The Star Wars Holiday Special

[indycar]

Who here has seen the entire special (especially if you saw it when it originally aired)? What do you have to say about it?

I've never actually seen it, just clips in the Nostalgia Critic and Red Letter Media reviews.

 

[Mytran]

A few months back it was on YouTube. Might be worth a check!

 

[Ithekro]

Have a tape of it. Only watched once. It was rather painful. Some of the concepts fit alright, but its a 1970s holiday special...which means musical numbers. The comedy I didn't hurt so much. And of course we get a short animation bit that features Boba Fett, his first appearance.

 

[Mr Light]

I just watched it for the very first time this year. It was even more horrible than I thought it would be. It's so truly bizarre. I thought it would be laughably bad, but it's sadly, oddly, disconcertingly bad. Like watching a family of deformed looking Wookies have a five minute argument in grunts and growls. Or a horny old Wookie watching soft core pornography. Dear lord.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Here ya go...

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The animated sequence with Boba Fett starts at about the 52 minute mark.

 

[Sybok Was Wrong]

I was there when it aired in 1978.

As a kid, ,you took away all the scenes with Han as cool. And the tree topped houses of the Wookies. I think we all mentally blocked out the rest.

I had an orange storybook that features Chewies family. Probably the only merchandise to come out of the Special.

Look it up- Kenner was going to do figures. I believe there were prototypes. I would have enjoyed the Itchy figure with Diahann Carroll. Reenacting that would have been good fun for the kids.

 

[Set Harth]

I had an orange storybook that features Chewies family. Probably the only merchandise to come out of the Special.

I think I still have that somewhere!

The animated sequence with Boba Fett starts at about the 52 minute mark.

That sequence is also on the saga Blu-ray set as a feature.

 

[mos6507]

This was the era where everything on TV seemed like it was some sort of variety show, including an ill-fated revival of the Brady Bunch. So it almost made sense back in the day. Sort of like the Muppet Show episode with Mark Hamill.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I was there when it aired in 1978.

As a kid, ,you took away all the scenes with Han as cool. And the tree topped houses of the Wookies. I think we all mentally blocked out the rest.

Sounds about right. I remember liking the cartoon a lot and being thrilled to see the space stuff at home on TV.

The copies available now are so nice looking compared to the blurry nth-Generation VHS copies that used to get sold at conventions and the like.

 

[RandyS]

I saw it when it aired back in 1978 and own a DVD-R of it.
It's the definitive Star Wars film. Outclasses The Force Awakens in every way.

 

[Galileo7]

I was there when it aired in 1978.

As a kid, ,you took away all the scenes with Han as cool. And the tree topped houses of the Wookies. I think we all mentally blocked out the rest.

....

Exactly, I watched it in '78 too as a boy, blocked out the rest.

 

[Silvercrest]

^Same here. Well, I also remember that there was an animated sequence, though I don't remember how it went. Plus a cantina scene with a guy pouring a beer into a mouth on top of his head. (Turns out it was Harvey Korman.)

But if pressed, I'll deny it all. Don't push me.

 

[JD]

I just watched it for the first time a couple months ago. It was just as bad as I was expecting. I can't even begin imagine who thought it was a good idea to have whole scenes of nothing but Wookies making noises at each other with no translation. Most of the "comedy" stuff was pretty lame. I still don't understand what was going on at the end where the Wookies were all wearing robes and walking through space.
The animated sequence was probably the best part, but even with that I couldn't stand the art style.

 

[arch101]

I was 10 when it was on and remember the cartoon being the coolest part. A warning to all who haven't seen it and want to: it can't be unseen! Just a friendly PSA for all my pals here on the board.

 

[Set Harth]

The funny thing about the cartoon is that Han Solo kind of looks like Adam Driver.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I got a bootleg tape of it back when I was in middle school. It's fascinating on every level, but slowly drives you insane. It's the closest we'll ever get to a cursed object that causes madness like something Lovecraft would write about.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I had an orange storybook that features Chewies family. Probably the only merchandise to come out of the Special.

Yeah, I had that too!

Funny thing is, at the time I hadn't heard of the Holiday Special. I don't think I really knew about it until the mid 2000's, when copies leaked onto YouTube.

 

[publiusr]

Now there was another made for TV movie--that showed a family that had crashed their star cruiser near some Ewoks. I only remember it because it showed a rather generic rifle that fired a constand--phaser like stream instead of the usual blaster bolts.

I only ever saw that again with these: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Self-Propelled_Heavy_Artillery/Legends

http://www.popsci.com/american-laser-weapons-play-star-wars-sound-effects
http://www.cnet.com/news/this-is-what-a-star-wars-blaster-bolt-would-look-like-in-real-life/

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Now there was another made for TV movie--that showed a family that had crashed their star cruiser near some Ewoks. /

That was The Ewok Adventure.

I don't remember much about that one either.

 

[HIjol]

I am with The Possum. It was indescribably horrifying and I wanted to tear my eyes from its Shameless Hucksterism...but I kept watching and went mad for a while. I started to hear C3PO's voice in all the commercials here!!!

And they are mostly in Arabic, but for familiar things!
Them, I started to hear Chewwie's moan/bleat...all the time...

Oh, man