What was the deal with "holiday special"?

I never have seen the notorious SW Holiday Special. From what I hear, it has been a disgrace to the SW Universe and a huge mistake from Uncle Lucas. I'd like someone to explain to me what this is all about rather than someone just posting "It sucked, thats what was wrong with it!"

Carl

 

I have a copy on video. Its basically a variety show (a very cheesy one!) featuring characters from Star Wars. The main story is about Chewbacca trying to get home to his family - most of the show shows his family waiting for him to arrive.
Also it was Boba Fetts first appearance. There is a ten minute Droids style cartoon, which features him.
EDIT - Just remembered - There are also some deleted scenes from ANH in there, nothing special but worth a viewing.

 

It never happened.

Move along.



M. Scott

 

I vaguely remember when that was actually on TV lol.

I had thought about it once later in life and came to the conclusion it was a figment of my warped imagination.

Then in the last few years i read about others talking about it and eventually saw it again.



It was awful though.
Listening to the Wookie family talking was like finger nails on a chalk board.

And poor Mark Hamill had the makeup caked on to cover his fresh wounds from rolling his bmw.

It ALL sucked except the cartoon

 

The cartoon is actually quite enjoyable.

 

If you must know more about it you can download it from here. Now, let us never speak of this again!

At that site you can also get the SW appearances on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, a lot easier to watch than the Holiday Special!

I say banana, and you say 'beep-doop-boop'!

 

the download on't work at that site!

 

I don't have Realplayer...

 

There has to be somewhere else to download it.... (hopefully on quicktime)

 

heres a description by lucasfan.com:

The Star Wars Holiday Special is a 2-hour long television special that aired on CBS on November 17, 1978. It starred all of the original cast of Star Wars except for Alec Guinness. Excluding commercials, the program ran about 90 minutes.
The entire show is live-action, but there is an 11 minute animated segment, that is most popular as Boba Fett's first appearance in the Star Wars universe.
George Lucas wrote the story for the program, but because of preparations for Empire Strikes Back he had hardly any further involvement.
The program is about Chewbacca trying to fly home to his family on Kashyyyk. His family consists of his father, wife, and son. The show also has several special guest and musical appearances including the Jefferson Starship, Diahann Carroll, Bea Arthur, Art Carney, and Harvey Korman.
The show did well ratings-wise but it was very boring, corny, and altogether awful. By no means is it a worthy chapter in the Star Wars universe. George Lucas hated it so much, that he made sure that it never aired again and was never released on home video. When I asked author Kevin J. Anderson about his opinion about this program, he told me that he asked George Lucas about it once. Lucas told him that he would like to see every single surviving copy of that program destroyed. However, The Star Wars Holiday Special is still considered canon in the official Star Wars timeline.
Over twenty years after its initial airdate, the Holiday Special has become a much-treasured bootleg video that most die-hard fans have in their collection. Most fans find it to be a hard two hours to sit through. I believe the contrary: Where else are you going to see the real Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker together outside of the Star Wars trilogy? In fact, I enjoy going back to The Star Wars Holiday Special whenever I am tired of watching the original Star Wars movies and I am in the mood for seeing Han, Luke and Leia together in something else.

 

If you can't see it, there is a tiny, tiny clip of the Fett cartoon during the EpII Making Of 9: Bucket Head on the OS, here.

 

I would have thought it'd be available for download somewhere. And a download that actually works too.

 

Mmmmmmm

I have found this Holiday Special file I had downloaded two years ago, but I never watched it really. Only the first five minutes.
It's a .rm format -RealPlayer-, and it says it's 4.12 Mb big for 1h30 of video ! The quality is horrible, but I still can't believe it. Anyway, the beginnnig works. Tell me if it goes beyond that.
That'll give you an idea of what it is like anyway.

Just be nice with my server.

Star Wars : The Holiday Special

 

I had the displeasure of seeing it myself a while back, and I wish I hadn't. The cartoon is great, it's the only part worth saving, but mostly it's Chewie's family roaring back in forth for two hours, some Imperials inspecting their home for "Rebel secrets" (their inspections consists of two stormtroopers pacing back and forth across a book case, watching a holographic jefferson starship video, and breaking one of Lumpy's toys at the end.), and some hokey scenes with Bea Arthur, which includes her dancing with Ponda Baba (the acqualish who didn't like Luke in the Cantina and ended up losing an arm to Obi-Wan) and a congo line featuring the aliens from the cantina.

It occasiionally cuts back to Han and Chewie (played by Harrisonn Ford and Peter Mayhew) battling re-used FX footage of TIE Fighters and moving around in a pretty lame-looking Falcon cockpit.

It ends with Han and Chewie arriving on Kashyyyk and taking out the Imperials (featuring a Wilhelm "OOOOUUUUAAAAAAHH!!" scream) and having a whole bunch of Wookie's in red robes at the end celebrating "Life Day."

It's really pretty bad. IMHO the only redeeming qualities are the 11-minute cartoon (which spawned the infamous and incredibly rare missile-firing Boba Fett action figure project, see below for more info), the appearance of the Wilhelm scream (Ben Burtt's sound signature), a chance to see what Kashyyyk looks like and some other Wookie characters (I wonder what they did with those costumes) and it's a great source for ripping Wookie sounds outside of the OT.

The missile-firing Boba Fett:
Kenner, who made the original SW toys, anticipated the popularity of Boba Fett by offering a special missile-firing version of the action figure after the SW Holiday special permiered. You had to send in a couple of proofs of purchase and something else I believe, and you would get a rocket-firing Fett figure. Sadly, it was not to be.
Mattell was getting the crap sued out of them after a kid choked on a missile from a Battlestar Galactica toy, so Kenner got scared and ended the project. Every one who had qualified for the figure got an ordinary Boba Fett action figure in the mail. At the time Kenner ended the project, all they had were a few dozen "first shots," basically blue-green action figures with no paint or copy right info. It had an l-shaped socket and a red switch a missile. Most of the first shots were destroyed and the figure has since become a legend among SW collectors. There are known to be 25 of these figures still in existence and less than 5 original rockets exist. Their value is said to be between $1500 and $2500 U.S. One of them was on display at SWC2.
Despite what the kid down the street insists he remembers getting, no rocket-firing Fetts were ever shipped to anyone, and a finished version never existed.

 

[image=http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/images/111778ag.jpg] [image=http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/images/111778q.jpg] [image=http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/images/111778b.jpg]
[image=http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/images/toon17.jpg] [image=http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/images/toon12.jpg] [image=http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/images/111778k.jpg]

 

LOL! I'm watching it now, the wookies are unbearable!

Carl

 

I saw it twice when I was a kid. I would have only been 6 or 7. But from what I remember, they only showed the part with Chewie's family with Han and Chewie arriving at the end to save the day. They never showed any cartoon or singing parts here in Australia that I remember.

 

*shudder*

But the Star Wars Holiday Album WAS released.

The holiday special lives on in such hits as "what do you get a wookiee when he already has a comb?"

Ugh, it's really bad.

 

I didn't think that the Holiday special was broadcast in any other country but the USA?

 

"However, The Star Wars Holiday Special is still considered canon in the official Star Wars timeline"

If you told that to George Lucas, he would rip your lungs out.

 

He would more likely do a Mola Ram and tear your heart out.

 

I can't get the banana song out of my head so I thought I might force it upon all of you guys who reminded me of it! Mwahahahaha!

"I say banana, and you say..." "Beep-doop-boop!"
Real format - 33MB

And while we're at it ya may as well bear witness to Chewbacca and C-3PO dancing and Mark Hamill meeting up with Luke Skywalker on The Muppet Show!

"PIGS IN SPAAAAAACE!"
Real format - 5MB

 

I remember the Wookiee comb song!
That was dismal.

Anyway, thanks to all who have posted links, because this is our only hope of seeing this relic (of course it's not entirely worth seeing, is it).

 

The Holiday Special was broadcast in Australia, that much I know. I'm old enough to remember it.
And yes, there definitely was singing AND dancing, not to mention the cartoon. I remember thinking that cartoon was the coolest thing I'd seen in my (then) young life.

 

I'm one of the ancients who remembers seeing this when it was on TV. I was so exited because Star Wars was probably the biggest, coolest thing in my life at the time. It's strange to me how I don't remember the cartoon though, but I do remember the singing. On a side note, I was also one of those fortunate kids that sent away his hard-earned proof of purchase seals and recieved the Boba Fett action figure. It came in a little white non-discript box with my dads name on it. It also (and you can choose to believe me or not) came with a little disclaimer note on how the rocket was originally supposed to fire, but the idea was scrapped because of saftey concerns. Here's another one for the other Old People. When the Boba Fett figure was finally sold in stores (I already had mine worn out by that time) there was a discription on the back of the cardboard thingy that gave directions on how to fire the missle. Almost the entire back was then covered with a sticker so you couldn't read it. As an experiment, I took pliars and pulled my rocket out. Of course, there was no spring or button to fire it, so I ended up gluing it back in. Just a little useless trivia for everyone.

How many of you also sent in the PoPs and got the weapons pack with all the little guns and carrying pouch and stuff? I still have the notice telling me that the demand was so high that there would be a delay in shipping it to me. I also still have some un-sent PoP symbols somewhere. Maybe I'll scan them and post them somewhere or something. Ahhh memories.



SK