The Begining and the End

What's wrong Han? Ear splitting alarms sounding aboard the Falcon? Toothache brought on by belting down one too many nerf steaks? No? Must be the fact that you are in The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Had the special been in any way palatable, it would have launched a series of similar holiday specials for other movie franchises. Just imagine: The Rocky Holiday Special, The Star Trek Holiday Special, and Indiana Jones and the Holiday of Specialness. Heck, we'd have seen The Lord of the Rings Holiday Special and The Pirates of the Caribbean Holiday Special by now. This paragraph may now official hold the record for the most frequent use of the words holiday and special. Special holiday.

As it was, Lucas' vision did not translate too well to the small screen in November of 1978. The world was not ready to hear Bea Arthur sing about life as a cantina bartender in a galaxy far, far away. The cast of the original movie all made it back to offer up some legitimacy, but to no avail. Even the debut of a Boba Fett, a character not to be seen again for nearly two years in The Empire Strikes Back, could keep this thing afloat. The Star Wars Holiday Special was the death of the cinema related, non-religious, one-off television program.

The special was only aired once. It was never released on VHS, beta, laserdisk, DVD, etc. (You can find bootleg copies at sci-fi conventions and online.) Lucas has only recently acknowledged its existence by allowing Hasbro to produce a 3-3/4 inch action figure dubbed Animated Debut Boba Fett.

See kids? The prequels really could have been worse. A LOT worse.