I was nine when this was broadcast. I was a huge Star Wars fan, along with many of my friends, and we were all so excited for the special. Back then video recorders were super expensive and nobody we knew had one - so this was an event for us. After it was over I had no idea what the hell I had just watched. Thankfully Star Wars was still playing at the dollar theater in town so the next day my buddies (who all had a similar reaction) and I watched Star Wars again (for like the 30th time) in attempt to forget this mess.
Oh man, I went to the Boulevard theater in Edina MN and for a 14 mile bicycle ride each way, I must have gone 30 times. It was a great summer. Yup, totally nerded out on the first Star Wars film.
Ah, I was nine too and remember watching this and both being excited, yet perplexed by it. I was able to purchase a bootleg copy some years ago for my DVD collection and rewatched it for nostalgic sake. I'm a huge Star Wars buff, but always wonder about some of the choices that were made after the original (and best) was put out for consuption. As alwys, it's fun to learn new behind the scenes info for my ever growing knowlege of the Star Wars universe.
RIP dearest Carrie. I think every man with red blood in his veins fell madly and hopelessly in love with that gorgeous lady when she first appeared with that 'earphone' hair style, a beautiful white gown and a blaster in her hand in the opening scenes of 'New Hope'. She was 'our princess' and will forever remain in our memories. And when she appeared as the general, considerably aged, in 'Force Awakens', there was still the beauty there. I couldn't help but weep when I heard she had passed. Again, RIP Carrie. We will always love you.
I remember insisting the family watch this. I was horrified and on top of that was for some reason embarrassed, possibly because my parents were howling with laughter. I remember suffering silently, thinking 'Please get better, please get better.' And my dad insisted on taking the piss and calling me Lumpy for a week. Looking back, a solid move on his part 🤣
I saw this when it originally aired. I was four years old at the time. Over the years I started thinking I had just imagined it, though i don’t think I could have been clever enough to come up with the ideas for Chewbacca’s family and all. Then when I was about eight and living outside of Washington DC, we were at the Air & Space Center and in the gift shop they had a book called, “Chewbacca’s Family!” So I KNEW it was real but still had no idea what it was from. It was about twelve years later with the advent of AOL that I finally rediscovered the Holiday Special.
I was 11 years old, when I saw advertising for Star Wars, and rushed out to see it as soon as it came out. I loved Star Wars and went to see it several times. I had a big plush of Chewbacca sitting on my dresser, I had necklaces of Darth Vader, C3PO, & R2D2, and was totally in love with Luke Skywalker/Mark Hamill. So, I was excited to watch the holiday special, when I first heard about it. I remember it being broadcast on my mom's birthday. And, as much as I loved Star Wars, I also remember cringing through the whole thing. Even at that age, I just couldn't believe how bad it was.
Until Disney SW force awakens now holiday special Princes Lia singing and Han solo hoping to arrive in time Awesome 👍. Force awakens kill Han solo crap on the fans and next movies kill of lia and Luke. SW Holiday special looking better now and more entertaining.
I was 12 when Star Wars came out and I saw the movie, never have seen the Holiday Special but after the first 2 sequel movies (I wouldn't go see the third one, walking out of the theater after seeing the second one I said to myself "If this is they way they're going to do things then this is where I get off the Star Wars train) the Holiday Special isn't looking so bad.
I was 10 when Star Wars came out.I collected all the action figures ,bubble gum cards ,toys but the Christmas special I found to be a real piece of shit.
I was a child when this aired and because I loved, “Star Wars”, I also enjoyed watching The Holiday Special. It was really cheesy, but so were all of the holiday special-type programming in that era. For me, it was a welcome change from the usual Charlie Brown Xmas, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc. Watching it as an adult is a different experience, of course. Nice choice of subject matter, Minty! 😊👍🏼
That’s a good point. This should be seen in context of other TV holiday specials of the era rather than comparing it to any Star Wars films. It was silly but fun and remember enjoying it.
I was also a child when this aired, and like you said there are several things that have to be kept in mind: Variety shows were the big thing at the time - Donnie and Marie, the Carol Burnett Show, etc. Speaking of Carol Burnett - Harvey Korman and Bea Arthur were familiar faces to young me because of those variety shows, so it didn't seem odd to someone that was about 7 at the time. Of course, I was mostly watching for the Boba Fett introduction!!
Variety shows were still a thing in the 70s so it makes sense they went down this road. And thank goodness the VCRs were becoming a thing and that some very brave souls captured this for the rest of us to experience.
I was 7 in 77 and saw star wars in theater but I never saw this until about two months ago. I have to say the nostalgia made it well worth watching, quality aside. The added features of corman and arthur didn't bother me cuz they were tv mainstays of the era with the carol burnett show and maude which my mother watched religiously so I'm familiar with them. I had to edit in an honorable mention for mintys rocking recorder part.
I started going to comic conventions in the early 90s. Around that time many of the vendors had bootleg tapes. I bought 3 VHS tapes of Star Wars stuff. A collection of all the Kenner action figure TV commercials, The Star Wars Lost Audition Tapes, and The Holiday Special. My nerd friends and I watched all these religiously. I now have the Holiday Special on DVD and I watch it every year around Thanksgiving.
I bought this tape at a Sci-Fi convention in 1998. Bea Arthur, Jefferson Starship, & the Boba Fett cartoon were my favorite. The whole thing was cheesy fun.
Despite being the perfect age for the Original Trilogy, I never saw the _Star Wars Holiday Special._ Nevertheless, I’ve come to enjoy every review I’ve seen on RU-vid! And thanks to those reviews, I grew to love Bea Arthur’s segment- as I already adored her in Golden Girls- and wholeheartedly agree with those who’ve said she’s literally the best part of this ridiculous fever dream!
@@Lesley_RedRhody Me to, I was 12 when Star Wars came out and I saw it in the theater but I've never seen the holiday special, although after the sequels I'm thinking it might not look so bad now.
Bootleg copies existed LONG before the internet and available from bootleggers at comicbook conventions. One tidbit I thought you'd have mentioned is that most copies contain television commercials from the broadcast and serve as a time capsule of vintage 1978 advertising and progamming.
HA! I basically just posted the same thing about those commercials being a time capsule of 1978 America. Yes, the version with the commercials is DEFINITELY the way to go, if you want to subject yourself to this special... the commercials are worth the watch, alone, if you ask me. :-)
The appearance of Boba Fett hinged on legendary. It was the best part of this crazy, mixed up story. The animation was ground breaking for the time. Like suddenly seeing cgi in a pinball machine. The only reason this one continued to survive 2 minutes. 😝
As a kid who were the primary targets of the film at the time I just though of the show as if it were the land of the lost and such. The smiles of the main characters made you feel warm inside. Stupid scenes were common on all tv shows back then so the show wasnt too out of the ordinary for the period.
I think if Lucas had agreed to subtitles for the Wookie scenes here, people would probably have asked why Chewie isn't subtitled in the following movies too (Empire and Return).
As a kid, seeing Chewbacca's Father Itchy watching an intergalactic snuff film featuring Diahann Carroll is still traumatizing and gives me nightmares to this day.
Those of us who were young back then actually enjoyed it. It was no less entertaining than Saturday morning cartoons and such. And it was Star Wars. Anything and everything Star Wars, you couldn’t get enough.
Good call. I was 5 at the time. I kept on telling people about this but people were denying that it existed. That's a lot for the emotional damage people.....oh wait!
I agree. Every kid at my school absolutely loved it! I think it's just a modern-day thing to falsely say that you hated it as a kid, and I don't believe anyone who says they did. :P
Count me in with the "it's so bad I love it" crowd. It was part of my childhood. I saw the original Star Wars in the theater and read the opening scroll to my brother who couldn't read yet. I used to go to sleep listening to the Star Wars radio edition. I had the original Star Wars poster and collected the cheap Star Wars toys from the kids meals in fast food restaurants. When I heard about the Star Wars Christmas Special I was elated and I watched it. Compared the typical Saturday morning fare of shows like Sigmon and the Sea Monsters, H.R. Puffnstuff, The Bugaloos, and The New Zoo Revue, it wasn't that bad. It certainly wasn't what we saw on the big screen, but we rolled with it. We were little kids and didn't know it could be better. After seeing The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, we looked back and wondered about that weird Christmas Special. Being able to see the bootleg thing is like being a kid again. It's like knowing that your favorite box office hit has a closet full of stupid aliens they don't want you to see only makes it better.
My friend has a VHS copy of this show recorded directly off of local TV. We watch it on New Years. The best part is that it includes all of the commercials from 1978 -- way funnier than the SW Special itself.
The holiday special was broadcasted in Australia. I was really young when I saw it. And by about the mid 80's onwards I remember telling people that I remember a star wars movie about the wookies home planet. As that was all I could remember, no one believed me. When I saw the holiday special mentioned somewhere on the net many years later, I knew it had to be it.
That old gray Grandpa Wookie's head and facial design, had to be the original mold-design they used in Alien Resurrection (1997), for Ripley's baby-alien offspring at the end that got sucked through the bullet-hole.
@@arcturionblade1077 That squeaky-squeeling sound from Ripley's Alien-Baby had a Weirdness-Level: Infinity+1. I'm just glad they evened it out, when it ran over to that scientist with the quickness and bit his head. That scene looked just like 20yrs ago, when my 18month old son spotted my wife's decorative bowl of those grape-sized bath oil capsules and bit one til it busted in his mouth. 🤣 I laughed so hard cause he was screamin' from the bath-oil's lovely flavor and my wife havin' him in a half chicken-wing hold, under the kitchen faucet tryin' to wash his mouth out.🤣
For years I had thought that this was something I had made up in my head as I was 5 years at the time. However once I went back to watch it as an adult it All returned like a feverish recurring nightmare .the main thing I remember is my dad, who I wouldn't describe as prudish, saying " should we be letting him watch this?" In reference to the VR scene with Dihann Carroll.
I was less than 1 year old when this aired. I only found out about it around 1995 in an issue of Sci-Fi Universe magazine, which included a still shot from the scene with Leia & Threepio, along with a still from the animated segment in the article about it. It was finally in 1999 that I managed to get a bootleg VHS copy of it on eBay. And I have watched it EVERY year during the week of Thanksgiving ever since👍😉
@@darrenmarsh8830 Cool, I know they were released in the cinema in some countries :) Honestly I'm not sure about the Netherlands - we may only have had them as VHS rentals at first. Edit: Apparently we had a Dutch dubbed version in the cinema. Very happy to have missed out on that.
In the day of only 3 major broadcast channels on tv, to think a SW special could be on free tv was unbelievable. In spite of the freaky-weird parts, there were some parts with the actual heroes of STAR WARS that made up for it! After watching, all I could remember was Luke, Han & Leia. It was cool. I was 10. *and hoped they would scratch the Wookie family from all future endeavors. Lol
I too watched it in TV and remember the Boba Fett part most clearly among the other parts. Also, those circuit panels Chewie's kid played with, well, those were the training panels I worked on during my Junior High Work Ed classes.
This was burned into my childhood memory as something that I thought I had imagined! That was mostly due to the fact that we had moved outside of city limits at the time and cable television was not available yet. Our antenna only worked well with NBC, ok with ABC but CBS was just snow 🥺 We watched a fuzzy, terrible version of this so missed most of the variety show part. We could barely make out the wookie part. I loved the wookie family story (I was six) what I could make out of it. I guess adults didn’t like it but this seemed to be intended for children. My cousin let me know that I hadn’t imagined it and I really appreciate that you made this! Thank you!
I was 10 when I saw this on TV and yes loved it because it was star wars. I can understand today why people say bad things about it but I still watch it every Xmas eve . It brings a happy smile to me still. Thanks Minty
I was genuinely surprised and happy to see this one come up! As happy as I was when I sat down to watch this when it aired? ehhhh, I can't really say given the amount of time. Thankfully, Minty made a very fun and entertaining video that beat the original experience, heh! I remember liking parts of it. Yes, mostly the bits that are commonly put into that category like the animation, but I actually did like Carrie's singing too.
I was nine, and watched the broadcast. Actually, my older brother helped me to audio-tape the Special. A basic cassette, on a battery-powered recorder, microphone pointed at tv. It had all the commercials, and all the Wookie dialogue. I didn’t listen to it often. I did send away for the Boba Fett figure. I found in a record store a few years later, a 45 single of the Jefferson Starship tune, with notice written on sleeve where it was featured. Still have that; protective 45 sleeve. In 1999, I found in another record store, a vhs bootleg of the Special. I bought, for a few dollars. It’s was like 3rd generation down recorded, jumpy and stretched, then good visual. It had all the commercials. I watched, and it was nostalgic. Yet, I drank whiskey during the view -which made it a lot more fun. I had friends over to view, with encouraged drinking, we had fun. A few youths at my church, fans during the Prequel Films, had not heard or seen of the Special. I loaned the bootleg vhs. I suggested to their parents watching with these teen fans, that they at least enjoy beer or wine with it, to ease their viewing. I told the teens that this is considered “not good” yet if they want to be fans of SW’ it is a right of passage. They asked me to restore 1.5 hours of their sanity, the next week at church. Can’t do that!
This was broadcast TWICE in Australia, if memory serves me correctly it was on channel 10,mid afternoon. I remember turning on the TV and it was already on... I also remember thinking "what the hell is this?" The cartoon was pretty good though. Just a note: The Ewok Adventure and Caravan Of Courage were shown at the cinemas in Australia, then they went to the video stores before being shown on tv.
Boba Fett was actually introduced as the 21st and final figure on the original “Star Wars” Kenner cardback earlier in 1978 than the SW Special. The Boba Fett footage in Docking Bay 94 that showed up in the Special Edition of A New Hope was a late cut from the original release.
I was 5 when the special came out. Always remembered the animated part. This wasn’t a great part of Star Wars history but a lot of us growing at that time still remember bits and pieces of it. I saw it in RU-vid not too long ago and really have no idea how we were able to watch it completely
Born in 1972, and I absolutely enjoy watching this every holiday season. I picked up my first copy of it on VHS at the 1997 San Diego Comic Con. I have since picked up a copy on DVD. Thanks for making a great video about it!
I was little when this came out and I may be alone in this but I loved it! Sure it was weird anything they gave me Han, chewy, Luke, Leia and the droids made me happy.
Minty, you make all this worthwhile. Thank you for the many years and hours upon HOURS of hard work you've put forth into these projects. Your name is synonymous with this brand and you will live on long after you are gone as will so many others involved in these films, and for that I am truly grateful. While the rest of us have only experienced what it was like to have watched these movies and witnessed the many thrilling added accolades behind the scenes, you have been there to help bring it all together for those of us fortunate enough to tune in to your broadcasts to experience what YOU wanted to convey. We, your fans, truly thank you. Your work will NEVER go unnoticed nor will it ever go unrecognized. Thank you for all you've done, from your early work to your latest pieces. You are now and will forever be a true treasure in the course of this saga. Fans of these films owe you a debt of gratitude, which I formally convey here and now. Thank you for all your hard work from the bottom of my heart 😊
There was also a Star Wars holiday music album, which I originally had on cassette until it was played to death, and then eventually managed to get on CD decades later. The songs were so bad they were hilarious, and I still have them all memorized word for word. The songs were mainly performed by Anthony Daniels as C3PO and included such titles as "What Can You Get a Wookie For Christmas?", "Bells, Bells, Bells (The Thing They Do is Ring)", and "The Odds Against Christmas Being Christmas." The main gist of the album was apparently C3PO and R2D2 were working with other droids at a toy factory and C3PO explains what Christmas is to R2D2 and then eventually Santa Claus' son shows up and sings a really drawn-out and boring song about the meaning of Christmas. I still quote from this album every year around the holidays.
I found that record for $1 at goodwill, it's quite a gem, Minty used the artwork from the album which was done by original Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie. It's "Christmas in the Stars" which was produced by Meco Monardo who did all the popular star wars disco albums like "Star Wars & other Galactic Funk". This was the first recording of a young choir member John who was the cousin of co-producer Tony Bongiovi. We all now know him by his stage name: Jon Bon Jovi! :)
@@jenntheiceraptoress2306 I heard it mentioned on a couple of podcasts about rare recordings, Bizzare Records with Tony Thaxton was a good one. I'd link it but links are considered spam these days, pretty easy to search for on google podcasts, etc.
GAAAAAHHH!!! My eyes! My beautiful grey eyes, the colour of the sea after a storm . . . ! Seriously, though, great video, as always. And that picture of the bounty hunters singing -- priceless! Never seen that before. Thank you!
Totally correct 👍 in fact burn her movie's with her along with them. Long live the SW holiday special in fact watched SW holiday special several times over Kathleen 💩 movies once was enough. Didn't even get them on physical digital copies.
Bonus fact: this movie is not copyrighted so if you wanna do a full commentary with your friends making fun of it, you can do that and upload it in its entirety! Except for the Boba cartoon, Disney really loves that and has it on their streaming service so you can't use it even though they don't care about the rest of the film, which is just hilarious.
You're a legend, mate. Keep it up, Minty. You're the man 🤘🏻❤️ OMG! That ending theme redone as a goofy flute version absolutely KILLS me!! 😆🤣🤣❤️ Well done mate! 👍🏻
Yes. This is terrible, but I watched it on TV when I was five years old and loved it! I don't remember and of the variety show acts but I remember Luke and Leia and Han and Darth Vader and Stormtroopers on TV in my living room! And I loved it.
Something else that probably falls under the “What were they thinking?” category was the Star Wars ballet they did in 1987 for the grand opening of Star Tours at Disneyland
I was born in 77 too, I remember finally tracking down a bootleg copy of The Holiday Special in the late 90s and being so excited to watch it. I threw it away afterwards.
Honestly, I can't say I hate this despite the cheese factor, but I watch a lot of 60s and 70s variety shows in general, so this actually looks good compared to some of them (*cough*Donny and Marie*cough*). It's on the same level as Paul Lynde's Halloween Special I think.
You have to remember at this point in the '70s, everybody was really high on cocaine. In the words of somebody I heard say one time, cocaine is a hell of a drug.
As someone who watched the original November 17th, 1978 airing of the show, and, in 2023, still distinctly remembers that Friday night as if it were yesterday, let me compliment you in the highest for this loving tribute to one of the most exciting nights of my childhood.
IMO, The main reason this has become accepted by the fandom, is becuase Lucas tried to banish it to the shadow realm. If he had just let it alone, maybe it would have fallen into complete obscurity, but once its this 'banned media' people have to see it to see why, and it gets passed around and shared with others. Its like Leia said in ANH "The more you try to control them, the more the slip through your fingers"
I was another one of the kids that watched this when it premiered on TV. I don't remember being that enthused about it other than the animated short with Boba Fett, and some of the scenes with the original cast. This is actually the first time I have seen many of these scenes again since then. What a disaster; no wonder George Lucas flipped out and wanted to erase it from history. This is a solid example of why George Lucas wanted to maintain total creative control of his creation...he would just make some of his own mistakes later. I can see why people would want to track this down because you just have to see it to believe it, but watching some of those scenes from an adult perspective - the Holiday Special was plain awful.
Wanting to know about the 'legend' of the Holiday Special is like wanting to know about the legend of The Candyman and successfully conjuring him. You regret it almost instantly.
I read somewhere that the set was built with 4 walls, assuming they'd shoot it with a small, single film camera and so the actors rehearsed on set for a long time before the TV production people came in and told them they'd be using three huge studio video cameras. So they literally had to cut one of the walls and most of the ceiling off in order to accomodate cameras, cable bundles, and sound boom operators. Those shots in the long wookies-at-home 'performance art' piece at the beginning are awkward because they had zoom in from across the room as the cameras too big to get 'inside the structure' any further. Great stuff as always!
I vaguely remember watching this on T.V. and my grandparents being all upset about it. I can understand why now but I wasn't even five yet. The two things I remember about it were the wookies talking back and forth and the Boba Fett animation. On another note, have any of you Star Wars geeks played the board game Outer Rim? If you ever wanted to be a space smuggler, bounty hunter, or some other scoundrel, this is the tabletop game for you!
No Mark Hamill was not in GotG. But I think he would be more willing than Ford. Also Mark Hamill is a great voice actor (the Joker), so maybe the cameo could be vocal?
No Mark Hamill was not in GotG. But I think he would be more willing than Ford. Also Mark Hamill is a great voice actor (the Joker), so maybe the cameo could be vocal?
This was being passed around amongst die-hard star wars fans long before the internet via VHS boot-leg copies of it. I knew a guy who had a copy of it 1993, and thanks to him, I was able to see it for the first time since I first watched it in 1978. It was poor quality as it was a copy of a copy of a copy, etc, so the versions available on the internet are much better looking, however the best part of the VHS copy was it was recorded directly from the television broadcast and included the commercials. Seeing the vintage 1978 tv commercials (and promos for 1978 tv shows and local news bumps) was even better than the goofy Star Wars Holiday special. It sure was fun being transported back to 1978 for a couple of hours.
I've been watching your videos for forever and just wanted you to know how much I love them. The info. you present is interesting, your comments are funny, and I always agree with your opinions of the movies. Keep up the good work!🇺🇲
I'm an enormous Star Wars fan and had never heard of this until my brother brought it up to me a couple years back. I don't know how I missed this as a youth. Probably because my Mom didn't let me watch much TV. Anyway, once I heard of it, I tracked it down. My brother warned me, "once you watch it, you can't un watch it". It's pretty awful and hard to get through at times. That said, I kinda love it. I love how it's referenced in Mando!! And it did introduce us to Boba Fett!!! Thanks for reviewing it, Minty!!
This is Mint! I have a bootleg DVD of The Holiday Special with bonus scenes including - and I think this is the best bit - The Muppet Show appearances!
I was in college at the time of The Holiday Special broadcast, and was a Star Wars fan, but I had never heard of it until 2010 when I heard it discussed on a radio program. I watched it for the first time on RU-vid. I'm glad I did not see it before Empire was released or I may have been so disappointed I may have ignored the sequel.
About the 'Ewoks' movies: Lucas originally wanted the moon of Endor to be a Wookie planet, but it would've cost too much, so smaller furry creatures were created and named Ewoks. Which was probably also part of the reason we got Ewoks movies instead of Wookie movies.
I remember seeing this Star Wars special, and I like the special. I originally saw it in 1978, and I liked it then, and I just watched it just now, and I like it.
