The Star Wars Holiday Special
Way back in 1978, riding off the success of the original film (then simply called “Star Wars” with no extra episode titling at all), two things collided to cause a televisual spectacle of extremely ill-advised proportions. The first thing was that CBS wanted to make a Star Wars themed TV special to captialise on the success of the film. The second was that george Lucas had been mulling the idea of making a Star Wars film that was just about Wookiees. That these two elements should collide would ultimately spell doom for a Star Wars hungry TV watching public.
I’ll say now that I am sure that no set out to make something that was anything less than purely entertaining. On paper, it’s entirely possible that these elements could have succeeded. It’s pretty sad therefore that they don;t and they don’t really push it into “so bad, it’s good” territory. They do land it in “so bad, you almost have to watch at least some of it to believe that it’s actually true” but that’s a very different type of TV. In fact, this may be one of the only examples of that kind of television. George Lucas himself has completely washed his hands and says that he wishes that he could wash his hands of it but, thanks to the wonders of VHS recording technology which has now been combined with the splendour of the internet, a quick Google search will reveal it in all its…. let’s say “glory”.
Here are some of the elements which are genuinely contained within its 90 minute running time (two hours if you watch the versions which haven’t had the adverts edited out and feature a repeated tease from a newscaster promising an item on “fighting the frizzies at 11”):-
- After the opening scene, ten minutes where the only dialogue is Wookiees grunting
- Chewbacca’s family who are called Malla (his wife), Itchy (his father) and Lumpy (his son)
- A musical item from Jefferson Starship
- Harvey Korman playing a deeply unfunny aline chef in a comedy sketch
- Bea Arthur singing a song to the Mos Eisley Cantina Band music
- The first appearance of Boba Fett in a cartoon that Chewbacca’s son watches
- Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia singing a Life Day song to the tune of the main Star Wars theme tune
It’s a frankly bizarre piece of television and is, with maybe the exception of the Boba Fett cartoon, rather more of a chore than a pleasure to watch. It’s something of an endurance test rather than a viewing experience. I mean, it spends ten minutes on Wookiees talking to each other with no subtitles. It’s very weird.
Look, you could watch it if you want - I’ll link to it down there - but don’t say I haven’t sufficiently warned you. It’s not even one particularly for die-hard fans. Anyway, this concludes our little look at the lees well-regarded corners of the Star Wars universe. What other way could you end than with Bea Arthur singing a song to the Cantina Band music? Exactly.
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