How much of the Star Wars Holiday Special have you seen?

[The Romulan Republic]

Just one or two brief clips, if that. Its reputation does not make me wish to see more, though it is always risky to judge something by reputation.

[Q99]

I'm also pretty sure it was intended to be immediately forgotten about even before it aired.

It was actually ambitious for a TV special (longer runtime) and had a number of big names at the time!

[Elheru Aran]

I'm also pretty sure it was intended to be immediately forgotten about even before it aired.

It was actually ambitious for a TV special (longer runtime) and had a number of big names at the time!

Er... Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill were only 'big names' at the moment because they'd just starred in a mega-hit film. It wasn't like they had ten years of career stardom top-billing A-list films at that time.

A better comparison would be to whatever teen idol pops up in a bunch of movies around the same time and gets really popular all of a sudden, I think.

[Q99]

Er... Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill were only 'big names' at the moment because they'd just starred in a mega-hit film. It wasn't like they had ten years of career stardom top-billing A-list films at that time.

A better comparison would be to whatever teen idol pops up in a bunch of movies around the same time and gets really popular all of a sudden, I think.

No, no, not them of course. They're jumped-up nobodies.

I mean big names, like Art Carney (The Honeymooners, and he won an Oscar a few years before for 'Harry and Tonto'), Harvey Korman (you may know him best as Hedley Lamar from Blazing Saddles, or High Anxiety), Diahann Carroll (biggest black actress of the time), Bea Arthur (who was winning Emmys in her starring role in Maude around them), and Jefferson Starship.

This is serious star power they had playing aliens drinking through the top of their heads and doing trippy holo-videos.

[Elheru Aran]

...oof.

Sometimes I'm glad I didn't live through that decade...

[Q99]

The amount of wasted talent in it is staggering ^^

[Elfdart]

I saw it when it was broadcast by CBS and even though I would have watched anything with Star Wars, I knew right away that it was horrible. The worst part was my brother and his dickhead friends started calling me Lumpy.

But the Donnie & Marie Star Wars special was just as bad, if not worse. I thought it was creepy that two Osmond siblings would dress up like Leia and Luke. I mean, didn't they know Luke and Leia weren't related?

[FaxModem1]

I've seen it all. The wookies talking with each other for about 15 minutes without subtitles, Han and Chewie being chased around by stock footage, Bea Arthur working the cantina on Tattoine as Ackmena(my favorite part of the special), the cartoon with Boba Fett, the Jefferson Starship performance, imperial soldiers storming Chewie's home, etc.

It all ends with the wookies performing some sort of ritual suicide or something and ending up in red robes, to have Carrie Fisher sing the theme song, and wishing everyone a Happy Holidays.

[Q99]

I liked the Bea Arthur part more than the cartoon ^^

[Elfdart]

I've seen it all. The wookies talking with each other for about 15 minutes without subtitles, Han and Chewie being chased around by stock footage, Bea Arthur working the cantina on Tattoine as Ackmena(my favorite part of the special), the cartoon with Boba Fett, the Jefferson Starship performance, imperial soldiers storming Chewie's home, etc.

It all ends with the wookies performing some sort of ritual suicide or something and ending up in red robes, to have Carrie Fisher sing the theme song, and wishing everyone a Happy Holidays.

Everything about it was a grease fire in a dirty kitchen. The only halfway passable part was Jefferson Starship, which is funny since the band was already blowing up: Grace Slick had just been fired for getting drunk on stage at a concert in Germany and calling the fans Nazis. John Barbata would be crippled in a car wreck shorty after this special and Marty Balin would quit soon after that. Interestingly enough, one of George Lucas' first gigs was as cameraman at Altamont, where Balin was beaten up by Hell's Angels when he tried to stop them from beating up fans while the band played.

[Sea Skimmer]

I think I managed a total of half in one sitting, but have seen more like 85-90% of it total.

[Galvatron]

Trigger warning for Elfdart.

Here it is in it's entirety In case any of you want to see all of it:

[PhoenixKnig]

I saw movie about 10 minutes of it on Facebook live

[PhoenixKnig]

Just one or two brief clips, if that. Its reputation does not make me wish to see more, though it is always risky to judge something by reputation.

I agree I just want to watch it for the the sake of watching it

[Elfdart]

It turns out that Ackmena (played by Bea "Maude" Arthur) in the Holiday Special is now canon, as well as being the first openly lesbian character in the Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Plenty of the old Expanded Universe was disavowed from canonicity even before Disney wiped the slate clean a few years ago, but nothing so fiercely as the much-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special. George Lucas loathed it, so only the bits that were referenced in the EU remained canon—the rest of the special everyone tried to forget happened. And once again, a few things have been making their way into the new canon. From a Certain Point of View adds one more: Bea Arthur’s delightful night shift bartender at Mos Eisley Cantina, Ackmena.

She only briefly appears in a few of the Tatooine-set stories—and is even mentioned as having a wife, Sorschi—but it’s a playful homage to one of the most derided pieces of Star Wars material around.

[LadyTevar]

I am also one of those old enough to have seen it live when it broadcast. To a 7-9yr old kid, it was ok. The next time I got a chance to see it, the rosy glasses of memory couldn't hide how bad it was. It did NOT age well at all.

The Muppet Show starring Star Wars aged much better, though...

[PhoenixKnig]

It was on Facebook live with several Star Wars Facebook groups during the anniversary

[PhoenixKnig]

Here it is in it's entirety In case any of you want to see all of it:

In the first minutes of movie is Han sitting in an office chair?

[Isolder74]

I remember watching live and feeling a mix of both boredom and confusion. The wookiee parts were just plain boring especially the various scetches. The Muppet Show did Star Wars variety show outride better. It was and still is vastly more entertaining too.

Boy am I old...

[Sea Skimmer]

I've seen all of it at least twice and even the fett cartoon is pretty bad and slow, it's just actually possible to watch it without cringing. If it wasn't for the half imagined way fans think about Boba Fett I don't think anyone would care about that part either.

I'm also pretty sure it was intended to be immediately forgotten about even before it aired.

Definitely. It was a quick cash in for a movie that while clearly very popular, thus the special existing at all, was still nowhere near the cultural icon it would become. Nobody could have known that in 1978. Lucas was only marginally involved too, if it had been meant to be even remotely serious he would have been or not allowed it to be made.