Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released) — Page 29

Awesome...nice to hear the Spanish version of Han Solo!

Is UPL a station ID, or something else?  Do you have any background on where this aired?

--SKot

I think it's from this if I'm not mistaken:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/SWHS-WHIO-1st-Gen-VHS-Preservation/topic/15917/

It's time for that annual tradition, although it was staged a day early. Maybe they didn't want to mystify the Sunday readers?

Sally Forth:

http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Sally_Forth/2013-11-16/

Look at the dates of my post and the first one in which the discussion of the youtube video begins in the other thread. 

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/SWHS-WHIO-1st-Gen-VHS-Preservation/post/666258/#TopicPost666258

Joel said:

I just stumbled across this is in a search for Captain Cosmic videos (I'm looking for the end credits from the 70s airings of Space Giants, if anyone has this stuff?) - it's only 16 seconds long, but there is a brief discussion of the Holiday Special. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxuvGphCqnQ

This is one of the few contemporary mentions of the Holiday Special, so it's pretty notable in that regard.

--SKot

Joel said:

That's what I thought, but couldn't articulate at 1AM. Thank you!

I suppose that Star Wars was such a juggernaut by fall of 1978, a press junket wasn't really needed? I'd love to see more contemporary mentions.

It would definitely be great to see more of this kind of thing...but oddly enough, there just doesn't seem have been much of anything done for promotion on TV or otherwise.  One does have to bear in mind the rarity of VCRs in 1978 - but even still, I doubt there was ever much more shown other than the usual CBS TV bumpers (which can be seen on YouTube).

Even in print, the only contemporary things promoting the Holiday Special that have turned up are a short blurb in TV guide with the 1-page ad, some local newspaper blurbs, and an article with photos in Starlog magazine.  Then pretty much silence on the subject until the 90s.

--SKot

Metaphysical questions arose at dinner last night.

In the finale of the Special, when all parties gather at the Tree of Life, is it a literal or metaphorical renditiion? Are the Wookiees, and our heroes, actually gathered at a location in space and time, or is it a spiritual transcendence?

MattMahdi said:

Metaphysical questions arose at dinner last night.

In the finale of the Special, when all parties gather at the Tree of Life, is it a literal or metaphorical renditiion? Are the Wookiees, and our heroes, actually gathered at a location in space and time, or is it a spiritual transcendence?

To me, it seems more metaphorical/spiritual. Because Han leaves to go do his thing, Chewie joins his family, and Luke, Leia and the droids are off in separate physical places as well. Chewbacca and his family gather around the table and hold their...snow globes...aloft, and we fade out to see the Wookiees making a spiritual journey into the light. After this, all the heroes (plus many other anonymous Wookiees) are united together in one place - but spiritually, not physically.  And then after the ceremony, we find ourselves back at the Wookiee table with the camera pulling back from the snow globes, where the family is still gathered...having never physically left.

It's cheesey, but it is the Holiday Special after all!

--SKot

I can buy the Wookiees on a spiritual quest with their snow globes. I have a hard time believing the others separately (some got there at different times) doing the same thing.

I can imagine a situation a la The Restaurant at the End of the Universe where Marvin isn't taking an elevator to the celebration. The Millennium Falcon parked with some other ships at the site that said "This way to join the Wookiee celebration".

But, as you say, it is a holiday special. And an horrific one at that. Mayhaps that's why we love it enough to generate over 700 posts.

MattMahdi said:

I can buy the Wookiees on a spiritual quest with their snow globes. I have a hard time believing the others separately (some got there at different times) doing the same thing.

I can imagine a situation a la The Restaurant at the End of the Universe where Marvin isn't taking an elevator to the celebration. The Millennium Falcon parked with some other ships at the site that said "This way to join the Wookiee celebration".

But, as you say, it is a holiday special. And an horrific one at that. Mayhaps that's why we love it enough to generate over 700 posts.

I sort of imagined that the others weren't really knowingly there...like the Wookiees have a way of consciously migrating to another plane temporarily, where the "spirits" of all of their friends exist, whether it's somewhere in the future or more likely completely outside of time and space itself.  Then they are able to return their consciousness back to their physical bodies afterwards.  Luke/Han/Leia, etc. don't consciously take part in this perhaps because they don't have the ability to do so...their spirits exist out there on that higher plane, but only the Wookiees can get there to interact with them.

Of course, this raises the question: why then are the droids there?  Surely they don't have the same "spirit" or consciousness that the others do?  Or maybe they really do after all, and that's what Lucas/the writers are trying to tell us.  And then why isn't Ben Kenobi there?  Or maybe he is...Chewbacca does see him during his flashback sequence.  Does it mean that all future and past friends should be there as well?  What about Lando?  What about Yoda?  So many questions!

Deep stuff, man.  With the Holiday Special, who'da thunk it?

--SKot

I recently noticed that the "cassette" with the holographic circus that Itchy takes off the shelf is just a regular cassette tape with the labels taken off. The closest match to the original tape that I can find is the Scotch Highlander.

And the best screenshot I could get of the original prop

Tasjo said:

I recently noticed that the "cassette" with the holographic circus that Itchy takes off the shelf is just a regular cassette tape with the labels taken off. The closest match to the original tape that I can find is the Scotch Highlander.

And the best screenshot I could get of the original prop

Hmm...that could be it!

I spent quite a while trying to determine exactly what kind of computer keyboard the Wookiees are using for the family terminal that looks a bit like a TRS-80.  In the end, it didn't resemble anything exactly that I found, so I think it was either something amazingly obscure (and I looked at some pretty obscure ones) or it was some kind of composite cobbled together from various things.

--SKot

SKot said:

Hmm...that could be it!

I spent quite a while trying to determine exactly what kind of computer keyboard the Wookiees are using for the family terminal that looks a bit like a TRS-80.  In the end, it didn't resemble anything exactly that I found, so I think it was either something amazingly obscure (and I looked at some pretty obscure ones) or it was some kind of composite cobbled together from various things.

--SKot

 I actually have one that I just removed the label from and it has the same covering over the reels as the prop.

I'd really like to figure out what Lumpy's viewer was made from. It looks like it could be a modified portable 8 track player, but I don't know what brand it could be.