STAR WARS question!

[iam1bearcat]

For whatever reason, I've been thinking about this question for a few weeks now, and finally decided I would see what my fellow blu-ray.commers think.

what if George Lucas made episodes I, II, & III first in the 1970's / 80's?

- would the series be just as popular as it is today?
- would it be less substantial for how it changed film history?
- would episodes IV, V, & VI have been made later on? or, if the films failed at the box office would he have never made them?
- would they have made as much money?

the reason i ask is because i remember reading (somewhere) a long time ago that Lucas said he made IV, V, & VI first because they were more "action oriented" and he thought that's what people wanted.

now, i know a lot of people hate the first 3 episodes (I, II, & III), but if they were made first, would they have succeeded? would they have been better films than the ones that came out in the early 2000's? of course, different actors, different generation, different special effects, but would the legacy of Star Wars be tarnished / not the same if Lucas made them in "numbered order" instead of what he did?