Star Wars : Droids : The Adventures of R2 - D2 and C - 3PO Star Wars : Droids : The Adventures of R2 - D2 and C - 3PO is an animated television series that features the exploits of the droids C - 3PO and R2 - D2 who , over the course of their adventures , often find themselves in the company of new masters — and in new dangerous and difficult situations as a result . The series is set in 15 BBY — between the events depicted in and . Development . " Star Wars " creator George Lucas had long been interested in animation , and had wanted to tell " Star Wars " stories in an animated form . During production of " The Star Wars Holiday Special " in 1978 , director David Acomba showed Lucas a recent film made by Clive A . Smith ' s animation company Nelvana . This convinced Lucas to hire the company to produce the animated segment for that film . Lucas was pleased with their work , and in 1984 , he again hired them to work on the two animated series he was developing , " Droids " and " Ewoks " . These two subjects were chosen because they would appeal to young audiences and because , as the future of the film franchise was uncertain , they would be the least likely characters to conflict with the stories of the feature films . With these two shows , Lucas ( who served as executive producer ) hoped to raise the standards for Saturday morning animation ; he wanted the animation and voice acting to be better than the average shows of the time . Anthony Daniels felt the same : " I didn ' t want to do it . I had to be convinced that it was going to be better . I ' m no mug — I wouldn ' t support something " just " because Lucasfilm was doing it . " Pre - production began in May of 1984 . During this time Lucas met with the series ' producers , directors and writers , who collaborated on story ideas . The stories were inspired by the science - fiction stories of — specifically " " . The production team tried to convince Lucas to bring other main characters from the original trilogy , but he insisted it be focused on the droids . Lucas laid out his basic ideas for the series , but wasn ' t involved with day - to - day matters . As the episodes were being worked on , rough cuts were screened for him . After reading the scripts , Daniels would sometimes rewrite lines of dialogue if he felt they didn ' t fit his character . The series was under strict broadcast standards , and there were limitations — set by ABC ' s Standards and Practices Board — as to what could be shown or dealt with in the episodes . Writer Paul Dini commented on this in a 2004 interview : " . . . we were dealing with a regime at the network that just wanted safe children ' s programming . Every time we wanted to stretch it a little bit , they would kick up a fuss over it . " The show ' s animators tended to specialize in either characters , locales or machinery . The Korean company struggled with the show ' s designs , which often encompassed up to 24 , 000 cels per episode . As a result , Clive Smith moved to Korea for eight months in order to assist the company . Smith estimated that each hour - long pair of " Droids " and " Ewoks " episodes cost approximately $ 500 , 000 to $ 600 , 000 to produce , making them amongst the more expensive animated series for that time . The opening theme — " Trouble Again " — was performed by Stewart Copeland of the band and written by Copeland and Derek Holt , and the show ' s score was created by Patricia Cullen , David Greene and David Shaw . Release . " Droids " debuted on September 7 , 1985 as part of the " Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour " . ABC aired a preview special a few days prior entitled " The ABC Saturday Sneak Peek and Fun Fit Test w / , C - 3PO and R2 - D2 " . ( In the special , Olympic gymnast teaches gymnastics to Danza and the droids . ) After airing a full season of 13 episodes , " Droids " was cancelled , due in part to to its high production costs ( which were a result the high level of design required relative to other of the time ) . However , a new one - hour special later aired in 1986 , and the first season was rebroadcast alongside the second season of " Ewoks " . In the mid 1990s , beginning in 1994 , the US ran episodes of the series , along with those of its counterpart , " Star Wars : Ewoks " , on its " " and " " blocks of programming . Merchandising . In 1985 , Kenner produced a toy line based on the series , including , ship models , and other items . Random House also published a series of children ' s books based on various episodes of the series . An and a featuring music from the show were released in France . In 1986 , Marvel Comics ' Star Comics imprint published a " Droids " comic book , which was based on the cartoon series . The comic also had the name " " . The comic series takes place between 10 - 6 BBY , unlike the TV series which was placed around 15 BBY . The bimonthly series ran for a year , ending with issue # 8 . Significant issues include # 4 , which crossed over with the " Ewoks " comics series , and # 6 - 8 , whose story was titled " " Star Wars According to the Droids " " , retelling " Star Wars " : Episode IV " A New Hope " with new scenes told from the perspective of the droids . It is of note that the series was drawn by comic legend John Romita . Dark Horse Comics also ran a couple of " Droids " mini - series in 1994 and 1995 . A was released in 1988 for the and home computers . After the series finished production , Nelvana sent the majority of pre - production materials to Lucasfilm , who later partnered with the former company Royal Animated Art to sell these materials to private owners . Some were bought by a California business , and some were later given out as part of the . In 2007 , Gentle Giant released an animated maquette of Boba Fett based on Fett ' s appearance in the series . It was a Celebration exclusive ; out of the 1000 produced , 700 were sold at Celebration IV , while the remianing 300 were sold at Celebration Europe . Also at Celebration IV , " Droids " merchandise was auctioned off from the Lucas Licensing archives . In 2010 , StarWars . com celebrated the 25th anniversary of both " Droids " and " Ewoks " by featuring a series of articles about the collectibles available from each series . In 2015 , Gentle Giant re - released several " Droids " figures as 12 " convention exclusives . Home video . The series received its first home video release in England and Germany in 1988 through and featured twelve of the episodes , omitting episode nine , " Coby and the Starhunters " . In 1990 , J2 Communications released " The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection " . The collection consisted of three VHS tapes ; one tape contained one episode , while the other two tapes contained two episodes each — with one of those repeating the episode from the single - episode tape . Each tape began with a " Star Wars Animated Classics " trailer promoting the " Special Double Length Edition " volumes . However , for the single volume tapes , the white box covers were shown , but differing content was advertised . All thirteen episodes including " The Great Heep " were released on Region 1 VHS in Mexico through CBS / FOX . On June 26 , 2002 , prequel trilogy producer Rick McCallum responded to a question about a complete DVD release on StarWars . com ' s now defunct " Ask the Jedi Council " feature , in which he said " I hope so . Definitely . At some point after we ' re finished with Episode III , we ' d really like to make all of that material available to our fans on DVD . Unfortunately , we won ' t be even thinking of making any firm plans until we ' re finished with this trilogy . " He also expressed this privately to Paul Ens . According to Pablo Hidalgo , a full series release was considered as an alternative to the " " DVDs : " I don ' t know what numbers are run in the mysterious background that decides to say ' You know what ? That doesn ' t look like a product that we can move . ' " At 2005 ' s Celebration III , McCallum and Lucasfilm ' s Vice President of marketing Jim Ward dodged questions about a complete DVD release of the series . At the Celebration VI " StarWars . com and Beyond " panel , it was mentioned that both " Droids " and " Ewoks " may be streamed on StarWars . com in the future . Continuity . " Droids " is set in the nineteen - year period between the rise of the Galactic Empire in , and the events of " Star Wars Episode IV : A New Hope " . However , " Revenge of the Sith " introduced a seeming continuity error ; At the end of that film , the droids are entrusted to Raymus Antilles , whom C - 3PO refers to in " A New Hope " as " our last master . " However , in the " Droids " series , the droids have numerous masters before Captain Antilles . " " explains this continuity issue , mentioning that the droids were " accidentally separated " from Antilles " before returning to Captain Antilles ' ship , the " Tantive IV " . " This explanation was further detailed when Corla Metonae ' s backstory was developed by Billy Buehler ( AKA The2ndQuest ) for " What ' s The Story ? " feature , according to which , she was the person responsible for this separation . The circumstances behind the separation were further elaborated on in the StarWars . com blog series " The Droids Re - Animated " , which specifically cited an unexpected raid on the " Tantive IV " by the pirate group Lok Revenants that forced them to abandon the escape pods they had jettisoned during a routine test , which R2 - D2 and C - 3PO had been inside at the time . The " Star Wars " prequel trilogy contains many elements which appear to reference and / or resemble elements from " Droids " . shows a Toong and mentions Tund — the species ' second homeworld , both of which first appeared in the novel series " The Lando Calrissian Adventures " . In " A Race to the Finish , " the droids end up at a race known as the " Boonta Race . " A similar name was used for the podrace in " The Phantom Menace " , known as the " Boonta Eve Classic . " The swamp planet of Bogden is a planet visited by the droids in the series . In , Jango Fett says that he was " recruited by a man called Tyranus on one of the moons of Bogden . " Jann Tosh ' s wheel bike was retcon ned as a predeccesor to General Grievous ' s vehicle in " Revenge of the Sith " . The Expanded Universe also incorporated various elements from the series . The " Shadows of the Empire " soundtrack contains liner notes with the lyrics of " Dha Werda Verda , " written by Ben Burtt . The lyrics contain references to the planet Roon from the series . Admiral Screed appears in " HoloNet News " and " " . In " " , pressing Alt - V and then typing " ovres " will turn on theatre mode , where R2 - D2 , Darth Vader and C - 3PO watch the cutscenes and comment - style . At one point , they imitate Rookie One , saying , " Let ' s see what ' s on the telly . It ' s the Ewoks / Droids cartoon hour ! I loved that show ! Especially that episode where R2 joined that cult . . . and began talking like a hippie . . . "