The Star Wars Holiday Special: Boring fans for 31 years

I tried to watch a bootleg copy I found... I really *tried*... Just couldn't do it, even though I've always been a Wookie fan. Ended up fast forwarding through most of it, my mind boggling how anyone could have sat through the thing in its entirety.

I wasnt able to watch it. But now that you mentioned it in your article, I guess there's no better time to watch it then, except this Yuletide season.

I was six years old and Star-Wars-crazy when it aired, and I remember how eager I was to watch it. I won't say I hated it (six-year-olds aren't generally known for discriminating taste in the arts), but I definitely remember felt let-down and somehow cheated.

P.S. There's an unofficial Web site: http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/

I remember how eager I was to watch it as well. And then seeing Bea Arthur I knew it was gonna be bad.

I'm sure I never got to see it when I was 9, but parts of it have been forced on me in the last 20 years. :p

Deja vu. This was previously on Neatorama - last year, maybe?

It is pretty bad.

I made it through it somehow...ONCE.

It will seriously test the limits of your endurance.

I can think of a lot of words to describe the SWHS, but "boring" is not among them.

Oh wow. I just went over to Youtube and watched the first few minutes. Had to shut it off. If I'd seen this as a kid, I never would have developed my Star Wars obsession and subsequent, crippling Harrison Ford crush. Harvey Corman? BEA ARTHUR?! And Chewie's repellent "family"... crap, I need a drink.

On second thought, it's very odd that Lucas disowned this. The Ewoks were just as bad.

Aha! Perfect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1_s3kZaCI

Maybe I'm just in a morbid frame of mind today, but has anyone else noticed that SWHS aired on the day of the Jonestown slaughter?

Oh man. This is a labor of love, but gosh darnit I still have a soft spot for this flick. I still eagerly await the day that Lucas gets over himself and agrees to do a Bea Arthur action figure. ;)

I can remember this being aired not for the holiday special as such but for the Boba Fett action figure with the rocket that shot out!

Oh how I wanted that toy!!!

Someone told me about this special a couple years back. I'm glad I don't remember it (though I'm sure I watched it).

Ya know, I get tired of hearing and seeing critisism about the Holiday Special. If you are a true STAR WARS Fan, you would appreciate anything and everything that comes along in the STAR WARS Universe. No matter how bad it is.

IMHO this would be a difficult watch without the Rifftrax guys, but with them, it's pretty good. More to the point, as my title indicates I found many moments in this thing to be painful to watch, made somewhat palatable by the riffing, of course. It would be hellish, I imagine, without the guys working it over. One shining moment has Harvey Corman doing his cooking show bit in a sort of purple multi-armed space-drag kinda thing you have to see to believe. The wookie costumes are well-done too. If you are a Rifftrax-CT-MST-3000 fan you should own this.