To make your Christmas bright I humbly offer the Star Wars Holiday Special. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s an exercise in complete and utter awfulness. Released in 1978 months before Empires Strikes Back hit theaters and never seen again, the two-hour film centers on Chewbacca’s family and their celebration of holiday called Life Day.
Among other gems the film includes:
- The first ten minutes include about nine minutes of nothing but Wookie dialogue.
- Chewbacca’s father, Itchy, enjoying a “fantasy” experience that kind of resembles a porno.
- A performance by Jefferson Starship, complete with a microphone that resembles a lightsaber.
- Carrie Fisher singing.
I could go on. For all the negatives, the holiday special does include the first appearance of Boba Fett (unless you count that dumb added scene with Jabba the Hutt in the special edition version of A New Hope), in cartoon form no less!
You can’t really understand how awful it is until you’ve seen it. For anyone who complains about Episodes I-III, the Star Wars Holiday Special is proof that you should have expected something awful from George Lucas. At least even Lucas regrets the special.
And now, the Star Wars Holiday Special:
Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11
(These videos tend to disappear from YouTube, so you might just have to search for them.)
For more holiday special fun, check out the Rifftrax from the Mystery Science Theater guys. For more Star Wars hilarity, check out my Goofy Star Wars lens on Squidoo for a Star Wars guest spot on The Muppet Show.