The Star Wars Christmas Special Still Exists

rapturizer noted the critical news that "Fans of "Star Wars" have a chance to see a free screening of the notoriously bad 'Star Wars Holiday Special' next week in Minneapolis." Nothing brings out the Christmas spirit like watching what may very well be the worst TV ever produced. Sadly however, I'm not sure that this is the worst *Star Wars* merch ever made.

Comments

Kiss Movie

[stewbacca]

Worse than the Kiss movie?

Re:Obviously the template

[Anonymous Coward]

> Star Wars, however, was an established canon that was well-loved, and the holiday special was awful. It was a disappointment.

Well, kinda. There was only the original "Star Wars" in 1978 when the Holiday Special aired - and it didn't have no friggin "Episode IV" in the crawl, either!

Re:is it really that bad?

[Anonymous Coward]

A prize for anyone who can track down a copy of "Space Jazz" by L. Ron Hubbard. It's his own composition; a musical accompaniment to "Battlefield Earth". I doubt that any number of hobbits could redeem it.

Saw it Live!

[Dan East]

I saw this "live" when first broadcast. I was 6. I had the Star Wars movie soundtrack on LP record which I listened to many, many times, because we had no way of watching the actual movie unless it was playing at a theater.

So the TV show was just a dose of that universe for me at that age, like throwing a puppy a bone. So of course I liked it - I just wanted to see those characters, regardless of what they were doing.

But here's the odd part. Where I was so young when I saw that, and only saw it once, I would have these vague memories about watching Star Wars on TV. I knew that couldn't be, because Star Wars was never on TV, and because there were specific scenes I remembered that weren't even from the movie. Fairly recently (like in the last 5 years or so) I saw a reference to that special (probably here on Slashdot) and then it all fell in place.

And yes, it really sucked bad. Like a bad blend of taking fictional characters and pulling them into a contemporary environment (1978). It totally destroyed the illusion that so many movie exist to create. Like watching R2D2's top removed and see some little guy lifted out.

Re:Obviously the template

[iluvcapra]

Metropolis was a silent film, there are no "subtitles".

So, at what point did you realize this show wasn't so bad?

• When Art Carney clearly flubs a line ("I have yer uh... Whatsit... Uh... Thingamabob... Mind evaporator! Yes that!") and it becomes obvious from his entire performance that he was refusing to do retakes.
• When Diahnne Carrol plays a wookiee mermaid pornstar?
• When Carrie Fisher is clearly on blow, judging from her tripping over her scenery and her eye dialation?
• When Harvey Korman plays a 4-armed Julia Child bit that is clearly half a page on the script for 10 MINUTES!
• When Bea Arthus sings, and then forgets the last verse of her song and lalalas it?
• When Harvey Korman plays a robot who needs a oilcan reading stereo instructions. Again for 10 minutes.
• Carrie, still rather high, sings a Christmas song arranged to the Star Wars theme, and doesn't hit any of her high notes.

I dunno boss, I hosted a screening party for this last week and while the best we could say about it was that it was educational about 70s variety shows, and actually is pretty heavy for little kids, it really doesn't pass muster as "entertainment."

Re:is it really that bad?

[R2.0]

As one of those who actually saw the Christmas special when broadcast, I believe I should point out a factor in the show's defense: in 1978, ALL television oriented toward kids was execrable. The golden years of animation were long gone, and Sid and Marty Croft were churning out stuff like "Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl". And guess what? We kids loved it all. That's why there is such nostalgia for that crap, but it's based on memories of happiness, not of the shows. For most people who say "I LOVED that show when I was a kid!", they haven't seen the show with adult eyes. I once tried watching the original Speed Racer and I couldn't make it 5 minutes.

That's why the Star Wars special has such a bad rap - because it's, well, Star Wars, a lot more people have sought it out to watch it. So it's not that the Christmas Special was any worse or better than its contemporaries, but that so many more people have seen how awful it is and assume it's unique - believe me, it wasn't.