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Speaker 1: Hi everyone, It's Josh, and we can officially kick off

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Speaker 1: the holidays with the annual release of our Star Wars

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Speaker 1: Holiday special episode. I hope by now it's become an

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Speaker 1: annual tradition in your home rather than a deepening annoyance,

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Speaker 1: and I hope it brings you glad tidings rather than

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Speaker 1: rage listening. I know some of you have been at

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Speaker 1: it since September, but let the twenty twenty three holidays begin.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff you should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuckers Bryant and Jerry Jerome Roland.

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Speaker 2: Who's the Wookie mother? Yeah, Mala, that was the Wookie wife.

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Speaker 2: Oh and mother?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Sure.

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Speaker 1: Chewbacca's mom is not with them any longer. She left.

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Speaker 1: She was not about to appear in that.

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Speaker 2: She went out the window. I'm excited about this. I

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Speaker 2: have to say we should say happy Star Wars Day. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: today is December seventeenth. I have my opening night tickets.

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Speaker 1: Do you really sure? Wow?

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Speaker 2: You know I you into it? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I will definitely go see it in the theater.

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Speaker 1: But well, I won't be their opening night sure. I've

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Speaker 1: gotten really adept at like ignoring spoilers, people talking about

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Speaker 1: stuff all like, so I can I could conceivably see

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Speaker 1: this movie a month after it comes out and still

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Speaker 1: going fresh. Yeah I'm an ostrich.

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Speaker 2: Yeah you black yourself out. Yeah, you go dark I do.

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Speaker 2: I make myself go to sleep face, you go to

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Speaker 2: the dark side.

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Speaker 1: I've been there a while now.

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Speaker 2: Well, Happy Star Wars Day, though, I'm sure that I

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Speaker 2: think this pairs nicely with Christmas Star Wars Day. It's

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Speaker 2: all come together.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I already missed Life Day though, so happy belated

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Speaker 1: Life Day. Cha.

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Speaker 2: Are they celebrating it this year?

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Speaker 1: November seventeenth?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's every three years our Caine. Yeah, man,

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Speaker 2: weird job.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it's every three years. Started in nineteen seventy eight.

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Speaker 1: Let's do the math, shall we? Quick?

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Speaker 2: Math break? I believe that twenty fourteen was the last

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Speaker 2: Life Day. Man, we just missed it, and then again

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Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So twenty seventeen will celebrate Life Day. We'll put

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Speaker 1: on our red robes, our ultra long straight ironed wigs, sure,

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Speaker 1: and we'll celebrate Life Day the way it was meant to.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and if you have no idea what we're talking about.

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Speaker 2: We are talking about Life Day, which is a celebration

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Speaker 2: that wookies in the Star Wars universe have every three years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like their Christmas. Yeah, they Celebronica or their Kwanta,

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Speaker 1: their tet.

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Speaker 2: Supposedly, it's sort of like Earth Day too. They celebrate

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Speaker 2: the diversity of their eCos and also remembrance of the dead,

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Speaker 2: and they also give the gifts.

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Speaker 1: They're like the fins basically.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very interesting part of the Star Wars cannon.

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Speaker 1: It is, and it's almost entirely made up, dashed off

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Speaker 1: you could possibly say, by George Lucas in the seventies. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it's the basis of what has become derided as

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Speaker 1: like one of the worst things that ever happened to

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Speaker 1: the Star Wars galaxy.

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Speaker 2: Well, not only that, one of the worst things ever

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Speaker 2: aired on television.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, with this galaxy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, at first that sounds like hyperbole, like, come on,

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Speaker 2: it's because it was Star Wars and we had high expectations.

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Speaker 2: But it's really that bad.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The people who say that haven't seen even a

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Speaker 1: second of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, However, I watched it when I was a kid,

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Speaker 2: then again this week. Yeah, and you watched it twice

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Speaker 2: this week.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched it last night and this morning.

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Speaker 2: There's something about it. It's mesmerizing, it really is. It's

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Speaker 2: one of those things that you start watching it and

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Speaker 2: you want to turn it off, but you want to

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Speaker 2: see just how absurd it can get.

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Speaker 1: Almost Yeah, and it starts absurd, it stays absurd in

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Speaker 1: the middle. Yeah, it's increasingly more absurd. It's a little

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Speaker 1: less absurd. Finish is super absurd.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just a train wreck in every single sense

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Speaker 2: of the word, top to bottom.

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Speaker 1: It's extraordinarily difficult to overstate how bad this is. And

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Speaker 1: some people, you know, in researching this, you read about it,

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Speaker 1: you read descriptions of these things, and it just can't

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Speaker 1: possibly be gotten across until you see it. So luckily,

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Speaker 1: as we will see, you can go onto YouTube and

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Speaker 1: watch it, and you may even enjoy this episode more

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Speaker 1: if you pause, go spend two hours watching this thing,

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Speaker 1: and then come back and laugh along with us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a great Over the years, there have been

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Speaker 2: many segments of it on YouTube from badly dubbed VHS tapes,

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Speaker 2: but there's one really pretty good version of it in full.

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Speaker 2: It brought to you by w HIO Dayton, Ohio, Channel seven, Ohio.

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Speaker 2: Because that flashes up on the screen periodically.

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Speaker 1: Man, it is high quality.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks good.

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Speaker 1: It has to basically be the copy that the actual

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Speaker 1: affiliate broadcast. Yeah, it's like that. That quality compared to

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Speaker 1: the other stuff floating around on YouTube, clearly recorded on

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Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy eight.

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Speaker 2: PCR, Yeah, which were really expensive.

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Speaker 1: Very expensive. I did some calculating on West Egg. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so the average VCR went for about one thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: There were brand new, it's amazing one thousand dollars in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight money, So they were about thirty eight

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars in twenty fourteen money.

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Speaker 2: Crazy.

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Speaker 1: Luckily there were some rich people out there recording this stuff,

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Speaker 1: and the wealthy have saved us all again, yes, yet again,

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Speaker 1: as they always do.

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Speaker 2: Yes. And we need to shout out some articles that

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Speaker 2: we use for this. There's great a great article in

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Speaker 2: Vanity Fair called the Han Solo Comedy Hour exclamation point

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Speaker 2: by Frank de Jacomo, and then they're the Star Wars

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Speaker 2: Holiday Special was the worst thing on television ever by

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Speaker 2: So when we kind of know Alex Pasternaka from Motherboard, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: which is not Wired, it's Vice. Yes, So we wrote

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Speaker 2: a little bit for Motherboard back then and we had

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Speaker 2: a call with that.

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Speaker 1: We're like, we're like old Motherboard vets.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, basically, wasn't there one more?

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Speaker 1: There was another one and I don't know who wrote

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Speaker 1: this one, chuck, Yeah, it's the titles the Star Wars

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Speaker 1: Holiday Special. George Lucas wants to smash every copy of

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Speaker 1: with a sledgehammer.

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Speaker 2: Which was a famous quote supposedly at a convention by Lucas.

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Speaker 1: Yes, which is not correct.

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Speaker 2: He didn't ever say that. No, Okay, that that sounded

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Speaker 2: like something that people made up.

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Speaker 1: Yes, but if you go on the internet you will

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Speaker 1: quickly believe that he did. Sure apparently didn't.

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Speaker 2: So I'm sure he felt that way though, clearly, you know.

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Speaker 1: Because he did appear on Robot Chicken and I think

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Speaker 1: two thousand and five on the Therapist's Couch talking about

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Speaker 1: how much he hated the special. All right, so let's

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Speaker 1: set the background, shall we Shall we go back to

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, Yeah, summer.

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Speaker 2: Getting the old wayback machine.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's do it.

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Speaker 2: All right, here we are there's watersn Yeah, I'm just

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Speaker 2: the little six year old excited about Star Wars.

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Speaker 1: I am. I've just turned one.

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Speaker 2: Yes, you don't know what's up yet.

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Speaker 1: I please forgive me if I urinate myself.

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Speaker 2: No problem.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: So what has happened is Star Wars has become a huge,

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Speaker 2: huge hit, seemingly out of nowhere. Yeah, establishing George Lucas

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Speaker 2: is one of the brilliant young minds in filmmaking, even

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Speaker 2: though in this first movie it was his first huge,

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Speaker 2: huge breakout hit.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure. I don't mean talk about a

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Speaker 1: breakout hit like no one had ever seen anything like

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Speaker 1: it before. No, two thousand and one had come out

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Speaker 1: in the late sixties. Yeah, but it wasn't it killed.

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Speaker 1: It still is inaccessible to all audiences. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: prett of a cerebral film.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not an adventure movie.

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Speaker 1: This was Wars. This is like basically swashbuckling on the screen.

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Speaker 1: But you know, in a galaxy far far away, Star

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Speaker 1: Wars just changed everything and it came on just like

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Speaker 1: a hammer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and a new hope by the way, yes, and

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Speaker 2: then then we're going to get stuff wrong, nerds, So yes,

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Speaker 2: just go ahead and get your little fingers ready to

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Speaker 2: email us, like if.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't driven home that I'm not a nerd by

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Speaker 1: the fact that I don't have opening night tickets or

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Speaker 1: any tickets yet, give me a break, and by proxy

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Speaker 1: chuck too, Okay, thank you. So it's it's hard to

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Speaker 1: state how great Star Wars was in everyone's mind. Yea right.

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Speaker 1: Bill Murray came out with that lounge singer Star Wars thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was everywhere and if you if you just listen

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Speaker 1: to the lyrics of it, he's really it's just Bill

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Speaker 1: Murray singing about how much Star Wars is awesome.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right. So by the following year, George Lucas was he

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Speaker 1: wanted to figure out a way to keep audiences just

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Speaker 1: engaged with the whole Star Wars franchise that he was

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Speaker 1: just starting to build. But he knew the Empire Strikes

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Speaker 1: Back was a couple more years out, sure, so he

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Speaker 1: I think he was approached by some TV executives who said,

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Speaker 1: have you considered doing some sort of TV special? They're

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Speaker 1: all the rage right now. We have a graphic that's

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Speaker 1: really awesome that we set aside just for TV specials

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Speaker 1: here at CBS. Why don't you let us let's get

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Speaker 1: together and do a Star Wars special.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Producers Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion. We're working

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Speaker 2: over at CBS, and they say, this is a great

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Speaker 2: way to keep the spirit alive while you're making your

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Speaker 2: other movie. Maybe move some more.

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Speaker 1: Toys, yeah, which George Lucas got a cut of all

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Speaker 1: the toys.

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Speaker 2: Sure. So it was right before Thanksgiving, and he said

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Speaker 2: there'd be a lot of people watching TV pre holiday season,

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Speaker 2: or I guess in the holiday season.

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Speaker 1: Well, the weekend before Thanksgiving, it's like everybody's shopping, sitting

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Speaker 1: around family like waiting to actually do stuff. That's right,

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Speaker 1: perfect time to broadcast something on TV.

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Speaker 2: So Lucas says, all right, let's to do this. I

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Speaker 2: don't have a ton of time, but how about this.

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Speaker 2: I'll get I'll get a story together and then you

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Speaker 2: can go hire a whiz bang team of veteran writers

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Speaker 2: and producers and directors.

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Speaker 1: Whatever genre you think is appropriate. And those are the

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Speaker 1: words that will haunt on George Lucas to his grave.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So Lucas said, here's my idea. I want it

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Speaker 2: to be based on wookies and I want it to

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Speaker 2: take place on their home planet of Kiazuk or Wookie

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Speaker 2: Planet C.

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Speaker 1: Is that what he's saying, Kazuk.

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Speaker 2: That's how it's pronounced in the episode the Holiday Special,

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Speaker 2: but it's also pronounced different ways. Other times.

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Speaker 1: I would have pronounced it Cashie spell it ka s

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Speaker 1: h y y y k, Yeah, which I mean.

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Speaker 2: I guess that sounds like Chewbuck's planet sure, also called

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Speaker 2: G five six twenty three. Wookie planet C or Edeon

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Speaker 2: is a mid rim planet. Right.

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Speaker 1: So the whole reason apparently that George Lucas was interested

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Speaker 1: in furing the Wookies was it is what we in

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Speaker 1: show business call low hanging fruit. The reason why it

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Speaker 1: was low hanging fruit was because they had just established

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Speaker 1: the different scenes that would make the cut for Empire

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Speaker 1: Strikes Back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and.

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Speaker 1: How did you pronounce it again?

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Speaker 2: Kazuk.

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Speaker 1: Kazuk had not made the cut. Even prior to this,

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Speaker 1: apparently for a new hope, George Lucas had whipped up

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Speaker 1: a forty page that's known as the Wookie Bible. It's

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Speaker 1: like a forty page supplement that's all about Kazuk and

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Speaker 1: Wookies and Chewbacca and his family and everything about wookiedom. Right,

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Speaker 1: so he's like, I've got this thing already. You know

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Speaker 1: established I love wookies. They didn't make the cut. I'm

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Speaker 1: a little sad about that. They're not gonna kazuk is

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Speaker 1: not going to show up in Empire Strikes Back. Let's

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Speaker 1: build the entire special around wookies. It's basically the one

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Speaker 1: demand me George Lucas has. That's it. I'll be totally

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Speaker 1: hands off from this point on which you kind of was.

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Speaker 1: He totally was. It was actually this experience that apparently

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Speaker 1: taught him to be the very hands on person that

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Speaker 1: he is famous for being. It came out of this

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Speaker 1: Christmas special.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, he was burned and he had an iron grip

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Speaker 2: after that on everything. So here's some of the folks

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Speaker 2: behind it. Bruce Valanche, famous TV writer. You probably had

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Speaker 2: seen him on Hollywood Squares.

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Speaker 1: Wasn't he suspected of being Thomas Pynchone for a while.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, or was Thomas Pinchon on Hollywood Squares?

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Speaker 2: I have no idea.

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Speaker 1: I may be confabulating some stuff confounding. Yeah, there's some

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Speaker 1: con of some sort going on.

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Speaker 2: It sounds like it. Yeah, So Valanche was hired as

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Speaker 2: a writer a guy named Lenny Rips was hired as

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Speaker 2: a writer who.

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Speaker 1: Has some great quotes in that Vanity Fair article he does.

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Speaker 2: His first quote was, we were really excited because this

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Speaker 2: is Star Wars. How could it lose?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Famous last words?

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Speaker 2: Who else was hired? There was a husband and wife team,

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Speaker 2: the Welches. Yeah, who are the parents of folk singer

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Speaker 2: Gillian Welch, who I'm a big fan of, And I

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Speaker 2: had no idea that her parents. They were producers slash

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Speaker 2: songwriters of the day. They were big on the variety

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Speaker 2: show scene, which would turn out to be a really

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Speaker 2: key cog in this whole experience.

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Speaker 1: So I feel like, right about here, Jerry should insert

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Speaker 1: a needle coming off of our record sound effect. Yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: thanks Jerry, So Chuck, you just said singer songwriters.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what would that have to do with Star Wars? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Well, actually, in this Star Wars Holiday special for those

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Speaker 1: of you who hadn't seen it, there are musical numbers.

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Speaker 1: They decided from the outset that there should be musical numbers.

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Speaker 1: And the reason that they decided that there should be

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Speaker 1: musical numbers is because the people who sold George Lucas

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Speaker 1: and at the time it was the Star Wars Corporation

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Speaker 1: was what it was called. Yeah, on the idea of

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Speaker 1: doing this TV special was that everyone would love variety show.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was the seventies.

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Speaker 1: Great idea, let's do a variety show. The problem was this,

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Speaker 1: Apparently George Lucas didn't watch enough TV. Yeah, and he

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Speaker 1: also overly trusted people who talk to him. Sure, because

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Speaker 1: by nineteen seventy eight, yes, variety shows had dominated television

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Speaker 1: for over ten years, but it had come to an end.

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Speaker 1: It was getting stale.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking to Carol Burnett show, one of my favorite.

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Speaker 1: Had just been canceled after eleven seasons. Yeah, Big Red.

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Speaker 2: Flag Sonny and Cher had just had its last season. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean what else, like he was still going on.

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Speaker 1: Probably the Kihaw still on Solid Gold, had yet to

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Speaker 1: come on and take up the mantle.

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Speaker 2: That would never write a show.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it was a little bit. There was talking in

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Speaker 1: between the songs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Remember the Mandrel Sisters show.

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Speaker 1: I never watched that one. Well it was with that

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Speaker 1: country chic thing that happened.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a big deal in the it's kind

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Speaker 2: of happening again, I think.

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Speaker 1: Oh, because of that dude, the guy who won All

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Speaker 1: the CMA Awards. I don't know, he's like he's he

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Speaker 1: came along and he's like, actually country. His dad's like

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Speaker 1: a coal miner for real from Kentucky. I think I

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Speaker 1: know you mean Chris so something. Yeah, yeah, he is good.

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Speaker 1: He's come along and been like, what are you guys doing?

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a revival in like good country music again.

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Speaker 2: That's great, like in the tradition of Merle Haggard and

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Speaker 2: Shore Cash.

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Speaker 1: And I guess that's probably where the country she came from,

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Speaker 1: because there was actually good country going on.

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Speaker 2: Yeh, Johnny Cash out of a variety show?

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Speaker 1: Did he really? Oh yeah, I knew they did, like

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Speaker 1: a Sunday singing thing like out in Virginia.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he had his own variety show was actually pretty good.

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Speaker 2: There's some like really great performances.

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Speaker 1: Do you know how many nerds.

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Speaker 2: Are like, get back to star warm? I know, I'm

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Speaker 2: so sorry. All right, So the Variety Show is dying

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Speaker 2: sort of, and so they figure what a great time

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Speaker 2: to take the biggest movie property on the planet and

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Speaker 2: wedget into the Variety Show. Mill you.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if wedge is the right word. I

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Speaker 1: think maybe nestle it in there. And then start hitting

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Speaker 1: it with the blunt edge of an axe until it

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Speaker 1: mashes into that crevice. You know, Because this is the

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Speaker 1: time when Fantasy Island had just started, Mork and Mindy

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Speaker 1: was about to change things, Charlie's Angels was getting huge.

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Speaker 1: It basically television as we knew it from nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: to whenever the real world came along. Just escape ast

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Speaker 1: television is what they called. It was starting and it

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Speaker 1: was the hip new thing. So basically, if they had

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Speaker 1: turned Han Solo and Princess Leah and Luke Skywalker into

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Speaker 1: maybe you know, sexy detectives, it might have gone over

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Speaker 1: even better. But they went the other way. They decided

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Speaker 1: to latch onto this extraordinarily stale genre of television, and

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Speaker 1: they hired the best in the business. Like there was

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Speaker 1: a quote from I think Lenny Rips who was saying,

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Speaker 1: like we had literally a dream team, a variety show

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Speaker 1: dream team, and everybody was good, but there were probably

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Speaker 1: no bad ways on the Titanic.

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Speaker 2: He there, that's a great quote. Yeah. The guy they

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Speaker 2: hired you directed initially was a dude named David at Coomba,

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Speaker 2: and he had made his name for Welcome to the

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Speaker 2: fillmore East. It was a concert documentary with Van Morrison

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Speaker 2: Van Morrison and the Birds in nineteen seventy one, and

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Speaker 2: he actually was at usc Film School the same time

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Speaker 2: as Lucas, even though they didn't know each other, and

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Speaker 2: he only ended up directing about three segments of the

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Speaker 2: thing before he quit. Yet before he walked off, some

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Speaker 2: say he was actually let go, but we'll get to

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Speaker 2: him in a minute. Who replaced him. Okay, as we

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Speaker 2: get along down this gross road, well.

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Speaker 1: Let's take a little break because I'm overly excited.

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Speaker 3: Okay, softly, Josh, So.

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Speaker 2: All right, so we've established most of the main players.

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Speaker 2: We'll get to a few more. We should point out

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Speaker 2: that Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford and Carrie Fischer, Peter Mayhew.

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Speaker 1: They had no grounds to refuse to be on this.

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Speaker 2: Basically, yeah, pretty much. They were not huge, huge stars,

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Speaker 2: yet they could throw their weight around and say this

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Speaker 2: is terrible and I'm not doing it.

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Speaker 1: They were big overnight because of Star Wars, for sure,

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Speaker 1: but they weren't to the adoring public.

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Speaker 2: Sure.

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Speaker 1: Back at the studio they could still be bossed around,

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Speaker 1: and this was the result of it. And you can

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Speaker 1: tell also just from watching the actual special like, Harrison

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Speaker 1: Ford is not happy to be there at any point.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, Princess Leah is clearly on drugs. Was she

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Speaker 1: on drugs at this point? If you watch it, she's

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Speaker 1: on drugs. Especially the ending scene.

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Speaker 2: Mark Hamill, it looks like he's happy to be there.

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Speaker 1: Actually he was fine, but apparently he said, no, I'm

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Speaker 1: not doing a musical number. Yeah, and if you watch

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Speaker 1: his part, wedging a musical number in there would have

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Speaker 1: been even more painful. Sure, but they everybody who was

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Speaker 1: part of the actual Star Wars franchise that wasn't wearing

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Speaker 1: like a full body costume, yeah, was like I really

382
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Speaker 1: wish I wasn't here. And you can.

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Speaker 2: Tell, oh yeah. In fact, in the opening credit sequence,

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Speaker 2: they're showing the picture the you know, the faces of

385
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Speaker 2: the people, and you see Harrison Ford as if he's

386
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Speaker 2: flying the Millennium Falcon, and you can you can just

387
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Speaker 2: hear the guy all screen going, now, look at the

388
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Speaker 2: camera and just give a nod. Just look at the

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Speaker 2: camera and give a nod. And he finally you can

390
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Speaker 2: tell he's pissed off, and he looks up at the

391
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Speaker 2: camera and just sort of smirks.

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Speaker 1: Yeah and points at the camera like okay, I'm looking

393
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Speaker 1: at the camera and then goes back to what he's doing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty awesome.

395
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Speaker 2: It felt bad for him so early on Valanche and others.

396
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Speaker 1: Did you feel bad before him?

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Speaker 3: Though?

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Speaker 1: Really? I mean, like, come on, it's Harrison Ford's Han Solo.

399
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Speaker 1: He has to go do this for like five days. Yeah,

400
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Speaker 1: I felt terrible for him. I think it's hilarious that

401
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:07,840
Speaker 1: they had to do this, especially now.

402
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Speaker 2: Well, early on a Valanche and others knew that they

403
00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,840
Speaker 2: may be in trouble because they decided not to subtitle

404
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,920
Speaker 2: any of the Wookie dialogue right, and they literally started

405
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Speaker 2: after a brief opening scene setting it up here. Here's

406
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:24,040
Speaker 2: the basic plot is Han Solo is trying to get

407
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Speaker 2: Chewbacca back to Kazuk in time for Life Day so

408
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Speaker 2: he can celebrate with his family.

409
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Speaker 1: That's the basis of the entire two hours I see.

410
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Speaker 2: Basis the entire two hours. They encounter a space battle

411
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Speaker 2: and they're delayed, and the next two hours are kind

412
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Speaker 2: of what's going on while the delay is happening.

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Speaker 1: Back on Kazuk. Back on Kazuk, because you hear like, oh, okay, well,

414
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Speaker 1: Han Solo and Chewbacca evading the Imperial Guard and all

415
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Speaker 1: that stuff for two hours. I would watch that, sure,

416
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Speaker 1: I would too. Yeah, that's not what they show.

417
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Speaker 2: Killing time at the Wookie household, that is what they show. Yeah,

418
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Speaker 2: that's what they do.

419
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Speaker 1: It's people hanging out waiting for Chewbacca, worrying about him. Yeah,

420
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Speaker 1: and then killing time while they wait for him to

421
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Speaker 1: come back.

422
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, literally, so and so hold on, So you say

423
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Speaker 2: there's a setup, right, Yeah, that's the initial setup.

424
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Speaker 1: And then chuck. That's followed by this.

425
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's followed by literally ten minutes, ten solid minutes

426
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Speaker 2: of incomprehensible Wookie speak.

427
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Speaker 1: So let's join it for a second, shall we. Yeah,

428
00:21:28,720 --> 00:22:17,359
Speaker 1: let's all enjoy it. And again, you said ten minutes,

429
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:20,360
Speaker 1: and you're not exaggerating, you're not being hyperbolic. You can

430
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Speaker 1: time it. That's it's ten minutes of Wookie's talking to

431
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Speaker 1: each other with no subtitles.

432
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Speaker 2: Fortunately, I couldn't follow it at first, Like I didn't

433
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,639
Speaker 2: even know who it was. I thought it might have

434
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Speaker 2: been Chewbacca's mom and dad. Oh yeah, that's and little brother. Sure,

435
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:38,639
Speaker 2: And I don't find out until later when Mark Camill

436
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 2: shows up via skype call and says, he really explains

437
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:48,359
Speaker 2: everything that had just happened, like your Chewbacca's father, Itchy,

438
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:54,920
Speaker 2: your Chewbacca's son Lumpy Lumpy yeah, and your Chewbacca's wife, oh, Mala, yeah,

439
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 2: thank you.

440
00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: So before everybody starts like freaking out, we know that

441
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 1: that's actually their nicknames. Their real names are. His father

442
00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 1: is a Tichik cook, a Titchik cook, it's really hard

443
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:11,120
Speaker 1: to pronounce. Mulatto Buck is his wife, and his son

444
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 1: is Lumpo or ump but.

445
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 2: As named by Lucas.

446
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,199
Speaker 1: But yeah, but Lucas also named him Lumpy Itchy and Mala.

447
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:20,160
Speaker 2: Yeah.

448
00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:24,439
Speaker 1: So they're all back there wringing their hands, trying to

449
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 1: figure out ways to pass the time until they get

450
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,679
Speaker 1: word from Chewbacca that he's made it to uh what

451
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 1: is it? Ketchuk Zuk Kazuk. Say ketchup, ketchup or cats

452
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:42,320
Speaker 1: up if you're fancy. But Chewbacca is having trouble getting

453
00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:48,439
Speaker 1: back to Kochuk because there's Kazuk, because there's a blockade

454
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,360
Speaker 1: by the Empire and they're looking for rebels, specifically Chewbacca,

455
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 1: who I didn't realize this. He's the most famous Wookie

456
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: of all. Did you know that? Yeah, of course I

457
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:57,439
Speaker 1: didn't know.

458
00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 2: That. Well, I mean he's the only one that really

459
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 2: appears in the movies, all right, I mean, yeah.

460
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 1: We're seeing like, you know, these people's view of your universe.

461
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 1: What about back on Kazook.

462
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,160
Speaker 2: Yes, he might have just been a fly by Night wookie, right, yeah,

463
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 2: but not the case very famous wiki.

464
00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:17,159
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he really loved to like soak in his fame.

465
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,919
Speaker 2: All right, So he realizes there's a problem. Valanche. He

466
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,800
Speaker 2: goes to Lucas and is like, I don't know, man,

467
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 2: this is your world, but it may not be the

468
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 2: strongest thing to do to set this in wokie land

469
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 2: and have all this incomprehensible dialogue. And he says he

470
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:35,440
Speaker 2: was met with a glacial stare.

471
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:38,640
Speaker 1: Well he put it a little differently than that.

472
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 2: Well, he said glacial stare. He did.

473
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,639
Speaker 1: The glacial stare that he got was for this quote.

474
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 1: He said, these people just talk and what sounds like

475
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 1: fat people having an orgasm. Yeah, he goes, if you want,

476
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: you can set up a tape recorder in my bedroom

477
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 1: and I'll do all of the follying it for it.

478
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. He's a large guy, he is.

479
00:24:56,440 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: So that's what got the glacial stare. But Valanche later

480
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 1: said that from this, there was one development meeting that

481
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 1: Lucas attended, and it was here's the Wookie Bible, tell

482
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 1: me what you got. And Valanche said he and the

483
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 1: other writers and producers and director were just kind of

484
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 1: throwing ideas, and George Lucas would either say like, no,

485
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 1: that doesn't work, give him a glacial stare, or say, yes,

486
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 1: that's exactly it. Yes, let's make this a variety show.

487
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. And there was a little bit of background there.

488
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,200
Speaker 2: The CANTEENA players in the band had appeared on other

489
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 2: variety shows at that point, and I think it went

490
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 2: over fairly well, just as a short segment on like

491
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 2: the Richard Pryor Variety Show or Donnie Marie ye Man.

492
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 2: There were a lot of variety shows.

493
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 1: But that's what I'm saying. It was that was television.

494
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:52,640
Speaker 1: That's what you did, Like The Brady's. The show had

495
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,919
Speaker 1: its course and then it became a variety show. It

496
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,600
Speaker 1: was just everybody loved variety shows. Yeah, I'll do. By

497
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: this time, though, everybody was sick of variety shows and

498
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,159
Speaker 1: so it really was a terrible choice.

499
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 2: In fact, they even hired a couple of writers from

500
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,159
Speaker 2: Shields and Yarnell, which I hadn't heard of. I oh yeah,

501
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 2: I watched it. It was at least creepy. This mind

502
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 2: couple who had their own variety show, and they figured

503
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,080
Speaker 2: these two will be great because they are used to

504
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:22,680
Speaker 2: working without words.

505
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: Right, and so there is a certain logic to the

506
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:26,640
Speaker 1: variety show. It's not just all over the place. It's

507
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 1: just that variety shows were popular.

508
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:28,680
Speaker 2: Yea.

509
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,120
Speaker 1: At the time, somebody was like, well, wookies, you don't

510
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,159
Speaker 1: understand what they're saying. So this is all going to

511
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:38,119
Speaker 1: be very physical. So these people who who did what

512
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: is it shields in yar Now, yeah, that's a perfect choice.

513
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 1: That makes complete sense. You can see this whole, this

514
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 1: whole process of leading up to the point where it

515
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:50,719
Speaker 1: was produced and shot and everything. Yeah, a series of like,

516
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: oh we have this problem, well here's a fix.

517
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that leads to another problem. Well we'll fix

518
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 2: it with this.

519
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: And no one's stepping back and being like all we've

520
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: done is cree We ate a series of problems that

521
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 1: are going to come together and make one extraordinarily large

522
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 1: problem that will become legendary. No one did that, and

523
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:10,680
Speaker 1: so the whole thing was made.

524
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 2: That's right, and it eventually airs.

525
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: On November seventeenth, nineteen seventy eight, a Friday, at eight

526
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 1: pm Eastern time.

527
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 2: That's right, And according to Nielsen ratings, it attracted thirteen

528
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 2: million viewers lost the second hour just in the US.

529
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 1: It aired in six or seven countries total.

530
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, but no one cares about that.

531
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:34,880
Speaker 1: I guess not because none of those are on the internet.

532
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 1: You know.

533
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 2: It finished second to the Love Boat in the second arm, sorry,

534
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 2: from eight to nine, and in the next hour actually

535
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 2: finished behind part two of a mini series about Pearl

536
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 2: Harbor starring Angie Dickinson. So yeah, it didn't even win

537
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 2: their respective hours.

538
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: No, thirteen million, that's that's not bad. The thing is, apparently,

539
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: if you look at the Nielsen ratings graph for the

540
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: first hour.

541
00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 2: Yeah we know about that graph, It's okay, yeah.

542
00:27:59,640 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 3: We do.

543
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 1: And then after a very important part, which we'll talk

544
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 1: about soon, it just drops off at the end of

545
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,360
Speaker 1: the first hour, and that actually probably made the executives

546
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:13,440
Speaker 1: at CBS cringe for a number of reasons. Number one

547
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 1: is this special was originally supposed to just be an hour,

548
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,160
Speaker 1: but so many advertisers wanted to sign one that they

549
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:25,919
Speaker 1: extended it to two hours, and it shines through. You

550
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 1: can totally tell that this thing was never supposed to be.

551
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: I think an hour might have been stretching it to

552
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: tell you the truth. Oh yeah, it's thirty minutes of content,

553
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: forty if you're generous, an hour and then two hours.

554
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: It becomes one of the worst things that was ever

555
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: put on television.

556
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 2: All right, well, let's take a break and then we'll

557
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about the actual even don't

558
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 2: want to call it content, but it is content in

559
00:28:52,200 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 2: the strictest definition. Sure, right after this softly jaw.

560
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: So.

561
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 2: All right, so the show itself, we've given you the

562
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 2: main plot line, which again is that Chewy is trying

563
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 2: to get back to his home planet to celebrate life

564
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 2: Day with his family.

565
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:30,479
Speaker 1: Right, that's it, And again we almost barely see Chewy.

566
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 2: Yeah.

567
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:35,479
Speaker 1: The rest is his family on Kizook waiting for him

568
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 1: to come back for Life Day.

569
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 2: Yeah. So some of the various things they did there

570
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 2: were guest stars. That was Harvey Korman from the Carol

571
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 2: Burnett Show. Okay, one of my all time favorites.

572
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: Him or Carol Burnett Show both. He's great. Yeah, he

573
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: actually if you watch what he's doing, you're like, this

574
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: is comedy for sure.

575
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 2: Apparently he too was like the only one on set

576
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 2: that was bringing levity. He was joking around and kind

577
00:29:58,880 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 2: of kept spirits up.

578
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 1: Good for him, that's what I say. And he had

579
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 1: three different parts.

580
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, he played well I don't even know the names. Actually,

581
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 2: we could look him up, but he played a he

582
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 2: played a Julia child like cook. There's an actual cooking segment,

583
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 2: a long one, a very long cooking segment where Chewbacca's

584
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 2: wife makes banthas stew.

585
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 1: To kill some time, to kill some time on her

586
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: planet and in our living room.

587
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Harvey Corman is in Drag is a four

588
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 2: armed Julia childlike TV chef, right, And I think it's Gormanda.

589
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 2: It's her name, Gormonda. That makes total sense. Yeah, he

590
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 2: also plays There's this one weird bit where Chewbacca's son

591
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 2: tries to figure out a way to trick the stormtroopers

592
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 2: that the Empire had come and kind of because the

593
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 2: blockade raided the house and other properties. So he tries

594
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 2: to trick them by I think, rigging a calm link

595
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,719
Speaker 2: to speak in a different voice. So he has to

596
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 2: watch the instruction manual.

597
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: He watches an instruction video.

598
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 2: Which was Harvey Kytel as a robot.

599
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,560
Speaker 1: Oh, it would have been wonderful of big Harvey Kitel.

600
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 2: Oh what did say Harvey Harvey Korm.

601
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: Oh, Man Harvey Kittell murders someone in the middle of

602
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: the instruction.

603
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 2: Rade Harvey Korman. And then the final role he had

604
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 2: was as a a bar patron in the cantina that drinks.

605
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 2: He has a hole in the top of his head

606
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 2: like a volcano where he pours his drinks in.

607
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: That's what he drinks, and he he loves b Arthur.

608
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 2: Did we mention b Arthur was in it?

609
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: B Arthur is not only in it, Chuck. She sings

610
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: a song.

611
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 2: She does. She is the unpronounce to everyone she manages

612
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 2: or maybe owns.

613
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: The owner. Yeah, the what's the mas what Ma's deaf cantina?

614
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 2: Uh No, most deaf is a rapper? Oh yeah, think

615
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 2: you mean Moss Eisley.

616
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, that cantina. She's the owner. B Arthur is

617
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: the owner b Arthur of the Golden Girls, but in

618
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: this case be Arthur of Maud because, as one of

619
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: the people who wrote one of the articles we based

620
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,920
Speaker 1: this on points out, she's just basically playing Maud as

621
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: the owner of the cantina.

622
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, and her song comes because they basically say there's

623
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 2: a lockdown, so you gotta call last call at your bar.

624
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 2: So she calls last call by singing a song to everyone.

625
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 1: Right, and again, we can't possibly have this script lead

626
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: anywhere else but Chewbacca's house while his family waits for it.

627
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 1: So all this takes place as part of a public

628
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 1: service announcement basically broadcast by the Empire about how immoral

629
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: life on Tattooen is. So let's go see what's going

630
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: on in the mas Eisley cantina as it's being shut

631
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: down for curfew.

632
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, this is incomprehensible, but it goes on.

633
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 2: So they're in it. There's also Art Carney. Yes, he's

634
00:32:57,440 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 2: a honeymooner, probably the star of the whole thing.

635
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: Really, he has the most lines, I would say, the

636
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: most comprehensible line, right. Yeah.

637
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 2: So he plays a trader, a human trader that is

638
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 2: recently been with Han Solo and Chewy and actually gets

639
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 2: to Kazuok and says they're on the way. It's all good.

640
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, a trade dour, not trade tour.

641
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, traders and trades humans for you know, money.

642
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: No, he he sells goods.

643
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, a trader. He doesn't trade humans. Yeah, he's in

644
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 2: the human trade.

645
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: He No, he isn't really, Yeah, he trades humans like

646
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 1: he sells humans.

647
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 2: I looked it up in the Star Wars Encyclopedia said

648
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 2: that he was in the human trade.

649
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: Huh. So in this Christmas special, Yeah, apparently they sanitized

650
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: his background because he's basically just selling like gadgets and

651
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: novelties and stuff like that to the Wookies and the

652
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 1: Empire who were occupying the area.

653
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 2: Yes, he comes bearing gifts.

654
00:33:58,080 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's a friend of Chewback's family.

655
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he comes Barren gifts. One of the gifts

656
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: he gives is a sort of like a little digital

657
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 2: insert to a Oh, I guess you would call it

658
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 2: a virtual reality hair dryer hair dryer, like a beauty

659
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:19,720
Speaker 2: shop hair dryer. He gives it to Grandpa Itchy. Grandpa

660
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 2: Itchy sits under this hair dryer, pops in this digital cassette,

661
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,720
Speaker 2: and it can only be described as softcore porn.

662
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 1: Apparently, the writers who were interviewed for this said that

663
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: was totally the intent they were trying to get what

664
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,760
Speaker 1: amounted to soft core porn that would pass the sensors.

665
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:39,399
Speaker 2: That's right.

666
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:44,319
Speaker 1: So it's all you can't even say it's innuendo. It's

667
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,439
Speaker 1: too obvious an overt for innuendo. Instead, it's just it's

668
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:54,720
Speaker 1: just it's just gross. It's really gross. Diane Carroll, great singer,

669
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:59,720
Speaker 1: Yes she is a Vegas staple, shows up and starts

670
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:06,320
Speaker 1: based tantalizing Grandpa Itchy, who again, this is Chewbacca's elderly

671
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:10,319
Speaker 1: father who now engages in some sort of well he's

672
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 1: he's watching virtual reality pornography now, and this is a

673
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:15,880
Speaker 1: pretty lengthy segment in and of itself.

674
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:19,319
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and she literally says to him, now, I

675
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 2: can see you're really excited.

676
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:23,959
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty rough to watch.

677
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, so then you've got another musical number.

678
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:31,200
Speaker 1: Because also again he shudders, Yeah, it's really strange.

679
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 2: All right. So there's also a I know, it seems

680
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,640
Speaker 2: like we're jumping around, but it's it's so mind blowing.

681
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:39,720
Speaker 1: Not like this is pretty much like blow for blow.

682
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:43,760
Speaker 2: Actually I forgot earlier on in the In the special,

683
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:48,840
Speaker 2: there's one of my favorite sequences is when Grandpa Itchy

684
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 2: goes over to Lumpy and basically sets up Remember the

685
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,240
Speaker 2: the hologram chessboard that they played in a New Hope. Yeah,

686
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,640
Speaker 2: basically kind of sets that up and says, here, just

687
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 2: play this. He pushes button which is clearly a nineteen

688
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 2: seventies cassette recorder, and another like it's like a circ

689
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 2: desole acid trip gymnast routine happens in front of the

690
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 2: kid's eyes. And again this all just it's not like

691
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,879
Speaker 2: it shows a snippet. They show the entire segments, like five, six,

692
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,240
Speaker 2: ten minutes long. Sure of all of these things.

693
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,359
Speaker 1: So you would think, Okay, they've gone to this hologram

694
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,319
Speaker 1: well a couple of times, why not go to it again?

695
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 1: Well they do. They do to kill more time while

696
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 1: the Imperial Guard is ransacking their house. Art Carney apparently,

697
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 1: I guess it's trying to get one of the Imperial Guard,

698
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: the leader, I think, or one of the leaders.

699
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 2: Who looks like somebody from Spaceballs, by the way.

700
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 1: Very much so. And the writer of the Vanity Fair article,

701
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:55,719
Speaker 1: by the way said this is so incomprehensible. The specialist

702
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,359
Speaker 1: George Lucas didn't even have the schwartz with him at

703
00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: the time. So anyway, our Carney's distracting this Imperial leader

704
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:10,359
Speaker 1: while they're ransacking the Wookies house Chewbaca's house with a hologram.

705
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:13,880
Speaker 1: In this hologram, instead of being an acrobat or Diane

706
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,240
Speaker 1: Carroll or any kind of porn or anything like that,

707
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 1: is Jefferson Starship and they decide that they're going to

708
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 1: play Light the Sky on Fire, which apparently is about UFOs.

709
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:26,840
Speaker 2: It's a little music video.

710
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:30,720
Speaker 1: Basically, it's a Yeah, it's the predecessor to like video

711
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,759
Speaker 1: Kill the Radio Star, you can tell. And again it

712
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:39,239
Speaker 1: is the whole lengthy song. Yeah, the whole thing. So

713
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:43,240
Speaker 1: every time that somebody's like, we need to escape mentally

714
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 1: from what's going on here in our house, let's go

715
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:49,959
Speaker 1: into the video world, it's not just and they don't

716
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: cut back and forth. It's okay, here's five minutes of

717
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:56,399
Speaker 1: Jefferson Starship performing this song.

718
00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:00,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even the Jefferson Starship guys were like, it's

719
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 2: sort of a weird trip, Like we didn't get it,

720
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:03,839
Speaker 2: but we did it right.

721
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:07,800
Speaker 1: They gave us some money, yeah, and some cocaine. Well probably,

722
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:12,799
Speaker 1: so we said, yeah, chuck. I think though there yet

723
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:17,480
Speaker 1: another segment like this is actually widely regarded as the

724
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: high point of the whole thing. Oh sure, great, there

725
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,560
Speaker 1: is a cartoon actually, yeah, that Lump Lumpy watches. Yeah,

726
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:27,880
Speaker 1: Lumpy's like the Imperial Guard is still ransacking my house.

727
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,360
Speaker 1: I think I'll entertain myself by watching a cartoon on

728
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 1: my little.

729
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 2: I don't know what.

730
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:37,480
Speaker 1: I guess it was an iPad and he watches this

731
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:41,280
Speaker 1: cartoon and it's it's actually remarkable for a number of reasons.

732
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: It's the best part of the whole special.

733
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, generally agreed upon as such, right, not just us.

734
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,840
Speaker 1: And it introduces Boba fet. It's the first time Boba

735
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: Fet ever makes an appearance in the Star Wars universe.

736
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually not a bad And you can't find

737
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,239
Speaker 2: it in the the one version I told you to watch.

738
00:38:57,239 --> 00:39:00,120
Speaker 2: They removed it for copyright, but they didn't watch a separate.

739
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: Right, you can find it on its own.

740
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's very much reminiscent of like the

741
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 2: cartoon style of the day, like a he Man or

742
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 2: something for.

743
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: Sure, even even but it's even a little more artsy

744
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:11,480
Speaker 1: than that.

745
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, But it does have a plot that you can

746
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:17,359
Speaker 2: follow that makes sense as a Star Wars thing, and

747
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 2: it introduces Boba fet, like you said, And it's actually

748
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:20,879
Speaker 2: not bad.

749
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: It's like Luke and R two and C three po yeah,

750
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 1: and they're like they crash on a planet or something.

751
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:27,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Han and where you're in it. And it's

752
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 2: the first time we see in Darth Vader. It's first

753
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 2: time we see Boba Fett and that he is, that

754
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:36,800
Speaker 2: he is just doing whatever he can do for money,

755
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,239
Speaker 2: Like Luke trusts him at first, CE three bos like

756
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:40,960
Speaker 2: you're sure you should trust him this quick? Yeah, and

757
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 2: he's like, oh, three po, you in your non trusting ways.

758
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 2: And then it turns out he's selling them out to

759
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 2: the dark side.

760
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 1: So it's it's basically Boba Fett is an allegory for

761
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 1: George Lucas himself. So the cartoon comes and goes. And

762
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: that was the thing that came at about the end

763
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 1: of the first hour mark and after that everybody just

764
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: turned off their television sets.

765
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember.

766
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 1: Did you watch this when it came up? Yeah?

767
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 2: I remember watching it, but I don't remember much about it,

768
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 2: Like if I made it through it all, I mean

769
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 2: it was I was seven and it was on till ten,

770
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 2: so I probably didn't make it through it all. Yeah,

771
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 2: Plus you're probably disturbed who knows. I just remember that.

772
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:22,840
Speaker 2: I'll have to ask my brother. He might have a

773
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:23,479
Speaker 2: memory of this.

774
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: Oh, Betty does. I'm sure he met everybody afterward or

775
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:28,280
Speaker 1: something like that. You know, it has a picture.

776
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 2: Well he was ten at that point, so cynicism had,

777
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 2: you know, become a thing in his life probably.

778
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:34,080
Speaker 1: All right by then?

779
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 2: Sure didn't that when centicism kicks in today?

780
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 1: Jenkinsie Scott holding out to fourteen fifteen. Yeah, maybe so,

781
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,920
Speaker 1: so Chuck, the whole thing finally does end. And actually

782
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: there's a guy his name is Nathan Raven, he writes

783
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: over at the av Club. He had a great quote.

784
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,960
Speaker 1: He basically said that one of the great redeeming values

785
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 1: of this this special is that it does eventually end.

786
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what the first part of the quote is,

787
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:00,840
Speaker 2: I'm not convinced the special wasn't ultimately written and directed

788
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 2: by a sentient bag of cocaine.

789
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,759
Speaker 1: And like, go read his review of the Star Wars

790
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,920
Speaker 1: Holiday Special, because he goes on to describe exactly what

791
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 1: that must have been like. Yeah, development meeting where the

792
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 1: bag of cocaine is pacing back and forth talking about

793
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: what should happen.

794
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 2: That's what it feels like.

795
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 1: But it doesn't and it ends even more. It takes

796
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 1: this bizarre two hours and wraps it up in just

797
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 1: a nice bizarre bow.

798
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:29,799
Speaker 2: Yeah. So what happens is eventually Han Solo should we

799
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 2: say spoiler alert, Eventually Han Solo and Chewy make it

800
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 2: to the planet. They park on the far side of

801
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 2: the planet because they know the Imperial forces are there.

802
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,439
Speaker 1: And the exercise will do Chewy good.

803
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:45,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they have to hike over there. They eventually

804
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,319
Speaker 2: make it back home. They find a storm the Stormtroopers

805
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 2: at their house right their tree hut. Yeah, which way.

806
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,800
Speaker 2: The paintings that set this up, I don't think we mentioned.

807
00:41:57,640 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 2: I don't even call them matte paintings. It looks like

808
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 2: someone painted something on the wall and they just like

809
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:03,400
Speaker 2: put a camera in front of it.

810
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 1: Pretty much. Yeah.

811
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:09,200
Speaker 2: So they get back and Chewbacca Han Solo hides around

812
00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 2: the corner. Chewbacca steps in front of his son to

813
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:16,760
Speaker 2: protect him. Sure, Han Solo jumps out, and the stormtrooper

814
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:20,359
Speaker 2: trips over a pile of logs and falls over the.

815
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 1: Balcony and dies in a holiday special.

816
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,880
Speaker 2: So they wouldn't even not only could he not shoot

817
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:29,600
Speaker 2: first with Gredo, but they couldn't even have him like

818
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 2: wrestle the stormtrooper and throw him off. He trips over

819
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 2: a log.

820
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:36,480
Speaker 1: Right, and Han Solo has his hands thrown up like

821
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:37,000
Speaker 1: wasn't me?

822
00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 2: It might have been a banana peel, you know.

823
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:46,560
Speaker 1: But again, this is basically produced by vaudevillians starring vaudevillians.

824
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,520
Speaker 1: Why not have the one death take place from basically

825
00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 1: what amounts to somebody slipping on a banana peel exactly.

826
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 1: It's a perfect way to end it. So that's that

827
00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,440
Speaker 1: guy basically represents the end of the Imperial threat for

828
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:04,279
Speaker 1: the rest of Life Day. And we then see Life

829
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:08,320
Speaker 1: Day being celebrated, which is celebrated by lots of wookies

830
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:12,920
Speaker 1: assembling in what looks like a giant Olin Mills portrait,

831
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: and all of them are wearing red robes. And I

832
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 1: know I'm up talking, and it's because my mind is

833
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:26,480
Speaker 1: still having trouble like wrapping around us. And then Princess

834
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:30,920
Speaker 1: Leah comes out with C three po is Mark Hamill.

835
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 2: There, the whole gang zeraphone, Okay.

836
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:34,400
Speaker 1: The whole gangs there, and then they all gather around

837
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:38,560
Speaker 1: to hear a great quote from Princess Leah, which we

838
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 1: will read verbatim.

839
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,839
Speaker 2: This holiday is yours, but we all share with you

840
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,520
Speaker 2: the hope that this day brings us closer to freedom

841
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 2: and to harmony and to peace. No matter how different

842
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 2: we appear, we're all the same in our struggle against

843
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,839
Speaker 2: the powers of evil and darkness. I hope that this

844
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:58,439
Speaker 2: day will always be a day of joy in which

845
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:02,000
Speaker 2: we can reconfirm our dedication and our courage, and, more

846
00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 2: than anything else, our love for one another. This is

847
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 2: the promise of the Tree of Life Q song.

848
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 1: Right, And we should also point out the Tree of

849
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 1: Life has never been mentioned.

850
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 2: Up to this point.

851
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:14,720
Speaker 1: I had no idea what this takes a sudden appearance

852
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,319
Speaker 1: at the end, and when you said Q song, by

853
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 1: Q song, you mean Princess Leah starts singing.

854
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, And apparently that was one of the big contingencies

855
00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 2: on Carrie Fisher being involved. Yeah, she's going through a

856
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 2: phase where she's like, I kind of like singing.

857
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:31,360
Speaker 1: Bruce Valanche calls it her Joni Mitchell period.

858
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she somehow convinced them to let her sing

859
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 2: as Princess Leah. And she does.

860
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:40,360
Speaker 1: And again I've said that she looks like she's on drugs.

861
00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:42,239
Speaker 1: This is the point where she really does look like

862
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,280
Speaker 1: she's on drugs. And it's not just me other writers

863
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:49,880
Speaker 1: who've written reviews of this, it's really obvious that she

864
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,360
Speaker 1: possibly smoked a decent amount of pot before she shot

865
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: this shot this scene. But she sings, Oh, okay, it's fine.

866
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:03,080
Speaker 1: It's just the the fact that Princess Leia is singing.

867
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:05,879
Speaker 1: And actually, Bruce Falanch had a really great quote too.

868
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 1: He says that she very much wanted to show this

869
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,240
Speaker 1: side of her talent, and there was general dismay because

870
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,399
Speaker 1: this was not what we wanted Princess Lea to be doing. Yeah,

871
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 1: she did it anyway. So the whole thing ends with

872
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:20,799
Speaker 1: her singing this song about life day oh yeah, which

873
00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 1: is set loosely to the John Williams Star Wars theme.

874
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. So along the way, the director, original director quit,

875
00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 2: A new director, Steve Binder was hired to finish the

876
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 2: job and bring it in, and he did over the

877
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:40,359
Speaker 2: original one million dollar budget. Of course, always he did

878
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,240
Speaker 2: bring it in and at this point George Lucas said

879
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 2: he was he was working on Empire Strikes Back. He

880
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:50,120
Speaker 2: didn't know what was going on. He wasn't around for

881
00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:50,600
Speaker 2: the shoot.

882
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:52,759
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't until it aired I think that he

883
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: actually saw it.

884
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:57,320
Speaker 2: Yes, and it was a travesty obviously, if you haven't

885
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 2: noticed that by now, critics hated it. Star Wars fans

886
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 2: really hated it.

887
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 1: Everybody, the people who were in it hated it.

888
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 2: Lucas hated it.

889
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,000
Speaker 1: Even Harvey Korman secretly hated it.

890
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, even Harvey Keitel hated it. Actually he loved it.

891
00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 2: But Lucas has been asked over the years about it

892
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 2: a lot, and he doesn't talk about it much. But

893
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five, and I don't buy this

894
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 2: for a second, he says it was an interview He

895
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:26,400
Speaker 2: said especial from nineteen seventy eight. I really didn't have

896
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 2: much to do with us. You know that part is true.

897
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 2: I can't remember what network it was even on, but

898
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 2: it was a thing that they did. That's a lie.

899
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:37,239
Speaker 2: There's no way he doesn't know that was CBS. We

900
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,239
Speaker 2: kind of just let them do it. I believe that

901
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:41,680
Speaker 2: it was done by I can't even remember who the

902
00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:44,680
Speaker 2: group was, but there were variety TV guys. I'm sure

903
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 2: he remembers a few of them. We let them use

904
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:49,360
Speaker 2: the characters and stuff, and that probably wasn't the smartest

905
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 2: thing to do, but you learn from those experiences. I

906
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,400
Speaker 2: think they even use some of the footage from the movie.

907
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,080
Speaker 2: At the end, it looks like some of the space like.

908
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:01,440
Speaker 1: A highlight reel, yeah the Gang.

909
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,879
Speaker 2: Well, and during the it looked like some of the

910
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 2: they had some insert shots of like Imperial cruisers and

911
00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 2: tie fighters and stuff that.

912
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:13,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, like from remember when Chewbacca like leans back and

913
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:15,879
Speaker 1: puts his hands behind it. Yeah, yeah, that's in there.

914
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,520
Speaker 1: It's like a just a highlight reel from the movie.

915
00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:20,760
Speaker 1: Saying like I feel like this, go see the movie.

916
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,439
Speaker 2: Well, and also that means it doesn't match the look

917
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:24,359
Speaker 2: of the rest of it at all.

918
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:25,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.

919
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:25,960
Speaker 2: It's just sort of inserted.

920
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:30,480
Speaker 1: They tried, They definitely tried. And George Lucas is totally

921
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:32,839
Speaker 1: full of it, because in nineteen eighty seven he told

922
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:35,919
Speaker 1: star Log magazine that the Christmas Special would be out

923
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:39,640
Speaker 1: on video cassette very soon. Yes, And in two thousand

924
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 1: and seven, two years after that quote, you just read

925
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 1: where he's like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Basically,

926
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:49,560
Speaker 1: he apparently considered releasing the Christmas Special as a bonus

927
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:52,879
Speaker 1: on the DVDs of the first three.

928
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:57,080
Speaker 2: Right, but did not did, and apparently Carrie Fisher told

929
00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 2: Lucas that if you want me to do DVD extras commentary, yeah, commentary,

930
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:05,919
Speaker 2: then I want a clean original copy of the Holiday Special. Yes,

931
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,800
Speaker 2: so why go ahead so I can play at parties

932
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:13,200
Speaker 2: when I want people to leave. It's pretty great.

933
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,879
Speaker 1: It is so and there is one of those clean

934
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 1: copies is floating around out there, so you can watch

935
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 1: this in it in its entirety. Some of it, like

936
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: the cartoon, was removed due to copyright infringement and that

937
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,640
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, but as as the case with the

938
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:30,160
Speaker 1: rest of the Internet, you can just go find it

939
00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:34,400
Speaker 1: elsewhere and piece it together. There's also the original ads

940
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: that aired in Baltimore.

941
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, that are just fascinating. Yeah.

942
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: Those are always fun gm ads where one of the

943
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:45,160
Speaker 1: guys who's in quality control is he says, did you

944
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:45,560
Speaker 1: watch it?

945
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:46,920
Speaker 2: I don't think I saw that one.

946
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 1: He goes, we really care about these cars and that's

947
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 1: no jibe man on a gm ad and he's like,

948
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:53,800
Speaker 1: it's serious.

949
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:54,919
Speaker 2: Oh they're trying to be hip.

950
00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:57,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty good stuff.

951
00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:02,359
Speaker 2: Here's my final thought on it. I love it. It

952
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:04,879
Speaker 2: does not taint my Star Wars experience or my love

953
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:08,040
Speaker 2: for the franchise, and I'm glad it is out there

954
00:49:08,239 --> 00:49:13,759
Speaker 2: because it's a fun little stain that shouldn't be taken

955
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 2: too seriously. I think it adds to it actually, because

956
00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 2: it's campy and awful, and I don't know somehow that

957
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 2: enriches the rest of it. I'm with you, you like it? Oh?

958
00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:28,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I watched it twice. I wouldn't watched

959
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: it a second I wouldn't have made it through the

960
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,479
Speaker 1: first time. Let me take that back, as I'm a pro. Yeah,

961
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:34,799
Speaker 1: so I would have made it through the first time.

962
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:36,800
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have watched it a second time if I wasn't.

963
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:39,080
Speaker 1: There wasn't something about it, and I figured out. I

964
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 1: think the thing that I like the most about it

965
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:45,319
Speaker 1: is Lumpy Chewbaca's son Yeah, played by an actress named

966
00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 1: Patty Maloney, who frankly is hands down the best actor

967
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:53,480
Speaker 1: in the entire thing. She like her response is and everything.

968
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 1: It's just awesome.

969
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:58,919
Speaker 2: I think my favorite parts are, well, there's a great

970
00:49:58,960 --> 00:49:59,800
Speaker 2: Wilhelm scream.

971
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:01,719
Speaker 1: Yes, I noticed that troop.

972
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:02,520
Speaker 2: For trips over the laws.

973
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:03,879
Speaker 1: Jerry would not have noticed it.

974
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:08,320
Speaker 2: And then there's a part where all the wokie dialogue

975
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 2: you can't understand. But there's clearly one part where where

976
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 2: Itchy and Lumpy are having exchange where Lumpy you can

977
00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:18,719
Speaker 2: make it out, goes I love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

978
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,200
Speaker 2: but it's covered up. But someone was like, we have

979
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:24,319
Speaker 2: to have at least one exchange where you sort of

980
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:24,920
Speaker 2: know what they're saying.

981
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:27,359
Speaker 1: Sure, or they were like, I think she has said

982
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 1: I love you. Should we have them redo it? And

983
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,640
Speaker 1: the director's like, no, I want to go and Chuck.

984
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:34,640
Speaker 1: There's one other thing that I figured out from watching this.

985
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 1: What's that it's not readily apparent the whole thing is

986
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:41,439
Speaker 1: made all the more odd, and that there's situation after

987
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:46,200
Speaker 1: situation after situation where we, as normal audiences, were trained

988
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: to expect the laugh track. There's not a laugh track,

989
00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:53,080
Speaker 1: and there's been a laugh track. It might have been

990
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 1: less bizarre, but the fact that it's missing just makes

991
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:01,760
Speaker 1: your agitates the mind. So it's this whole additional element

992
00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:02,640
Speaker 1: that it is weird.

993
00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:04,640
Speaker 2: I never thought about that. There's just weird moments of

994
00:51:04,680 --> 00:51:05,640
Speaker 2: silence all throughout it.

995
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:07,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, like when Ark Carney's doing his thing.

996
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:08,760
Speaker 2: Yeah I'm telling jokes.

997
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:12,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I agree with you, Chuck, don't take things

998
00:51:12,400 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 1: too seriously. I think that's the great lesson in this.

999
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:17,399
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the lesson of life day it is.

1000
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:20,880
Speaker 2: And in two thousand and seven, Riff tracks the Great

1001
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 2: Mystery Science Theater. Three thousand guys Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett,

1002
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:28,719
Speaker 2: and Kevin Murphy provided audio commentary for the full version

1003
00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,799
Speaker 2: of the special. So try and go grab that if

1004
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:32,399
Speaker 2: you can as well.

1005
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:34,000
Speaker 1: Oh you can, it's on their site because it's great.

1006
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 1: I think it's like eight bucks and.

1007
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 2: Those guys are awesome.

1008
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 1: And yeah, at least I think Corbett listens to us. So, hey, Corbett, you.

1009
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:44,560
Speaker 2: Got anything else?

1010
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:49,440
Speaker 1: No, No, I think we did this. There's some good stuff.

1011
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:52,799
Speaker 1: Go read the Vanity Fair article han Solo Comedy Hour.

1012
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:55,760
Speaker 1: There's a book called How Star Wars Conquered the Universe

1013
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:57,879
Speaker 1: that has a very interesting chapter about this. That's where

1014
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 1: we found it asserted that George Lucas never said that

1015
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:03,560
Speaker 1: he would smash this thing with a sledgehammer, right, And

1016
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:06,360
Speaker 1: there's also an entire website dedicated to it, Star Wars

1017
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:09,319
Speaker 1: Holiday Special dot com. Yeah, and if you want to

1018
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,480
Speaker 1: know more about the Star Wars Holiday Special, we have

1019
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:14,840
Speaker 1: a ton of hard Star Wars stuff on how stuff

1020
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 1: works by the way.

1021
00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have cool sort of fun articles about the

1022
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 2: Death Star and Lightsabers.

1023
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:22,799
Speaker 1: Videos with the Holly Fry from Stuff You missed a

1024
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:23,520
Speaker 1: history class.

1025
00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:24,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, who she knows her stuff.

1026
00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:28,000
Speaker 1: She does. So you can just type Star Wars in

1027
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:29,600
Speaker 1: the search bar at how stuff works dot com and

1028
00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 1: it will bring up some cool stuff for you. Since

1029
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:33,839
Speaker 1: I said search bar, it's time for listener mail.

1030
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:39,400
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, just finished listening to the Voyage Manuscript podcast.

1031
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:42,600
Speaker 2: Found it's super interesting, especially the theories on its definition

1032
00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:45,239
Speaker 2: or origin. I no Josh mentioned Chuck Siri, but being

1033
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:48,359
Speaker 2: drug induced is somewhat surprising or even unlikely given them

1034
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:52,840
Speaker 2: language and the manuscript follows linguistic laws only founded in

1035
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:55,480
Speaker 2: the past one hundred years. But if you think about it,

1036
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 2: it's a tough. It's tough to stray away from familiar structures,

1037
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 2: especially for something like language. I think back to when

1038
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:04,880
Speaker 2: I was younger and friends invented their own languages, or

1039
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:07,920
Speaker 2: even in writing a song or poetry. Creativity can sometimes

1040
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:10,920
Speaker 2: be limited by what we know, So just thought I

1041
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:12,360
Speaker 2: contribute that to the conversation.

1042
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:12,839
Speaker 1: Nice.

1043
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:14,759
Speaker 2: Thanks big, thanks for all you guys do. I found

1044
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,560
Speaker 2: the podcast after moving to San Diego in the last

1045
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 2: few years for some noise around my apartment. So basically

1046
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:23,560
Speaker 2: we were blocking out noise.

1047
00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:25,200
Speaker 1: We do that and.

1048
00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 2: Joe Love and then as a way to get through

1049
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,680
Speaker 2: traffic on my commute home from work. You guys are

1050
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 2: far more interesting and enjoyable than television and YouTube videos.

1051
00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:34,640
Speaker 2: I'm sure I've listened to hundreds and we'll continue to

1052
00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 2: listen to hundreds more. Keep on keeping on. That is

1053
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:39,400
Speaker 2: from Amy J. Moffett.

1054
00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:42,319
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Amy in San Diego. Does that mean

1055
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:48,800
Speaker 1: like place of the whales in German or something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

1056
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:50,279
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch of this, you

1057
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 1: can tweet to us at s YSK podcast. You can

1058
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:54,920
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know.

1059
00:53:55,239 --> 00:53:57,080
Speaker 1: You can send us an email the Stuff podcast at

1060
00:53:57,080 --> 00:53:59,719
Speaker 1: houstuffworks dot Com has always joined us at a home

1061
00:53:59,719 --> 00:54:04,400
Speaker 1: on the Stuff Youshould Know dot Com.

1062
00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:07,520
Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

1063
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:11,799
Speaker 2: more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1064
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:13,720
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.