – The droids and their friends head to Tammuz-an to stop evil vizier Zatec-Cha from claiming the throne.
“The Priates of Tarnoonga” (10/19/85) – Pirate Kybo Ren-Cha captures Jessica and a shipment of fuel she was delivering and takes them to the water planet Tarnoonga.
“The Revenge of Kybo Ren” (10/26/85) – Kybo Ren escapes and kidnaps the daughter of Mon Julpa’s political rival, resulting in a new rescue mission.
“Coby and the Starhunters” (11/2/85) – The droids are captured while chaperoning Lord Toda’s son Coby and are rescued by Jann, who has been accepted into Imperial Space Academy.
“Tail of the Roon Comets” (11/9/85) – Mungo Baobab drags the droids on his quest for the Roon Stones, but runs afoul of Imperials.
“The Roon Games” (11/16/85) – Mungo and the droids escape to the planet Roon with Governor Koong in hot pursuit.
“Across the Roon Sea” (11/23/85) – Mungo is about ready to give up his search for the Stones.
“The Frozen Citadel” (11/30/85) – The search continues as Governor Koong closes in on his former captives.
Special:
“The Great Heep” (6/7/86) – The droids confront an evil Abominator who built itself up from the remains of other droids.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2019.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2019.
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