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Who (if anyone) saw the Holiday Special in 1978 before they ever saw Star Wars?

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I have a very unique experience regarding the Star Wars films, and that is this:

The Star Wars Holiday Special was the first Star Wars film I ever saw. 

I was old enough (7) to have seen Star Wars in the theaters in 1977.  But I did not, because my parents had had a bad experience at a drive-in and refused to go to any theater again after that, at least until many years later.  So I missed ESB and ROTJ as well, and did not finally see Star Wars until years later, after it came out on video.  Yet I was the biggest Star Wars fan in my school (no exaggeration!) due to my devouring the novel, the comics, the cards, the toys, etc.

I happened to catch the Holiday Special at my grandparents' house on that fateful night of November 17th, 1978, and for the first time I was able to see my heroes come to life on the screen.  Years of therapy have helped me to live a somewhat normal life now.

Did anyone else at all have this same experience, where the Holiday Special was the first time you saw moving footage of the characters from Star Wars?

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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I've still never seen the Holiday Special.

:-(

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TV's Frink said:

I've still never seen the Holiday Special.

:-(

Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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From all the descriptions and screen grabs I'm probably better off leaving it unseen.

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It was never shown here so my first viewing was on a video CD on my adapted Greystation given to me by a guy at the office I was working at who claimed he was a gay man trapped inside a straight man's body.

That mental image has left more of a mark on me than the Holiday Special ever could.

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Frink,

You can't really call yourself a Star Wars fan until you've seen the Holiday Special and survived. Consider it a rite of passage.

You have homework.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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I too say the Holiday Special before Star Wars. I was 5 and remember watching it with my dad and sister. We went to see the movie shortly after, and I quickly forgot about the HS. I watched it again a few years back, and those terrible images now haunt me again!

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Erikstormtrooper said:

Frink,

You can't really call yourself a Star Wars fan until you've seen the Holiday Special and survived. Consider it a rite of passage.

You have homework.

Yeah, it's just laziness.

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TV's Frink said:

From all the descriptions and screen grabs I'm probably better off leaving it unseen.

That is wise.  I watched it a while back as I thought it might fall into the so-bad-it's-good category, but it was just bad.  By the end, I was just wishing for it to end.

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Fairly certain I fall into this category.  The Stormtrooper's ransacking of the Malla household, left a permanent mental dent on all five years of this youngster.  Then in the 1990 after getting the movies on VHS, the memories resurfaced when the ransacking didn't appear in the films.  What were these mental scenes, did they exist?  Few years later usenet got me in contact with fellow with a VHS version and soon there after, I was reaquainted with the horrors the Empire can bestow on a wookiee family.

Not sure when, but the first time I saw Star Wars was on a 16mm highly edited black and white version rented from the local library at a birthday party.  Not having a VCR, used to go to a friends to watch the Droids cartoons, since most saturday mornings was out playing soccer or baseball.  Definitely learned the stories from the storybooks and the trading cards.  (the inside cover of The Star Wars Storybook has my chicken scratch from 10/27/78 as if i'd checked it out from the library)  Parents probably bought it as the hype of winter marketing blitz swept through with the Holiday Special capping it off.  Not sure if I saw Empire in theaters, (probably did) but listened to the storybook record over and over.  Remember waiting in line to see RotJ.  Definitely the last kid in school still playing with the figures, luckily slightly too dense to realize I was being made fun of, but didn't care had Amanaman in my lunchbox.

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I saw Empire first on VHS and was not impressed.  Saw Star Wars on a bootleg tape recorded from an HBO broadcast.  The first time i was blown away by Star Wars was in 1985 when i saw Return of the Jedi in a small theater.  It was exciting and far better than the other 2 movies as a child who found them slow and boring.

If the Holiday Special was shot on video it really is not a film, lol.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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none said:

Definitely the last kid in school still playing with the figures, luckily slightly too dense to realize I was being made fun of, but didn't care had Amanaman in my lunchbox.

I like that quote, and I might have to steal and adapt it:

"I don't care; I've got Amanaman in my lunchbox!"

skyjedi2005 said:

If the Holiday Special was shot on video it really is not a film, lol.

True, in that sense!  But not every film is shot on film, either.

I think we can call it a "made for TV movie".

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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20th Century Mark said:

I too say the Holiday Special before Star Wars. I was 5 and remember watching it with my dad and sister. We went to see the movie shortly after, and I quickly forgot about the HS. I watched it again a few years back, and those terrible images now haunt me again!

There is another!

I can imagine that the impact of seeing Star Wars shortly after the Holiday Special would more easily erase those terrible images.  In my case, I saw the Holiday Special in 1978 and didn't see Star Wars until after it hit video...1983 or so.  So those images had a while to fester.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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I haven't seen the Holiday Special.  I'd never even heard of it until a few years ago, mainly because I wasn't yet alive at the time it was made.  With all the negative descriptions I've never been brave or motivated enough to actually go to the trouble of finding it somewhere.

My girlfriend describes it as cheesy, but not as bad as most people say.

Weird Al's music video for 'White and Nerdy' shows him making a shady deal for a copy of the Holiday Special on vhs.  lol

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hairy_hen said:

I'd never even heard of it until a few years ago, mainly because I wasn't yet alive at the time it was made.

Today's "Make Frink Feel Old" comment brought to you courtesy of hairy_hen.

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I saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977, but I vividly remember watching The Holiday Special over my aunts house when I was 6 years old in 1978, and it was laughable even then!  It was cheesy, lame, and I think we turned it off as I really can't remember how it ended.  Just think if that were ESB, Star Wars would have ended in 1980!

I still believe that every Star Wars fan should watch it once, because it is so bad, it's great to comment about it!

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I am MOSTLY sure I saw Star Wars in the drive-in with my brother and sister before I saw the Holiday Special.  Darth Vader was scary.

I remember watching the Holiday Special with some cousins at my Grandma's house.  I did a hand-stand against the couch during the cartoon when Han was being hung upside-down so I could see it correctly.

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Anyone who's been bored/drunk enough to watch lots of 70s stuff on youtube can tell you the holiday special is a pretty standard network variety show, like the type they'd crank out nightly.  The shittiness of it stands out way more now. At least the cartoon is pretty cool. (And it's on film, I wonder if they still have it to put on the blu-ray.)

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TV's Frink said:

From all the descriptions and screen grabs I'm probably better off leaving it unseen.

Alright, I have to jump in here and I don't mean this to be humorous.

When I first heard that Lucas had altered and added scenes to Star Wars for the "SE", I knew better than to allow him to put those images in my head.  The same for the SEs that followed.  I'd seen a few screencaps in magazine articles at the time, so I had an idea of how he'd jacked it up.

I made a matter-of-fact decision not to allow Lucas to gaslight me.  In my world, Star Wars - as it has existed since I first saw it in 1977 - is completely unchanged.

I saw the Holiday Special when it aired.  It's shockingly bad.  I mean actual head-shaking, eye-rubbing, "who the FUCK thought this was a good idea?!!!" bad.   As someone has already mentioned, not "so bad it's good" - just cringe inducing on every level.

Do yourself a favor, man.  Pass on the thing.  In the truest sense of the phrase - you aren't missing anything. 

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you aren't missing anything.

You're missing EVERYTHING!!!!

 

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I watched the "reader's digest" version of the Holiday Special a year or so ago on YouTube, and the cartoon separately sometime after that.

I don't think I could stand to watch the whole thing, though.

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SKot said:


I have a very unique experience regarding the Star Wars films, and that is this:

The Star Wars Holiday Special was the first Star Wars film I ever saw. 



I'm not 100% sure, but I've suspected for years that this might be the case with me, as well.

I didn't see SW until 1982 (theatrical re-release), and I was 8 when the SWHS aired, though I don't have a specific memory of seeing it.......

BUT.......

My Mom once mentioned that she remembered seeing something with Wookiees "living in trees, having families" etc., AND she was friends with Art Carney. If she had seen a TV listing that mentioned Art Carney, she would have watched it-----which means I would have watched it with her (having only 5 TV stations back then, I watched ANYTHING that was aimed at kids).

So- based on all that, it's a pretty good possibility that The SWHS was the 1st SW film I ever saw, as well.

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I'm ashamed to admit I'm watching the entire show now in a small video window while I browse. Fortunately, I can pause and resume when the awfulness becomes too overwhelming. Those first 10 minutes are excruciating...

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The Holiday Special at least holds a certain camp appeal. An Ed Wood version of Star Wars if you will. From Han Solo faking out the stormtrooper on Chewbacca's front porch, Art Carney wanting to eat some of Mala's famous Wookiee ookiees, Mark Hamill in terrible stage makeup to hide the ravages of his recent auto accident, Carrie singing to skinny ass, monk clothed Wookiees, to the grandpa Wookiee watching Star Wars porn on his virtual reality machine, this is pure 70's television cheese gold. In my humble opinion, it is a hell of a lot more entertaining then the PT could ever hope to be. 

"I'm making ice cream!"