# Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2006, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810 "2006-03-10T09:20:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/1 "2006-03-10T09:20:41Z")
Just in case anyone forgot just how _truly_ horrid this was. I’d like to think there’s a special place in hell for anyone even remotely involved with this project, but I’ve grown old and jaded enough to realize there is truly no justice in this world. Anyways…enjoy! (MST3King the whole thing, that is) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w&search=star%20wars%20special%20tv](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w&search=star%20wars%20special%20tv) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/2 "2006-03-10T12:29:09Z")
> [@Cerri](#): > > Just in case anyone forgot just how _truly_ horrid this was. > > I’d like to think there’s a special place in hell for anyone even remotely involved with this project, but I’ve grown old and jaded enough to realize there is truly no justice in this world. > > Anyways…enjoy! (MST3King the whole thing, that is) > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w&search=star%20wars%20special%20tv](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w&search=star%20wars%20special%20tv) I actually want to see it - in a morbid curiosity sorta way. I’ve heard it was so bad for so long that I just gotta see it for myself. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/3 "2006-03-10T13:14:55Z")
[Col Kurtz] The horror. The horror. [/CK] Why would you do this to us? ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/4 "2006-03-10T13:39:33Z")
There was no Star Wars Holiday Special. I _said_ there is no such thing as the"Star Wars Holiday Special"!!! La la la la la la la!!! I can’t hear you!!! ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/5 "2006-03-10T14:21:57Z")
_evil laughter ensues_ ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/6 "2006-03-10T15:10:19Z")
I’m not sure how I missed this when it came out – certainly it would have been on my radar. Having said that: I made it to the holographic who show – GOOD NIGHT! That stank like year old garbage. I hope they executed the primary culprits. It is interesting to note that the Wookie’s abode was similar to what eventually became the Ewok city. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/7 "2006-03-10T15:16:21Z")
I remember seeing it when it was originally broadcast, God help me. As a teenage SW fan, I thought it was flawed but not too shabby. My biggest disappointment was that it used stock footage for the spaceships. Ha! That was before we had a VCR, or I would surely have taped it. Probably just as well I didn’t… I can now see that it really was appallingly wretched. No wonder George Lucas has suppressed all evidence of its existence with Illuminati-like efficiency. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/8 "2006-03-10T15:31:39Z")
I saw it on TV when it was on. I must have been 10 or 11. I loved it at the time. For years I thought I must have imagined it until I read about it. Lucas needs to stop retconning his life and just release the damn thing. We can all have a good laugh and then get on with our lives. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/9 "2006-03-10T15:52:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I saw it on TV when it was on. I must have been 10 or 11. I loved it at the time. For years I thought I must have imagined it until I read about it. Lucas needs to stop retconning his life and just release the damn thing. We can all have a good laugh and then get on with our lives. Yeah, but it’s not one of those “bad like _Plan 9_ funny” but, as my e-mail buddy Neil says, “It’s bad in a painful, when-will-this-be-over way, like a root canal from a dentist with hairy hands and garlic breath.” No, it is a good thing that Lucas has tried to hide this from the world. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/10 "2006-03-10T15:57:42Z")
I avoided this when it first came out – from what I’d heard in advance, it sounded really awful. Years later, my curiousity overcame my better judgment. I have a bootleg DVD of this, which I still haven’t succeeded in watching all the way. It is amazingly awful, and is difficult to look straight at for long periods of time. Bear in mind that I _like_ Bad Movies, and have held a Bad Movie Festival every year for over 20 years now. This is not in the Entertainingly Bad category. Maybe I’ll show excerpts from this one day, but there’s no way I’d inflict the whole awful glory of this on my friends. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/11 "2006-03-10T16:46:28Z")
I have a bootleg copy that I have watched, all the way through, exactly once, out of morbid curiosity. Just so we’re all in agreement: Carrie Fisher was totally stoned on something during those scenes, right? ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/12 "2006-03-10T17:07:11Z")
> [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > I have a bootleg copy that I have watched, all the way through, exactly once, out of morbid curiosity. > > Just so we’re all in agreement: Carrie Fisher was totally stoned on something during those scenes, right? Wouldn’t \*you \* be? ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/13 "2006-03-10T17:14:19Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Wouldn’t \*you \* be? Maybe I lack imagination, but I can’t imagine anything short of that making the process bearable. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/14 "2006-03-10T18:04:15Z")
StompTokyo’s lengthy review and gallery are [here](http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/star-wars-holiday-special.html), and you can see for yourself exactly how [stoned](http://www.stomptokyo.com/sings/swholiday/images/leiasing2.jpg) out of her mind [Carrie Fisher](http://www.stomptokyo.com/sings/swholiday/images/leiadumb.jpg) was. This thing is mind-shattering in its awfulness. You cannot understand until you have seen it – Bea Arthur as a singing cantina owner, Harvey Korman as an alien in drag, and Carrie Fisher singing a Wookiee holiday song set to the tune of the Star Wars theme. It’s wretched. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/15 "2006-03-10T18:23:37Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > It is interesting to note that the Wookie’s abode was similar to what eventually became the Ewok city. Ewoks were originally supposed to be Wookies until ol’ George thought that would have contradicted Chewie knowing about high-tech stuff. Or until he realized that his budget wasn’t big enough. Or he decided he needed something kid-friendly that could be mercandised (see also: Jar Jar Binks). Or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/16 "2006-03-10T18:24:01Z")
Now if you want real awful, there’s the Donny and Marie Star Wars episode. With Kris Kristofferson, Redd Foxx, and Paul Lynde. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/17 "2006-03-10T20:05:28Z")
_horrifying brain melt-down_ aaarrrghgh… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/18 "2006-03-10T20:55:40Z")
Well I tried to watch it. After 5 minutes of just the damn wookies grunting and crap I got bored of it and turned it off. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/19 "2006-03-10T22:13:29Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > “It’s bad in a painful, when-will-this-be-over way, like a root canal from a dentist with hairy hands and garlic breath.” Kinda like _Phantom Menace_. ---
**Author:** ![RitzyRae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@RitzyRae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitzyRae)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810/20 "2006-03-10T22:18:29Z")
I watched up until the cartoon part, but have since downgraded to just listening to it. I just… I dunno… does it really make almost no sense? What’s with the muscial numbers? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-holiday-special-1978/347810.md?page=2)