Fun fact: the Holiday Special contains the first appearance of Boba Fett in Star Wars (it was released before Empire), and is also the first time we learn his name and hear him speak.
They forgot to mention that this bad special also introduced several things that stayed in the Star Wars universe. Chewbacca’s home planet and Boba Fett was also introduced here first
@@thema1998 Yeah the blue fish guy he captures in the ice planet cantina does, when he goes downstairs to "evacuate his thorax" (take a dump and we see the ship's "space toity" behind him as he's chatting about how he hoped to be home for "Life Day" (the first time we saw a toilet in the Star Wars Universe AFAIK...) So we know that "Life Day" is now a thing... as for the Holiday Special (which I just recently saw at a friend's house over Christmas) well, maybe it's like that season of "Dallas" that was all "just a dream"... I guess maybe Chewbacca got some bad mushrooms or something LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
Some people: “omg the Phantom menace or The last Jedi are the worst Star Wars films to come out of the series” Me, an intellectual: “y’all see Chewbacca celebrate Christmas yet?”
"The phantom menace was watchable" ABSOLUTELY NOT. I had to skip multiple parts of that movie. Also I really like the Last Jedi and rise of Skywalker or whatever they are called
Fun fact: I actually have part of the original script from this special. The part where Leia sings the life day song. I keep it in very good condition. My father brought it around 1995 in an auction before I was even born. It must've been a fortune, he was obsessed with collecting everything Star Wars
Give it a while mark my words at least they’ll get expanded in the comics and at best they may show them in whatever clone wars like animation pops up for the sequels in a few years
Star Wars was the first time Studios understood the power of Merchandising and Licensing. They learned this lesson because 20th Century Fox signed all rights over to George Lucas and watched him become a millionaire overnight. Geroge Lucas, when he owned LucasFilms, made more from his Merchandising and Licensing than he ever made from the Box office.
Video did not do an adequate job demonstrating how cringey that special was. You might get the impression that it was like what would happen if the Phantom Menace had a high school drama production budget. And that would indeed be bad. But it was soooo much worse. Think Phantom Menace, high school budget, but also crossed with The Captain & Tennille Show. No, the originals, not the MXC versions. Because that would have been fantastic!
maninredhelm The Star Wars Holiday Special was probably best summed up A.V. Club contributorNathan Rabin, who described it as being “written and directed by a sentient bag of cocaine.”
+maninredheim So true. It wasn't really that it just didn't fit the universe, as the video implied--it was objectively bad in every possible way, even if you weren't a Star Wars fan.
My father watched it when he was 6 in Peru. He says it still tromitises him till this day. They advertised it as the Thanksgiving special there, and in Latin America, Thanksgiving well isn't a thing, so that was extremely confusing to them. But then to add, they called it something else in the special, so it was even more confusing.
I watched it. I was committed to completing it. I got drunk halfway through (Christmas Eve), but I still watched it. It was one of the most difficult things to watch. I dare you all to try it out!
Cillian Brouder your to late I saw the whole thing from the cooking channel with the bantha meat to the tatooine curfew to the robed wookies I'm going to Barry my self 6 feet deep now.
i think a lot of the video essay scene on youtube, including Vox, is following his lead, so i think we can expect a lot more of this style for a good while
D bro I grew quite the variety of kush this summer. At least 6 of my plants had kush genetics. I highly recommend Blessings OG Kush bred by Gage Green Group. It has the most abundant and absurdly large trichome heads I've ever seen.
Nice perspectives on the creation of the SW Holiday Special. It is also well worth noting that CBS wanted the special long enough to fill a full hour time slot to sell more commercial air time, so filler material was added which contributed to the train wreck.
This cleared up some stuff for me. I remember watching Caravan of Courage and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor as a kid and noticing that they didn't seem to fit within the Star Wars universe.
I was almost 10 when the special aired, had experienced Star Wars, and was so excited for this special. It was a different time, when if you loved a movie you had nothing to relive it but memories (pre-merch) and in the case of Star Wars a wait of 3 years for another chance to be immersed in that glorious universe. Television had 2 channels, 3 if the weather was right, and programming sucked. This special was to be an amazing gift, a treasure, something to focus on and relish and memorize and rehash endlessly with friends. And it was sooooooo bad. Like soul-crushing bad. Not as bad as a trump presidency but close.
Totallly agree Pete. Star Wars presented such a fantastic but coherent universe. The holiday special seemed obscene and insulting by comparison. I'd completely blocked my memories of the thing until being reminded that it existed, and it didn't spoil the immersion and thrill of watching the next chapters in the trilogy.
No worries. I am afflicted with a political fury that has tainted all aspects of my life for the past year. You make a valid point and i will make an effort to focus my political energy in a more constructive direction.
I was 11 when this special came out. At the time, I thought it was a special that was going to be shown every Christmas. It had some great parts (Bobo Fett cartoon) while some were not so great (Carrie Fisher did not look well and seemed to be in a daze). Years later, I read about it and I could understand why Lucas had burned the entire script and wanted to destroy any records of this special.
The storyline for the Ewok movies came from George Lucas so it was his idea or at the very least he approved the inclusion of a shape-shifting witch (Nightsister) into the Starwars universe.
Jess Stuart oh god I honestly hope they don’t make any more Star Wars episodes after this trilogy. Hopefully they just stick to doing anthology movies. Star Wars is actually getting better again after the prequels and I would rather end now on a high note than get a bunch more episodes and end on a low.
This was a great analysis. I like your comments that these early "Star Wars" projects were the first attempts to define the universe before the official definitions were created. People were letting their imaginations go wild. Some projects were great and some, like the holiday special, were really strange. It's like that whenever you are expanding a universe. I was a kid when saw the holiday special. It was weird, for sure, and I was disappointed in much of it. But I did like some of the segments (like the animated short and the closing time segment). I also liked the idea that Chewbacca had a family and the Life Day celebration. I did not like the Dionne Warwick virtual reality segment and the cooking show. I also remember the first Marvel comics and how delightfully odd they were. I liked the Holiday Special screenwriter's comment that they wanted to have fun with the concept. That is a great view to have when you think of the kids playing with the figures and dreaming up their own stories. I just don't think it worked out with a variety show format.
It may have only been screened once in the US but it was screened TWICE in Australia (at least in Sydney it was), a few years apart. I watched the first time (we were on holiday - out of town - at my grandfather's place) and the next time we had a vcr, so I taped it.
I was so pissed when they scraped the EU. I absolutely loved the storyline behind Lwhekk, the Emperor reincarnated in Byss, the Yuuzhan vong, Thrawn, and Emperor Fel.
David Jones I respectfully disagree with you. When Disney was considering buying the rights to Star Wars, they should’ve thought about the potential challenges with the EU. If the EU is as over-saturated as you claim, they could’ve made movies based on events in it. Instead, Disney relegated the Star Wars canon and injected their own narrative into the franchise, which is a little bit insulting to me, a long time Star Wars fan. I haven’t seen the new movie, but Ep VII was pretty dreadful, and Rogue One was largely forgettable, IMO.
Fully agree. Hey I understand people like the Expanded Universe, and just because it's no longer official canon is no reason to stop. But if they wanted to tell new stories, having to deal with the very varying quality of stories in the EU, some of which flat out contradicted each other, would have been too much of an obstacle.
EU already had too many stories and too much info that contradicted itself. That doesn't make for good canon when multiple canon sources are pointing to each other and saying it is wrong. It NEEDED to be wiped, otherwise you just had to decide as an individual what you simply want to believe more which you can already do with none of it being canon. Can you imagine the lunacy of expecting every single person who would ever write new movies for star wars being expected to read all of the expanded universe just to make sure there were no potential conflicts? Don't be absurd. EU had to go, no way around it. It was a good call.
As an expanded universe aficionado, I approve this video. But the idea that EU fans were merely "disappointed" is not true. We were PISSED! Sure, there's a LOT of crap in the Expanded Universe, but much of the storyline is simply amazing and could have easily been adapted into multi-billion-dollar grossing movies (examples include material from the first several novels in the "X-Wing" series). Instead Disney opted for a shallow copy of A New Hope that took no risks and left any fan who has invested any serious amount of time into Star Wars yawning. (IMO, even The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were better than The Force Awakens.) What I would have done: throw out all the comics, the graphic novels, and the New Jedi Order, and keep the Thrawn Trilogy, the Bounty Hunter Tales, and the first several X-wing novels.
you have to think from a business perspective. They were going to introduce star wars to the new generation of star war fans. Force awakens was a good introduction to the franchise for new audiences.
I actually liked NJO,it was sorta edgy and ridiculous in a lot of places but the idea of an epic story touching pretty much every person in the galaxy and forcing them to fight an external enemy was pretty neat. I also quite liked a lot of the Vong internal politics and how they were shown to be a very much vulnerable enemy, even if they seemed to be destroying the entire galaxy.
Disney isn't interested in managing a complicated universe, lore, and fan base. They just want to make money. Atleast they're not Fox... oh wait... _(fox Disney merger)_
0:33 OMFG I remember my dad showing me the star wars holiday special cuz we where big Star Wars fans, but in the end we got nightmares from Chewbacca’s family.
Yeah. If you look at the original work print for Star Wars 1977, it was completely unwatchable. There were so many people working behind the scenes that saved the first movie from being forgettable campy trash.
Atleast the prequels gave us plenty of memes, what classic scenes and lines can you remember from the sequel trilogy so far that are not marvel style quips?
Mark Hamil's last comment there from 1983's Good Morning Britain are so ironic now! Given he did hand down Excalibur to another generation, only for Luke to toss Excalibur over his shoulder saying; "to hell with all that."
An EU would require people to contribute things outside the movies, considering how Disney nuked the last one and destroyed coherency with the latest movies. Am doubtful anyone will bother making content for star wars to anything to the same degree.
I haven't even watched this yet and I can tell you exactly why it happened. You won't understand it, but it's the truth. I was 3 years old in 1977, and though I didn't have any point of reference at the time, I can honestly say that the experience was unlike anything seen before or since. It was an absolute phenomenon. A movie about space and ships and lasers and aliens, which were really just the setting for the hero's journey story that everyone is familiar with everywhere. It was brand new and exciting, but worn out and familiar. The toys didn't come out until I was 4 - in 1978, and the movie was re-released that year as well. There were no vieo store rentals, so there was no way to watch it unless it came out in theaters again. I had "the story of star wars" which was a cassette that was narrated by Roscoe Lee Brown and featured quotes from the movie ( you can find it on YT). But people wanted more. Hard to believe now, but George Lucas and company we're worried that people would forget about star wars if they had to wait 3 years between it and the empire strikes back, so the variety hour thing was put together looking at it now, it's absolutely awful, but seeing Han, Leia, Luke and Darth Vader again was amazing. I remember hoping it would be a tv show. Before the internet, the holiday specialwas so obscure that people like me wondered if we really saw it, or if it was just some weird delusion. No one talked about it or wrote about it . For all we knew it didn't exist. But of course then the internet happened and here we are. So it happened because Star Wars was a phenomenon unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, and they we're worried that people would lose interest in it if they had to wait three years. As for the bizarre cameos, like Bea Arthur and Art Carney - that really does speak to how universally loved the movie was. Everyone had seen it, everyone knew about it, and everyone thought it would be fun to be a part of. It was even bigger than the Beatles because it crossed generations.
Here's the scenario: In 1978, CBS was still controlled by the same old men who were making TV shows in the 50s, the kind of shows with Borscht-Belt humor. They were the same kind of men who still wore thick-rimmed glasses and used Vitalis in their hair, and had no idea what to make of this genius maverick George Lucas. They looked at the script and the project and said, "What is this, some kinda space-ape-dog opera? Throw some songs in there! And Art Carney! The kids are gonna wanna see Art Carney!" This is also a condition known as "Dirk Richter Syndrome" as in, "Dirk Richter is 73, and he's dead." While the SWHS had its heart in the right place, the interference from the studio heads who had no idea what they were doing turned it into a laughingstock. As for the original SW cast not wishing to acknowledge the special, I think it's kind of a Dorian Gray thing... they'll spontaneously die if they address its existence.
My theory on the Star Wars Holiday Special is that it's in-universe Imperial propaganda used to make the beloved Rebel leaders look stupid, so that people would side with them. And Life Day is hideously misportrayed, because of Imperial human supremacy. Or, it's awful quality is used to torture Rebel sympathizers until they change sides/commit suicide/turn to stone/go insane/blind and deaf to cope with what they saw/a combination of the above.
Three-quarters of the reason the Holiday Special looks soooooo bad is because it was shot directly on videotape. Had it been filmed, it still would be bad, but it wouldn’t have looked like it was made by middle school AV geeks!
To be fair, "why all the long hairy faces?" is just as bad as "Your heart is as cold as this planet," "I don't like sand," and "This is how we win, by saving what we love."
I have very vague memories of watching Star Wars, the first one, probably in the early 80s, on TV; broadcast by one of the major networks. It was the same movie we all know and love, but because it was on TV it had commercial breaks every 15 minutes or so. What I remember was there being short, say, 15 second segments of the Flintstones which served as an intro and outro to those commercial breaks. It was Fred and Barney looking up at the night sky and cracking jokes about "the wars up there" and stuff like that. My friend tells me I've lost my mind and there was never any such Star Wars--Flintstones crossover. He's convinced that in the dark recesses of my mind I'm conflating a network presentation of Star Wars (which could very likely have happened) with some Flintstones Christmas special or something like that. Maybe they were both on at roughly the same time. Does anyone out there in the UA-cam world have any idea of what I'm talking about? Did anyone else ever see Star Wars on TV with quick, commercial intro/outro spots featuring the Flintstones? I think I am losing my mind.
I actually really like the theory put forth here. Star Wars is popular, Pink Lady and Jeff hadn't killed off variety shows, and put that against the backdrop of the cinema scene at the time? To keep Star Wars in the public consciousness, a holiday special variety show is as good as anything.
Lol! Harrison Ford's reaction when Conan O'Brien revealed he had a Tape of the SW Holiday Special... I think had George Lucas' other planned sequel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" would've been better, but the animated sequence was very good. And if you think THIS was bad, you haven't seen Episode VIII.
Why were Star Wars 4,5,6 before 1,2,3?
Because in charge of sheduling, Yoda was.
Approved.
Thank you, this made my day.
conwayd 007 A joke it was.
Roses are red
Violets are red
The revolution will come
And the gulag for you
conwayd 007 missed the joke, you did.
Anyone else think seeing Harrison Ford traumatized pretty hilarious.
Quade Ong
He was really high in that interview.
Carl Siemens seriously? It seemed more like PTSD
Quade Ong
PTSD, from a variety show?
Carl Siemens from the holiday special
Best part
That Mark Hamill clip at the end tho
Warning. Big Virus above me.
Doran Martell 😂😂
Where can I get that video?
ua-cam.com/video/4UGV7WVB-bA/v-deo.html
There it is
CHILLS
Fun fact: the Holiday Special contains the first appearance of Boba Fett in Star Wars (it was released before Empire), and is also the first time we learn his name and hear him speak.
Suicide seems like an option after reading this
Nope, that's not true, he was seen in some celebration thing before that
Even before this Boba Fett was in the deleted Han and Jabba scene. Though he doesn't speak and the scene wasn't in the theatrical cut.
@@troyjardine5850 Fett was a real actor digitally added to the scene (though not Jeremy Bulloch).
@@mn-mq6ml that was a parade.
"Everything in Star Wars has a story..."
Except for Snoke.
And Rey's parents.
And how Leia learned to use the Force.
And why Finn and Rose saved animals but not slave children.
And How Ghost Yoda can cause lighting and bonk people on the head.
I love The Last Jedi, but I laughed.
They forgot to mention that this bad special also introduced several things that stayed in the Star Wars universe. Chewbacca’s home planet and Boba Fett was also introduced here first
The first episode of The Mandalorian mentions "Life Day". Does that mean the SWHS is canon?
WHAT?! The Mandalorian actually mentioned "Life Day"? Wow! 😆
You know, I wonder if The Mandalorian is going to do a remade Holiday Special...
@@thema1998 Yeah the blue fish guy he captures in the ice planet cantina does, when he goes downstairs to "evacuate his thorax" (take a dump and we see the ship's "space toity" behind him as he's chatting about how he hoped to be home for "Life Day" (the first time we saw a toilet in the Star Wars Universe AFAIK...)
So we know that "Life Day" is now a thing... as for the Holiday Special (which I just recently saw at a friend's house over Christmas) well, maybe it's like that season of "Dallas" that was all "just a dream"... I guess maybe Chewbacca got some bad mushrooms or something LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
@Benjamin Ahlers Bea Arthur's character is canon too. She's mentioned in Disney's EU.
Life day exists but the holiday special doesn't
Some people: “omg the Phantom menace or The last Jedi are the worst Star Wars films to come out of the series”
Me, an intellectual: “y’all see Chewbacca celebrate Christmas yet?”
Ryaquaza 1 exactly, say what you want about any of the films, but they totally missed the mark of ever becoming worse than this special!!
*LIFE DAY!!!!*
Gamingbeaver
after watching episode 9: omg Last jedi and Rise of skywalker are the worst star wars films to come out of the series. RIP Star wars
"The phantom menace was watchable" ABSOLUTELY NOT. I had to skip multiple parts of that movie.
Also I really like the Last Jedi and rise of Skywalker or whatever they are called
Fun fact: I actually have part of the original script from this special. The part where Leia sings the life day song. I keep it in very good condition. My father brought it around 1995 in an auction before I was even born. It must've been a fortune, he was obsessed with collecting everything Star Wars
pog
Nicee. You must feel special lol
@@parvchetri0995 I feel (holiday) special
@@KGBeast. hahaha nice pun there lol 😆
Thats AMAZING
Explanation....The 70’s and cocaine.
I was thinking they were on hallucinogens, but sure, we'll go with coke😂
Must have been... or peyote...
@@Tomanton22 I did, unfortunately... Kid😂 I'm old enough to have seen Star Wars in the cinema
R2D2, STOP SNORTING THE COCAINE
Cocaine was the 1980s, weed and doobies were the 1970s.
That's why we can't have pink Vader in Battlefront II.
Or Vader at all, for that matter.
Brian Pogue what
NORDENKID joke on EA putting 1/3 of the selling point behind a paywall
DEDxGaMeR - except they fixed everything. I haven't paid an extra dime but have all the characters
SCORCHER55 _ yh they fixed it, but that doesnt change the fact that they tried it. something like that SHOULDNT NEED to be changed in the first place
Happy life day
you too
Happy life day to you too!
Happy life day!
...so what do we celebrate on Life Day?... Do we celebrate the fact that we lived through watching this n DIDN'T commit suicide??? lol
Can't celebrate Life Day without a few death sticks.
I may have gone too far in a few places....
KeepOnDreamingDude too*
thanks
It's like [bad] poetry.
It's like poetry it rhymes...
666 likes
Just here to remind everyone that The Mandalorian made the Holiday Special canon.
Not really. Only "Life Day" became canon, but the other nonsensical events of Holiday Special are not canon.
@@3rdalbum That cooking show exists in the Star Wars universe and you can't convince me otherwise.
@@bengarbaag7114 if you go to her wookiepedia article she is counted as canon as mentioned in the galaxy edge cookbook
C H R I S T
@ThePOKOkitty It does, Solo made it canon.
*"Everything in Star Wars has a story"*
*Except for Knights Of Ren...*
Give it a while mark my words at least they’ll get expanded in the comics and at best they may show them in whatever clone wars like animation pops up for the sequels in a few years
You mean Star Wars Resistance?
or Snoke
They literally have one though. Read rise of Kylo ren.
Stop hating the sequel alot of people love it
Star Wars was the first time Studios understood the power of Merchandising and Licensing. They learned this lesson because 20th Century Fox signed all rights over to George Lucas and watched him become a millionaire overnight. Geroge Lucas, when he owned LucasFilms, made more from his Merchandising and Licensing than he ever made from the Box office.
theylied1776 , Pokemon also lived with this marketing mantra.
the hokey sing and dance was not.. and the casting was really these TV personalities that had no place in anything SW
"There are rules for what belongs in this universe"
Disney: How about no
George Lucas has no control over it anymore.
2:35
Why the hell did I think 2001:A Space Odyssey was released in 2001?!?!
It _was_ screened in quite a few places in 2001 ...
沈煜詳 You're not alone.
Because you're an idiot
Maybe because 1984 was released in 1984?
Because millennials.
2:03
Harrison Ford: get off my show...
Conan o'Brien: but, it's my show.
At least it doesn't have paid loot boxes.
ha
They fixed it
It does
Video did not do an adequate job demonstrating how cringey that special was. You might get the impression that it was like what would happen if the Phantom Menace had a high school drama production budget. And that would indeed be bad. But it was soooo much worse. Think Phantom Menace, high school budget, but also crossed with The Captain & Tennille Show. No, the originals, not the MXC versions. Because that would have been fantastic!
maninredhelm The Star Wars Holiday Special was probably best summed up A.V. Club contributorNathan Rabin, who described it as being “written and directed by a sentient bag of cocaine.”
Why do you mention Phantom Menace as something bad when it's a good movie?
That's because it's not the point of the video. The video is about explaining the EU and why TSWHS exists.
^Exactly, Carl.
+maninredheim So true. It wasn't really that it just didn't fit the universe, as the video implied--it was objectively bad in every possible way, even if you weren't a Star Wars fan.
At least now I know why it's there
Me too.....i knew it couldnt be actual choice if George Lucas wouldnt be named in credits.
My father watched it when he was 6 in Peru. He says it still tromitises him till this day. They advertised it as the Thanksgiving special there, and in Latin America, Thanksgiving well isn't a thing, so that was extremely confusing to them. But then to add, they called it something else in the special, so it was even more confusing.
“All around 2011”
The last Jedi: **released in 2016**
Unfortunately, history will not see it for you that way
Lt. Bagel Bites 2017*
Hey, we got Jake Skywalker in 2017
I like how Vox takes the time to read and replay to most of the comments on this video!
I know now what I will give my friend for Christmas
masterofsoccer1 bought it for my dad off ebay.
Guys, suicide is bad!! Stop encouraging it!
You're evil
I watched it. I was committed to completing it. I got drunk halfway through (Christmas Eve), but I still watched it. It was one of the most difficult things to watch. I dare you all to try it out!
No thanks.
Saeid Radder don't do it I was only joking, for the love of all that's good don't do it!
Cillian Brouder your to late I saw the whole thing from the cooking channel with the bantha meat to the tatooine curfew to the robed wookies I'm going to Barry my self 6 feet deep now.
Saeid Radder it kind of gets ingrained into your thoughts doesn't it?
Cillian Brouder gunna try to watch as many star wars facts videos as I can to was a way the memorize I will not sleep well to night
Sounds like Nerdwriter1.
i think a lot of the video essay scene on youtube, including Vox, is following his lead, so i think we can expect a lot more of this style for a good while
that's exactly what I thought, wow!!!! I LOVE his work
@@KristinaPup No I think he meant the guy LITERALLY sounds like Evan, the guy from Nerdwriter1
“The current trilogy is telling new stories”
Debatable.
Q: Why is Yoda such a good gardener?
A: Because he has a green thumb.
Delete your account please.
Sandcastle • Green fingers and a green thumb
He can grow good kush?
D bro I grew quite the variety of kush this summer. At least 6 of my plants had kush genetics. I highly recommend Blessings OG Kush bred by Gage Green Group. It has the most abundant and absurdly large trichome heads I've ever seen.
Why the long, hairy face?
I love how Anthony Daniels face changed at 1:35 when question about Holiday Special came out.
Kenny Baker was like "dodged that bullet".
Nice perspectives on the creation of the SW Holiday Special. It is also well worth noting that CBS wanted the special long enough to fill a full hour time slot to sell more commercial air time, so filler material was added which contributed to the train wreck.
“Oh around 2011” OMG Lucas was pretty damn accurate!
Nicholas Goss that’s scary of how accurate
Imagine being a 7th grader (Like me) that had to sit through that mess as it happened in 1978. I was diagnosed with childhood PTSD because of it.
Please put out a video on the whole Net Neutrality situation!!!!
life of curtis they already did.
ua-cam.com/video/HqXKEgTYZBQ/v-deo.html
"You can't play with it"??.
..someone needs to tell this to Rian Johnson
Johnson arguably played with it very badly.
"Every character has a story"
Up until now....
Eh
It's a shame that Disney has now ruined the sequel trilogy
"New Star Wars Bad, gives me upvotes"
This is so amazing....I did not have to FORCE myself to watch this video....
Alexander Hamilton .
Alexander Hamilton
How does a bastard
Orphan
That joke was pretty forced
This cleared up some stuff for me. I remember watching Caravan of Courage and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor as a kid and noticing that they didn't seem to fit within the Star Wars universe.
Harrison Ford's reaction to the mention of the Christmas special on Conan is the best. So funny.
Especially when he (jokingly) tried to choke Conan
This is a fantastic video. Superbly produced, edited, compiled etc. Thank you!
Does anyone have that interview clip from the end with Mark? I need to hear the rest!!
Its almost haunting. What could have been if fans did not attack the prequels.
**Cue fan boy rage comment with unnecessary arguments here**
dcruz453 *_Disney arrives_*
SpookyRoseV fuvk you bicth
You know this comment thread is WHAT I WAS SATIRIZING!
BoiMann 'fuvk' yourself mate
I was almost 10 when the special aired, had experienced Star Wars, and was so excited for this special. It was a different time, when if you loved a movie you had nothing to relive it but memories (pre-merch) and in the case of Star Wars a wait of 3 years for another chance to be immersed in that glorious universe. Television had 2 channels, 3 if the weather was right, and programming sucked. This special was to be an amazing gift, a treasure, something to focus on and relish and memorize and rehash endlessly with friends. And it was sooooooo bad. Like soul-crushing bad. Not as bad as a trump presidency but close.
Just trying to put it in perspective. If you are offended, my condolences.
81OH4Z4RD I was seven when I watched, and I thought it was bizarre and off putting.
Totallly agree Pete. Star Wars presented such a fantastic but coherent universe. The holiday special seemed obscene and insulting by comparison. I'd completely blocked my memories of the thing until being reminded that it existed, and it didn't spoil the immersion and thrill of watching the next chapters in the trilogy.
No worries. I am afflicted with a political fury that has tainted all aspects of my life for the past year. You make a valid point and i will make an effort to focus my political energy in a more constructive direction.
I was 11 when this special came out. At the time, I thought it was a special that was going to be shown every Christmas. It had some great parts (Bobo Fett cartoon) while some were not so great (Carrie Fisher did not look well and seemed to be in a daze). Years later, I read about it and I could understand why Lucas had burned the entire script and wanted to destroy any records of this special.
Last day of Net Neutrality possibly, anyone nervous?
can people like you stop mentioning this kind of thing that has nothing to do with the video for once
No I live in Sweden.
Kiro
It kind of does actually.
7.3 billion people don't care.
Vox Hmm...that's not suspicious at all. Yep I clicked on that vox account, and it's a fake. Nice scam.
The storyline for the Ewok movies came from George Lucas so it was his idea or at the very least he approved the inclusion of a shape-shifting witch (Nightsister) into the Starwars universe.
Well Flash Gordon had bird men and sorcerors so why the hell not? Also reminds me of Buck Rogers.
KotOR is still cannon, damit!
Canon*
So should Dark Forces & Jedi Knights
.....but.... We got Rogue One blowing it up
Just wait until Disney starts running out of ideas after episode 20. They'll eventually get to it. They just want to market it on their terms.
Jess Stuart oh god I honestly hope they don’t make any more Star Wars episodes after this trilogy. Hopefully they just stick to doing anthology movies. Star Wars is actually getting better again after the prequels and I would rather end now on a high note than get a bunch more episodes and end on a low.
Nope, it's not canon, either.
It's a space opera not the friggin' gospels of st george.
Life day was mentioned in the Mandalorian
"You can't play with it now"
Then please explain The Last Jedi
Well it worst than The Last Jedi
The so-called "fans" won't allow anyone to play with it.
Last Jedi was good, clear your mind and watch it again.
TLJ wasn’t that bad. It was definitely not worse than TPM/AOTC.
@@AmazingJayB51 The *best* _Star Wars_ film since 1980.
I kind of love how these weirder things from Star Wars are finding their way back in just in a more creative way.
Ah! Kill it! Kill it with fire!
No - this is like those giant centipedes in the south - nothing kills them! They just keep wriggling... ew...
This was a great analysis. I like your comments that these early "Star Wars" projects were the first attempts to define the universe before the official definitions were created. People were letting their imaginations go wild. Some projects were great and some, like the holiday special, were really strange. It's like that whenever you are expanding a universe. I was a kid when saw the holiday special. It was weird, for sure, and I was disappointed in much of it. But I did like some of the segments (like the animated short and the closing time segment). I also liked the idea that Chewbacca had a family and the Life Day celebration. I did not like the Dionne Warwick virtual reality segment and the cooking show. I also remember the first Marvel comics and how delightfully odd they were. I liked the Holiday Special screenwriter's comment that they wanted to have fun with the concept. That is a great view to have when you think of the kids playing with the figures and dreaming up their own stories. I just don't think it worked out with a variety show format.
I wish the Timothey Zahn books were cannon. So good.
They were. But I'm okay. Thrawn is back. :)
Canon is hat you want it to be....!
Rule #1 of Star Wars: We don’t talk about the holiday special
Normie
Rule 2: WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL
It may have only been screened once in the US but it was screened TWICE in Australia (at least in Sydney it was), a few years apart. I watched the first time (we were on holiday - out of town - at my grandfather's place) and the next time we had a vcr, so I taped it.
I was so pissed when they scraped the EU. I absolutely loved the storyline behind Lwhekk, the Emperor reincarnated in Byss, the Yuuzhan vong, Thrawn, and Emperor Fel.
I’m glad they wiped the canon. I still enjoy the EU, but I don’t want Disney adapting novels or tiptoeing around the overly saturated EU.
David Jones I respectfully disagree with you. When Disney was considering buying the rights to Star Wars, they should’ve thought about the potential challenges with the EU. If the EU is as over-saturated as you claim, they could’ve made movies based on events in it. Instead, Disney relegated the Star Wars canon and injected their own narrative into the franchise, which is a little bit insulting to me, a long time Star Wars fan.
I haven’t seen the new movie, but Ep VII was pretty dreadful, and Rogue One was largely forgettable, IMO.
Oh sorry they haven't oversaturated it already lol
Fully agree. Hey I understand people like the Expanded Universe, and just because it's no longer official canon is no reason to stop. But if they wanted to tell new stories, having to deal with the very varying quality of stories in the EU, some of which flat out contradicted each other, would have been too much of an obstacle.
EU already had too many stories and too much info that contradicted itself. That doesn't make for good canon when multiple canon sources are pointing to each other and saying it is wrong. It NEEDED to be wiped, otherwise you just had to decide as an individual what you simply want to believe more which you can already do with none of it being canon.
Can you imagine the lunacy of expecting every single person who would ever write new movies for star wars being expected to read all of the expanded universe just to make sure there were no potential conflicts? Don't be absurd. EU had to go, no way around it. It was a good call.
for a second i thought this comment was about brexit
As much as I do despise the Holiday Special, I can't help but love that it actually exists.
I'll never forget exiting the drive-inn after watching Star Wars from the back seat of mom's '71 Fastback. It was a life-changing movie.
As an expanded universe aficionado, I approve this video. But the idea that EU fans were merely "disappointed" is not true. We were PISSED! Sure, there's a LOT of crap in the Expanded Universe, but much of the storyline is simply amazing and could have easily been adapted into multi-billion-dollar grossing movies (examples include material from the first several novels in the "X-Wing" series).
Instead Disney opted for a shallow copy of A New Hope that took no risks and left any fan who has invested any serious amount of time into Star Wars yawning. (IMO, even The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were better than The Force Awakens.)
What I would have done: throw out all the comics, the graphic novels, and the New Jedi Order, and keep the Thrawn Trilogy, the Bounty Hunter Tales, and the first several X-wing novels.
you have to think from a business perspective. They were going to introduce star wars to the new generation of star war fans. Force awakens was a good introduction to the franchise for new audiences.
I actually liked NJO,it was sorta edgy and ridiculous in a lot of places but the idea of an epic story touching pretty much every person in the galaxy and forcing them to fight an external enemy was pretty neat. I also quite liked a lot of the Vong internal politics and how they were shown to be a very much vulnerable enemy, even if they seemed to be destroying the entire galaxy.
Are we going to touch on how Rogue One copied the concept of Dark Forces?
Disney isn't interested in managing a complicated universe, lore, and fan base. They just want to make money. Atleast they're not Fox... oh wait...
_(fox Disney merger)_
Ñmuertos
Everytime someone says Disney ruined Star Wars, show them this.
Great to see a mostly positive piece on the Expanded Universe, although The crying mountain, and the Crystal Star are a bit of a low blow!
That end part with Mark Hamill and him talking about his new role in the new movies was really cool.
0:33 OMFG I remember my dad showing me the star wars holiday special cuz we where big Star Wars fans, but in the end we got nightmares from Chewbacca’s family.
I got nightmares from Mark Hamill's hairdo... OL J R :)
Love how Harrison Ford just grabs at Conan when he says "I have a little bit of the tape"
THE PREQUELS WHERE NOT THAT BAD!!!
Come at me.
Jared Jeanotte prequels weren't worse than the originals
Yeah. If you look at the original work print for Star Wars 1977, it was completely unwatchable. There were so many people working behind the scenes that saved the first movie from being forgettable campy trash.
TPM and AOTC are pretty bad. However, I’ll be honest. I love ROTS. That’s easily one of the most entertaining Star Wars films
Atleast the prequels gave us plenty of memes, what classic scenes and lines can you remember from the sequel trilogy so far that are not marvel style quips?
+Jared Jeanotte
Dude, I love the prequels to death, and yeah they're flawed... But compared to THIS they're Citizen Kane and Casa Blanca...
Mark Hamil's last comment there from 1983's Good Morning Britain are so ironic now! Given he did hand down Excalibur to another generation, only for Luke to toss Excalibur over his shoulder saying; "to hell with all that."
I watched all of the Christmas special and it is 100x better then Disney Star Wars movies
No
This did a great job not talking about the holiday special that much.
they should do this again with new generation SW on purpose
13orrax that would be amazing.
+13orrax
Don't even joke like that...Shame on you...
It'd be so horrible. They should totally do it
An EU would require people to contribute things outside the movies, considering how Disney nuked the last one and destroyed coherency with the latest movies. Am doubtful anyone will bother making content for star wars to anything to the same degree.
"With special guest star..Nicholas Cage!,
I haven't even watched this yet and I can tell you exactly why it happened. You won't understand it, but it's the truth. I was 3 years old in 1977, and though I didn't have any point of reference at the time, I can honestly say that the experience was unlike anything seen before or since. It was an absolute phenomenon. A movie about space and ships and lasers and aliens, which were really just the setting for the hero's journey story that everyone is familiar with everywhere. It was brand new and exciting, but worn out and familiar.
The toys didn't come out until I was 4 - in 1978, and the movie was re-released that year as well. There were no vieo store rentals, so there was no way to watch it unless it came out in theaters again. I had "the story of star wars" which was a cassette that was narrated by Roscoe Lee Brown and featured quotes from the movie ( you can find it on YT). But people wanted more.
Hard to believe now, but George Lucas and company we're worried that people would forget about star wars if they had to wait 3 years between it and the empire strikes back, so the variety hour thing was put together looking at it now, it's absolutely awful, but seeing Han, Leia, Luke and Darth Vader again was amazing. I remember hoping it would be a tv show. Before the internet, the holiday specialwas so obscure that people like me wondered if we really saw it, or if it was just some weird delusion. No one talked about it or wrote about it . For all we knew it didn't exist. But of course then the internet happened and here we are.
So it happened because Star Wars was a phenomenon unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, and they we're worried that people would lose interest in it if they had to wait three years. As for the bizarre cameos, like Bea Arthur and Art Carney - that really does speak to how universally loved the movie was. Everyone had seen it, everyone knew about it, and everyone thought it would be fun to be a part of. It was even bigger than the Beatles because it crossed generations.
Do a video on shoegaze.
yes please!!!
...I mean, are they going to just put Tycho on loop or something?...
do you even shoegaze bro?
Asobi Seksu
There is bad. There is so bad, it's good. There is terrible. There is the Star Wars Holiday Special.
-Christmas- *_LIFE DAY_*
Here's the scenario:
In 1978, CBS was still controlled by the same old men who were making TV shows in the 50s, the kind of shows with Borscht-Belt humor. They were the same kind of men who still wore thick-rimmed glasses and used Vitalis in their hair, and had no idea what to make of this genius maverick George Lucas. They looked at the script and the project and said, "What is this, some kinda space-ape-dog opera? Throw some songs in there! And Art Carney! The kids are gonna wanna see Art Carney!" This is also a condition known as "Dirk Richter Syndrome" as in, "Dirk Richter is 73, and he's dead." While the SWHS had its heart in the right place, the interference from the studio heads who had no idea what they were doing turned it into a laughingstock.
As for the original SW cast not wishing to acknowledge the special, I think it's kind of a Dorian Gray thing... they'll spontaneously die if they address its existence.
My theory on the Star Wars Holiday Special is that it's in-universe Imperial propaganda used to make the beloved Rebel leaders look stupid, so that people would side with them. And Life Day is hideously misportrayed, because of Imperial human supremacy. Or, it's awful quality is used to torture Rebel sympathizers until they change sides/commit suicide/turn to stone/go insane/blind and deaf to cope with what they saw/a combination of the above.
Three-quarters of the reason the Holiday Special looks soooooo bad is because it was shot directly on videotape. Had it been filmed, it still would be bad, but it wouldn’t have looked like it was made by middle school AV geeks!
You forgot the Star Wars Ewok Adventures: Caravan of Courage and Battle for Endor.
I actually loved those movies when I was a child. It’s doubtful an adult could stomach them for too long.
This has to be one of the best videos I have ever seen on UA-cam. Thank you so much for this
God bless the state of Alabama and the next U.S. senator Doug Jones!
This is not the commentary place you are looking for.
If 2027 AD Earth in Star Wars universe(Canon version also celebrating 50th anniversary), will Star Wars become awful or awesome?
That's kind of random, don't you think?
Not for long, Matt. Not for long.
ua-cam.com/video/c8hwZ3iNcHc/v-deo.html
To be fair, "why all the long hairy faces?" is just as bad as "Your heart is as cold as this planet," "I don't like sand," and "This is how we win, by saving what we love."
To whomever is in charge of this video's settings: Please ban this BIGSURPRISE account that is replying to every comment
Thanks
Morrís Whenever someone says 'whomever' I think of The Office. 😂
Holiday Specials were better than the Last Jedi
I have very vague memories of watching Star Wars, the first one, probably in the early 80s, on TV; broadcast by one of the major networks. It was the same movie we all know and love, but because it was on TV it had commercial breaks every 15 minutes or so. What I remember was there being short, say, 15 second segments of the Flintstones which served as an intro and outro to those commercial breaks. It was Fred and Barney looking up at the night sky and cracking jokes about "the wars up there" and stuff like that. My friend tells me I've lost my mind and there was never any such Star Wars--Flintstones crossover. He's convinced that in the dark recesses of my mind I'm conflating a network presentation of Star Wars (which could very likely have happened) with some Flintstones Christmas special or something like that. Maybe they were both on at roughly the same time. Does anyone out there in the UA-cam world have any idea of what I'm talking about? Did anyone else ever see Star Wars on TV with quick, commercial intro/outro spots featuring the Flintstones? I think I am losing my mind.
There's no explaining the holiday special. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
“There are rules in this universe”
Someone should tell rian Johnson that
Fantastic video, Vox. Keep it up!
I recall having the record when I was a kid. My sister and I loved it! We listened to it every Christmas!
I actually really like the theory put forth here. Star Wars is popular, Pink Lady and Jeff hadn't killed off variety shows, and put that against the backdrop of the cinema scene at the time? To keep Star Wars in the public consciousness, a holiday special variety show is as good as anything.
This is called Learning From Your Mistakes.
*did anyone else get chills from that last clip of Mark Hamill?*
"Around 2011"
Only off by 4 years.
But still a close prediction
Now that "The Last Jedi" is out, this is no longer the worst SW-themed product out there...
I actually really liked the cartoon in the middle of it
6:09 This visual cue pretty much explains what happened to Star Wars.
elaborate?
7:04 this is a spoiler, a good spoiler :)
Lol! Harrison Ford's reaction when Conan O'Brien revealed he had a Tape of the SW Holiday Special...
I think had George Lucas' other planned sequel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" would've been better, but the animated sequence was very good.
And if you think THIS was bad, you haven't seen Episode VIII.
Shadows of the Empire should be canon!!
Matthew The Outrider is.
I was really looking forward to a Dash Rendar cameo in Solo.
2:00
Conan: "What if I were to tell you I had a little piece of tape right now?"
Harrison Ford: (reaches out to strangle Conan)
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂