WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: The Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:04.600 Ahoy, Solemn Life Day to you all. This is Josh 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.680 and for this week's s Y s K Selects. It's 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:12.520 our annual Christmas edition of the Star Wars Holiday Special. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.520 Here to kick off your holiday season in grand style. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.119 I know Life Day actually took place this year on 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.480 Novem but we wanted to wait to save it until 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.160 a little closer to Christmas to really put everybody in 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.520 the Christmas spirit. So here everyone is the Stuff You 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.479 Should Know annual holiday tradition of the listening of the 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:44.239 Star Wars Holiday Special episode Enjoy, Happy Holidays. Welcome to 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.879 Stuff You Should Know, a production of My Heart Radios 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:55.360 How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:00.319 Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuckers Bryant and Jerry Rome 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:05.800 role And uh, it was the Wookie mother. Yeah, Mala, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.400 that was the Wookie wife. Oh and mother? Yeah sure, 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.360 Chewbacca's bomb is not with them any longer. She left, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.000 she was not about to appear in that. She went 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.240 out the window. I'm excited about this. I have to 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.720 say we should say Happy Star Wars Day. Yeah. Today 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.160 is um December. Um, I have my opening night tickets? 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:36.320 Do you really sure? Wow? You know I do you 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:38.880 into it? Oh? Yeah, well I will definitely go see 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.280 it in the theater, but um, why won't be the 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.440 opening night? Sure, I've gotten really adept at like ignoring spoilers, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.000 people talking about stuff all like, so I can I 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.559 could conceivably see this movie a month after it comes 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:58.240 out and still going fresh. I'm an ostrich. Yeah you 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.720 black yourself out? Yeah, you go dark? Do I make 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.160 myself go to sleep face? You go to the dark side. 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.359 I've been there a while now. Uh well, Happy Star 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.800 Wars Day though, I'm sure that I think this pairs 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.440 nicely with Christmas Star Wars Day. It's all come together. Yes, Um, 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.240 we already missed Life Day though, so happy belated Life Day. 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.520 Are they celebrating it this year? Novemb Yeah, but it's 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:29.840 every three years? Mm hmm our cane man job. Okay, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.600 so it's every three years started in nine eight. Let's 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:38.400 do the math, shall we? Mmmm? Quick math break. I 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.280 believe that two thousand fourteen was the last Life Day. Man, 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:47.160 we just missed, and then again in seventeen. Okay, so seen, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.560 we'll celebrate Life Day. We'll put on our red robes 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:55.280 are ultralong straight ironed wigs, and we'll celebrate Life Day 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.320 the way it was meant to. Yes, And if you 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.680 have no idea what we're talking about, we are talking 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:05.120 about Life Day, which is a celebration, uh that Wookies 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.800 in the Star Wars universe have every three years. Yeah, 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:13.760 it's like their Christmas, Yeah, or their tent Supposedly, it's 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:15.960 sort of like Earth. They two. They celebrate the diversity 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:20.040 of their ecosystem and also remembrance of the dead, and 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.120 they also give gifts there like the Finns. Basically, Yeah, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.839 it's a it's a very interesting part of the Star 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.240 Wars canon. It is, and it's almost entirely made up, 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.280 dashed off you could possibly say, by um George Lucas 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:38.640 in the seventies. Um. And it's the basis of what 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.600 is become derided as like one of the worst things 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.200 that ever happened to the Star Wars galaxy. Well, not 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.760 only that, one of the worst things ever aired on television. Yeah, 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.480 with this galaxy. Yeah, at first that sounds like hyperbole, like, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:55.880 come on, it's because it was Star Wars, we had 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.120 high expectations, but it's really that bad. Yeah. The people 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.640 who say that have and seen even a second of it. Yeah. Yeah, however, 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.000 I watched it, uh when I was a kid, then 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.960 again this week, and you watched it twice this week. Yeah, 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.640 I watched it last night and this morning. There's something 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.600 about it. It's mesmerizing, it really is. It's one of 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.240 those things that you start watching it and you want 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.640 to turn it off, but you want to see just 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.480 how absurd it can get. Almost Yeah, and it starts absurd, 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.159 it stays absurd in the middle, it's increasingly more absurd, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.040 it gets a little less absurd, finishes super absurd. Yeah, 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.839 it's just a train wreck in every single sense of 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:40.000 the word. Talk to bottom. It's extraordinarily difficult to overstate 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.719 how bad this is. And some people you know, in 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.760 researching this, you read about it, you read descriptions of 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.839 these things, and it just can't possibly be gotten across 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.440 until you see it. So luckily, as we will see, 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.360 you can go onto YouTube and watch it, and you 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.400 may even enjoy this episode more if you pause, go 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.679 spend two hours watching this thing, and then come back 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.280 and laugh along with us. Yeah, there's a great Over 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.840 the years, there have been many segments of it on 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.000 YouTube from badly dub VHS tapes. But there's one really 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:16.680 pretty good version of it in full UM brought to 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.880 you by w h I O Dayton, Ohio, Channel seven. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.240 Because that flashes up on the screen periodically. Man, it 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.800 is high quality. It looks good. It has to basically 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:32.560 be the copy that the actual UM affiliate broadcast. Yeah, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.279 it's like that. That quality compared to the other stuff 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.400 floating around on YouTube, clearly recorded on a pc R, 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.039 which we're really expensive, very expensive. I did some calculating 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.560 on west Egg UM, so the average VCR went for 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.120 about a thousand dollars. There were brand new it's amazing 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.480 thousand dollars in money, so they're about thirty eight hundred 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.080 dollars in two thousand fourteen money. Luckily, there were some 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.560 rich people out there recording this stuff, and the wealthy 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.720 have say of us all again yet again, as they 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.880 always do. Yes, Uh, we need to shout out some 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.080 articles that we use for this. There's great a great 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.800 article in Vanity Fair called the Han Solo Comedy Our 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:17.640 exclamation Point by Frank D. Jacomo. And then there's the 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:19.919 Star Wars Holiday Special was the worst thing on television 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.320 ever by So when we kind of know Alex Pasternak, 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.520 uh from Motherboard, Yeah, which is uh not wired. It's 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.240 uh vice. We wrote a little bit for Motherboard back 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.240 then and we had a call with that, like we're 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.840 like old motherboard vets basically, and the one there one 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.400 more there was another one and I don't know who 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.479 wrote this one chuck. Uh. Yeah, it's the titles the 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.560 Star Wars Holiday Special. George Lucas wants to smash every 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.000 copy of with a sledgehammer, which was a famous quote, 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.919 uh supposedly at a convention by Lucas, Yes, which is 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.600 not correct. He didn't ever say that. No, Okay, that 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.400 that sounded like something that people made up. Yes, but 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.120 if you go on the internet you will quickly believe 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.279 that he did. Apparently didn't. So let's I'm sure he 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.320 felt that way though, clearly, because he did appear on 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.520 Robot Chicken and I think two thousand five on the 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.440 Therapist Couch talking about how much he hated the Space Show. 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:16.200 All right, so let's set the background, shall we shall 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:20.440 we go back to summer getting the old way back machine. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:28.720 All right, let's do it. All right, here we are 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.040 there's Waterson. Yeah, I'm just a little six year old 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.560 excited about Star Wars. I am I've just turned one. Yes, 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.200 you don't know what's up yet. I please forgive me 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.400 if I urinate myself, no problem, Okay. Uh So what 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.840 has happened is Star Wars has become a huge, huge hit, 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.200 seemingly out of nowhere, establishing George Lucas is one of 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.560 the brilliant young minds and filmmaking. Even though it was 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.000 in his first movie, it was his first huge, huge 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.640 breakout hit. Oh yeah, for sure, talk I mean talk 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.080 about a breakout hit like no one had ever seen 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.120 anything like it before two thousand one had come out 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.280 in the late sixties. But it wasn't it's still it 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.400 still isn't accessible to all audiences. You know, it's kind 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.280 of cerebral film. Yeah, it's not an adventure movie. This 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.640 was This is like basically swashbuckling on the screen. But 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.280 you know, in a galaxy far far away, Star Wars 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.960 just changed everything and it came on just like a 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.240 hammer um and a new hope. By the way, yes, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.560 and then then we're gonna get stuff wrong, nerds, So yes, 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:32.800 just go ahead and get your little fingers ready to 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.400 email us. Like if it wasn't driven home that I'm 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.240 not a nerd, by the fact that I don't have 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.760 opening night tickets or any tickets yet, give me a break, 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.640 and by proxy chuck to Okay, thank you. So, um, 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:49.800 it's it's hard to stay how great Star Wars was 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.880 in everyone's mind, right. Bill Murray came out with that 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.880 lounge singer Star Wars thing. It was everywhere and if 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:57.880 you if you just listen to the lyrics of it, 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.000 it's really it's just Bill Murray thinking about how much 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:07.480 Star Wars is awesome. Yeah, right, So by the following year, Um, 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.120 George Lucas was he wanted to figure out a way 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.280 to keep audiences just engaged with the whole Star Wars 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.679 franchise that he was just starting to build. But he 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.960 knew the Empire Strikes Back was a couple more years out, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.800 so um he I think he was approached by some 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.360 TV executives who said, have you considered doing some sort 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.920 of TV special? They're all the rage right now. We 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.160 have a we have a graphic that's really awesome that 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.160 we set aside just for TV specials here at CBS. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:40.400 Why don't you let us let's get together and do 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.480 a Star Wars special. That's right. Producers Gary Smith and 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.920 Dwight him on, Uh, we're working over at CBS, and 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.000 they said, this is a great way to keep the 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.079 spirit alive while you're making your other movie. Maybe move 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:58.200 some more toys. Yeah, which George Lucas got to. So 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:00.800 it was right before thank Giving, and he said, there'll 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.000 be a lot of people watching TV um pre holiday 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.080 season or I guess in the holiday season. Well, the 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.200 weekend before Thanksgiving, it's like everybody's shopping, sitting around family 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.400 like waiting to actually do stuff. That's right, perfect time 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.000 to broadcast something on TV. So Lucas says, all right, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.600 let's do this. I don't have a ton of time, 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.160 but how about this. I'll get I'll get a story 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.000 together and then you can go hire a whiz bang 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:29.640 team of veteran writers and producers and directors whatever genre 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.120 you think is appropriate. And those are the words that 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.760 will haunt George Lucas to his grave. Yeah. So Lucas said, 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.719 here's my idea. I wanted to be based um on Wookies, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.439 and I wanted to take place on their home planet 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.560 of Kazuok or Wookie planet. See is that how you say? 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.199 That's how it's pronounced in the episode the Holiday Special, 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.600 but it's also pronounced different ways. Other times, I would 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:01.040 have pronounced that Cashi e got spell it k A 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.600 s h y y y K, which I mean, I 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.679 guess that sounds like Chewbuck's planet sure also called G 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:13.079 five Wookie planets or Eaton is a mid rim planet. Right. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.400 So the whole reason, apparently that George Lucas was interested 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.320 in featuring the Wookies was it is what we in 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.240 show business call low hanging fruit. The reason why it 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.120 was low hanging fruit was because they had just established 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.920 the different scenes that would make the cut for Empire 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.120 Strikes Back and uh, what how did you pronounce it? Again? 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.720 Kazook Kazook had not made the cut. Uh. Even prior 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.120 to this, apparently for a new hope, George Lucas had 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.760 whipped up a forty page what's known as the Wookie Bible. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.480 It's like a forty page supplement that's all about Kazook 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.440 and Wookies and Chewbacca and his family and everything about 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.400 Wookie doom. Right, So he's like, I've got this thing already, 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.360 you know, established I love Wookies. Um, they did make 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.240 the cut. I'm a little sad about that. They're not 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.160 gonna ka Zook is not going to show up in 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:08.120 an Empire strikes back. Let's let's build the entire special 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:12.480 around wookies. It's basically the one demand me George Lucas 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.360 has That's it. I'll be totally hands off from this 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.160 point on which you kind of was he totally wasn't. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.440 It was actually this experience that apparently taught him to 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.599 be the very hands on a person that he is 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.240 famous for being. It came out of this Christmas special. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.199 Absolutely he was burned, and um he had an iron 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.599 grip after that on everything. So here's some some of 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.160 the folks behind it. Bruce Valanche, famous uh TV writer. 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.240 You probably seen him on Hollywood Squares. Wasn't he suspected 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.040 of being Thomas pinch On for a while? I don't know, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.199 or was Thomas pinch On on Hollywood Squares? I have 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:52.480 no idea. I maybe confabulating some stuff confounding. Yeah, there's 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.160 some kind of some sort going on. It sounds like it. 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.640 So Valanche was hired as a writer. A guy named 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.200 Lenny Rips was hired as a writer who has some 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.800 great quotes in that Vanity Fair article he does. His 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:08.720 first quote was, we were really excited because this is 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:13.600 Star Wars. How could it lose famous? Last words? Who 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.400 else was hired? There was a husband and wife team, 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:22.240 the welch Is, who are the parents of folk singer 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.280 Gillian Welch. I'm a big fan of and I had 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.920 no idea that her parents. They were producers slash songwriters 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.400 of the day. They were big on the variety show scene, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.040 which would turn out to be a really key cog 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.360 in this whole experience. So I feel like, right about here, 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.120 Jerry should insert a needle coming off of our records 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:47.240 on effect. Okay, thanks Jerry, So Chuck, you just said 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.240 singer songwriters. Yeah, what would that have to do with 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.840 Star Wars? Yeah? Well, actually, in this Star Wars Holiday special, 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.000 for those of you hadn't seen it, there are musical numbers. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.520 They decided from the outside that there should be musical numbers. 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:03.839 And the reason that they decided that there should be 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.880 musical numbers is because the people who sold George Lucas 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.840 and at the time it was started, the Star Wars 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.280 Corporation was what it was called um On. The idea 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.600 of doing this TV special was that everyone would love 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.480 a variety show. Great idea, let's do a variety show. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.120 The problem was this, Apparently George Lucas didn't watch enough TV, 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.840 and he also overly trusted people who talked to him 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:34.000 because by yes, variety shows had dominated television for over 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.040 ten years, but it had come to an end. It 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.720 was getting stale. Yeah, we're talking to Carol Burnett show. 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.200 One of my favorite had just been canceled after eleven seasons, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.840 Big Red Flags, Sonny and Chair had just had its 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.160 last season. Um, I mean what else like he Hall 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.200 was he? I was still going on, probably still on 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.160 solid golden yet to come on and take up the 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.800 mantel that that would variety show. Oh, it was a 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.680 little bit and there was talking in between the songs. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.040 Remember the Mandrell's Sister show. I never watched that one. Well, 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.720 it's with that country chic thing that happened. Yeah, it 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:13.960 was a big deal in the it's kind of happening again. 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.440 I think, Oh because of that dude, the guy who 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.080 won all the c m A Awards. I don't know, 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.120 he's like he's he came along. He's like actually country. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.880 His dad's like a coal miner for real. From Kentucky. 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.120 I think I know he means Chris was something. Yeah, 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.040 he's good. He's come along and been like, what are 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.280 you guys doing? Well, there's a revival in like good 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.160 country music. Again, that's like in the tradition of Merle, 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.760 Haggard and Cash. And I guess that's probably where the 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.680 country she came from, because there was actually good country 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.640 going on. Yeah, Johnny Cash out a variety show, did 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.760 he really? Yeah? I knew they did, like a Sunday 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.720 singing thing like out in Virginia. Yeah, he had his 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:53.720 own variety show. Was actually pretty good. There's some like 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.440 really great performances. Do you know how many nerds are 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.400 like get back to Star Wars? I know, I'm so sorry. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.480 All right, So the Variety Show is is dying sort of, 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.000 and so they figured what a great time to take 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.640 the biggest movie property on the planet and wedge it 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.080 into the variety show milieu. I don't know if wedge 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.960 is the right word. I think maybe uh, nestle it 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.080 in there and then start hitting it with the blunt 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.880 edge of an axe until it mashes into that crevice. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.320 You know, Because this is the time when Fantasy Island 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.320 had just started, um Mork and Mindy was about to 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.880 change things. Charlie's Angels was getting huge. It basically television 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.240 as we knew it from two whenever the real world 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.440 came along. Just escape as television is what they called 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.040 it was was starting and it was the hip new thing. 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.040 So basically, if they had turned Han Solo and Princess 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:52.120 Leiah and Luke Skywalker into maybe you know, sexy detectives, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.160 it might have gone over even better. But they went 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.240 the other way. They decided to latch onto this extraordinarily 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:03.360 stale um genre of television and they hired the best 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.879 in the business, like there was there was. There was 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:07.880 a quote from I think Lenny RiPPs who was saying 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.840 like we had literally a dream team, a variety show 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:16.240 dream team, and everybody was good, but there were probably 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.520 no bad welders on the Titanic. He there. That's a 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.200 great quote. Yeah. The guy they hired to direct it 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.639 initially was a dude named David A. Coomba, and he 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.640 had made his name uh for Welcome to the Fillmore East. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.399 It was a concert documentary with Van Mortrison, Van Morrison 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.240 and the Birds in nineteen seventy one, and he actually 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.240 was at usc Film School at the same time as Lucas, 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.399 even though they didn't know each other. And um, he 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.400 only ended up directing about three segments of the thing 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.200 before he quit. Yet before he walked off, some say 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.840 he was actually let go, but we'll get to him 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.639 in a minute and who replaced him. As as we 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.960 get along down this uh gross road, well, let's let's 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.400 take a little break because I'm I'm overly excited, okay, 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:21.440 ge alright, so we've established most of the main players. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.040 We'll we'll get to a few more. We should point 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.720 out that um, Mark hamill And and Harrison Ford and 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:33.880 Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, they had no grounds to refuse 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.880 to be on this basically, yeah, pretty much. They were 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.320 not huge, huge stars, yet they could throw their weight 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.359 around and say this is terrible and I'm not doing it. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.840 They were. They were big overnight because of Star Wars, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.640 for sure, but they weren't to the adoring public back 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.040 at the studio. They could still be bossed around. And 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.520 this is the result of it. And you can tell also, um, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.840 just from watching the actual special, like Harrison Ford is 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:03.960 not happy to be there at any point. Um. Princess 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.120 Leiah is clearly on drugs. Uh was she on drugs 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.840 at this point? She if you watch it, she's she's 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.840 on drugs. Especially the ending scene Mark Campbell, it was 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.240 looks like he's happy to be there. Actually he was fine, 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.760 but apparently he said no, I'm I'm not doing a 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.520 musical number. And if you watch his part wedging a 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:28.320 musical number in there would have been even more painful. Um. 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.080 But they everybody who was part of the actual Star 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.320 Wars franchise that wasn't wearing like a full body costume 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.800 was like, I really wish I wasn't here, And you 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.040 can tell, oh yeah. In fact, in the opening uh 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.119 credit sequence, they're showing the picture that you know, the 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.439 faces of the people, and you see Harrison Ford as 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.720 if he's flying the Millennium Falcon, and you can you 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.080 can just hear the guy off screen going now look 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.360 at the camera and just give a nod. Just look 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.520 at the camera and give a nod. And he finally 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.199 you can tell he's piste off and he looks up 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.879 at the camera just sort of smirks yeah and points 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:03.840 to the camera like okay, I'm looking at the camera, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.280 and then goes back to what he's doing. Yeah, it's 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.600 pretty awesome. I felt bad for him so early on 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.520 Valanche and others did you did you feel bad for him? Though? Really? 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:17.199 I mean, like, come on, it's Harrison Ford's Hans Solo. 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.520 He has to go do this for like five days. 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.960 I felt terrible for him. I think it's hilarious that 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.040 they had to do this, especially now. Well, early on, 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.199 Valanche and others knew that they may be in trouble 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.800 because they decided not to subtitle any of the Wookie dialogue, 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.200 and they literally started after a brief opening scene setting 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:40.159 it up here. Here's the basic plot is Han Solo 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.320 is trying to get Chewbacca back to Kazook in time 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.840 for Life Day so we can celebrate with his family. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.240 That's the basis of the entire two lass. The entire 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.119 two hours, they encounter a space battle and they're delayed, 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.040 and the next two hours are kind of what's going 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.879 on while the delay is happening back on Kazoo. Back 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.879 on Kazoo because you hear, like, okay, well, Han Solo 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.399 and Chewbacca evading the Imperial Guard and all that stuff 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.440 for two hours. I would watch that. I would too. 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.200 That's not what they show, killing time at the Wookie household. 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.560 That is what they show. Yeah, that's what they do. 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:21.200 It's people hanging out waiting for Chewbacca, worrying about him, 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.280 and then killing time while they wait for him to 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.639 come back. Literally, so um and so hold on. So 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.040 you say there's a setup, right, Yeah, that's the initial 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.120 setup and then chuck. That's followed by this. Yeah, it's 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:41.440 followed by literally ten minutes, ten solid minutes of incomprehensible 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.720 Wookie speak. So let's let's join it for a second, 0:21:44.720 --> 0:22:32.399 shall we. Let's all enjoy it. And again, you said 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.480 ten minutes, and you're not exaggerating, you're not being hyperbolic. 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.639 You can time it. That's it's ten minutes of wook 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.119 He's talking to each other with no subtitles. Fortunately, I 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:45.800 couldn't follow it at first, like I didn't even know 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.600 who it was. I thought it was might have been 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:52.520 Chewbacca's mom and dad. Oh yeah, that's a little brother. 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.359 And I don't find out until later when Mark Cambell 0:22:55.400 --> 0:23:00.480 shows up via skype call and says, he really explains 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:05.440 everything that had just happened, Like your Chewbacca's father, itchy, 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:10.480 your Chewbacca's son, Uh Lumpy Lumpy, and you're Chewbaca's wife, 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.239 Oh mama, yeah, thank you. So before everybody starts like 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.320 freaking out, we know that that's actually their nicknames. Their 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:21.879 real names are. His father is a ti chick cook, 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:26.200 a tchick cook it's really hard to pronounce. Mulatto buck 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:29.600 is his wife, and his son is Lumpo or rump 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.000 but as named by Lucas. But yeah, but Lucas also 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:38.960 named him Lumpy Itchy and Mala so um. They're all 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:41.840 back there wringing their hands, trying to figure out ways 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.400 to pass the time until they get word from Chewbacca 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.160 that he's made it to uh what is it ketchuck 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:54.119 z kazook Um just ketchup ketchup or cats up if 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:59.240 you're fancy um. But Chewbacca is having trouble getting back 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:05.560 to catch because there's Kazooki, because there's a blockade by 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:09.240 the Empire and they're looking for rebels, specifically Chewbacca. Who 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:11.760 I didn't realize this. He's the most famous Wookie of all. 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:14.680 Did you know that? Yeah, of course I didn't know that. Well, 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:16.879 I mean, he's the only one that really appears in 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:20.000 the movies. I mean that we're seeing, like, you know, 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:23.920 these people's view of the universe. What about back on 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:27.320 kazook Ye, he might have just been a fly by 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:31.440