A Star Wars "Christmas"

A long time ago, right here on our very own planet Earth, a holiday special was created to give fans of Star Wars another chance to see their favorite characters.

The Star Wars Holiday Special aired only once, in November 1978. According to a web site dedicated to this special (The Star Wars Holiday Special), it was only shown once because it was so bad. Other fan sites concurred with this assessment.

The premise of the show was that Chewbacca was trying to return to the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk to be with his family for the celebration of Life Day. This journey home was made more difficult by a vengeful Darth Vader. In fact, all the major actors were there, whether they liked it or not, including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and more.

As with any holiday special, TV stars from that era made appearances, such as Bea Arthur (from Maude) as the barkeep of the Mos Eisley Cantina. Other recognizable faces were Diahann Carroll, Art Carney, and Harvey Korman (in drag).

Toward the end of the show, Carrie Fisher, in character as Princess Leia, made a long, sappy speech about Life Day. Following this, she had the misfortune of singing the final Life Day song to the tune of the Star Wars theme, no less. Fisher's voice was lovely (in the excerpt I heard), but that didn't change how bad the song was.

According to TheForce.net (TheForce.net - Your Daily Dose of Star Wars ) FAQ section, the special is really only worth watching once. Apparently bootleg copies are available at comic and science fiction conventions. I actually ran across one at Yahoo!Auctions. I decided not to bid on it because the seller wanted at least $14.95 plus shipping, and TheForce.net recommended not to pay more than $10 for it, as it isn't worth any more than that.

Honestly, the Star Wars Holiday Special added virtually nothing to Star Wars mythology, and most, if not all, who were involved with it wish they hadn't been.

My recommendation, if you're really interested in learning more about Wookiees and their home planet, read one of the books, like "Tyrant's Test," by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (Book 3 of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy).

If you just have to see the special, though, it does have one redeeming feature: a short cartoon which introduced the character of Boba Fett. It may be worth acquiring in order to see that. Just don't get into a bidding war over it. It's not worth it.

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