I’m writing this in the off chance that you haven’t seen THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL. Everyone has by now, right?
THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL aired on CBS at 8 PM, Friday November 17, 1978. It would air only once.
The premise had Han Solo bringing Chewbacca home to see his family for “Life Day”. Yes, we meet an entire family of Wookies, including his son “Lumpy”.
All of the STAR WARS cast returned, along with guest stars such as Harvey Korman, Art Carney, Bea Arthur, Diahann Carroll, and Jefferson Starship.
The highlight of the special, that even those who dislike the show admire, was an animated cartoon featuring Boba Fett, his first appearance in the STAR WARS universe.
George Lucas, who had little to do with the making of it, hates it. He doesn’t want it shown. Yet, it is more fun than the prequels, in a “I can’t believe I am watching this” sort of way.
Like this clip, Princess Leia sings.
Not available on DVD, never released on VHS, it is one of the most popular bootlegs out there. You can probably find it at any record convention. I see it is even on Ebay.
And, there are plenty of clips on Youtube. In fact, all 12 parts are available.
I honestly believe that if George Lucas were to release this on DVD that, not only would it sell quite well, but those who disowned him after his tampering with the originals might cut him some slack. They might say “Hey, this guy has a sense of humor. Maybe he isn’t so bad after all”.
Happy Life Day everyone.
NOTE: This post contains YouTube clips. If reading from an outside site, click through to view.
EDIT (12-22-08): VANITY FAIR has an excellent story about THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL here.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
FORGOTTEN TV: THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL (1978)
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6 comments:
I vaguely remember watching this. It just shows that, right from the beginning, Lucas was already misguidedly trying to milk the huge success of STAR WARS. He did manage one other terrifc movie thanks to the efforts of Kirshner, Kasdan and Brackett, but Lucas' grasp on the material obviously faded from the very beginning.
I am fascinated with this.
And as embarrassing as it might be, it's not any worse than the Clone Wars movie that came out recently which Lucas had something to do with.
And that cartoon is great. The animation is very Heavy Metal.
This is far from forgotten for me... I remember the anticipation my brother, sister, and I had for this after the first movie, only to be left with dropped jaws. What the hell were we watching? Why is this entirely in Wookiee? How come Han and Luke were barely in it, and why was Princess Leia singing?
You can actually purchase bootlegs at most comic book conventions, and they tend to be in horrible quality.
This is one memory I'm looking forward to old age stealing from me. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the God-awful live-action Challenge of the Superheroes specials, which I did actually purchase.
How can anything involving Wookies be all that bad? The Star Wars Holiday Special answers this question.
I find it hilarious how pained George Lucas appears to be that this tape exists. Jar Jar Binks is okay, but a singing Princess Leia has to be stopped. The rule must be if anyone is allowed to fuck up Star Wars, it can only be Lucas.
Happy Life Day, Moviezzz!
Thank you thank you thank you!!!
This aired when I was 6 years old and no one remembers it but me. My family thinks I imagined it. Well HA! to them
i hate to admit this but my cousin has it. I hated it back then and guess what i hate it even more today. i do not care what the wookie's lives were like. Did we really need almost forty minutes of them arguing over a cookie! My god lucas is right to keep it locked away, it should be locked in a vault and buried in the Laurentian Abyss.
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