1978 Star Wars Holiday Special

evil-monkey · 04-10-2008 10:13pm #1

Anybody ever see this?? Man that was bad...saw a bootleg a few months back. How did Lucas let this go ahead!!

Lucas said this about the film at a convention once; "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." But surely he saw it before release!! Surely he knew he risked destroying the franchise releasing such a travesty, and before the Empire Strikes Back!!

It was so horrifically bad!! Dunno what made me think of it...but damn it was bad!!

mike65 · 04-10-2008 11:39pm

Shocking, I saw it when RTE first premiered it with a bit of hoopla in Christmas 78. There was just one special effect shot I think - the Falcon swooping out of the blue sky and that was it (memory could be wrong at this remove though!)

Mike

doubledown · 05-10-2008 3:01pm

It is truly, truly awful.

Check out the final scene here, where Princess Leia sings a song to a congregation of wookies. They are celebrating "Life Day", a wookie version of Christmas.

Seriously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXcb7VPw59s

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 05-10-2008 3:07pm

you should check out the RiffTrax of the SW holiday special, very funny.

evil-monkey · 05-10-2008 8:12pm

mike65 wrote: »

Shocking, I saw it when RTE first premiered it with a bit of hoopla in Christmas 78. There was just one special effect shot I think - the Falcon swooping out of the blue sky and that was it (memory could be wrong at this remove though!)

Mike

RTE showed it?? awww man...glad i didn't pop out for another 8 years...that would have been one bad Christmas

irishthump · 06-10-2008 9:37am

Apparently Lucas did'nt have much input into the show at all, with the innevitable results.

Whatever you may think of Lucas, he was/is head and shoulders over that crap!

VinLieger · 06-10-2008 10:35am

The creator really deserves to burn for making this. Also
notice how Hamill looks like a completely different person.

evil-monkey · 06-10-2008 11:30am

irishthump wrote: »

Apparently Lucas did'nt have much input into the show at all, with the innevitable results.

Whatever you may think of Lucas, he was/is head and shoulders over that crap!

i've a LOT of time for Lucas. but surely he has to take the rap for this one, even though he himself wasn't involved in the making of the film. the man allowed this to go ahead, he surely saw the script, and he surely saw the final production. if he just let em off to do whatever, he's still just as guilty!! it was so so bad. i'm amazed the actors went along with it. let's not forget that Empire had not been released yet - Star Wars had not quite reached the levels of fandom it would once the trilogy had been completed. they risked loosing a lot of would-be fans with this film!!

irishthump · 07-10-2008 5:05pm

"Later, in a May 2005 interview with StaticMultimedia.com, Lucas was asked if the film had soured him on working in television: He replied: "The special from 1978 really didn't have much to do with us, you know. I can't remember what network it was on, but it was a thing that they did. We kind of let them do it. It was done by... I can't even remember who the group was, but they were variety TV guys. We let them use the characters and stuff and that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you learn from those experiences."

SO like I said, Lucas knew pretty much nothing about the final product, he just made theb mistake of trusting the TV execs!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 07-10-2008 8:41pm

yeah, I believe him....

evil-monkey · 07-10-2008 10:04pm

irishthump wrote: »

"Later, in a May 2005 interview with StaticMultimedia.com, Lucas was asked if the film had soured him on working in television: He replied: "The special from 1978 really didn't have much to do with us, you know. I can't remember what network it was on, but it was a thing that they did. We kind of let them do it. It was done by... I can't even remember who the group was, but they were variety TV guys. We let them use the characters and stuff and that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you learn from those experiences."

SO like I said, Lucas knew pretty much nothing about the final product, he just made theb mistake of trusting the TV execs!

oh i fully believe that he had nothing to do with the actual production of this film. but;
a. he should never have even considered allowing them to play with his baby in the first place!!
b. he must have seen at least some footage during the filming and said, wooo, what's going on here!!

FX Meister · 07-10-2008 10:09pm

I loved it.

evil-monkey · 11-10-2008 10:30pm

FX Meister wrote: »

I loved it.

at risk of feeding the troll - really??

05-11-2008 11:34am

I really want to see this now .

evil-monkey · 05-11-2008 12:38pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I really want to see this now .

lol. google it and you'll eventually come across it. there aren't many decent versions of it left, but there are a few.

07-11-2008 10:19am

I watched it . It was terrible alright . They even had Bea Arthur from the Golden Girls .

JJ · 07-11-2008 10:28am

I watched the first 10 to 20 minutes or so and it's pretty bad though it's almost so bad that it's good if you know what I mean.

Lucas still allowed Star Wars stuff to debut on TV later on with the two Ewok specials. The Christmas special makes the Ewok shows look like masterpieces. I got the DVD of the Ewok specials a while back and they were entertaining enough but some of the special effects were terrible.

evil-monkey · 11-11-2008 4:54pm

JJ wrote: »

Lucas still allowed Star Wars stuff to debut on TV later on with the two Ewok specials. The Christmas special makes the Ewok shows look like masterpieces. I got the DVD of the Ewok specials a while back and they were entertaining enough but some of the special effects were terrible.

i never saw these. heard they were pretty bad all right. what were they called?? Battle for Endor or summit like that wasn't it??

mike65 · 18-11-2008 2:22pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2008/nov/18/star-wars-holiday-special

Mike

Pigman II · 23-11-2008 12:26pm

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-ca-starwars16-2008nov16,0,7919687.story

14-12-2008 4:23pm

Yeah Lucas has pretty much disowned the Holiday Special!

I think that there's a write up on it in this months Empire magazine?

evil-monkey · 14-12-2008 11:26pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah Lucas has pretty much disowned the Holiday Special!

I think that there's a write up on it in this months Empire magazine?

There sure is. One of the lads in college was telling me about it. He mentioned it cos I had done a piece on it for the college rag the month before - Empire must have seen my piece and jumped on the bandwagon

Rawr · 04-01-2009 10:21pm

Search around video streaming sites and you are sure to find the Holiday Special somewhere.

It is truly god-awful, as has been said. But check it out anyway for the interesting animated short in the middle of it. The short, thankfully, has nothing to do with the rest of the show and features Boba Fett for the first time. (Before Empire Strikes Back was released)

joeking · 30-01-2009 8:47am

ive got it if anyone is stuck for a lend of it.
probably the best quality ive seen too. some guy in the uk touched it up.
but if you want to see funny
ive ot the geordie atar wars full version lol.
ive been collecting this stuff over the whole campaign.
found some really mad wacky stuff over the years too.
anyone else a huge collector?

1978 Star Wars Holiday Special

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