The Star Wars Holiday Special is considered to be the “Holy Grail” for Star Wars fans, but many of them admit it is hard to sit through. Who ever thought so many Wookie grunts and groans could be so painful? Being that it is now December, I felt it appropriate to bring this enjoyable piece of TV history back up. 🙂 Keep in mind that it is 97 minutes long!
As you probably already know, the Star Wars holiday special is not available on DVD or VHS. The only place you are able to find it is on E-bay as a bootlegged copy or by downloading a torrent. Even the copies you find on E-bay are fairly sub-par. It would be fun to be able to purchase a cleaned-up copy of it, but that will never happen.
It is passed down through Star Wars lore that George Lucas himself said at an Australian Star Wars convention, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it. The holiday special does not represent my vision for Star Wars.”
It is believed by most Star Wars fans that the Boba Fett portion of the Star Wars Holiday Special is the best part of the entire show. Luckily this can be seen on YouTube, although the quality is still that of 1978.
My brother-in-law somehow got himself a copy on VHS which I later transferred over to DVD. It still has the old commercials from 1978. That was a blast from the past. Seeing that tape “Star Wars Holiday Special” printed on a label reminded me of the scene from Weird Al’s music video “White and Nerdy” where the two geeks conduct a back-alley transfer of the special on tape.
Good luck in acquiring your own copy. It really isn’t too hard if you know where to look.