joe26713

Zion said:

Joe you’re shattering my hopes and dreams! 😉 Just kidding, I have no reason to believe my theory is actually true. I just want it to be true because it would be funny.

well unfortunately, prepare to have them shattered again haha. just to be sure, i reached out to the good folks at Rifftrax asking if they were the ones who uploaded that version, or were the ones who added the crawl. got a response pretty fast actually:

the hunt continues…

as for the article, i agree, i’m not taking it as gospel or anything definitive, just a potential connective clue.

so as of right now the Holiday Special website is down again due to a hosting issue? https://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com

in doing more digging, i found this article from 2017 that says the crawl was added by someone “around 1997,” which would align with the second two options.

additionally, the Lucasfan version was the “realmedia” encode in extreme low quality. I was able to find a copy on Wayback and confirm it didn’t have a crawl.

Zion said:

My own personal theory (or at least the one I like to believe, based on zero evidence, lol): RiffTrax made it. They wanted to sell a riff of the Holiday Special because their other Star Wars riffs at the time were very popular, but it would have been hard to sell an audio-only HS riff unless there was an easy way for people to watch the special. So they uploaded it to Google Video themselves and added the crawl so the specific version they riffed was easily identifiable.

The only wrinkle in that theory to me is the timeline. The Google Video version was uploaded December 25, 2006, and Rifftrax released their mix on December 10, 2007.

going back through the thread more, there this post from Rikter in 2005, which mentions a DVD of the WMAR transfer. I would not be surprised if that was the origin point.

another thread i’m trying to pin down i hope someone could maybe fill in the blanks on: the origin of the WMAR opening crawl.

the Google Video version of the special, used by Rifftrax and later as the basis of Zion’s Hybrids, featured a unique, fan-made opening crawl. this version was uploaded in December 2006.

after doing a lot of research, i’ve yet to find the origin of this crawl. it’s possible the google video uploader created it, though my inclination is to say that’s unlikely. the other versions of the special i’ve found floating around, still up from this time, do not feature this crawl. additionally, i was able to acquire a mass-produced bootleg WMAR VHS tape from the late 90s, which also did not feature the crawl.

it leaves a few different possibilities:

• the google video uploaded added it (i find this unlikely for a number of reasons)
• another anonymous fan created the crawl unofficially, and it circulated on one of the early 2000s p2p sites before being uploaded to google video
• one of the bootlegs circulating around the early 2000s on an early digital format added the crawl to give a more cinematic presentation

personally, i lean option 3, but i have no way of knowing. the biggest suspect here would be one of the VCD versions that got passed around way back when, which would also account for the incredibly low-quality of that upload and every version of the crawl.

if anyone has any clue as to where this came from, please let me know. additionally, if anyone still has bootlegs from the 90s/00s, i’m curious as to what information you have, or what’s on your copies.

edit:

the other possibility i just thought of is it coming from the version played on the lucasfan theater website around that time as well. don’t know if anyone would have info about that either.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

With this rumored restored Original Trilogy coming for the 50th anniversary it makes me think:
What would Disney/Lucasfilm do for the PT when the next significant anniversary comes along?
Since there’s no real restoration work that would need to be done (at least for AOTC and ROTS) perhaps in the next couple of years there will be even greater advancements in upscaling tech that would allow for an upscaled PT release? And I’m talking about upscaling that actually adds detail that wasn’t there before (for example: Starlight by Topaz). Obviously it would be great to have all the deleted scenes at the same resolution too…

im highly skeptical of setting the precedent for using AI to add detail to an image in the restoration process, especially for an official release. i really don’t see the value of it for preservation/presentation purposes especially when dealing with a source that’s already in HD. maybe i’m just a purist but i don’t like setting that role for AI as an additive process.

Hey, it was never really discussed in this thread, but has anyone else had the chance to look at the 1st Generation Betamax Copy uploaded by meredith95 on Spleen back in 2022? Got a look at it today, and aside from the waviness it may be the highest quality version I’ve seen (aside from Editdroid) in terms of detail and clarity. I don’t know how someone could get their hands on the tape, but a proper capture run through a TBC would be a really cool project for someone with the means to undertake.

JF_Sanderson said:

The local hipster video store had this around 2005, even with a homemade ad for the store at the start of the tape. It was cool. All through the 90s I heard how bad the special was, but it’s kind of innocuous and “is what it is.” Bea Arthur’s cantina song is pretty good actually.

any chance you still have this tape? doing a preservation project trying to save every version of it i can (even the odd custom versions and 8th gen VHS tapes if they present a different broadcast channel than what’s out there)

joe26713 said:

Hey all,

So obviously this project was originally created 18 years ago. This has been my go-to for watching my favorite Christmas movie of all-time, however technology and our available sources have come a long way since this restoration was made. In 2018, we finally got a the film, in full on 1080p Blu Ray. This included, for the first time in its original 4:3, the entire cut of the movie, including all extended sequences. However, this version is sadly still missing the Kermit narrations throughout the film needed to make the film complete. This new release, while not incredible looking, provides a lot of new detail in the image quality, but the colors are severely lacking when placed side-by-side with the Philfrog edition. Given my love for this movie, and the fact that its the holiday season, I’ve decided to start working on an updated version of Philfrog’s 30th Anniversary Edition. For this “47th Anniversary Edition,” I will be using Dr. Dre’s Color Matching tool to regrade the film to match Philfrog’s, as well as attempt to remix the audio using a higher quality Betamax source for the 80’s cut and the lossless audio track from the Bluray.

I’ve attached images here comparing the differences in color between the two current versions, and what the desired target will look like.

Can’t provide any sort of timeline on this just yet. This is my first time working on a project like this, so I’ve got a bit of a learning curve to climb. I would also like to hear any feedback/advice. I’m partially taking this on as a way to develop my video processing/restoration skills, so if there’s anything else I could potentially do to further improve the image quality of the Blu Ray let me know.

update here: finally got the equipment and the original vhs to extract hopefully a higher quality version of the kermit narration audio. have everything else i need so work should begin in earnest on this shortly. aiming to have it done by the holidays but no promises yet.

so OP hasn’t been around in two years, but I want to pick up this mantle, at least in part, to compile all of the available versions of the holiday special out there for posterity. there are a few versions I have “missing” at the moment that I’ve been trying and failing to track down for some time, and I’m hoping that maybe someone here can point in the right direction.

what I currently have:
Angrysun - KCCI
Angrysun - KCMO
WBBM - from Fuzzymemories.tv
Edited WCBS (without commercials/news promo, altered end credits)
WCBS with Commercials
WMAR (in very low quality)
Zion Hybrid v2
WHIO v2
French Edit
EditDroid
BluRay ISO - EditDroid upscale
Gormaanda Hybrid v2

what I don’t have/am seeking information on:
KIRO - Seattle
KMGH - Denver
KNXT - LA
WBNS - Columbus
WCAU - Philadelphia
WMAR - Higher quality version
Australia - Network Ten/ATV-10
Sweden - Complete version (I’ve seen the two-parter on youtube, but based on my research I’m unclear if its ever been put out in full or if that’s all that exists)
Broadcast Master - I know Editdroid is supposedly from a master tape, but I’ve yet to find the version with the Vidtronics title card in the wild

Not sure which of these exist in full/for public release. Just trying to complete an archive for the sake of future preservation efforts. Any information/guidance would be super helpful! Thanks!

Hey all,

So obviously this project was originally created 18 years ago. This has been my go-to for watching my favorite Christmas movie of all-time, however technology and our available sources have come a long way since this restoration was made. In 2018, we finally got a the film, in full on 1080p Blu Ray. This included, for the first time in its original 4:3, the entire cut of the movie, including all extended sequences. However, this version is sadly still missing the Kermit narrations throughout the film needed to make the film complete. This new release, while not incredible looking, provides a lot of new detail in the image quality, but the colors are severely lacking when placed side-by-side with the Philfrog edition. Given my love for this movie, and the fact that its the holiday season, I’ve decided to start working on an updated version of Philfrog’s 30th Anniversary Edition. For this “47th Anniversary Edition,” I will be using Dr. Dre’s Color Matching tool to regrade the film to match Philfrog’s, as well as attempt to remix the audio using a higher quality Betamax source for the 80’s cut and the lossless audio track from the Bluray.

I’ve attached images here comparing the differences in color between the two current versions, and what the desired target will look like.

Can’t provide any sort of timeline on this just yet. This is my first time working on a project like this, so I’ve got a bit of a learning curve to climb. I would also like to hear any feedback/advice. I’m partially taking this on as a way to develop my video processing/restoration skills, so if there’s anything else I could potentially do to further improve the image quality of the Blu Ray let me know.

i was able to get it fine yesterday

Just going off all the ones that I’ve seen

1. ESB
2. SW
3. ROTS
4. ROTJ
5. PM
6. TFA
7. R1
8. TLJ
9. TROS
10. AOTC
11. Solo