By whatever gods you worship, if there was ever a blot on the Star Wars Universe it was the Star Wars Holiday Special. This wonderful masterpeice of farted out garbage makes JarJar look like Brad Pitt. But for many fans it is the obscurity of this one time released Holiday Special something to acquire. I own a copy.
So here is the deal. There is no Christmas in Star Wars so they join Chewbacca’s family in celebrating “Life day” and the show reunites all the cast of the super successful Star Wars Universe for a made for TV movie. This was SO DAMNED BAD that if you ask George Lucas in an interview about it he dodges the question and all but denies its existence. It was aired once – Friday, November 17, 1978 on CBS-TV. ONCE! Not to add to its collector’s value, but beacuse it was so so bad that Lucas never wanted to inflict that on the fanbase ever again. The original director David Acomba left mid project and Lucas, who didn’t have much to do with this project applauded him for it.
Lucky for most, you have never seen it. Its worth a watch just to recognize that I am not making this up. Its bad.
But the official website decided to celebrate this forgotten (aka buried) TV Special on this, its 30th Anniversary week. StarWars.com will be offering these features all week long. I have retained the hyperlinks for the features already live on their site.
* Extended interviews with many of the cast and crew of “The Star Wars Holiday Special”, reprinted and updated by “Holiday Special” aficionado Ross Plesset (Part 1, Part 2)!
* Collecting the “Holiday Special”
* “Holiday Special” animation animatics video
* The props of “The Star Wars Holiday Special”: What has survived?
* Interview with “Holiday Special” fansite administrator SKot Kirkwood
And lo, you are not yet forewarned. So I found this clip outlining the Holiday Special hitting its “plot” in about 5 minutes. They didn’t show the animated segment which features Boba Fett’s first appearance, but it does show you a very girly looking Mark Hamill and Diahann Carroll’s video that looks awfully suggestive in this clip. (she just sings a bad song. Honest)
