The Star Wars Holiday Special Appreciation Thread

[JTN 2,312]

Since we’re now appreciating shitty productions, why not. 

[Holko 9,638]

"I actually never thought it was that bad, just turn off your brain and enjoy it, it's quite fun!"

[Naïve Old Fart 9,803]

I'll happily admit that I have never seen it.

I'm not even sure if it was broadcast on British television.

[GerateWohl 4,535]

At least it is better than "The Rise of Skywalker", but worse than "Ahsoka: Sabine's Loth-Cat".

[Jurassic Shark 12,283]

2 hours ago, JTW said:

Since we’re now appreciating shitty productions, why not. 

 

Have you seen it?

[JTN 2,312]

Yes I have. Have you?

[Jurassic Shark 12,283]

No, but I'd like to check it out. Is it one or two films?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,803]

Ok, guys; this is a proper question, asked without a hint of irony:

Is the Holiday Special meant to be - in any way - any kind of a sequel/prequel to STAR WARS or THE SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE?

I understand that the HS introduces Boba Fett. Apart from that, I know nowt about it.

[Sweeping Strings 2,434]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special#Canonicity_of_the_special

I believe it's on YouTube ... maybe I should check it out, out of morbid curiosity. I mean, that's where I also found that 'Operation Kid Brother' Bond cash-in abomination with Neil Connery and I came through that (mostly) unscathed. 

[Schilkeman 1,022]

It’s also on archive.org for anyone who wants it. I have it, but haven’t brought myself to watching it. 

[mstrox 6,690]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Ok, guys; this is a proper question, asked without a hint of irony:

Is the Holiday Special meant to be - in any way - any kind of a sequel/prequel to STAR WARS or THE SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE?

I understand that the HS introduces Boba Fett. Apart from that, I know nowt about it.

No, it’s completely standalone. There are no plot threads followed or hinted at. Han and Chewie are on their way to visit Chewie’s family on kashyyyk for Life Day but the empire shows up to wait for them.  Chewie’s family celebrates the holiday and distracts the stormtroopers with bad variety show acts until Han and Chewie show up to save the day.  Luke and Leia join the celebration and Leia erupts in song to the strains of the Star Wars main title.  The end.. 

 

Even the Boba Fett cartoon doesn’t really introduce the character in any meaningful way - and he’s not much like the character in Empire.  But I bet it helped to sell toys!

 

The McQuarrie artwork is nice

[Holko 9,638]

If anybody's mad enough, this upscaling is incredibly impressive considering the only source anyone has is a VHS copy of a VHS copy of a VHS copy of a recorded broadcast

 

[mstrox 6,690]

I watched it once as a teenager and we watched it once with our kid, and that was more than enough.

[Chen G. 4,061]

2 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Is the Holiday Special meant to be - in any way - any kind of a sequel/prequel to STAR WARS or THE SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE?

I understand that the HS introduces Boba Fett. Apart from that, I know nowt about it.

 

Its a kind of dumping grounds for discarded ideas from the story conferences of The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas thought if the film could be a good place to show the Wookie planet, but decided against it, and so there it is in the Holiday Special. As a backstory for Han, Lucas considered making him a trader on the Wookie planet, and that's exactly the role of Saun Dan in this film. The animated short has the characters fall pray to a sleep virus - like Han in the carbon-freeze - and there's an early appearance by Boba Fett.

 

Having said that, rather than seeing it as some rogue variety show with a Star Wars label stuck on it, it should be seen as what, at the time, was to be a genuine entry into the Star Wars oeuvre: the story for both the special and the animated film were concocted by Lucas; he got all the main cast beside Sir Alec Guinness to extend their contract from three films to four to accomodate this film. Lucas picked a director from his cotoire, commissioned artwork from Ralph McQuarrie, and roped-in Rick Baker and other Star Wars luminaries, as well as using scraps of production design and unused footage from the original (not to mention the Williams tunes).

[Jurassic Shark 12,283]

21 minutes ago, mstrox said:

Chewie’s family celebrates the holiday and distracts the stormtroopers with bad variety show acts

 

Sounds fun!

[Tallguy 3,582]

12 minutes ago, mstrox said:

But I bet it helped to sell toys!

 

Kinda? None of us remembered Fett from the special, even though the cartoon was the only watchable part of the show. But we knew that a) he was in the special (because they told us) but more importantly he was going to be in Star Wars II! Of course you couldn't buy him, you had to buy four other figures (was it four?) and send the proof of purchase in for him as an extra. (And I just didn't have that kind of cash back then.)

 

I don't believe I saw him on the shelves until Empire.

 

There wasn't anybody buying toys that they would not have been buying them anyway. This was back when 4th graders would get excited when a new Kenner CATALOG would come out, never mind toys.

 

And almost all of the HS is irredeemably bad. (The rest of it is just bad.) And this is coming from a part of the audience that watched Donny and Marie or The Captain & Tennille every week.

[Mr. Hooper 2,053]

31 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

Of course you couldn't buy him, you had to buy four other figures (was it four?) and send the proof of purchase in for him as an extra. (And I just didn't have that kind of cash back then.)

Did anybody here send away for and receive the rocket-launching Fett figure before it was deemed unsafe and redesigned? It's worth a fortune.

 

31 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

And almost all of the HS is irredeemably bad. (The rest of it is just bad.) And this is coming from a part of the audience that watched Donny and Marie or The Captain & Tennille every week.

 

Since cringe-inducing variety shows were par for the course back then, I wonder how much of the audience actually realized it was bad.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,803]

2 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

... I also found that 'Operation Kid Brother' Bond cash-in abomination with Neil Connery and I came through that (mostly) unscathed. 

 

Doesn't that one have Fiona Volpe?

Yes, pleeeeease 

 

 

 

56 minutes ago, mstrox said:

No, it’s completely standalone. There are no plot threads followed or hinted at. Han and Chewie are on their way to visit Chewie’s family on kashyyyk for Life Day but the empire shows up to wait for them.  Chewie’s family celebrates the holiday and distracts the stormtroopers with bad variety show acts until Han and Chewie show up to save the day.  Luke and Leia join the celebration and Leia erupts in song to the strains of the Star Wars main title.  The end.. 

 

Even the Boba Fett cartoon doesn’t really introduce the character in any meaningful way - and he’s not much like the character in Empire.  But I bet it helped to sell toys!

 

The McQuarrie artwork is nice

 

Thanks, Mike. You've just saved me two hours 

[Tallguy 3,582]

24 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Did anybody here send away for and receive the rocket-launching Fett figure before it was deemed unsafe and redesigned? It's worth a fortune.

 

Not a thing. The very first action figure card backs that advertised the figure had a black sticker over the part of the copy that advertised the launcher. That's as close to the public as it ever got. There are prototypes (and yes, worth more than gold) but no figures were made or sold.

 

I'm not sure if it has made it's way into the legend, but it was painfully obvious at the time as to why we weren't getting rocket launching Fett: The Christmas before (1978) all of the Battlestar Galactica spaceships had little missile launchers. Supposedly some kid choked on them (I don't know if it was fatal or not) and they were recalled. The new ones had little nubs that would "launch" but wouldn't come out of the launcher. They were terrible.

 

So it wasn't like they play tested the Fett toy and declared it unsafe or they sold some and then something happened. They were kiboshed before they were even sold.

 

24 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Since cringe-inducing variety shows were par for the course back then, I wonder how much of the audience actually realized it was bad.

 

Everybody. Seriously. There are many things back then that were thought to be awesome, or maybe at least good, that in modern light are terrible or maybe just hard to connect to culturally. But we knew while we were watching it: What IS this?!? And THEN you add as an extra layer the things that didn't seem so bad then but still didn't age well? It's a mess.

 

Believe me, on the school playground the next day (or the next Monday, I guess) everyone was talking about how bad it was. (We might have been talking about the episode of Battlestar Galactica that aired that Sunday.)

 

I don't even like the cartoon as much as I used to but at least it's more in the lines of "Some crazy thing George would do."

 

It's nice to see the cast. Kinda.

[Edmilson 7,698]

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

I watched it once as a teenager and we watched it once with our kid

Poor kid! Why would any parent subject an innocent child to such torture? 

[Mr. Hooper 2,053]

Just now, Edmilson said:

Poor kid! Why would any parent subject an innocent child to such torture? 

It's a cruel but necessary rite of passage to toughen up a kid, and make them realize that the world can be a foul place.

[Smeltington 1,466]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

There are prototypes (and yes, worth more than gold)

 

I'm going to save up my entire life and buy one. I'll press the button to fire the little plastic missile, shed a single nostalgic tear, and whisper "it was all worth it." Then I'll finally pass away, at peace with myself and content with my life, knowing I was one of the few to experience the true Boba Fett toy, the one that held the key to all the secrets of the universe.

[IheartMelissaBenoist 46]

I saw the Holiday Special on its original airing in 1978 and survived to tell the tale. 

 

Not meaning to be insulting or provoking or trolling or anything like that, I swear to God, but... I just don't see how anyone could seriously, honestly say that the HS is better than any of the 9 episodes and 2 SW Stories. They all have their flaws, some very, very much so, but to claim that 2 hours of Wookiee shit and awful guest star turns, is better than the movies... More watchable? More enjoyable? Sure, absolutely. But apart from the knee-jerk "Disney sucks" rhetoric and the like, I seriously cannot believe anyone truly believes the HS is better than any of the films. Really? Really? 

 

But if that really is your honest-to-God feeling, I will respect that as you are entitled to have your own opinions. 

 

If nothing else, give me 2 hours of hearing John Williams music, instead of Diahann Carroll, Jefferson Starship, Bea Arthur, and whoever the fuck did that godawful music for the holo-circus or whatever the hell that was. 

 

And the Boba Fett cartoon is utter crap, I'm tired of hearing that called "the only good thing about the Holiday Special". It's not. There are ZERO good things about the Holiday Special. (Apart from the commercials. 😉 ) 

 

You mileage may vary. 🙂

[Tallguy 3,582]

Just now, schultz.kevin1972 said:

I just don't see how anyone could seriously, honestly say that the HS is better than any of the 9 episodes and 2 SW Stories.

 

They can't. They're just being... Difficult is the nice way to put it.

 

I'll watch Crystal Skull first.

[Chen G. 4,061]

1 hour ago, schultz.kevin1972 said:

give me 2 hours of hearing John Williams music, instead of Diahann Carroll, Jefferson Starship, Bea Arthur, and whoever the fuck did that godawful music for the holo-circus or whatever the hell that was. 

 

Well, both Bea Arthur and Carrie Fisher sing tunes from the Williams' score...

[Tallguy 3,582]

4 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Well, both Bea Arthur and Carrie Fisher sing tunes from the Williams' score...

 

Is the Bea Arthur song based on Cantina Band? NO I'm not going to go look. It's bad enough that I remember that she sings it to Harvey Korman!

[Chen G. 4,061]

1 minute ago, Tallguy said:

Is the Bea Arthur song based on Cantina Band?

 

Yes.

 

And Fisher strains on the top notes of what's clearly the Star Wars main title.

[Tallguy 3,582]

7 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Yes.

 

And Fisher strains on the top notes of what's clearly the Star Wars main title.

 

That one I knew. I have even voluntarily listened to it on the Star Wars Vault CD.

[Mr. Hooper 2,053]

2 hours ago, Smeltington said:

 

I'm going to save up my entire life and buy one. I'll press the button to fire the little plastic missile, shed a single nostalgic tear, and whisper "it was all worth it." Then I'll finally pass away, at peace with myself and content with my life, knowing I was one of the few to experience the true Boba Fett toy, the one that held the key to all the secrets of the universe.

 

Is this a direct quote from Steve Sansweet?

 

 

2 hours ago, schultz.kevin1972 said:

I seriously cannot believe anyone truly believes the HS is better than any of the films. Really? Really?

I have to believe they're saying it for dramatic effect...

 

"(movie) is so bad, I'd rather watch the Star Wars Holiday Special!", just like saying "(somebody's) cooking is so bad, I'd rather eat a can of dog food!"

 

But if actually confronted with the choice, they'd probably control their gag reflex and eat the bad cooking.

[Smeltington 1,466]

5 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Is this a direct quote from Steve Sansweet?

 

 

I hope he's achieved Star Wars collector enlightenment by now. At least he's willing to share!

[Marian Schedenig 8,324]

7 hours ago, mstrox said:

Chewie’s family celebrates the holiday and distracts the stormtroopers with bad variety show acts

 

Except for Chewie's dad (or was it his grandfather?) who instead pleasures himself while watching alien porn.

[Mr. Hooper 2,053]

29 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Except for Chewie's dad (or was it his grandfather?) who instead pleasures himself while watching alien porn.

 

[Edmilson 7,698]

Do wookies have penis? Do they have the habit of masturbation while watching something sexually estimulating?

 

These are the kinds of questions that we're left after seeing the Holiday Special.

1 hour ago, Mr. Hooper said:

I have to believe they're saying it for dramatic effect...

 

This is one of the first comments that appear on the video you posted about Chewy's dad:

 

[Mr. Hooper 2,053]

3 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Do wookies have penis? Do they have the habit of masturbation while watching something sexually estimulating?

 

These are the kinds of questions that we're left after seeing the Holiday Special.

This goes back to what I was saying about the Holiday Special being a rite of passage on a child's way to adulthood, sexual awakening and all. lol

 

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

 

What he's saying here is that he really, really hates 'The Last Jedi', and would rather eat dog food.

[Nick1Ø66 4,931]

[mstrox 6,690]

5 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

What he's saying here is that he really, really hates 'The Last Jedi', and would rather eat dog food.

I’d rather he eat dog food as well.