Lucasfilm Celebrates 30 Years of Radioland Murders

As the live studio audience pours in for the gala event, the situation backstage is anything but under control. Hectic, last-minute preparations are made for the coming broadcast while the program’s head writer, Roger (Brian Benben), is attempting to win back the love of his wife, studio secretary Penny (Mary Stuart Masterson), who has threatened to leave him. Penny’s attentions are elsewhere, however, as she is forced to take on the roles of director, producer, and stage manager in light of her colleagues’ spectacular ineptitude. Little does the sparring couple know that their feud will be the least of their troubles tonight.

By the time Radioland Murders reached movie theaters, executive producer George Lucas had spent 20 years working to get it made. In the wake of American Graffiti’s release in 1973 (another story that dealt with Lucas’ fascination with radio), Lucas was busy developing multiple stories for his upstart company, Lucasfilm. Among these was a space fantasy adventure that would become Star Wars: A New Hope (1977); a globetrotting adventure story about an archaeologist that became Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); still another was a Vietnam war story, which George Lucas eventually gave to his friend Francis Ford Coppola as Apocalypse Now (1979).

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