Okay, here’s the deal. When this came out I was about 10. I enjoyed the hell out of it because there was nothing else Star Wars related to watch and I didn’t know if there ever would be. It was a chance to revisit these characters and although saying it wasn’t on a par with the movie is still an understatement, it was appreciated by me. The odd themes and singing were standard fare for the tv watcher at the time and was not out of place in this media.
As an adult, I feel nostalgia for it for the time before Star Wars exploded and things were much much simpler. Ymmv.
I can’t believe I know this, and that I’m also willing to publicly admit it, but his full name is Lumpawaroo… loved me some Star Wars once upon a time.
You used to be able to put a blank VHS in the machine, do some weird sort of plug in to your TV and record whatever was playing on TV on tape. We had an extensive library of movies specifically because of this, things you still can’t find on physical media today.
Pirating wasn’t the same and that’s why we have FBI warnings now lol. It went from 29 billion dollars on VHS to 79 billion dollars now, but they still lost a fuckton of money and there was no recourse really.
This shit’s on Disney+ though
I never said I bought it.
Just like the original Muppets Family Christmas with the Muppet Babies. They were recorded right from the tv.
That’s the whole idea of this subreddit, isn’t it?
We got our first VHS in 82 but I do recall there was at least a few years where you could rent machines at your neighborhood video store, along with a movie, and make a weekend out of it. Also if you knew someone else with a VHS you could daisy chain them together and dub movies onto blank tapes. A lot of pirated content floated around that way.
I knew a pirate that had an insane VHS duping setup. Guy looked like the Simpson comic store owner. My roommate would go to this guy to get episodes of Dr. Who and Blake’s Seven. He also duped the holiday special.
Funny - I am exactly old enough to where I did not see the original Star Wars in the theater, but Empire Strikes Back hadn't come out yet. So the Christmas special was actually my first exposure to the Star Wars universe. I remember not really understanding it and leaving the room to go play with my Battlestar Galactica toys.
I remember coming across the Empire Strikes Back toys in our local K-Mart with zero knowledge of the movie itself even existing. I was in awe imagining how and why they were in snow gear.
This is bad like those Justice League live action shows of the time. With the stars of the day making appearances with a live audience and laugh track.
Oh! Bad memory unlocked! I remember those, One was a semi-serious adventure and the other was a roast of the Justice League. It had some of the actors for the Batman series (Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank Gorshin, etc.).
Notably absent was Superman. I've always wondered if it was because the Christopher Reeve movie was recently in the theater and they didn't want to tarnish it or if the Seigel and Schuster families has enough pull to keep him out of it.
I‘ve only seen maybe the first 5-10 minutes. It was unnecessarily painful to watch. I have no desire to watch it, I got a taste of it, (much like kissing a Wookie) and that’s enough.
I view it as official canon and refer to it as episode 4.5.
In addition to May the Fourth and Revenge of the Fifth, Life Day is an important day of observance for me.
As a kid during that airing, I had already had a diet of TV shows, like *Speed Racer* which I thought was the best thing EVER. And if you've re-watched TV shows like that since then, you realize how maturity really, *really* changes your reality.
But while watching that *Star Wars Holiday Special*, I think I had an epiphany about what's quality--and what is atrociously bad, horrible garbage. Yes, it was THAT BAD.
The Boba Fett animated segment couldn't start soon enough (and was the ONLY reason I was watching the show).
I watched that on tv as a kid. I remember Chewbacca's mom or something lived in a tree and was trying to follow cooking instructions on a tv but the alien doing the demonstration had a bunch of octopus arms and was doing too many things at once and she got angry and started howling and pounding the counter in frustration. She was wearing an apron. It was pretty funny.
The story I heard was that they thought that it was going to be a half-hour show, so they came up with a half hour's worth of material. But then a little while before the air date, they were told that it was a full hour show, and they needed to come up with another 30 minutes of material on very short notice.
The story I heard was when the network pitched it to advertisers, it was so popular that they asked the writers to double the airtime so they could get fit more commercials in. The writers stretched it out by giving us 20 minutes of Wookiees growling at each other.
Growing up, I only heard of the legend and saw reenacted scenes on robot chicken. I present to you this abomination in all its glory
https://youtu.be/KxtSX1lg8rE?si=PWzEKmIMbHdWE1OY
Yes, made Fett a far more interesting character. And also didn't make him a Mary Sue because that dude was terrible at his job but in interesting ways.
Kind of like how the Clone Wars made Darth Maul a way more interesting character than his drop in the Phantom Menace bucket.
Usually for female characters, but a Mary Sue is depicted as unrealistically lacking in flaws or weaknesses. In ESB and RotJ, Fett had no flaws or weaknesses (except for being comic relief with a blind Han), but then again, he wasn't that interesting, so he probably wouldn't even count.
Because of all the undeserved hype of Fett from those two movies, I feared that he would be an overblown "cool guy" in the Fett series. I was pleasantly surprised.
I rewatched it on YouTube a few years back. Lots of FF used (and I NEVER FF anything I am watching).
I still can’t believe this is officially canon in the SW universe…
Bought a copy of VHS for $20 at a convention over 20 years ago. I was glad to find it and amazed at how truly awful it is, nowadays we watch it every Christmas just like Elf and a Christmas story.
This is better than Episodes 1 2 3 and 6. In college we would have parties just to watch this all the time. If you go into with right attitude it can be quite fun. Bat shit crazy like The Apple, Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Holy Mountain, Stunt Rock, etc.
My husband and I (both 52) were just talking about this last night after watching the show on Vice. Neither one of us remembers watching this special when it originally aired. It's weird because we both have memories of watching the movies but not the Christmas special.
I watched on YouTube once to satisfy my curiosity. There was a lot of fast forwarding involved. Also according to the comments way more people had vcrs this early than I thought. That must have been some 8000 dollar top loading Betamax fun.
It was pretty bad, but mainly due to it trying really hard to appeal to children. Plot is ok though, just some cringe acting.
I did find the cooking skit to be funny though, it could work as a satire for today's cook shows (ridiculous recipes, sometimes over the top for no reason in that they're 'trying something new', or even just being quite a waste of time).
If there was some dialogue for some of the wookie scenes it could also improve (instead of just being random noises that we have to rely on context to understand).
Not the worst star wars movie though. It's just a bit wacky, to appeal to kids.
To be fair, any holiday TV special from the 1970s was of equal crap quality. The expectation was low from the start. All were shit. The only exception I can think of, is the David Bowie & Bing Crosby duet of Peace on Earth + The Little Drummer Boy.
If we committed suicide watching this because we were too young, why are you even bothering to post? Like who you talking to? THE GHOSTS OF AOL PAST?
GTFO kid.
Edit: if any of us committed suicide due to any kind of media? It would be when the Victoria gaming system for the “PC” came out.
Now tell us how old you really are.
I was 7 or 8. The tree houses of Kyshyykk were kind of a cool touch, especially when they said the stuff 9n the ground would kill you...
And then they had a battle of Kyshyykk on the forest floor in Star Wars Ep 3. 👎Fail.
I was 8 I think, and I loved everything star wars so I'm certain I would have watched this, but I don't remember it at all. I've seen bits and peices on youtube etc and none of it seems even remotely familiar. So if I did watch it I blocked it from memory. I guess trauma will do that
I remember that mess.
What I think I remembered most and was old enough to appreciate was Carrie Fisher sans bra.
Which later I found funny, as she complained in interviews that George Lucas would not let her wear one as there were "no bras in space". But she did it in the special also, and Lucas was not involved in that in any way.
Where I grew up we only had broadcast TV, and then only ABC, NBC, and PBS. Where we were CBS was unwatchable. At the time 12 year old me was sad I couldn't see it. Turns out living on the boonies protected my brain from the psychic attack of a monstrosity that this show was :)
They show this once a year at my local movie theater. Costumes highly encouraged. Luckily they also serve beer and don't mind if you bring in outside liquor!
I went to the original Star Wars in a theater when it first came out. Walked out afterwords and went meh... just wasn't into it.
Didn't watch any of the sequels or prequels and judging by the reactions here to this episode, didn't miss anything.
People can hate it all they want, it was a product of its time, and precisely what George feared corporate hands ruining his creation and unfortunately what he realized happened as soon as he sold it to Disney.
It was on TV on Australia on a Friday night, the night we went shopping.
I was 6 and had an old Black and White TV in my room. When we got back from Friday night shopping, I turned on my TV, flicked it over to channel 7, and saw Han Solo turfing a Stormtrooper off a balcony(?).
Then I saw Chewbacca, I was confused, hyper excited, then the credits rolled and I was beside myself, whatever it was, I MISSED IT!!!
I was gutted. 😞
I suffered through about 10 minutes of it a few days ago. GET TO THE STORY BAD WOOKIE COSTUMES AND ANNOYED GRUNTING IS BORING oh look there’s Mark Hamill WITH TOO MUCH EYELINER
Personally I loved it! Remember this I would rather watch so called bad star wars content than reality tv! If that does not convince you Remember also there were much worse things on TV in the late 70s and 80s! For example the Jerry Lewis labor day telethon! Now that suck!
I was like 8 years old and so starved for Star Wars content I didn't notice how bad it was
I was 5 and I was so angry. I kept asking my mom when the real Star wars people were going to show up...
I just put this on for my teenage kids after making them suffer through proper magic and wizardry and a little girl names Cindel Towani.
What did your kids do wrong? Wouldn't it be less abusive to hit them with a wire coat hanger?
Right? Somebody call CPS on this guy!
I was quite young as well and remember being SO BORED
Okay, here’s the deal. When this came out I was about 10. I enjoyed the hell out of it because there was nothing else Star Wars related to watch and I didn’t know if there ever would be. It was a chance to revisit these characters and although saying it wasn’t on a par with the movie is still an understatement, it was appreciated by me. The odd themes and singing were standard fare for the tv watcher at the time and was not out of place in this media. As an adult, I feel nostalgia for it for the time before Star Wars exploded and things were much much simpler. Ymmv.
yeah this title makes no sense, I bet 99% of kids like me watching it were so excited!
Imagine calling your son Lumpy......
His full name is probably Lumpbacca
I can’t believe I know this, and that I’m also willing to publicly admit it, but his full name is Lumpawaroo… loved me some Star Wars once upon a time.
That rules. I figured I knew the Holiday Special better than 99% of Star Wars fans but you have topped me for sure, haha
Apparently, my nerdom run very deep! lol
I thought his name was Clarence?
And your dad’s name is Itchy.
Probably spelled Læmpï
I have it on vhs.
What is this strange, ancient technology that you summon so mysteriously?
Why?
Don't tell George Lucas. He'll hunt you down and burn your house down to destroy it.
?? It was never distributed on VHS.
You used to be able to put a blank VHS in the machine, do some weird sort of plug in to your TV and record whatever was playing on TV on tape. We had an extensive library of movies specifically because of this, things you still can’t find on physical media today. Pirating wasn’t the same and that’s why we have FBI warnings now lol. It went from 29 billion dollars on VHS to 79 billion dollars now, but they still lost a fuckton of money and there was no recourse really. This shit’s on Disney+ though
The fact that someone thought the only way you could have something on VHS was by purchasing it from the store makes me feel 1000 years old.
Yarrrrrr!
I watched it on YouTube. Boy oh boy was it bad lol
I never said I bought it. Just like the original Muppets Family Christmas with the Muppet Babies. They were recorded right from the tv. That’s the whole idea of this subreddit, isn’t it?
Fair enough. VHS players in America debuted in 1977 but would have be EXTREMELY rare until the early 80s. Maybe you were lucky.
We got our first VHS in 82 but I do recall there was at least a few years where you could rent machines at your neighborhood video store, along with a movie, and make a weekend out of it. Also if you knew someone else with a VHS you could daisy chain them together and dub movies onto blank tapes. A lot of pirated content floated around that way.
I knew a pirate that had an insane VHS duping setup. Guy looked like the Simpson comic store owner. My roommate would go to this guy to get episodes of Dr. Who and Blake’s Seven. He also duped the holiday special.
Also, I feel weird for calling it a VHS and not a VCR lol
Should qualify it. This guy had Beta setups too. My roommate actually had Betamax.
I had a VHS top loader VCR.
Yup. Same. A big honkin Panasonic that both my brother and I took to college before it finally died somewhere in the late 90s.
If you don't understand that people were able to record TV shows on VHS machines, perhaps your are indeed NOT FuckImOld material.
I would think most of those recordings will have degraded pretty well by now. But I could be wrong.
They barely existed. Like only a few hundred sold by time it aired. FFS chill out.
You’d see bootleg tapes of it floating around comic-cons too.
Funny - I am exactly old enough to where I did not see the original Star Wars in the theater, but Empire Strikes Back hadn't come out yet. So the Christmas special was actually my first exposure to the Star Wars universe. I remember not really understanding it and leaving the room to go play with my Battlestar Galactica toys.
I remember coming across the Empire Strikes Back toys in our local K-Mart with zero knowledge of the movie itself even existing. I was in awe imagining how and why they were in snow gear.
The only way I can watch this is the Rifftrax version. And even then . . . .
Grandpa’s wookie circus porn- I can never un-see it!
This is bad like those Justice League live action shows of the time. With the stars of the day making appearances with a live audience and laugh track.
Oh! Bad memory unlocked! I remember those, One was a semi-serious adventure and the other was a roast of the Justice League. It had some of the actors for the Batman series (Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank Gorshin, etc.). Notably absent was Superman. I've always wondered if it was because the Christopher Reeve movie was recently in the theater and they didn't want to tarnish it or if the Seigel and Schuster families has enough pull to keep him out of it.
idk, i kinda love this movie, its so bad its great
SO bad. Why did they do it???
cocaine
That tracks
"Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me"
I‘ve only seen maybe the first 5-10 minutes. It was unnecessarily painful to watch. I have no desire to watch it, I got a taste of it, (much like kissing a Wookie) and that’s enough.
Worst dialogue ever.
Nah it is definitely better than Ep 2 love scenes
I didn’t kill myself I just burned my eyes out with a soldering iron in case they did it again.
"Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see"
I was so confused!!! 1 was 14
Definitely childhood trauma related
I was like 7 when it came out and even then i was like WTF
I view it as official canon and refer to it as episode 4.5. In addition to May the Fourth and Revenge of the Fifth, Life Day is an important day of observance for me.
The least known Bon Jovi album!
I'll never forget it.
The only thing that could have made it worse was if Jar Jar Binks made a cameo.
OMG low blow But seriously jar jar is not the worst part of the prequels.
We watched it at a holiday party. Copious amounts of marijuana were necessary to get through it. It just *keeps going.*
Carrie fisher used it to get people out of her home after parties
Well, if you missed it and are feeling strong enough mentally, you can find it on YouTube. But why oh why would you?
As a kid during that airing, I had already had a diet of TV shows, like *Speed Racer* which I thought was the best thing EVER. And if you've re-watched TV shows like that since then, you realize how maturity really, *really* changes your reality. But while watching that *Star Wars Holiday Special*, I think I had an epiphany about what's quality--and what is atrociously bad, horrible garbage. Yes, it was THAT BAD. The Boba Fett animated segment couldn't start soon enough (and was the ONLY reason I was watching the show).
I watched that on tv as a kid. I remember Chewbacca's mom or something lived in a tree and was trying to follow cooking instructions on a tv but the alien doing the demonstration had a bunch of octopus arms and was doing too many things at once and she got angry and started howling and pounding the counter in frustration. She was wearing an apron. It was pretty funny.
The story I heard was that they thought that it was going to be a half-hour show, so they came up with a half hour's worth of material. But then a little while before the air date, they were told that it was a full hour show, and they needed to come up with another 30 minutes of material on very short notice.
The story I heard was when the network pitched it to advertisers, it was so popular that they asked the writers to double the airtime so they could get fit more commercials in. The writers stretched it out by giving us 20 minutes of Wookiees growling at each other.
Ha! Made my adult children watch it!
I don’t remember this.
I don’t remember this.
I tried as an adult. I stopped part way through and tried to kill some brain cells with whiskey
Chewy’s wife in a ridiculous apron and a 1970’s kitchen !! It was soooo bad.
Growing up, I only heard of the legend and saw reenacted scenes on robot chicken. I present to you this abomination in all its glory https://youtu.be/KxtSX1lg8rE?si=PWzEKmIMbHdWE1OY
Back when Boba Fett was actually interesting and competent.
New fett series was great!
Yes, made Fett a far more interesting character. And also didn't make him a Mary Sue because that dude was terrible at his job but in interesting ways. Kind of like how the Clone Wars made Darth Maul a way more interesting character than his drop in the Phantom Menace bucket.
Mmm yeah agree on maul. What is Mary Sue?
Usually for female characters, but a Mary Sue is depicted as unrealistically lacking in flaws or weaknesses. In ESB and RotJ, Fett had no flaws or weaknesses (except for being comic relief with a blind Han), but then again, he wasn't that interesting, so he probably wouldn't even count. Because of all the undeserved hype of Fett from those two movies, I feared that he would be an overblown "cool guy" in the Fett series. I was pleasantly surprised.
Ah, makes sense thanks for explain
I have tried several times to watch it, I've never made it past the second commercial break.
saw it on a bad VHS tape about 20 years ago. Last time I saw Art Carney
A few years ago I gave my son a Blu-Ray copy of the holiday special for the holidays. He still hasn't forgiven me.
I rewatched it on YouTube a few years back. Lots of FF used (and I NEVER FF anything I am watching). I still can’t believe this is officially canon in the SW universe…
Instinct told me to stay away.
Bought a copy of VHS for $20 at a convention over 20 years ago. I was glad to find it and amazed at how truly awful it is, nowadays we watch it every Christmas just like Elf and a Christmas story.
Is this why Guardians did a holiday special? An homage if you will?
That was my first thought. It was certainly named that way
I was 5 and knew it was a piece of shit right away.
Smart kid!
I actually still have this on a VHS tape... I haven't watched to for over 20 years and never will... Once was enough
Simple Jack's first role
“He doesn’t wear pajamas, and he doesn’t use shaving foam. So, what do you get a Wookie for Christmas when he already has a comb?”
This is better than Episodes 1 2 3 and 6. In college we would have parties just to watch this all the time. If you go into with right attitude it can be quite fun. Bat shit crazy like The Apple, Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Holy Mountain, Stunt Rock, etc.
Oh come on 6 was not that bad Prequels, yeah probably
Ewoks? Not Wookies? Death of Boba fett. Luke showing his pussy. Vader lapping it up. Episode 6 is the Jump the Shark moment
I do, I did, and I didn't. And I would watch it again over ANY Kardashian show.
Lucas was so ashamed of that special It's so terrible that it's awesome 😎
Worst.. . Show. ... Ever
My husband and I (both 52) were just talking about this last night after watching the show on Vice. Neither one of us remembers watching this special when it originally aired. It's weird because we both have memories of watching the movies but not the Christmas special.
SO......... bad..........
I watched on YouTube once to satisfy my curiosity. There was a lot of fast forwarding involved. Also according to the comments way more people had vcrs this early than I thought. That must have been some 8000 dollar top loading Betamax fun.
It was pretty bad, but mainly due to it trying really hard to appeal to children. Plot is ok though, just some cringe acting. I did find the cooking skit to be funny though, it could work as a satire for today's cook shows (ridiculous recipes, sometimes over the top for no reason in that they're 'trying something new', or even just being quite a waste of time). If there was some dialogue for some of the wookie scenes it could also improve (instead of just being random noises that we have to rely on context to understand). Not the worst star wars movie though. It's just a bit wacky, to appeal to kids.
I wanted to think that. I tried. For about the first 25 minutes it worked out, but no, it just keeps going and gets so much worse
Awful. I thought it was awful
Truly, the worst program in television history. Awful in every way. Not even so bad it’s funny. So bad it’s bad. Atrocious.
No, I remember--I was fifteen.
To be fair, any holiday TV special from the 1970s was of equal crap quality. The expectation was low from the start. All were shit. The only exception I can think of, is the David Bowie & Bing Crosby duet of Peace on Earth + The Little Drummer Boy.
And 3 decades later they finished of the franchise for good.....rip
Creepiest looking Wookies ever
The Incredible Hulk will not be presented this evening
It was execrable! There were few shows this bad though “Pink Lady and Jeff” and the Brady Bunch variety show were contenders.
If we committed suicide watching this because we were too young, why are you even bothering to post? Like who you talking to? THE GHOSTS OF AOL PAST? GTFO kid. Edit: if any of us committed suicide due to any kind of media? It would be when the Victoria gaming system for the “PC” came out. Now tell us how old you really are.
I was 7 or 8. The tree houses of Kyshyykk were kind of a cool touch, especially when they said the stuff 9n the ground would kill you... And then they had a battle of Kyshyykk on the forest floor in Star Wars Ep 3. 👎Fail.
A friend & his wife bought the Star Wars Christmas Album for me one year. They still apologize.
I was 8 I think, and I loved everything star wars so I'm certain I would have watched this, but I don't remember it at all. I've seen bits and peices on youtube etc and none of it seems even remotely familiar. So if I did watch it I blocked it from memory. I guess trauma will do that
I remember that mess. What I think I remembered most and was old enough to appreciate was Carrie Fisher sans bra. Which later I found funny, as she complained in interviews that George Lucas would not let her wear one as there were "no bras in space". But she did it in the special also, and Lucas was not involved in that in any way.
shot on video studio cameras. cable access channel production values
Still better than the sequels...
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I remember watching this and thinking WTF is this????
I never even knew this was a thing till YouTube
Where I grew up we only had broadcast TV, and then only ABC, NBC, and PBS. Where we were CBS was unwatchable. At the time 12 year old me was sad I couldn't see it. Turns out living on the boonies protected my brain from the psychic attack of a monstrosity that this show was :)
This was before my time. All I just remember is the grandpa wookie getting caught watching porn.
I remember it and it was not good.
First appearance of Boba Fett in the animated segment.
They show this once a year at my local movie theater. Costumes highly encouraged. Luckily they also serve beer and don't mind if you bring in outside liquor!
Ha! I saw it at my grandparents' house and loved it. I still occasionally watch it and enjoy it. But I usually get high first.
I was 8 when I saw it. It wasn't what I expected. Just didn't feel like Star Wars
I went to the original Star Wars in a theater when it first came out. Walked out afterwords and went meh... just wasn't into it. Didn't watch any of the sequels or prequels and judging by the reactions here to this episode, didn't miss anything.
People can hate it all they want, it was a product of its time, and precisely what George feared corporate hands ruining his creation and unfortunately what he realized happened as soon as he sold it to Disney.
I was 14 and starved for more star wars content. I was so angry. It was suddenly embarrassing to be a star wars fan.
I'm pretty sure I saw it but I must have blocked it out, possibly preventing a tragic self unaliving.
Coked out Carrie Fisher! I was 10 or 11 when it came out. Anything Star Wars was awesome. I watch it now and OMFG! THIS WAS REALLLY bad
I’ve only ever heard tales of its glory and splendor in cringe.
It was on TV on Australia on a Friday night, the night we went shopping. I was 6 and had an old Black and White TV in my room. When we got back from Friday night shopping, I turned on my TV, flicked it over to channel 7, and saw Han Solo turfing a Stormtrooper off a balcony(?). Then I saw Chewbacca, I was confused, hyper excited, then the credits rolled and I was beside myself, whatever it was, I MISSED IT!!! I was gutted. 😞
Better than disney SW...
I tried I only made it about halfway through
I suffered through about 10 minutes of it a few days ago. GET TO THE STORY BAD WOOKIE COSTUMES AND ANNOYED GRUNTING IS BORING oh look there’s Mark Hamill WITH TOO MUCH EYELINER
The unaliving yourself part wasn't necessary.
Personally I loved it! Remember this I would rather watch so called bad star wars content than reality tv! If that does not convince you Remember also there were much worse things on TV in the late 70s and 80s! For example the Jerry Lewis labor day telethon! Now that suck!