Why haven't you seen the Star Wars Holiday Special?

I'd like to see it too, also out of simple curiosity.

 

Well, it's not really impossible to find. (But don't PM me about it; you know the rules.)

 

Actually, wouldn't PMing you be the only way to ask you within the rules?

 

I have seen it. Once. Way back in 77 or was it 78 when it was broadcast.

You know I sat my little 12 year old self down in front of our big furniture style TV with the big flat top for tchochkes - no remotes back then. I probably had my Emerson tape recorder parked near the little TV speaker to tape the show. That's what you did back in the 70s - you hand AUDIO taped TV specials so you could listen to them later and play all the movies in your head. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was the best to do that to.

There had been commercials for weeks - my brothers and I were dying to see it - everybody from the movie was going to be in it plus this cool looking cartoon guy with a bad-ass helmet riding an alien dinosaur. It looked like something from Bakshi's Wizards.

But most important for the 12 year old in all of us - WOOKIEES WOOKIEES and more WOOKIES. Plus Maude - Blech.

But man did I love Wookiees. Anything big hairy and apelike did it for me in the 70s and Chewbacca was the most realistic looking hairy apebeast I ever saw back then (please compare Chewie to Rick Baker's King Kong, John Landis's Schlock, the Ghostbusters Gorilla, and Bigfoot on the Six Million Dollar Man - Chewie was a revelation!)

So how was the special? Through the eyes of 12 year old (which I am convinced is the maximum age eyes you should view anything Star Wars) it was GREAT!! Anything Star Wars was GREAT back then - even Donny and Marie's Star Wars Tribute with Paul Lynde as Moff Tarkin was GREAT!! We kids didn't know if we'd ever see another Star Wars movie ever - sequels were not de rigeur back then and there was nothing nothing kid oriented like Star Wars that was so popular - so we were excited for anything Star Wars that showed up.

In retrospect was it bad or cheesy - yes probably, but not in its context or for its target audience. It certainly doesn't need to be "suppressed". Would I watch it again? Probably not. But it would be a cool easter egg on the OT DVD next year.

And next time you watch any Star Wars movies, particularly the prequels, watch them with a 7 - 12 year old. You'll be surprised at how great those movies are and how much you end up enjoying Young Ani and Jar Jar.

Even with all the mystic folderol, never forget that old GL is just trying with Star Wars to make movies that will thrill a child. And boy, he succeeds in every one of them.

 

i just wanna see it out of curiosity.

You gotta love the Wookies.

 

Well said, Brando.

Actually, wouldn't PMing you be the only way to ask you within the rules?

I thought even that wasn't allowed. Mods?

 

I don't think its as bad as some people make it out to be. A few of the scenes were painful but it also had some good scenes like the Boba Fett cartoon.

 

It was on a major network in 1978.
I saw it then at the age of 6, and was bored.

I saw it again a couple years ago when a friend bought it at a con.

It was absolutely horrid beyond words. No one can begin to describe it. Any music band that had "space" or "Star" in their name was invited to contribute 5 minutes, which was inexplicablly tied into the "story". The person in charge of makeup made Luke & Han look gay. They exagerated Leia's hair do into something frighteningly like Hardware wars. It was just so very painfully bad... especially when Carrie Fisher started to sing...

As for the cartoon... it was lame. animation was worse than hanna barbara, art sucked, and story was stupid. All it did was show boba fett, and even that was lame as hell.

If someone offers you the chance to watch it, turn and run; this person is not your friend!

 

Sorry, however well meaning, the Holiday Special is still copyrighted and we can't provide links to download locations...

 

Mark Hamill had so much makeup on, because he was recently in a motorcycle accident.

 

I have never seen it and have looked practically all my life. I've never had a computer good enough for downloading so I'll probably just have to find it at a convention or something. I think it'll be nostalgic and indicitive of the times it was made rather than being "crappy". Most 70's television (exspecially in the form of a variety show) was pretty ridiculous... I think it'll be a time capsule program.

 

Sorry, links to bootlegged material aren't allowed here.

 

I downloaded it a year ago and haven't watched it yet.

 

It's not that I don't want to, but why can't it be rereleased on DVD or something? If the same old Charlie Brown Christmas special can be rehashed every year, why not the SW holiday special?

 

Well, BaronFel, you see, it was so bad, that even Lucas hates it. Lucas want's to destroy all copies proving that it ever took place. He wants to purge the show from the collective consciousness.

And a show that bad, who could blame him!

I'd sooner watch the Brady Kids cartoon, the Leave it to Beaver revivals, or have a sexchange operation without annestetic.

 

"I don't think its as bad as some people make it out to be. A few of the scenes were painful but it also had some good scenes like the Boba Fett cartoon. "

I thought that was one of the painful scenes. Nothing against Fett, but that animation *shudder* The Y-wing with it's cockpit becoming a skiff *groan*. I have a copy of the cartoon on CD and man it's bad, from a cartoon point of view.

I do have fond memories of watching the special all those years ago. I'll buy it if it ever comes out on DVD, if only for the perverted Grandpa Wookie scene

 

I will always love the Boba Fett cartoon

The wookie porn!!!! HAHAHAHA
It's wrong on soooooo many levels

 

Somebody fill me in on this Wookiee porn thing lol!

I'd sooner watch the Brady Kids cartoon, the Leave it to Beaver revivals, or have a sexchange operation without annestetic.

Good lord, I'm glad I haven't seen it!

 

Wookie Porn...

It's this sort of 3d helmet that Itchy (Chewie's dad) puts on, and watches this rather sensual dancing while squealing like a little girl

 

Wookie Porn...

In one word: DISTURBING

EDIT: The HS... look: I think is horrible, but worthy. After all, my friends... It's SW.

(Love the Stormtrooper action in Kashyyyk, the deleted Vader scene from ANH, the original cast [yes.. even Luke] and the Fett cartoon)

 

For all those of you who say that you wish to see it out of curiosity, please believe me, there are some things that are better left unseen by humankind. A friend lent me a VHS copy he picked up at a convention a few years back, and sitting through it was without a doubt one of the most painful experiences of my life. I mean, it wasn't "so bad it's good", it was just "bad". Horribly bad. It was the forgotten 11th plague of Egypt. JUST SAY NO!

 

^^ I agree. ^^ I spent a long time wanting to see it out of morbid curiosity, and also because it is Star Wars. Eventually I 'found' a copy, and watched it.

Now I wish I hadn't.

 

For all those of you who say that you wish to see it out of curiosity, please believe me, there are some things that are better left unseen by humankind. A friend lent me a VHS copy he picked up at a convention a few years back, and sitting through it was without a doubt one of the most painful experiences of my life. I mean, it wasn't "so bad it's good", it was just "bad". Horribly bad. It was the forgotten 11th plague of Egypt. JUST SAY NO!

LOL!!!

 

There's just nothing worse than getting the "Set the Sky on Fire" song stuck in your head.



"Stirr, whip, stirr, whip. Whip, whip, stirr."

 

I watched the extremley bad quality version available at blueharvest.net. I must admit, the Boba Fett cartoon is pretty intriguing.