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Star Wars: Ewoks (September 7, 1985 - January 10, 1987) is an American/Canadian animated television series featuring the Ewok characters introduced in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
The series was produced by Nelvana on behalf of Lucasfilm and broadcast on ABC, both by itself and later, as part of The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. The first season was advertised as simply Ewoks, but the second season was advertised as The All New Ewoks. The series lasted 26 episodes, divided into two seasons of 13 episodes.
The series focuses on the adventures of Wicket W. Warrick and his friends on the forest moon of Endor during the years before the events in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The primary recurring villains are Morag the Tulgah Witch, who had a personal grudge against the tribe's shaman, Master Logray, and the Duloks, a rival species that is related to the Ewoks.
For viewer ease, the dialogue is in Basic (English), rather than Ewokese, which was the native language of the Ewoks.
The first season of the show aimed for a more sophisticated style, but in the second, the writing style was geared toward a much younger audience, with less sophisticated characters.
The title of the series' twelfth episode (Blue Harvest) is a reference to the famous ruse used by Lucasfilm to maintain secrecy when shooting location scenes for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
In the series' final episode, the Galactic Empire had discovered Endor, and several of the Ewoks stowed away on a Star Destroyer, but were returned to Endor safely after an evil Imperial named Dr. Raegar attempted to steal the magical Ewok Sunstar stone, and even dared to attack the Emperor with it. This event suggests that this led to the Empire choosing Endor to build the second Death Star around.
The series is a follow up to the two Ewok films: Caravan of Courage (1984) and The Battle for Endor (1985), which were themselves spin-offs of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
Unlike the rest of the series, the last two episodes were originally aired out of story order. The correct order was Party Ewok/Malani the Warrior and Battle for the Sunstar, respectively. However, the episodes were originally aired in the order of Battle for the Sunstar and Party Ewok/Malani the Warrior. Storywise, the series ends with Battle for the Sunstar, which depicts the Empire discovering the Endor moon, where it would later construct the second Death Star.
The episode Battle for the Sunstar re-aired separately on January 10, 1987, and that marked the official end of the series.
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