I just recently saw this, didn’t even know it existed. I had tried to watch a bootleg copy of the Holiday Special years ago but man I just couldn’t get through it, but if I had known this was in there I would have soldiered through.
First appearance of Boba Fett, hell I would have watched a SW spin off show done in this style!
You’ll find that amongst any of us who actually saw the Special, we all agree that not only the best thing, but in fact the ***only ***good thing about it was that short animated bit including Boba Fett’s first appearance. I was only 12 when I watched it and even I thought the rest of the show was utter crap!
I think the point I bailed out was when Chewie’s father? furtively gets a disc from a guy and the guy acts like it is illegal porn or something, then he watches it and it is just a chick dancing like in a music video but daddy’bacca is acting like it is porn!
The hilarious thing is I’m not sure the idea of secret porno tapes even existed in 78’, but the modern interpretation fits the scene fine. Unless clothed human women dancing is like the hottest erotica on Kasshyk.
Right before Xmas, I put the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special on YouTube for the kids. They love Star Wars and Christmas, why not? I know enough internet pop-culture to know it would be bad, but didn’t remember that much of it from my childhood. I figured it’s like the Phantom Menace: maligned, but still Star Wars-y enough to be entertaining (I consider Darth Maul the best lightsaber fight, for example).
But DEAR LORD, that Holiday Special was horrible.
The main characters (Luke, Han, Leia, 2 droids) show up for like 10 minutes. There is even less spaceship and laser blast action. The whole setting is maybe 2 rooms in a tree house set. The show mainly consists of grunting and roaring by Wookiees, which gets old fast, let alone most of the show’s dialogue.
The rest is a variety show including cybersex(!), psychadelic rock music videos (!!), and Bea Arthur as the bartender in the Cantina (!!!) doing a musical number (!!!). The only thing worse was Leia singing a holiday song to the tune of the Star Wars Theme (I’ve run out of !).
Am I a cynical adult speaking, without the wonderment of Star Wars on a child? Nope, the kids (9 and 5) barely sat through half of it before walking off finding other things to do.
The weirdest part was Han and Chewbacca. Han was so tender and kind to Chewy, hugging and emotionally telling him how much he appreciates his best friend and wants him to join his family. Nothing icky (no Rule 34 stuff), but just so jarring from the cynical scoundrel Han Solo in the movies.
I could only watch a little of that animated sequence.
What’s the matter with Luke’s eyes? He looks like he downed a gallon of Red Bull!
Why doesn’t Bobajust shoot them when his duplicity is revealed?
Because murder at Christmastime would be embarrassingly distasteful.
Even at only 12 years old the very first and most obvious thing wrong about it that I noticed was that it was shot on fucking videotape! It looked like some horrible Sid & Marty Kroft Saturday morning kid’s show!!
Dance for me, I was mystified when I saw the Empire Strikes Back, that everyone seemed to know who Bona Fett was. When I saw the holiday special many many years later, I found that the idea of the Boba Fett had been tainted by mere association with that crime against humanity.
Damn autocorrect. Does anyone know how to disable this fUcKiNg thing?
This may have been Boba Fett’s first appearance, but it’s not why so many fans knew of him. They knew of him because his action figure was a super-rare thing that you had to jump through all sorts of marketing hoops to mail-order. If he’s that hard to get, then he must be cool, right?
Darth Vader had just told him like a few minutes before during their Skype call that he wanted them all alive, do you want to piss off Darth Vader?
Now why Boba didn’t have a damn stun blaster, as seen in the first few minutes of the first movie, I dunno.
EDIT:Huh it occurs to me this might also be the first clue about the whole daddy drama thing, this predates ESB and has Vader already insisting on capturing them alive. Why?
The show is not considered canon in any sense, George Lucas had nothing to do with it for the most part. It was basically a Star Wars themed variety show, during an era of TV overflowing with variety shows.
But here’s an image of the Ralph McQuarrie painting used as the matte for Chewie’s house. And here’s an image from Revenge of the Sith, where Kashyyyk was featured and officially canonised. The similarity in design suggests that there’s a consistency to it from the very early days.
Also, here are images from multiple comic books drawn several years before the prequels.
Interestingly in the opening of the animated sequence you can see what looks like a mon calamari, like Ackbar, years before they appeared on screen.
I’ve heard this from a friend born in 1967 as the reason for Fett’s popularity.
