Official Star Wars Thread

[droosan]

Well, I’ll say this: [the original Star Wars holiday special] was without a doubt one of the STRANGEST things I have ever seen. Almost disturbingly so! Lol. .

I saw it as an 8-year-old kid, when it originally aired on TV.

I was really excited beforehand .. but didn't like it, at all (with, perhaps, the exception of Nelvana's brief animated segment) .. and even then -- as now -- I could often find something to appreciate, in pretty much anything I watched or read.

The Mark Hammill episode of The Muppet Show (aired a couple years later) was infinitely more enjoyable, IMO.

As (I assume) many other kids did at the time, I decided to pretend the Holiday Special "never happened" .. and went back to my Star Wars Marvel Comics, and novels like Splinter of the Mind's Eye or Han Solo At Star's End (each of which had 'problems' of their own, but at least contained a spark of the SW movie magic).

[Ben]

When I saw this on TV here it seemed to last four days. The Boba Fett animated sequences (actually his introduction into the Star Wars story and still better than anything so far in The Mandalorian!) was indeed the best thing about it, with eye-linered girly-Luke Mark Hamill a close second...!

The Empire-Muppet Show tie-in was one if the best ever. And pretty fun to think it was a bunch of the same guys in studious across the road from each other, and sharing the same fabrication units, making them both!

[Randall]

Exact same history as Droo. (Even down to the age!)

And I agree with Vi as well. The thing is just bizarre. Bea Arthur? Art Carney? Harvey Korman...?!? What the heck?!? (All good performers, of course, but their silly roles were just beyond bad.) Just awful stuff.

And it's soooo padded, as the length of the special was upped by the network, and there was almost no time to develop a script. It just all ended so badly, except for Nelvana coming to the rescue to bring us Boba. There is just so much epically wrong in the special. Way too much untranslated Wookie-speak, debauched grandpa Itchy...

The Muppet appearance was sooooooo much better.

Heck, the Donny and Marie Show episode was much better!

[EricJ]

The Muppet appearance was sooooooo much better.

We didn't yet know the truth yet, that Mark Hamill was a complete nut , so seeing Luke Skywalker gargle Gershwin was a bit of a culture shock.

And I agree with Vi as well. The thing is just bizarre. Bea Arthur? Art Carney? Harvey Korman...?!? What the heck?!? (All good performers, of course, but their silly roles were just beyond bad.) Just awful stuff.
Heck, the Donny and Marie Show episode was much better!

Both the SWHS and the Donny & Marie episode were products of 70's TV variety-show writer Bruce Vilanch--who now is trying to live down his cult reputation as "the guy who did it", and remind us that there were other writers on the special--but is now seeing his 1976 "Paul Lynde Halloween Special" also enter the pantheon of Cult TV Kitsch, on the basis of heavy-metal fans who kid him about KISS being in it.
If the name sounds familiar, he's also the guy who gag-wrote EVERY bad annoying Oscar ceremony of the last twenty or thirty years, right up to (and reportedly ending with) the legendary Anne Hathaway/James Franco one where Franco came onstage in a Marilyn dress. He also wrote the two Whoopi Goldberg Oscars, where she came onstage in an Elizabeth I dress and a Moulin Rouge dress, and the Nick TVLand Awards, where Vilanch himself came onstage in one of I Love Lucy's burlap dresses...Are we starting to see a pattern here?

I'm not sure which parts Vilanch actually did write, but when we have sketches with Harvey Korman in drag...we can make an educated guess.

[Ben]

Harvey Kerman in drag does sound hilarious, until you see it.

[ShyViolet]

Exact same history as Droo. (Even down to the age!)

And I agree with Vi as well. The thing is just bizarre. Bea Arthur? Art Carney? Harvey Korman...?!? What the heck?!? (All good performers, of course, but their silly roles were just beyond bad.) Just awful stuff.

And it's soooo padded, as the length of the special was upped by the network, and there was almost no time to develop a script. It just all ended so badly, except for Nelvana coming to the rescue to bring us Boba. There is just so much epically wrong in the special. Way too much untranslated Wookie-speak, debauched grandpa Itchy...

Lol. . Mom Wookie watching the cooking show on “TV” was, to me, the strangest part of all. (Except for maybe grandpa Itchy watching the holograms on the table...lol. Or maybe that’s where Chewie got his love of hologram games ha ha.

And “Life Day”??? Who the heck came up with THAT? Kinda reminds me of “Freedom Day” in Futurama, but that was SO much cleverer.

[EricJ]

Harvey Kerman in drag does sound hilarious, until you see it.

Check out the all-Carol-Burnett-Show-rerun streaming channel on PlutoTV, the currency devalues somewhat.

And “Life Day”??? Who the heck came with THAT? Kinda reminds me of “Freedom Day” in Futurama, but that was SO much cleverer.

And the fact that the SWHS was originally a Thanksgiving special, not a Christmas special, made it that much more confusing.

[Ben]

Ah. Explains why we got it here at Christmas then.

[Daniel]

That whole special is one long acid trip! "Reality is sweet.. this minute..." yikes!

[ShyViolet]

Happy Life Day!

[Daniel]

Seems about right.

[Ben]

Wow...what a rip off! Mandalorian is worth, what, about five bucks for the whole season? Episode 2 was boring. Again. Mando goes to sleep. Twice. And is then surprised when stuff goes down because...well, he’s been asleep. And there better be some reason that Baby Yoda (or whoever) is eating those eggs, because otherwise we're in things happen just because they have to happen to move the story on territory, like with him eating that Alien spider thing. Original, huh? Which, in TV terms, means they have no real plan or have a few hours that they just need to fill before they can get to the bigger, better episodes. And I really hope that the brief shot of Boba at the end of the first one isn’t all we're going to see of him until the second half of the season, while Mando (Jango?) goes off doing his helpful task of the week stuff. Lame. O.

[Randall]

Which, in TV terms, means they have no real plan or have a few hours that they just need to fill before they can get to the bigger, better episodes.

Doesn't that describe most TV shows...?

[Ben]

Most episodic shows with no longterm plan, yes.

But not a "limited series" that supposedly maps out what will happen each season. Oh, no...I forgot. This is Disney Star Wars, where they just make things up as they go along...

[EricJ]

Seems about right.

Let's distill that:
What I USED to pay Disney+ $69 a year for:


What Disney currently thinks we pay the ENTIRE COMPANY for, movies and parks included:

(I couldn't find a little Hamilton graphic, but they've thrown him over by now, anyway.)