The Star Wars Holiday Special

The layout of this blog is full of win. I tried watching the holiday special on my own and couldn't get past the "circus hologram," it was that painful to watch. And the wookies making those noises for 15 minutes, that was worse!

Always that this was terrible

wow. just wow. i never even heard or saw of this. incredible. great piece of nostalgia though. and great intro! rofl.

well... ? I never heard of this... but to your words of wisdom i completely agree... interesting but very crazy/stupid little holiday special. A+!!

Haha, this special is so dumb it's funny.

You're articles are excellent. I love the way you combine sound with the visuals and writing on this article. Your articles go a step beyond many of the other articles on this site. Its totally phenomenal. You don't just put up pictures, you put up movie clips and sound bytes! I really hope you keep thinking outside of the box and keep writing articles in new and experimental formats. Cheers!

For years, I've heard about this "Star Wars Holiday Special". But I never anticipated it to be THIS bad! After watching all the clips, I must say that I now understand why George Lucas wants to destroy every copy in existence. The scene with Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) singing is just laughable! Also, the cartoon sequence isn't all that good, either. Great article, though!

They should have put this in carbonite and left it there.

The Star Wars Holiday Special was so awful, and yes I have seen the whole thing. I downloaded a bootleg DVD of that special from a DVD torrent, so I could see how bad the special really is and check it out. After watching it, I couldn't believe how horrid it was, and I truely understand why it hasn't been viewed to the public since the original broadcast. The whole special doesn't even have anything to do with Star Wars, but nothing more than 2 hours of Chewbacca's family with bad writing.

The random cheesy scenes are very horrid, especially the unnessicary ones with guest stars. The scenes with Harvey Korrman was just bad. Especially when Chewbacca's mother was watching that cooking show. What's worse is the scene with the Jefferson Starship. I think to myself "This isn't Star Wars at all." I think they just threw in those scenes to pass the time or something. Without those, the special would probably be more like 30-60 minutes.

Yeah, I agree that Princess Leia singing it hard to believe. I remembered hearing about it, and when I actually watched her sing in that special, I cringed really bad. Her singing is so bad, if there's anything Carrie Fisher can't do, it's singing.

The cartoon segment is probably the best part out of the whole special. It was better than most cartoons being produced in the 70s, that's for sure. That's really saying something when it comes to Scooby-Doo and those awful knock-offs. It was good to see Boba Fett make his debut in the Star Wars series.

This special is so awful, that even George Lucas himself hated it. The quote where he says that he would track down every copy is very logical. This is the type of special that should be erased from the whole human memory.

this article much like this holiday special was simply not needed.

i like how han solo looks like he is embarrassed to be around while princess leia was singing. this christmas special i found halarious, and i can see why george lucas despises it so much. still, i think the new star wars "the clone wars" movie is just as bad, and i dont see why george lucas cant hate that too.

As a HUGE Star Wars fan, I find it stupid that this is considered canon in the Expanded Universe(Where all the books, comic books, video games, those craptacular droids and ewoks cartoons, and the clone wars multimedia). Still, it was funny to see something that came out before I was born. It's funny, though, that George Lucas regrets one piece of crap he made, (the Star Wars Holiday Special), but not another, (Episode 1 and Jar Jar Binks.)

Ahhhh the Holiday Special...A true Craptacular!! Yeah isn't it funny how Lucas vowed never to release anything about it ever again, but they just made Boba Fett toy figures from his animated debut recently? I have it and have actually sat through it sober and conscious a few times. It is unbelievable how bad it is. Lucas made up some for portraying wookies better in the prequels.

Thanks, now I've finally had a chance to see parts of this piece of crap. The only two pluses I see are: 1. The animated sequence isn't to bad and gave us our first introduction to Boba Fett although some of the lip syncing could have been better. And 2. Princess Lea's song is pretty and Carrie Fischer seems to have a nice voice, (even if she was high on cocaine at the time), if only the song was used for some other holiday special instead of this one. I guess I should count my blessings that I was born after this shlop was aired. Very nice article though, gaijinninja. Keep it up.

I saw clips of this abomination on Youtube, I could'nt believe there were people that had the barefaced cheek to complain about the prequels, the prequels are masterpieces in comparison to this horse shit!.

Thanks for all your comments guys. Means a lot. Especailly from vkimo and NLogan, it's always especially sweet when you get comments from the best!

Great job gaijinninja! Love the formatting the clips the backgrounds the fonts, everything. Holiday special the way it should be viewed in small clips so as not to burn out a fuse upstairs and become a homicidal George Lucas stalker. 1st appearance of Boba Fett the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy. I wish they never would have stooped so low to make Chewbacca a family named itchy lumpy and mala.

Jar-Jar Binks was still worse.....

very very cool. i too thought for a long time that i had imagined this. i was a wee lad at the time. but thanks to the internet i can find proof, just like with the live action prime time and very awful and cheesy justice league roast

Ok I know I complained about your TV/HBO Guide articles, and I still am not feeling them. This however was epic, I loved the setup, and everything. I've never seen the horror of TSWHS, and always debated weather to suffer through it or not being a huge Star Wars fan. Reading this has given me just what I need to say no, but still have my curiosity fed, excellent article.

I think this should have been included in some Star Wars "Ultimate" collectors edition. Sure, it's bad but is it really THAT much worse than those made for tv Ewok movies?

Damn, I was this close to writing an article on the Holiday Special, great minds think alike I guess. Excellent job though, thumbs up!

Coked up or not, I would have banged Carrie Fisher's back door back then.

propz on this article. the cartoon is thowed.

i'm using firefox right now, and i'm not getting anything bad from the way your article came out. anyway, you should have put more text into your article. it's decent, but remember this next time

Carrie Fisher has repeatedly said that she doesn't remember ever being in a SW TV special. Looking at her eye's dilation when she sings,you can tell why...

This and the Marvel/DC crossover comic should be erased from all human memory.

I had always wondered what the Star Wars holiday special was.

I remember watching the Star Wars Holiday Special when it first aired. It was an important day, as it was also the same night I met a really good friend I had for years (who watched the special with me).

I often wondered if it was as bad as I remembered.

And then, last year, I found a copy on DVD and watched it (obviously not an official release, but probably the same one that these clips come from).

Yep...it's worse than I remember...

George Lucas *should* burn all the copies.

well well, that was some presentation. And u had vids too. I'd like this article more if u didnt submit so much at the same time...

I viewed it with Firefox and i liked it!

I really dug that highlight reel and the animation on the cartoon was quirky and cool. You're Darth Vader with a beard memory is hilarious.

Great article, on internet explorer! hahahahaha ( I tried it with firefox first and boy was it a mess hahahahaha thumbs up

Interesting article and awesome presentation!

Awesome intro!