Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Harrison Ford & Bea Arthur in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

Long, long ago, in a galaxie far, far away, stars of the 1970's gathered together to make this legendary holiday special. It was aired once and then shut away in the vaults forever. Only bootlegs of it exist, because of George Lucas disappointment with the final result. It tells the story of the Wookie holiday, Life Day and Chewbacca's journy home with Han Solo to spend it with his family. Making appearances on the show are Bea Arthur, Harvy Korman (in several roles), Art Carney and Dihanne Carroll, as well as Star Wars veterans, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

This has never been released on commercial DVD, though you can find unofficial copies of it around. It's also on YouTube in full. Above is part one, uploaded by Hazelwood1styear. Watch it soon! Lucas is notorious for wanting to destroy every copy of this show that he can lay his hands on.

Obscurity factor: 3 (legendary cult status, though rarely seen, not on DVD, available on YouTube)

6 comments:

  1. This is UN-believable! I feel like I dropped acid and this appeared on my laptop!
    Thanks for sharing this!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It has that quality - it's completely inappropriate and yet delicious at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lucas had no control over it, at the time it was made. He remedied that, for sure. I saw it upon its original airing, and definitely thought that it was horrendous, even then.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...but horrendous in a perfectly delightful way!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I watched this via YouTube. I don't remember it at all, although I am sure it must have had quite a lot of publicity. It made me think of Paul Lynde's Halloween special, in that both of them were from the end of that era of throwing every available performer from disparate areas of show business into a narrative special and creating a bit that suited their talents, whether or not it made sense or fit into the style of the thing. Television is still cheesy (and there is so much more of it now), but in a completely different way than it was then.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're right. There's something endearing about the haphazard casting and conventions of past television specials. It's why I love them so.

    ReplyDelete