Lucas Wants TV 'Star Wars' Film Banned
Moviemaker George Lucas wants his first Star Wars sequel banned, as he is so disappointed with its quality. The one-off, two-hour-long The Star Wars Holiday Special was originally screened on the CBS network in 1978 and tells the story of Chewbacca's journey home with Hans Solo to celebrate Life Day with his family. During the course of the much-maligned movie, Carrie Fisher's beautiful Leia is seen reducing Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker to tears with a song. A contributor on the Star Wars website comments, "The Holiday Special has always been the red-headed step child of the Star Wars family." While a source at LucasFilm adds, "The Holiday Special was the biggest f***-up ever. The Force was definitely not with Mr. Lucas the day that doozy was born."
Star Wars Holiday Special
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Star Wars Holiday Special
from imdb:
- The Fanciful Norwegian
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Teegeeack
Lucas' opinion of the Holiday Special isn't exactly a secret. I'm not even sure what "news" the IMDb is reporting here; the headline and the opening sentence ("Lucas calls for banning of own film!") seems sensational enough, until you read the rest of the "article" and notice that nowhere do they actually quote Lucas as saying any such thing. Lucas obviously wants it suppressed and has done a pretty good job of doing so -- unless I'm mistaken, the only copies circulating are dupes made from an off-air home video recording of the original 1978 broadcast, although such copies are easy to come by -- but that's hardly tantamount to a "ban." And I honestly don't know what to make of the fact that the IMDb is using message board posters as news sources and openly admitting it; I am impressed, however, that they have a secret source inside Lucasfilm for the sole purpose of providing witty zingers.
Anyway, if you want to see it, the bootlegs are out there. Supper Happy Fun sells it, among others; you can also download it from the usual suspects (Bittorrent, eMule, etc.). The Unknown Movies has a fairly comprehensive review, but if you just want a one-sentence summary to whet your appetite, here it is: it's a "Star Wars" Christmas special (with everything that entails, including musical numbers) with Harvey Korman and Bea Arthur. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time...
Anyway, if you want to see it, the bootlegs are out there. Supper Happy Fun sells it, among others; you can also download it from the usual suspects (Bittorrent, eMule, etc.). The Unknown Movies has a fairly comprehensive review, but if you just want a one-sentence summary to whet your appetite, here it is: it's a "Star Wars" Christmas special (with everything that entails, including musical numbers) with Harvey Korman and Bea Arthur. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time...
- manicsounds
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- tristan
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- rumz
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- cdnchris
- Site Admin
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My buddy's brother has I swear every bootleg ever available and he has/had this. I watched it when I was much younger and even then it was absolutely brutal!! But now I must watch it again. I have to find out when he's coming back home so I can borrow it maybe (he had dreams of being a filmmaker but now he's in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick fishing.) I don't remember much clearly but the animation was pretty crappy and the whole thing reaked of cheese.
- Tommy Sleeb
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:14 am
- Location: The Heartland, USA
I watched this about 10 years ago and it was excrutiating. It is poossibly the biggest train wreck in network television history. The thing is that it's really boring b/c it involves Chewbacca's family and so fully half of the dialogue is wookie grunting. It does need to be seen to be believed but once is more than enough.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
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- Faux Hulot
- Jack Of All Tirades
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- Faux Hulot
- Jack Of All Tirades
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- Fletch F. Fletch
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- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
I wonder if George Lucas will doubt his marketing decisions again in another twenty years when reminded of this awesome, awesome invention:
- milk114
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:38 pm
- Location: Mar Vista, Los Angeles
hehehe... darth tater
I've seen this accursed holiday special and must say that watching something that is one-third in Wookie grunts is not appealing. Neither is a Star Wars tie-in that doesn't feature any Star Wars characters or advance the plot in any way. This type of thinking is what created the Ewok adventures, though they had some pesky kids to hang around and for the audience to relate to (and how did they decipher those grunts). This special can be found on peer-to-peer thingies... a friend made a dvd of it with shitty (on purpose) graphics on the cover and menu. Horrible time for all.
I've seen this accursed holiday special and must say that watching something that is one-third in Wookie grunts is not appealing. Neither is a Star Wars tie-in that doesn't feature any Star Wars characters or advance the plot in any way. This type of thinking is what created the Ewok adventures, though they had some pesky kids to hang around and for the audience to relate to (and how did they decipher those grunts). This special can be found on peer-to-peer thingies... a friend made a dvd of it with shitty (on purpose) graphics on the cover and menu. Horrible time for all.
- bcsparker
- Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:41 am
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I haven't seen the special, but to anyone who wants to, it is available on DVD from www.revok.com. View at your own risk!
- timothy.newsum
- Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:56 pm
If you're in the mood for an endurance-trial, the Star Wars Holiday Special is up at YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w
- Anthony
- Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:38 pm
- Location: Berkeley, CA
I just watched the SWHS. My god, George Lucas should be taken outside and horse-whipped for that monstrosity. The best part was Carrie Fisher singing at the end. My cousin could have done a better animation segment. And I just loved the Jefferson Starship performance. At first I laughed, then I cried, then I fast forwarded, then I cheered when it was all over.
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec
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Phil Hall at FilmThreat ran a great piece about the special: http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?sec ... res&Id=888
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
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Actually, he had nothing to do with this production. The characters were licensed out leading to this abomination of a production. No wonder he became an insane perfectionist/revisionist......Joe Buck wrote:the Holiday special is almost like a test-run for the Prequels. Stupid garbage. See what happens when you let Lucas sit in the directors chair?
- barnyard078
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:37 pm