I am 51- I eagerly watched this on television back then. I still recall vividly the horror of it all and the conversation at school the next day with my equally perplexed and disgusted friends.
Please tell us more! What did people think about this, were they wondering why it was a thing, did they have any rampant theories about the franchise? Did the more informed people think it was an attempt at sabotaging the franchise from shady people in Hollywood? Or some sort of an "artistic" experiment gone wrong? Or the doing of drug-crazed individuals?
@@H3x4r35 We were 10-12 year old kids who had seen Star Wars multiple times. We played Star Wars on the playground. We had the toys. We thought the Holiday Special would be an action packed story with our heroes. Instead, it was this horrible, weird variety show.
She can't her story ends to sadly, a deserter husband, a psycho father killing son, and apparently, she just gives up living in the end and fades away as Luke did.
@Charlie Vetsworth There are literally tons of people like this on the internet. And it isn't exclusive to Star Wars, it's a gatekeeping problem in every fandom. Also, your anecdotal experience does not mean that nobody exists who is like this or that there are not many of these people. Dumbass.
@Charlie Vetsworth imagine taking a post about fandom gatekeeping, literally a universal phenomenon across the Internet, and making it about your hate boner for a country.
Whenever Carrie Fisher wanted her guests to leave her home after hosting a party, she would show the Star Wars Holiday Special. It worked every time. RIP Carrie Fisher.
Is there a source for that? The only thing I could find was that Carrie Fisher _claimed_ she'd use it for that, and that might just as well have been a joking comment on it's quality.
In Weird Al Yankovic's song 'White and Nerdy' The bootleg video he buys in the alley and gets super excited about is a VHS copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special.
I was fairly young in the 70s but it's my favorite era. Weird and cool stuff and sci fi was fun and clunky before Star Wars. Though SW is technically Sci Fi Fantasy I guess.
"People are finally gonna get their answers." "What, what do you mean?" "Well Star Wars was great, but the whole time I was asking, 'What are Chewbacca's Father's Fantasies?'" Oh I died🤣
I actually remember watching the SWHS on Tv as a kid. Years later I convinced myself that I must have imagined it since I never heard about it again. And then came the Interwebs. 👍😊
re - 1:33 "How come you didn't repeat the word _entertaining?"_ It's amazing how the smallest things can be so bloody funny!!! I really love these pitch meeting, though I'm worried that I may have watched them all. If screenwriter guy and producer guy don't mind violating social-distancing policies to film more episodes, the whole community would really appreciate it.
@@jediknightjairinaiki560 of course not, or I'd be very disappointed that the guy who can get into any house to deliver presents and knows if you've been bad or good didn't use that power proactively and save the world a lot of trouble.
Even down to the VR semi-porn but totally safe for work music video, which is half of what you'll get if you start randomly clicking RU-vid's VR suggestions without knowing how to read Japanese. But they didn't predict all the terrible horror shorts trying to jump scare you without telling you where the jump scare is. Or how people with VR cameras generally don't understand advanced concepts like "personal space" and "motion sickness".
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I was having similar thoughts about what the resident Dirty Old Men might be watching on his smartphone these days ... also, now I'm a bit tempted to do the "search YT for Japanese VR" experiment.
I was in fourth grade when the original Star Wars came out. Like every kid at the time, I HAD to be home to see The Star Wars Holiday Special. (No VCRs back then.) This pitch meeting just triggered a PTSD episode that I'm still recovering from. Thanks a lot, Ryan....
@@Julia-lk8jn The version that's out on the internet has commercials included and it's 2 hours. (And yes, watching commercials from the 1970s is more entertaining than the actual special.)
I can't help but notice that character seems to have black face? Which right at present moment is a huge controversy and people are losing their jobs over it. Or maybe it's grey face? I suppose no one would be offended if it was grey face.
The man behind this holiday special is Steve Binder. He is also the man who produced Elvis Presley's 1968 NBC Special, better known as "The Comeback Special," which is widely acclaimed, and credited with helping to revive Elvis's music career. Crazy how he can fall so hard.
I have this dim memory that it was George Lucas who insisted on the Chewbacca clan speaking entirely in growls, no sub-titles - and that's just the meddling that we know about. I guess getting ham-strung like that doesn't really bring out a director's motivation to go above and beyond.
"They're also going to watch a livestream of a man at a trading post." "A livestream? What's that?" "Oh, it's a thing that doesn't exist yet cuz it's the 1970s." "Are you a time traveler?" "I don't know." "Fair enough."
"So why did you assume it would be invented some time in the future?" "Because." "That works." Alternatively: "If you're not a time traveller then how do you know what exists in the future?" "Look, I'm going to need you to get aaaaalll the way off my back about this time travel thing." "Sure, let me just get right off that thing ."
This was less than 5 years after the Rumble In The Jungle which was seen by about 50 million people live on pay-per-view, so CCTV technology was pretty advanced by this point, it's not that much of a logical leap.
@@pentelegomenon1175 And even before that Elvis Aloha from Hawaii. Don't think the term "livestream" was used then, so this Producer would still be confused.
Yeah, I mean most of it could be justified as "shitty attempt at a variety show" but wtf is up with the going into space and the light portal and whatnot
The first 15 min or so is nothing but wookiees with no subtitles. I can distinctly remember being so happy to see Luke because I could understand him. 😄
Looks like someone has seen the Tommy W. Star Wars fan film, it's the truly best envisioning of the SW Universe yet conceived....'tis a shame that Tommy wasn't acting back in '77!
I watch this review every few months, and always laugh my ass off at it. Just the best review of that total LSD-trip of a show. It took me years to convince my brothers that it actually existed and that it wasn't just something I imagined. Thank god for whoever videotaped it back in the day and circulated those tapes. A legit hero.
Executive: so how high were you when you wrote this script? Script Writer: Well I saw my dog become a Wookie and dance all over the house while Star Wars was playing in the background Executive: Good enough for me
Imagine being a young kid, excited to go the drive-in with his parents for some kind of Star Wars thing. And this is shown. And then The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film) was shown. I couldn't have been more than 7. It was a weird evening.
Oddly enough, Life Day is considered canon, and it shows up as background lore in a few places. It even shows up in SWTOR as the name of the holiday event.
Unlike some of you all, I remember watching this when it premiered as a 6 year old and walking away from it. My mother asked me why I was not watching it and I told her "because, there are no space fights." 😆😆
I watched this "holiday special" on it's Australian TV premier when I was 9 back in '77...I LOVED it...BACK THEN ofcourse, not now...no, I still love it nostalgically...PRAY FOR ME!!!
"And he's only got 22 hours to save the president!" "Oh why is that?" "The summit meeting will be over." "But can't they just delay the meeting until he's saved? I feel like they'd completely understand news like this." "No." "Why not?" "Because!" "Fair enough."
Guy 1: "So I've got an idea for this streaming service where loads of cool Disney content will be." Guy 2: "Cool, cool, cool" Guy 1: "But we won't launch it in the UK for like 5 months' so everyone will have illegally streamed everything already."
@@semanticsamuel936 They do it because the UK has special rules for showing certain shows and movies, they have to agree to it. Normally, they allow it, just has to be official. BBFC is the one to blame for this. Their slogan is: "View what is right for you". LOL. This is why many movies in the UK are censored compared to North American audiences versions. For example, Gone in Sixty Seconds (Movies) are a concern because they feared the movies would likely to assist would-be car thieves. That first movie was censored, for awhile. All North American shows and movies suffer this silly system of rules. EU also has a system of rules that UK has to obey dealing with movies, since Brexit is coming (About time), that system be no longer an issue.
You've really got to wonder how this one made it all the way through production and was released on an unsuspecting public, without one person saying "Hold up. Maybe this is a bad idea..." And putting a stop to it. Even Lucas wanted to kill it with fire (or hammers apparently) as soon as he saw it.
"The people who would understand this are the ones who aren't all there." "So, you mean like amputees or something." I had to stop the video for a moment. I couldn't stop laughing.
30 years a Star Wars fan. Never knew this "special" existed. Funny you should mention that it's best watched while under the influence... When I finally did watch it, I couldn't get past the first 5 minutes... even while stoned.
