- Time
- Post link
http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0193524/
Well, this movie aired one time only in 1978, on TV, for the holiday. The story is quiet simple : Chewbacca wants to visit his family on Kashyyyk for the "Life Day", the equivalent of our New Year's Eve. Of course, Chewie takes with him Han, Luke and Leia, as long as the famous droids, C3-PO and R2-D2. All the main characters were played by the original 1977's Star Wars actors, but it was not directed by Lucas. This was for the first part. The second part covered an animated short feature with Chewie, Han and C3-PO chasing Bobba Fett on a particular planet.
It's quiet kitsch and not really in the Star Wars spirit in many aspects (bad special effects, a lot of songs), but it's a part of the Star Wars universe. But Lucas found it so awful that he asked to me removed from the credits. Then of course, he wanted all the copies to be destroyed. He doesn't want to hear about this Special anymore, and for most parts we can understand why. So, there is not official edition, DVD or VHS, nothing. Just fan tapes ! If you want to watch this show, you're obliged to use peer-to-peer programs! I don't want to encourage them on that kind of forum and I have Divx, but it's the only way to get the Special (with hours and hours of ads)... So, as the OT, we can't except right now a restored version on DVD, Lucas will never grant it.
So, for those of you who know this TV special, what do you think? Should it be restored and re-published? Or just trashed in a black hole? I think even if it's quiet a bad show, Lucas should once again accept to past, this past which constructed his cinema, and once again give the choice to his fans. The SWHS is a great archive, it should be shown to the world. So, maybe we should ask George to re-edit it along with the OT, but I think it would be too much for now. ;-)
ps: I'm sorry if this subject has already been debated before. I just haven't found anything like it in the forum.