Star Wars Holiday Special

Last year, I wanted to get out my copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special and watch it with my dear friends, but it didn't work out very well what with the moving & unpacking and all. It occurs to me that the holiday season is fast approaching, and if I'm going to get something organized, now is the time.

My copy is on VHS, and is likely rather low quality--I don't know myself, as I've never watched it (I've been saving it). The friend who made this copy for me says it has the original commercials still in it.

Here's a brief summary of this television tragedy:

http://dir.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2000/12/05/star_wars_tv/index.html

Yes, this beaut features Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Art Carney, Itchy and Lumpy (Chewbacca's father and son), Jefferson Starship, Boba Fett, and (wait for it...)Bea Arthur. There are song and dance numbers. It's supposed to be brain-meltingly bad. This is why I haven't watched it yet... it clearly is meant to be watched by a mildly drunken crowd.

I suspect that there will be more interest in this amongst my Bay Area friends, and since I'm up there as much as I'm down here, what the hey? Let's do it somewhere in the SF area. Is there anyone who would be interested in hosting? (I'll subsidize the food & alcohol & help set up.)

Happy Life Day!

I must get this , thanks for sharing that. my brother-n-law is a starwars nut. Does anyone know how to get a copy.

humu, as if you weren't attractive enough yet, you throw this one out! You are too much! Awesome! haha! As for me, I've only heard the legends and wasn't aware of this event at the time of it's original release......I have no idea what I was doing to not notice! It must be quite an experience!

Yes it IS that bad.

And more.

The only truly cool bit is the Boba Fett cartoon in the middle.

The rest...

Hearing both Bea Arthur and Carrie Fisher sing is well... an experience.

We even get to see Chewbacca's dad watch 3D holographic softcore porn.

Harrison Ford is clearly drunk.

Do we need to put this on at the Ugh House on Saturday?

I remember seeing that the first time it aired on TV. I was very excited to stay up and watch it! As a kid I had no idea how bad it was.

On 2004-11-02 06:34, tikifish wrote:
I remember seeing that the first time it aired on TV. I was very excited to stay up and watch it! As a kid I had no idea how bad it was.

I remember seeing it as a kid and thinking, "wow, that really sucked" or what ever a 7 year old would say in such a situation. It must have been the singing that bothered me. Or the fact that I kept waiting for actual plot/action/lightsabers/coolstuff.

That said, Humu, I think you should have the viewing party in the Detroit area :)

-Z

Thank God The Tiki Bar Is Open
Thank God The Tiki Torch Still Shines...

[ Edited by: Feelin' Zombified on 2004-11-02 07:14 ]

On 2004-11-01 22:10, rodeotiki wrote:
I must get this , thanks for sharing that. my brother-n-law is a starwars nut. Does anyone know how to get a copy.

pretty sure you can get it on ebay, never tried. i HAVE searched to see if it is downloadable anywhere, so for no luck. it may be on kazaa or something but i ain't playin' that...

Bea Arthur and Chewbacca??

I thought Bea Arthur WAS Chewbacca!!

On 2004-11-01 23:38, tikibars wrote:

The only truly cool bit is the Boba Fett cartoon in the middle.

indeed.

the saturday morning star wars cartoons were pretty alright in the 80's... although C3PO's "cartoony" eyes bugged me...

but the fett is always cool

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2004-11-02 07:30 ]

"brain-meltingly bad" is the right word for sure.

I found it on a file sharing service this year. I couldn't get through it. Bring it to the UGH house...I smell a drinking game....

Obtaining it: bootleg VHS or home-burned DVD-R copies should set you back no more than $15 on-line or at any Sci-Fi or comic convention. The pic quality is universally medicore (ALL existing copies are transfers from 1979 home VHS or Beta tapings, but search for the variation out there 'with' commercials. They're more entertaining than the show.

Now: Bea Arthur.
I worked for her back in 2000, doing sound for her one-woman show. I think we did about 20 performances. Her piano player (the only other person on stage) looked like Yoda, but Chewie was nowhere to be found.

I have this on tape too (with commercials, broadcast from Baltimore), in the event that something goes wrong with Humu's.

Hmmm, assuming Mrs P. has no problem with this, we could do it at the Pineapples' Palace. What date were you thinking? We are remodeling our kitchen and not sure when we are going to start tearing out stuff, but it will likely be a minimum of 4 or 5 weeks from now.

I, too, have not seen the show since it was first broadcast.

Mrs. P?

Maybe we could do it at the Pineapples' Saturday afternoon, pre-UGH? The UGH house shindig doesn't start 'til 8pm, it might work better overall to watch it before Bruce's party starts. Does this Saturday work for you guys?

Cyn, it would probably be a good idea for you to bring your tape, since I can't vouch for mine.

Critiki - Hundreds of tiki bars, Polynesian restaurants, and other sites of interest to the tiki traveller, collector or urban archaeologist

[ Edited by: Humuhumu on 2004-11-02 11:13 ]

Sat. is OK by me. Maybe late afternoon, and then we can all caravan over to Ugh. That'll also leave the early part of the day open for those of us who want to sight-see.

Oops! Saturday is too soon. I'm on a work deadline for Monday and will be working all weekend, taking time out only for Bruce's party, a few meals and a couple of winks.

Just a warning........this movie is BAD. not bad in a campy way, not bad in a "it's cute for kids way", ......it is horrible.

Rumor was Lucas actually tried to get all the original copies back off the market because it was so horrible. Thats why you always see 8th generation copies off TV.

Couple of points of interest though. In the original movies (before the "special edition" re-releases of Star Wars) ,Boba Fett was not seen until Empire Strikes back. But he is in the cartoon section of the Christmas Special, so technically it was the first sighting of Boba Fett.

Also, rumor is that Lucas uses the whole "wookie tree village" from the x-mas special in the upcoming 3rd prequel.

Yeah, I'm a star wars geek.

OK, this Saturday at the Pineapples' is out, I've got an email out to Bruce, but I suspect that showing it at the UGH party won't be the best option. I'll try for another venue pre-UGH (could probably just do it in my hotel room), or we can save it and do it in a few weeks at the Pineapples' (or another location, if anyone else is interested and the timing doesn't work out for the Pineapples).

BTW, a coworker just came back from Maui, and he brought me a fresh pikake lei. I'm wearing it right now, and I'm on cloud nine. :)

Critiki - Hundreds of tiki bars, Polynesian restaurants, and other sites of interest to the tiki traveller, collector or urban archaeologist

[ Edited by: Humuhumu on 2004-11-02 11:34 ]

On 2004-11-02 11:33, Humuhumu wrote:
OK, this Saturday at the Pineapples' is out, I've got an email out to Bruce, but I suspect that showing it at the UGH party won't be the best option.

We could watch it at my place this weekend, if you don't mind driving to SF.

On 2004-11-02 11:22, ErichTroudt wrote:
Also, rumor is that Lucas uses the whole "wookie tree village" from the x-mas special in the upcoming 3rd prequel.

At ComicCon this year, they showed about 15 pieces of pre-production art of the Wookiee village from Episode III. It looks really cool, but given the big dissapointment of Ep I and (maybe to a slightly lesser degree) Ep II, I am not holding my breath...

I am feverishly working to make the UGH House partially presentable-it is suffering from a year of neglect and being used as a storage unit! I can not take any time of on Saturday--maybe Sunday? -bruce

I'm leaning towards saving it for a few weeks until the Pineapples are ready, it's too tight a squeeze this weekend with all the driving I'll be doing.

You better hang on to your video copy of that special. I've heard that Lucas has destroyed the master.

On 2004-11-03 11:52, Digitiki wrote:
I've heard that Lucas has destroyed the master.

That would suprise me... Lucas is such an archivist, I can't see him destroying anything no matter how wacky it might be.

-Z

If you check out a site called http://www.theforce.net You can probably find more info on it there. I posted on some boards there and it seemed everyone had thought Lucas would put it out on the Trilogy DVD....guess he REALLY hates it!

I remember watching this during it's original airing as well. And, like many of you, felt very disappointed by the end.

However, they could have made Star Wars paper ass-gaskets and I would have loved it at the time.

I remember thinking that it sucked, but it was not a total loss because of the introduction of Boba Fett.

Despite all of the bad reviews, I think I'd have to get it, add it to my collection, and watch it through the eyes of an adult to be truly disgusted.

okay not really a post only dealing with the x-mas special (which I only remember chewies family and boba fett when I watched it whenever it was on TV) but here's a cool website with lots of video and picture downloads of all things star wars.

http://www.blueharvest.net/

Very informative website. Check it out.

now back to your regularly scheduled x-mas special thread...

"Hey, I'm a Dorkus-Maximus too."

[ Edited by: Polynesiac on 2004-11-03 20:06 ]

Thanks Polynesiac!

It's got the entire special for download in Real Player format.

I remember this atrocity from when it was first aired. People, leave this evil Pandora's VHS sealed and don't sully the legend!
Oh wait, Lucas already did that with ewoks and Jar-Jar. Never mind.

not star wars, but to add another pang of nostalgia...

opening to a very brady chistmas

It's very bad. It's actually boring through long stretches (It's about 2 hours long).

But yes, Bea Arthur's song (to one of the Cantina themes iirc) was a high-point.

Keep your finger on the FF for long sequences of inane Wookie barking. They actually thought that the first half-hour should be free of any dialogue, and you'd just understand the wookie family barking at each other without subtitles. I'm not making this up or exaggerating for humor. I'm dead serious, the first half-hour has no dialogue.

Watch for a stoned-out-of-her-mind Carrie Fisher stumble and walk right into her desk.

Then she sings a song to "Life Day" as the wookies call their faux christmas holiday. She sings it to the Star Wars theme. Yep. Life dayyyyy! Talking bout LIFE DAYYYY!!!

It's REALLY BAD.

But I actually can't see how Lucas hates it. He's the man who gave us Jar-Jar and all that other crap. I actually think that the SWHS is probably closer to his current "vision" than stuff like The Empire Strikes Back.

It has all the earmarks of the current trilogy. Kid versions of the original series characters (Baby Boba Fett, Baby Darth, this one has a Wookie kid), skull-boringly endless dialogue scenes, a crappy faux-spiritual subtext, attempts at humor that are terribly lame, acting that stretches the very meaning of the word, and special musical guest Jefferson Starship.

It's like he was making the prequels all along.

[ Edited by: BarkerBird on 2004-12-02 10:45 ]