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from imdb:

Lucas Wants TV 'Star Wars' Film Banned

Moviemaker George Lucas wants his first Star Wars sequel banned, as he is so disappointed with its quality. The one-off, two-hour-long The Star Wars Holiday Special was originally screened on the CBS network in 1978 and tells the story of Chewbacca's journey home with Hans Solo to celebrate Life Day with his family. During the course of the much-maligned movie, Carrie Fisher's beautiful Leia is seen reducing Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker to tears with a song. A contributor on the Star Wars website comments, "The Holiday Special has always been the red-headed step child of the Star Wars family." While a source at LucasFilm adds, "The Holiday Special was the biggest f***-up ever. The Force was definitely not with Mr. Lucas the day that doozy was born."

Lucas' opinion of the Holiday Special isn't exactly a secret. I'm not even sure what "news" the IMDb is reporting here; the headline and the opening sentence ("Lucas calls for banning of own film!") seems sensational enough, until you read the rest of the "article" and notice that nowhere do they actually quote Lucas as saying any such thing. Lucas obviously wants it suppressed and has done a pretty good job of doing so -- unless I'm mistaken, the only copies circulating are dupes made from an off-air home video recording of the original 1978 broadcast, although such copies are easy to come by -- but that's hardly tantamount to a "ban." And I honestly don't know what to make of the fact that the IMDb is using message board posters as news sources and openly admitting it; I am impressed, however, that they have a secret source inside Lucasfilm for the sole purpose of providing witty zingers.

Anyway, if you want to see it, the bootlegs are out there. Supper Happy Fun sells it, among others; you can also download it from the usual suspects (Bittorrent, eMule, etc.). The Unknown Movies has a fairly comprehensive review, but if you just want a one-sentence summary to whet your appetite, here it is: it's a "Star Wars" Christmas special (with everything that entails, including musical numbers) with Harvey Korman and Bea Arthur. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time...

Well it's for sure that no incarnation of it will ever be released officially on DVD.
No matter how much anyone wants to petition.....
I personally have never seen it, but I do have a guilty pleasure of wanting to.

George really likes to censor his own older work.

Thanks for the links Josh. I'm a big Star Wars fan, and have always wanted to see this. The animated part sounds pretty cool. I need to buy it or download it.

I have seen this and it is horrible. Horrible, that is as in brilliant.

My buddy's brother has I swear every bootleg ever available and he has/had this. I watched it when I was much younger and even then it was absolutely brutal!! But now I must watch it again. I have to find out when he's coming back home so I can borrow it maybe (he had dreams of being a filmmaker but now he's in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick fishing.) I don't remember much clearly but the animation was pretty crappy and the whole thing reaked of cheese.

I watched this about 10 years ago and it was excrutiating. It is poossibly the biggest train wreck in network television history. The thing is that it's really boring b/c it involves Chewbacca's family and so fully half of the dialogue is wookie grunting. It does need to be seen to be believed but once is more than enough.

Watching the recent SW flicks made me yearn for more indecipherable speech. Maybe in a language I can`t understand, those lines would be easier to buy.

I will remain convinced this is some kind of hoax until I see it, which should be soon, since I'm downloading it from emule as we speak.

No hoax: I saw this when it came out, and even at an impressionable age I was not impressed. As I recall it was pretty much exactly like a cheesy network TV show Christmas Special, but with the central sitcom family badly in need of a full body shave.

The animated part sounds pretty cool.

If I'm not mistaken, that animated feature was the "famous" debut for Bobba Fett.

denti alligator wrote:I will remain convinced this is some kind of hoax until I see it, which should be soon, since I'm downloading it from emule as we speak.

I'm afraid it's all too nightmarishly real:

Coincidentally (?), I caught about 15 seconds of this at Kim's Video in the Village this evening. Total crap. I saw Harvey Corman and was convinced I was watching a Mel Brooks home movie.

Wow, check it out -- Lesson in Love is on Channel 11 at 1:30!

leo goldsmith wrote:Wow, check it out -- Lesson in Love is on Channel 11 at 1:30!

I was wondering how long it was going to take someone to catch that... 8)

Faux Hulot wrote:

leo goldsmith wrote:Wow, check it out -- Lesson in Love is on Channel 11 at 1:30!

I was wondering how long it was going to take someone to catch that...

More importantly, Gabe Kaplan was on Hollywood Squares!

"Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back...."

I wonder if George Lucas will doubt his marketing decisions again in another twenty years when reminded of this awesome, awesome invention:

hehehe... darth tater

I've seen this accursed holiday special and must say that watching something that is one-third in Wookie grunts is not appealing. Neither is a Star Wars tie-in that doesn't feature any Star Wars characters or advance the plot in any way. This type of thinking is what created the Ewok adventures, though they had some pesky kids to hang around and for the audience to relate to (and how did they decipher those grunts). This special can be found on peer-to-peer thingies... a friend made a dvd of it with shitty (on purpose) graphics on the cover and menu. Horrible time for all.

That's just .... beautiful!

I haven't seen the special, but to anyone who wants to, it is available on DVD from www.revok.com. View at your own risk!

If you're in the mood for an endurance-trial, the Star Wars Holiday Special is up at YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DV6pze5YS2w

I just watched the SWHS. My god, George Lucas should be taken outside and horse-whipped for that monstrosity. The best part was Carrie Fisher singing at the end. My cousin could have done a better animation segment. And I just loved the Jefferson Starship performance. At first I laughed, then I cried, then I fast forwarded, then I cheered when it was all over.

Phil Hall at FilmThreat ran a great piece about the special: http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?sec ... res&Id=888

the Holiday special is almost like a test-run for the Prequels. Stupid garbage. See what happens when you let Lucas sit in the directors chair?

Joe Buck wrote:the Holiday special is almost like a test-run for the Prequels. Stupid garbage. See what happens when you let Lucas sit in the directors chair?

Actually, he had nothing to do with this production. The characters were licensed out leading to this abomination of a production. No wonder he became an insane perfectionist/revisionist......

I'm sorry, but Bob Crane on Love, American Style? We know what style Bob Crane liked his love.