Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's that time again. Time to kick off
Speaker 1: the holidays in style with our traditional playing of our
Speaker 1: episode on the Star Wars Holiday Special. If you've never
Speaker 1: seen the actual special, I envy you, and I bet
Speaker 1: the first time is the last time you watch it too.
Speaker 1: We hear SYSK want to wish you a happy holiday season,
Speaker 1: and we hope you enjoy the annual tradition of our
Speaker 1: playing of the Star Wars Holiday Special episode.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuckers Bryant and Jerry Jerome Roland.
Speaker 3: Who's the Wookie mother?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mala, that was the Wookie wife.
Speaker 3: Oh and mother?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 1: Chewbacca's bomb is not with them any longer. She left,
Speaker 1: she was not about to appear in that.
Speaker 3: She went out the window. I'm excited about this.
Speaker 1: I have to say we should say Happy Star Wars Day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, today is December seventeenth.
Speaker 3: I have my opening night tickets. Do you really sure? Wow?
Speaker 3: You know you into it? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will definitely go see it in the theater.
Speaker 1: But well I won't be their opening night. Sure, I've
Speaker 1: gotten really adept at like ignoring spoilers, people talking about
Speaker 1: stuff all like, so I can I could conceivably see
Speaker 1: this movie a month after it comes out and still
Speaker 1: going fresh. Yeah I'm an ostrich.
Speaker 3: Yeah you black yourself out. Yeah, you go dark I do.
Speaker 1: I make myself go to sleep face, you go to
Speaker 1: the dark side. I've been there a while now.
Speaker 2: Well, Happy Star Wars Day, though, I'm sure that I
Speaker 2: think this pairs nicely with Christmas Star Wars Day.
Speaker 3: It's all come together.
Speaker 1: Yes, we already missed Life Day though, so happy belated
Speaker 1: Life Day.
Speaker 3: Chi Are they celebrating it this year?
Speaker 1: November seventeenth?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's every three years, our Caine. Yeah, man,
Speaker 3: we job.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's every three years, started in nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: Let's do the math, shall we?
Speaker 2: Quick math break? I believe that twenty fourteen was the
Speaker 2: last Life Day. Man, we just missed it, and then
Speaker 2: again in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Okay, So twenty seventeen will celebrate Life Day. We'll put
Speaker 1: on our red robes, our ultra long straight ironed wigs. Sure,
Speaker 1: and we'll celebrate Life Day the way it was meant to.
Speaker 2: Yes, And if you have no idea what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: We are talking about Life Day, which is a celebration
Speaker 2: that Wookies in the Star Wars universe have every three years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like their Christmas. Yeah, they celebronic the Kwanta tent.
Speaker 2: Supposedly, it's sort of like Earth Day too. They celebrate
Speaker 2: the diversity of their ecosystem and also remembrance of the dead,
Speaker 2: and they also give the gifts.
Speaker 1: They're like the Finns basically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very interesting part of the Star Wars cannon.
Speaker 1: It is, and it's almost entirely made up, dashed off
Speaker 1: you could possibly say, by George Lucas in the seventies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's the basis of what has become derided as
Speaker 1: like one of the worst things that ever happened to
Speaker 1: the Star Wars galaxy.
Speaker 2: Well, not only that, one of the worst things ever
Speaker 2: aired on television.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with this galaxy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at first that sounds like hyperbole, like, come on,
Speaker 2: it's because it was Star Wars and we had high expectations.
Speaker 3: But it's really that bad. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The people who say that haven't seen even a second
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, However, I watched it when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: Then again this week. Yeah, and you.
Speaker 3: Watched it twice this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched it last night and this morning.
Speaker 3: There's something about it. It's mesmerizing, it really is.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things that you start watching it
Speaker 2: and you want to turn it off, but you want
Speaker 2: to see just how absurd it can get.
Speaker 1: Almost Yeah, and it starts absurd, it stays absurd in
Speaker 1: the middle. Yeah, it's increasingly more absurd, it's a little
Speaker 1: less absurd, finishes super absurd.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's just a train wreck in every single sense of
Speaker 2: the word, top to bottom.
Speaker 1: It's extraordinarily difficult to overstate how bad this is. And
Speaker 1: some people, you know, in researching this, you read about it,
Speaker 1: you read descriptions of these things, and it just can't
Speaker 1: possibly be gotten across until you see it.
Speaker 3: So luckily, as we will see, you.
Speaker 1: Can go onto YouTube and watch it, and you may
Speaker 1: even enjoy this episode more if you pause, go spend
Speaker 1: two hours watching this thing, and then come back and
Speaker 1: laugh along with us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a great Over the years, there have been
Speaker 2: many segments of it on YouTube from badly dubbed VHS tapes.
Speaker 2: There is one really pretty good version of it in full,
Speaker 2: brought to you by w HIO Dayton, Ohio channel seven
Speaker 2: oo Ohio. Because that flashes up on the screen periodically.
Speaker 1: Man, it is high quality.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks good.
Speaker 1: It has to basically be the copy that the actual
Speaker 1: affiliate broadcast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like that.
Speaker 1: That quality compared to the other stuff floating around on YouTube,
Speaker 1: clearly recorded on a nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 3: PCR, Yeah, which were really expensive.
Speaker 1: Very expensive. I did some calculating on West Egg. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the average VCR went for about one thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: There were brand new.
Speaker 1: It's amazing one thousand dollars in nineteen seventy eight money,
Speaker 1: So they were about thirty eight hundred dollars in twenty
Speaker 1: fourteen money.
Speaker 3: Crazy.
Speaker 1: Luckily there were some rich people out there recording this stuff,
Speaker 1: and the wealthy have saved us all again, yes, yet again,
Speaker 1: as they always do.
Speaker 3: Yes. And we need to shout out some articles that
Speaker 3: we use for this.
Speaker 2: There's great a great article in Vanity Fair called the
Speaker 2: Han Soul Comedy Our exclamation Point by Frank de Jacomo.
Speaker 2: And then there's the Star Wars Holiday Special was the
Speaker 2: worst thing on television ever by So when we kind
Speaker 2: of know Alex Pasternak.
Speaker 1: Yeah, from Motherboard, Yeah, which.
Speaker 3: Is not wired. It's vice.
Speaker 2: Yes, we wrote a little bit for Motherboard back then,
Speaker 2: and we had a call with that.
Speaker 1: We're like, we're like old motherboard vets.
Speaker 3: Yeah, basically, wasn't there one more? There was another one?
Speaker 1: And I don't know who wrote this one, chuck, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the titles the Star Wars Holiday Special. George Lucas
Speaker 1: wants to smash every copy of with a sledgehammer.
Speaker 2: Which was a famous quote supposedly at a convention by Lucas.
Speaker 1: Yes, which is not correct.
Speaker 2: He didn't ever say that. No, Okay, that sounded like
Speaker 2: something that people made up.
Speaker 1: Yes, but if you go on the internet, you will
Speaker 1: quickly believe that he did. Sure apparently didn't. So I'm
Speaker 1: sure he felt that way though, clearly, you know, because
Speaker 1: he did appear on Robot Chicken and I think two
Speaker 1: thousand and five on the Therapist Couch talking about how
Speaker 1: much he hated the Space Show. All right, so let's
Speaker 1: set the background, shall we Shall we go back to
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, summer getting the old wayback machine.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do it.
Speaker 2: All right here we are, there's watersn Yeah, I'm just
Speaker 2: the little six year old excited about Star Wars.
Speaker 1: I am I've just turned one.
Speaker 3: Yes, you don't know what's up yet.
Speaker 1: I please forgive me if I urinate myself, no problem, Okay.
Speaker 2: So what has happened is Star Wars has become a huge,
Speaker 2: huge hit, seemingly.
Speaker 3: Out of nowhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, establishing George Lucas as one of the brilliant young
Speaker 2: minds in filmmaking, even though what in his first movie.
Speaker 1: It was his first, huge, huge breakout hit. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, I don't even talk about a breakout hit.
Speaker 1: Like no one had ever seen anything like it before.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and one had come out in the late sixties. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't kill still is inaccessible to all audis.
Speaker 3: You know, it's kind of a cerebral film. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: not an adventure movie. This war.
Speaker 1: This is like basically swashbuckling on the screen. But you know,
Speaker 1: in a galaxy far far away, Star Wars just changed
Speaker 1: everything and it came on just like a hammer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a new hope by the way, Yes, and
Speaker 2: then then we're gonna get stuff wrong, nerds, So yes,
Speaker 2: just go ahead and get your little fingers ready to email.
Speaker 1: Us like if it wasn't driven home that I'm not
Speaker 1: a nerd by the fact that I don't have opening
Speaker 1: night tickets or any tickets yet, give me a break,
Speaker 1: and by proxy Chuck too, Okay, thank you. So it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to state how great Star Wars was in
Speaker 1: everyone's mind.
Speaker 3: Yeah right.
Speaker 1: Bill Murray came out with that lounge singer Star Wars thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was everywhere and if you if you just listen
Speaker 1: to the lyrics of it, it's really it's just Bill
Speaker 1: Murray singing about how much Star Wars is awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right. So by the following year, George Lucas was he
Speaker 1: wanted to figure out a way to keep audiences just
Speaker 1: engaged with the whole Star Wars franchise that he was
Speaker 1: just starting to build. But he knew the Empire Strikes
Speaker 1: Back was a couple more years out, sure, so he
Speaker 1: I think he was approached by some TV executives who said,
Speaker 1: have you considered doing some sort of TV special? They're
Speaker 1: all the rage right now. We have a graphic that's
Speaker 1: really awesome that we set aside just for TV specials
Speaker 1: here at CBS. Why don't you let us let's get
Speaker 1: together and do a Star Wars Special.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: Producers Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion. We're working over at CBS,
Speaker 2: and they say, this is a great way to keep
Speaker 2: the spirit alive while you're making your other movie.
Speaker 3: Maybe move some more toys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which George Lucas got a cut all the toys.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: So it was right before Thanksgiving, and he'said there to
Speaker 2: be a lot of people watching TV pre holiday season,
Speaker 2: or I guess in the holiday season.
Speaker 1: Well, the weekend before Thanksgiving, it's like everybody's shopping, sitting
Speaker 1: around family like, waiting to actually do stuff. That's right,
Speaker 1: perfect time to broadcast something on TV.
Speaker 2: So Lucas says, all right, let's do this. I don't
Speaker 2: have a ton of time, but how about this. I'll
Speaker 2: get I'll get a story together, and then you can
Speaker 2: go hire a whiz bang team of veteran writers and
Speaker 2: producers and directors.
Speaker 1: Whatever genre you think is appropriate. And those are the
Speaker 1: words that will haunt George Lucas to his grave.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So Lucas said, here's my idea.
Speaker 2: I want it to be based on Wookies, and I
Speaker 2: want it to take place on their home planet of
Speaker 2: Kazuk or Wookie planet.
Speaker 3: C is that what he's saying, Kazuk.
Speaker 2: That's how it's pronounced in the episode the Holiday Special,
Speaker 2: but it's also pronounced different ways.
Speaker 1: Other times I would have pronounced it cash e, spell
Speaker 1: it ka s h y y y k, yeah, which
Speaker 1: I mean. I guess that sounds like Chewbuck is planet sure.
Speaker 2: Also called G five six twenty three Wookie planet c
Speaker 2: or Edeon is a mid rim planet.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: So the whole reason apparently that George Lucas was interested
Speaker 1: in featuring the Wookies was it is what we in
Speaker 1: show business call low hanging fruit. The reason why it
Speaker 1: was low hanging fruit was because they had just established
Speaker 1: the different scenes that would make the cut for Empire
Speaker 1: Strikes Back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and.
Speaker 1: How did you pronounce it again, Kazuk. Kazuk had not
Speaker 1: made the cut. Even prior to this, apparently for a
Speaker 1: new hope, George Lucas had whipped up a forty page
Speaker 1: that's known as the Wookie Bible. It's like a forty
Speaker 1: page supplement that's all about Kazuk and Wookies and Chewbacca
Speaker 1: and his family and everything about wookiedum. Right, So he's like,
Speaker 1: I've got this thing already, you know, established I love Wookies.
Speaker 1: They didn't make the cut. I'm a little sad about that.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna kazuk is not going to show up
Speaker 1: in Empire Strikes Back. Let's build the entire special around wookies.
Speaker 1: It's basically the one demand me George Lucas has.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I'll be totally hands off from this point on which
Speaker 1: he kind of was.
Speaker 3: He totally was.
Speaker 1: It was actually this experience that apparently taught him to
Speaker 1: be the very hands on person that he is famous
Speaker 1: for being. It came out of this Christmas special.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, he was burned and he had an iron grip
Speaker 2: after that on everything. So here's some of the folks
Speaker 2: behind it. Bruce Valanche, famous TV writer. You probably had
Speaker 2: seen him on Hollywood Squares.
Speaker 1: Wasn't he suspected of being Thomas Pynchon for a while.
Speaker 1: I don't know, or was Thomas Pinchon on Hollywood Squares?
Speaker 3: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: I may be confabulating some stuff confounding. Yeah, there's some
Speaker 1: con of some sort going on.
Speaker 3: It sounds like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Valanche was hired as a writer. A guy named
Speaker 2: Lenny Rips was hired as a writer who.
Speaker 1: Has some great quotes in that Vanity Fair article he does.
Speaker 2: His first quote was, we were really excited because this
Speaker 2: is Star Wars.
Speaker 3: How could it lose?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Famous last words?
Speaker 2: Who else was hired? There was a husband and wife team,
Speaker 2: the Welches. Yeah, who are the parents of folk singer
Speaker 2: Gillian Welch, who I'm a big fan of and had
Speaker 2: no idea that her parents. They were producers slash songwriters
Speaker 2: of the day. They were big on the variety show scene,
Speaker 2: which would turn out to be a really key cog
Speaker 2: in this whole experience.
Speaker 1: So I feel like, right about here, Jerry should insert
Speaker 1: a needle coming off of a record sound effect. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: thanks Jerry. So Chuck, you just said singer songwriters.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what would that have to do with Star Wars? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well, actually, in this Star Wars Holiday special, for those
Speaker 1: of you who hadn't seen it, there are musical numbers.
Speaker 1: They decided from the outset that there should be musical numbers.
Speaker 1: And the reason that they decided that there should be
Speaker 1: musical numbers is because the people who sold George Lucas
Speaker 1: and at the time it was the Star Wars Corporation
Speaker 1: was what it was called. Yeah, on The idea of
Speaker 1: doing this TV special was that everyone would love.
Speaker 3: A variety show. Yeah, it was the seventies.
Speaker 1: Great idea, let's do a variety show. The problem was this,
Speaker 1: Apparently George Lucas didn't watch enough TV. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: also overly trusted people who talk to him. Sure, because
Speaker 1: by nineteen seventy eight, yes, variety shows had dominated television
Speaker 1: for over ten years, but it had come to an end.
Speaker 1: It was getting stale.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking to Carol Burnett show, one of my favorite.
Speaker 1: Had just been canceled after eleven seasons. Ye, Big Red Flag.
Speaker 3: Sonny and Chaer had just had its last season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean what else, like he was still going on.
Speaker 1: Probably the KiHa still on Solid Gold had yet to
Speaker 1: come on and take up the mantle.
Speaker 3: That would never write a show.
Speaker 1: Oh, it was a little bit. There was talking in
Speaker 1: between the songs.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Remember the Mandrel Sisters show.
Speaker 1: I never watched that one. Well it was with that
Speaker 1: country chic thing that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a big deal in the it's kind
Speaker 3: of happening again.
Speaker 1: I think, Oh, because of that dude, the guy who
Speaker 1: won all the CMA Awards. I don't know, he's like
Speaker 1: he's he came along and he's like, actually country. His
Speaker 1: dad's like a coal miner for real from Kentucky. I think,
Speaker 1: I know you mean Chris so something. Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 1: is good. He's come along and been like, what are
Speaker 1: you guys doing?
Speaker 2: Well, there's a revival in like good country music. Again,
Speaker 2: that's great, like in the tradition of Merle Haggard.
Speaker 3: And share Cash.
Speaker 1: And I guess that's probably where the country she came from,
Speaker 1: because there was actually good country going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Johnny Cash out a variety show?
Speaker 1: Did he really? Oh yeah, I knew they did, like
Speaker 1: a Sunday singing thing like out in Virginia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had his own variety show. Was actually pretty good.
Speaker 2: There's some like really great performances.
Speaker 1: Do you know how many nerds are like get back
Speaker 1: to the Star Wars?
Speaker 3: I know, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2: All right, So the Variety Show is dying sort of,
Speaker 2: and so they figure what a great time to take
Speaker 2: the biggest movie property on the planet and wedget into
Speaker 2: the variety show Millieu.
Speaker 1: I don't know if wedge is the right word. I
Speaker 1: think maybe nestle it in there and then start hitting
Speaker 1: it with the blunt edge of an axe until it
Speaker 1: mashes into that crevice. You know, that's right, because this
Speaker 1: is the time when Fantasy Island had just started, Mork
Speaker 1: and Mindy was about to change things, Charlie's Angels was
Speaker 1: getting huge. It basically television as we knew it from
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty to whenever the real world came along. Just
Speaker 1: escape as television is what they called. It was starting
Speaker 1: and it was the hip new thing. So basically, if
Speaker 1: they had turned Han Solo and Princess Leah and Luke
Speaker 1: Skywalker into maybe you know, sexy detectives, it might have
Speaker 1: gone over even better.
Speaker 3: But they went the other way.
Speaker 1: They decided to latch onto this extraordinarily stale genre of television,
Speaker 1: and they hired the best in the business. Like there
Speaker 1: was a quote from I think Lenny Rips who was saying,
Speaker 1: like we had literally a dream team variety show, dream team,
Speaker 1: and everybody was good, but there were probably no bad
Speaker 1: welders on the Titanic, Heather.
Speaker 3: That's a great quote. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The guy they hired to direct it initially was a
Speaker 2: dude named David at Coomba, and he had made his
Speaker 2: name for Welcome to the Fillmore East. It was a
Speaker 2: concert documentary with Van Morrison Van Morrison and the Birds
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy one, and he actually was at usc
Speaker 2: Film School at the same time as Lucas, even though
Speaker 2: they didn't know each other, and he only ended up
Speaker 2: directing about three segments of the thing before he quit.
Speaker 2: Yet before he walked off, some say he was actually
Speaker 2: let go, but we'll get to him in a minute
Speaker 2: and who replaced him. Okay, as we get along down
Speaker 2: this gross road.
Speaker 1: Well let's take a little break because I'm overly excited.
Speaker 2: Okay, Josh, all right, so we've established most of the
Speaker 2: main players.
Speaker 3: We'll get to a few more.
Speaker 2: We should point out that Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford
Speaker 2: and Carrie Fischer, Peter Mayhew.
Speaker 1: They had no grounds to refuse to be on this basically, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much.
Speaker 2: They were not huge, huge stars, yet they could throw
Speaker 2: their weight around and say this is terrible and I'm
Speaker 2: not doing it.
Speaker 1: They were big overnight because of Star Wars, for sure,
Speaker 1: but they weren't to the adoring public.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 1: Back at the studio they could still be bossed around,
Speaker 1: and this was the result of it. And you can
Speaker 1: tell also just from watching the actual special, like Harrison
Speaker 1: Ford is not happy to be there. At any point.
Speaker 1: Oh no, Princess Leiah is clearly on drugs. Was she
Speaker 1: on drugs at this point? If you watch it, she's
Speaker 1: on drugs. Especially the ending scene, Mark Hamibell.
Speaker 3: Looks like he's happy to be there.
Speaker 1: Actually he was fine, but apparently he said no, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing a musical number. Yeah, and if you watch
Speaker 1: his part, wedging a musical number in there would have
Speaker 1: been even more painful. Sure, but everybody who was part
Speaker 1: of the actual Star Wars franchise that wasn't wearing like
Speaker 1: a full body costume, yeah, was like, I really wish
Speaker 1: I wasn't here. And you can.
Speaker 3: Tell, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: In fact, in the opening credit sequence, they're showing the picture,
Speaker 2: you know, the faces of the people, and you see
Speaker 2: Harrison Ford as if he's flying the Millennium Falcon, and
Speaker 2: you can you can just hear the guy all screen
Speaker 2: going now look at the camera and just give a nod.
Speaker 3: Just look at the camera and give a nod.
Speaker 2: And he finally you can tell he's pissed off, and
Speaker 2: he looks up at the camera and just sort of.
Speaker 1: Smirks yeah and points at the camera like okay, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the camera, and then goes back to what
Speaker 1: he's doing. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: It felt bad for him so early on Valanche and others.
Speaker 1: Did you feel bad for him? Though? Really? I mean, like,
Speaker 1: come on, it's Harrison for it's Hans Solo. He has
Speaker 1: to go do this for like five days.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I felt terrible for him.
Speaker 1: I think it's hilarious that they had to do this,
Speaker 1: especially now.
Speaker 2: Well, early on a Valanche and others knew that they
Speaker 2: may be in trouble because they decided not to subtitle
Speaker 2: any of the Wookie dialogue right, and they literally started
Speaker 2: after a brief opening scene setting it up here. Here's
Speaker 2: the basic plot is, Han Solo is trying to get
Speaker 2: Chewbacca back to Kazuk.
Speaker 3: In time for Life Day so he can celebrate with
Speaker 3: his family.
Speaker 1: That's the basis of the entire two hours I see, basis.
Speaker 3: The entire two hours.
Speaker 2: They encounter a space battle and they're delayed, and the
Speaker 2: next two hours are kind of what's going on while
Speaker 2: the delay is happening back on.
Speaker 3: Kazuok, back on Kazuk because you hear like, oh.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, Han Solo and Chewbacca evading the Imperial Guard
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. For two hours.
Speaker 3: I would watch that, sure, I would too. Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: not what they show.
Speaker 2: Killing time at the Wookie household, that is what they show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what they do.
Speaker 1: It's people hanging out waiting for Chewbacca, worrying about him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then killing time while they wait for him to
Speaker 1: come back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, literally, so and so hold on.
Speaker 2: So you say there's a setup, right, Yeah, that's the
Speaker 2: initial setup.
Speaker 3: And then chuck. That's followed by this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's followed by literally ten minutes, ten solid minutes
Speaker 2: of incomprehensible Wookie speak.
Speaker 1: So let's join it for a second, shall we. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's all enjoy it. And again, you said ten minutes,
Speaker 1: and you're not exaggerating, you're not being hyperbolic. You can
Speaker 1: time it. That's it's ten minutes of wookie's talking to
Speaker 1: each other with no subtitles.
Speaker 2: Fortunately, I couldn't follow it at first, like I didn't
Speaker 2: even know who it was. I thought it might have
Speaker 2: been Chewbacca's mom and dad. Oh yeah, that's and little brother.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: And I don't find out until later when Mark Camill
Speaker 2: shows up via skype call and says, he really explains
Speaker 2: everything that had just happened, Like your Chewbacca's father Itchy,
Speaker 2: your Chewbacca's son Lumpy Lumpy yeah, and your Chewbacca's wife.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: So, before everybody starts like freaking out, we know that
Speaker 1: that's actually their nicknames. Their real names are. His father
Speaker 1: is at Tichik cook, a Tichik cook.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to pronounce.
Speaker 1: Mulatto Buck is his wife, and his son is Lumpo
Speaker 1: or ump.
Speaker 3: But as named by Lucas. But yeah, but.
Speaker 1: Lucas also named him Lumpy Itchy and Mala.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they're all back there wringing their hands, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out ways to pass the time until they get
Speaker 1: word from Chewbacca that he's made it to uh what
Speaker 1: is it? Ketchukzuk, Kazuk, ketchup, ketchup or cats up if
Speaker 1: you're fancy. But Chewbacca is having trouble getting back to
Speaker 1: Kochuk because there's Kazuk, because there's a blockade by the
Speaker 1: Empire and they're looking for rebels, specifically Chewbacca. Who I
Speaker 1: didn't realize this. He's the most famous Wookie of all.
Speaker 1: Did you know that? Yeah? Of course I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, he's only one that really appears in
Speaker 2: the movies, all right, I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're seeing like, you know, these people's view of
Speaker 1: your universe. What about back on Becauzook.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he might have just been a fly by night wookie, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: but not the case very famous wookie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he really loved to like soak in his fame.
Speaker 3: All right, So he realizes there's a problem. Valanche.
Speaker 2: He goes to Lucas and is like, I don't know, man,
Speaker 2: this is your world, but it may not be the
Speaker 2: strongest thing to do to set this in wookie Land
Speaker 2: and have all this incomprehensible dialogue. And he says he
Speaker 2: was met with a glacial stare.
Speaker 1: Well, he put it a little differently than that.
Speaker 3: Well, he said glacial stare. He did.
Speaker 1: The glacial stare that he got was for this quote.
Speaker 1: He said, these people just talk and what sounds like
Speaker 1: fat people having an orgasm. Yeah, he goes, if you want,
Speaker 1: you can set up a tape recorder in my bedroom
Speaker 1: and I'll do all of the follying it for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He's a large guy, he is.
Speaker 1: So that's what got the glacial stare. But Valanche later
Speaker 1: said that from this there was one development meeting that
Speaker 1: Lucas attended and it was here's the Wookie Bible, tell
Speaker 1: me what you got, And Valanche said, he and the
Speaker 1: other writers and producers and director were just kind of
Speaker 1: throwing ideas, and George Lucas would either say like, no,
Speaker 1: that doesn't work, give him a glacial stare, or say, yes,
Speaker 1: that's exactly it. Yes, let's make this a variety show.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And there was a little bit of background there.
Speaker 2: The Canteena players in the band had appeared on other
Speaker 2: variety shows at that point, and I think it went
Speaker 2: over fairly well, just as a short segment on like
Speaker 2: the Richard Pryor Variety Show or Donnie Marie ye Man.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of variety shows.
Speaker 1: But that's what I'm saying. It was that was television.
Speaker 1: That's what you did, Like the Bradys. The show had
Speaker 1: its course and then it became a variety It was
Speaker 1: just everybody loved variety shows.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: By this time, though, everybody was sick of variety shows, right,
Speaker 1: and so it really was a terrible choice.
Speaker 2: In fact, they even hired a couple of writers from
Speaker 2: Shields and Yarnell, which I hadn't heard of. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I watched it it was at least creepy, this mind
Speaker 2: couple who had their own variety show, and they figured
Speaker 2: these two will be great because they are used to
Speaker 2: working without words.
Speaker 1: Right, and so there is a certain logic to the
Speaker 1: variety show. It's not just all over the place. It's
Speaker 1: just that variety shows were popular. Yeah, at the time,
Speaker 1: somebody was like, well, wookies, you don't understand what they're saying.
Speaker 1: So this is all going to be very physical. So
Speaker 1: these people who who did what is it Shields and
Speaker 1: yard Nell. Yeah, that's a perfect choice. That makes complete sense.
Speaker 1: You can see this whole this whole process of leading
Speaker 1: up to the point where it was produced and shot
Speaker 1: and everything. Yeah, a series of like, oh we have
Speaker 1: this problem, well here's a fix.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that leads soon problem. Well we'll fix it
Speaker 3: with this.
Speaker 1: And no one's stepping back and being like, all we've
Speaker 1: done is create a series of problems that are going
Speaker 1: to come together and make one extraordinarily large problem that
Speaker 1: will become legendary. No one did that, and so the
Speaker 1: whole thing was was made.
Speaker 3: That's right, and it eventually airs.
Speaker 1: On November seventeenth, nineteen seventy eight, a Friday, at eight
Speaker 1: pm Eastern time.
Speaker 2: That's right, And according to Nielsen ratings, it attracted thirteen
Speaker 2: million viewers lost the second hour.
Speaker 1: Just in the US. It aired in six or seven
Speaker 1: countries total.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but no one cares about that, I.
Speaker 1: Guess not because none of those are on the internet.
Speaker 2: You know. It finished second to the Love Boat in
Speaker 2: the second Ar'm sorry from eight to nine, and in
Speaker 2: the next hour actually finished behind part two of a
Speaker 2: mini series about Pearl Harbor starring Angie Dickinson. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it didn't even win their respective hours.
Speaker 1: No, thirteen million, that's that's not bad. The thing is,
Speaker 1: apparently if you look at the Neils and ratings graph
Speaker 1: for the first hour.
Speaker 3: Yeah we know about that graph. It's okay, yeah we do.
Speaker 1: And then after a very important part, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: about soon, it just drops off at the end of
Speaker 1: the first hour, and that actually probably made the executives
Speaker 1: at CBS cringe for a number of reasons. Number one
Speaker 1: is this special was originally supposed to just be an hour,
Speaker 1: but so many advertisers wanted to sign on, yeah, that
Speaker 1: they extended it to two hours. And it shines through
Speaker 1: you can totally tell that this thing was never supposed
Speaker 1: to be I think an hour might have been stretching
Speaker 1: it to tell you the truth. Oh yeah, it's thirty
Speaker 1: minutes of content. Forty if you're generous, an hour and
Speaker 1: then two hours. It becomes one of the worst things
Speaker 1: that was ever put on television.
Speaker 2: All right, well, let's take a break and then we'll
Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about the actual even don't
Speaker 2: want to call it content, but it is content in
Speaker 2: the strictest definition.
Speaker 3: Sure, right after this softy jawsh.
Speaker 1: Sh soft.
Speaker 2: All right, so the show itself, we've given you the
Speaker 2: main plot line, which again is that Chewy is trying
Speaker 2: to get back to his home planet to celebrate life
Speaker 2: Day with his family.
Speaker 1: Right, that's it, and again we almost barely see Chewy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the rest is his family on because book waiting for
Speaker 1: him to come back for a life day.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So some of the various things they did there were
Speaker 2: guest stars. There was Harvey Corman from the Carol Burnett Show. Okay,
Speaker 2: one of my all time favorites.
Speaker 1: Him or Carol Burnett Show both.
Speaker 3: He's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he actually if you watch what he's doing, you're like,
Speaker 1: this is comedy genius for sure.
Speaker 2: Apparently he too was like the only one on set
Speaker 2: that was bringing levity. He was joking around and kind
Speaker 2: of kept spirits up. Good for him, that's what I say.
Speaker 2: And he had three different parts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he played well I don't even know the names.
Speaker 2: Actually we could look him up, but he played a
Speaker 2: he played a Julia child like cook. There's an actual
Speaker 2: cooking segment, a long one, a very long cooking segment
Speaker 2: where Chewbacca's wife makes banthas stew.
Speaker 1: To kill some time, to kill some time on her
Speaker 1: planet and in our living room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Harvey Corman is in drag is a four
Speaker 2: armed Julia childlike TV.
Speaker 1: Chef right, and I think it's Gormanda. It's her name, Gormonda.
Speaker 3: That makes total sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he also plays There's this one weird bit where
Speaker 2: Chewbacca's son tries to figure out a way to trick
Speaker 2: the stormtroopers that the Empire had come and kind of
Speaker 2: because the blockade raided the house another proper, So he
Speaker 2: tries to trick them by I think, rigging a calm
Speaker 2: link to speak in a different voice. So he has
Speaker 2: to watch the instruction manual.
Speaker 1: He watches an instruction video.
Speaker 3: Which was Harvey Kytel as a robot.
Speaker 1: Oh, it would have been wonderful of Big Harvey Kyel
Speaker 1: Oh what did say Harvey Harvey korm Man Harvey kait
Speaker 1: tell murders someone in the middle of the instruction.
Speaker 3: Rade Harvey Korman.
Speaker 2: And then the final role he had was as a
Speaker 2: bar patron in the cantina that drinks. He has a
Speaker 2: hole in the top of his head like a volcano
Speaker 2: where he pours his drinks in.
Speaker 3: That's how he drinks.
Speaker 1: And he he loves b Arthur.
Speaker 3: Did we mention b Arthur was in it?
Speaker 1: B Arthur is not only in it, Chuck. She sings
Speaker 1: a song.
Speaker 3: She does.
Speaker 2: She is the unpronounced to everyone. She manages or maybe owns.
Speaker 3: The owner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the what's the mas What Ma's deaf? Cantina?
Speaker 3: No, most deaf is a rapper? Oh yeah, than give
Speaker 3: me moss Eisley.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, that cantina. She's the owner. Be Arthur is
Speaker 1: the owner be Arthur of the Golden Girls, but in
Speaker 1: this case be Arthur of Maud, because, as one of
Speaker 1: the people who wrote one of the articles we based
Speaker 1: this on points out, she's just basically playing Maud as
Speaker 1: the owner of the cantina.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and her song comes because they basically say there's
Speaker 2: a lockdown, so you gotta call last call at your bar.
Speaker 2: So she calls last call by singing a song to everyone.
Speaker 1: Right, and again, we can't possibly have the script lead
Speaker 1: anywhere else but Chewbacca's house while his family waits for it.
Speaker 1: So all this takes place as part of a public
Speaker 1: service announcement basically broadcast by the Empire about how immoral
Speaker 1: life on Tattooin is. So let's go see what's going
Speaker 1: on in the mos Eisley Cantina as it's being shut
Speaker 1: down for curfew.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, this is incomprehensible, but it goes on.
Speaker 3: So they're in. There's also Art Carney. Yes, he's the honeymooner,
Speaker 3: so probably the star of the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Really, he has the most lines, I would say, the
Speaker 1: most comprehensible line.
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he plays a trader, a human trader that is
Speaker 2: recently been with Han Solo and Chewy and actually gets
Speaker 2: to Kazook and says they're on the way.
Speaker 3: It's all good. Yeah, a trade or not trade tour. Yeah,
Speaker 3: traders and trades humans for you know, money.
Speaker 1: No, he sells goods, yeah, a trader, he doesn't trade humans.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's in the human trade.
Speaker 1: He No, he isn't really. Yeah, he trades humans like
Speaker 1: he sells humans.
Speaker 2: I looked it up in the Star Wars Encyclopedia said
Speaker 2: that he was in the human trade.
Speaker 1: Huh. So in this Christmas special, Yeah, apparently they sanitized
Speaker 1: his background because he's basically just selling like gadgets and
Speaker 1: novelties and stuff like that to the Wookies and the
Speaker 1: Empire who were keep hying the area.
Speaker 3: Yes, he comes bearing gifts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's a friend of Chewback's family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he comes Barren gifts. One of the gifts
Speaker 2: he gives is a sort of like a little digital
Speaker 2: insert to a Oh, I guess you would call it
Speaker 2: a virtual reality hair dryer hair dryer, like a beauty
Speaker 2: shop hair dryer. He gives it to Grandpa Itchy. Grandpa
Speaker 2: Itchy sits under this hair dryer, pops in this digital cassette,
Speaker 2: and it can only be described as softcore porn.
Speaker 1: Apparently, the writers who were interviewed for this said that
Speaker 1: was totally the intent. They were trying to get what
Speaker 1: amounted to soft core porn that would pass the sensors.
Speaker 1: That's right, So it's all you can't even say it's innuendo.
Speaker 1: It's too obvious an overt for innuendo. Instead, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just it's just gross. It's really gross. Diane Carroll,
Speaker 1: yes she is a Vegas staple, shows up and starts
Speaker 1: basically tantalizing Grandpa Itchy again. This is Chewbacca's elderly father
Speaker 1: who now engages in some sort of well he's he's
Speaker 1: watching virtual reality pornography now, and this is a pretty
Speaker 1: lengthy segment in and of itself.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and she literally says to him, like, now
Speaker 2: I can see you're really excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty rough to watch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so then you've got another musical.
Speaker 1: Number because also again he shudders, Yeah, it's really strange.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: So there's also a I know, it seems like we're
Speaker 2: jumping around, but it's it's so mind blowing.
Speaker 1: Not like this is pretty much like blow for blow.
Speaker 2: Actually I forgot earlier on in the In the special,
Speaker 2: there's one of my favorite sequences is when Grandpa Itchy
Speaker 2: goes over to Lumpy and basically sets up remember the
Speaker 2: the hologram chess Boar that they played in A New Hope. Yeah,
Speaker 2: basically kind of sets that up and says, here, just
Speaker 2: play this. He pushes the button, which is clearly a
Speaker 2: nineteen seventies cassette recorder, and another like it's like a
Speaker 2: circ desole acid trip gymnast routine happens in front of
Speaker 2: the kid's eyes. And again this all just it's not
Speaker 2: like it shows a snippet. They show the entire segments,
Speaker 2: like five, six, ten minutes long. Sure of all of
Speaker 2: these things.
Speaker 1: So you would think, Okay, they've gone to this hologram
Speaker 1: well a couple of times, why not go to it again?
Speaker 3: Well they do.
Speaker 1: They do to kill more time while the Imperial Guard
Speaker 1: is ransacking their house. Art Carney apparently, I guess it's
Speaker 1: trying to get one of the Imperial Guard, the leader,
Speaker 1: I think, or one of the leaders.
Speaker 3: Who looks like somebody from space Balls, by the way,
Speaker 3: very much so.
Speaker 1: And the writer of the Vanity Fair article, by the way,
Speaker 1: said this is so incomp rahensible. The specialist George Lucas
Speaker 1: didn't even have the schwartz with him at the time.
Speaker 1: So anyway, our Carney's distracting this Imperial leader while they're
Speaker 1: ransacking the Wookies house Chewbacca's house with a hologram in
Speaker 1: this hologram instead of being an acrobat or Diane Carroll
Speaker 1: or any kind of porn or anything like that, is
Speaker 1: Jefferson Starship and they decide that they're going to play
Speaker 1: Light the Sky on Fire, which apparently is about UFOs.
Speaker 1: It's a little music video basically, it's a Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: the predecessor to like video kill the radio story you
Speaker 1: can tell. And again it is the whole lengthy song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. So every time that somebody's like, we
Speaker 1: need to escape mentally from what's going on here in
Speaker 1: our house, let's go into the video world, it's not
Speaker 1: just and they don't cut back and forth. It's okay,
Speaker 1: here's five minutes of Jefferson Starship performing this song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even the Jefferson Starship guys were like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's sort of a weird trip, like we didn't get it.
Speaker 3: But we did it right.
Speaker 1: They gave us some money, yeah, and some cocaine. Well,
Speaker 1: so we said, yeah, chuck. I think though, there yet
Speaker 1: another segment like this is actually widely regarded as the
Speaker 1: high point of the whole thing. Oh sure, so there
Speaker 1: is a cartoon actually.
Speaker 3: Yeah that Lump Blumpy watches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lumpy's like the Imperial Guard is still ransacking my house.
Speaker 1: I think I'll entertain myself by watching a cartoon on
Speaker 1: my little.
Speaker 3: I don't know what.
Speaker 1: I guess it was an iPad and he watches this
Speaker 1: cartoon and it's it's actually remarkable for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1: It's the best part of the whole special.
Speaker 2: Yeah, generally agreed upon as such, right, not just us.
Speaker 1: And it introduces Boba Fett. It's the first time Boba
Speaker 1: Fet ever makes an appearance in the Star Wars universe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually not a bad And you can't find
Speaker 2: it in the the one version I told you to watch.
Speaker 2: They removed it for copyright, but they didn't watch a
Speaker 2: separate version.
Speaker 1: Right, you can find it on its own.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's it's very much reminiscent of like the
Speaker 2: cartoon style of the day, like a he Man or
Speaker 2: something for.
Speaker 1: Sure, even even but it's even a little more artsy
Speaker 1: than that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But it does have a plot that you can
Speaker 2: follow that makes sense as a Star Wars thing, and
Speaker 2: it introduces Boba fet like you said, and it's actually
Speaker 2: not bad.
Speaker 1: It's like Luke and R two and C three po.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Then they're like they crash on a planet or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Han and U where you're in it. And
Speaker 2: it's the first time we see in Darth Vader. It's
Speaker 2: first time we see Boba Fett and that he is
Speaker 2: that he is just doing whatever he can do for money,
Speaker 2: Like Luke trusts him at first. See three Bo's like,
Speaker 2: you're sure you should trust him this quick? Yeah, And
Speaker 2: he's like, oh, three po, you in your non trusting ways.
Speaker 2: And then it turns out he's selling them out to
Speaker 2: the dark side.
Speaker 1: So it's it's basically Boba Fett is an allegory for
Speaker 1: George Lucas himself. So the the cartoon comes and goes,
Speaker 1: and that was the thing that came at about the
Speaker 1: end of the first hour mark and after that everybody
Speaker 1: just turned off their television sets.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: Did you watch this when it came on?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I remember watching it, but I don't remember much about it,
Speaker 2: like if I made it through it all. I mean
Speaker 2: it was I was seven and it was on till ten,
Speaker 2: so I probably didn't make it through it all. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Plus you're probably disturbed. Who knows, I just remember that.
Speaker 2: I'll have to ask my brother. He might have a memory.
Speaker 1: Of this, Oh Betty does. I'm sure he met everybody
Speaker 1: afterward or something like that. You know, it has a picture.
Speaker 2: Well, he was ten at that point, so cynicism had,
Speaker 2: you know, become a thing in his.
Speaker 1: Life probably all right by then?
Speaker 3: Sure didn't that when centism kicks in too mea.
Speaker 1: Jenkinsie Scott holding out to fourteen fifteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe so so Chuck.
Speaker 1: The whole thing finally does in. And actually there's a guy.
Speaker 1: His name is Nathan Raven, he writes over at the
Speaker 1: av Club. He had a great quote. He basically said
Speaker 1: that one of the great redeeming values of this this
Speaker 1: special is that it does eventually end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what the first part of the quote is,
Speaker 2: I'm not convinced the special wasn't ultimately written and directed
Speaker 2: by a sentient bag of cocaine.
Speaker 1: And like, go read his review of the Star Wars
Speaker 1: Holiday Special, because he goes on to describe exactly what
Speaker 1: that must have been, like the development meeting where the
Speaker 1: bag of cocaine is pacing back and forth talking about
Speaker 1: what should happen.
Speaker 3: That's what it feels like. But it doesn't, and it ends.
Speaker 1: Even more. It takes this bizarre two hours and wraps
Speaker 1: it up in just a nice bizarre bow.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So what happens is eventually Han Solo should we say
Speaker 2: spoiler alert, Eventually Han Solo and Chewy make it to
Speaker 2: the planet. They park on the far side of the
Speaker 2: planet because they know the Imperial forces.
Speaker 1: Are there and the exercise will do Chewy good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they have to hike over there. They eventually
Speaker 2: make it back home. They find a storm the Stormtroopers
Speaker 2: at their house, their tree hut. Yeah, which way the
Speaker 2: paintings that set this up, I don't think we mentioned
Speaker 2: I don't even call him Matte paintings. It looks like
Speaker 2: someone painted something on the wall and they just like
Speaker 2: put a camera in front.
Speaker 1: Of it pretty much.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they get back and Chewbacca Han Solo hides around
Speaker 2: the corner. Chewbacca steps in front of his son to
Speaker 2: protect him. Sure, Han Solo jumps out, and the stormtrooper
Speaker 2: trips over a pile of logs and falls over.
Speaker 1: The balcony and dies in a holiday special.
Speaker 2: So they wouldn't even not only could he not shoot
Speaker 2: first with Gredo, but they couldn't even have him like
Speaker 2: wrestle the stormtrooper and throw him off.
Speaker 3: He trips over a log, right, and Han Solo has
Speaker 3: his hands thrown up like, wasn't me It might all
Speaker 3: have been a banana peel, you know.
Speaker 1: But again, this is basically produced by vaudevillians starring vaudevillians.
Speaker 1: Why not have the one death take place from basically
Speaker 1: what amounts to somebody slipping on a banana peel exactly.
Speaker 1: It's a perfect way to end it. So that's that
Speaker 1: guy basically represents the end of the Imperial threat for
Speaker 1: the rest of Life Day. And we then see Life
Speaker 1: Day being celebrated, which is celebrated by lots of wookies
Speaker 1: assembling in what looks like a giant Olin Mills portrait,
Speaker 1: and all of them are wearing red robes. And I
Speaker 1: know I'm up talking, and it's because my mind is
Speaker 1: still having trouble like wrapping around us. And then Princess
Speaker 1: Leah comes out with C three po is Mark Hamill.
Speaker 3: There the whole gang zerophone, okay, the whole.
Speaker 1: Gang, And then they all gather around to hear a
Speaker 1: great quote from Princess Leah which we will read verbatim.
Speaker 2: This holiday is yours, but we all share with you
Speaker 2: the hope that this day brings us closer to freedom
Speaker 2: and to harmony and to peace. No matter how different
Speaker 2: we appear, we're all the same in our struggle against
Speaker 2: the powers of evil and darkness. I hope that this
Speaker 2: day will always be a day of joy in which
Speaker 2: we can reconfirm our dedication and our courage, and more
Speaker 2: than anything else, our love for one another. This is
Speaker 2: the promise of the Tree of Life Q song.
Speaker 1: Right, And we should also point out the tree of
Speaker 1: Life has never been mentioned up to this point.
Speaker 3: I had no idea with this. It takes a sudden
Speaker 3: appearance at the end.
Speaker 1: And when you said Q song, by Q song, you
Speaker 1: mean Princess Leiah starts singing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And apparently that was one of the big contingencies on
Speaker 2: Carrie Fisher being involved. Yeah, she's going through a phase
Speaker 2: where she's like kind of like singing.
Speaker 1: Bruce Valanche calls it her Joni Mitchell period.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she somehow convinced them to let her sing
Speaker 3: as Princess Leah and she does.
Speaker 1: And again I've said that she looks like she's on drugs.
Speaker 1: This is the point where she really does look like
Speaker 1: she's on drugs.
Speaker 3: And it's not just me.
Speaker 1: Other writers who've written reviews of this. It's really obvious
Speaker 1: that she possibly smoked a decent amount of pot before
Speaker 1: she shot this shot this scene, but she sings, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's fine. It's just the fact that Princess Leia is singing.
Speaker 1: And actually, Bruce Falanche had a really great quote too.
Speaker 1: He says that she very much wanted to show this
Speaker 1: side of her talent, and there was general dismay because
Speaker 1: this was not what we wanted Princess Leia to be doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she did it anyway. So the whole thing ends with
Speaker 1: her singing this song about life day oh yeah, which
Speaker 1: is set loosely to the John Williams Star Wars theme.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So along the way, the director, original director quit, A
Speaker 2: new director, Steve Binder, was hired to finish the job
Speaker 2: and bring it in, and he did over the original
Speaker 2: one million dollar budget.
Speaker 3: Of course, always he did bring it in.
Speaker 2: And at this point George Lucas said he was he
Speaker 2: was working on Empire Strikes Back.
Speaker 3: He didn't know what was going on. He wasn't around
Speaker 3: for the shoot.
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't until it aired. I think that he
Speaker 1: actually saw it.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was a travesty obviously, if you haven't noticed
Speaker 2: that by now.
Speaker 3: Critics hated it. Star Wars fans really hated it. Everybody,
Speaker 3: the people who were in it hated it. Lucas hated it.
Speaker 1: Even Harvey Korman secretly hated it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, even Harvey Keitel hated it. Actually he loved it.
Speaker 2: But Lucas has been asked over the years about it
Speaker 2: a lot, and he doesn't talk about it much. But
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five, and I don't buy this
Speaker 2: for a second, he says it was an interview He
Speaker 2: said especial from nineteen seventy eight. I really didn't have
Speaker 2: much to do with us. You know that part is true.
Speaker 2: I can't remember what network it was even on, but
Speaker 2: it was a thing that they did. That's a lie.
Speaker 2: There's no way he doesn't know that was CBS. We
Speaker 2: kind of just let them do it. I believe that
Speaker 2: it was done by I can't even remember who the
Speaker 2: group was, but there were variety TV guys.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he remembers a few of them.
Speaker 2: We let them use the characters and stuff, and that
Speaker 2: probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you learn
Speaker 2: from those experiences. I think they even use some of
Speaker 2: the foot from the movie.
Speaker 1: At the end, it looks like some of the space
Speaker 1: like a highlight reel, yeah the Gang.
Speaker 2: Well, and during the it looked like some of the
Speaker 2: they had some insert shots of like Imperial cruisers and
Speaker 2: tie fighters and stuff that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like from remember when Chewbacca like leans back and
Speaker 1: puts his hands behind it. Yeah, yeah, that's in there.
Speaker 1: It's like a just a highlight reel from the movie.
Speaker 1: Saying like I feel like this, go see the movie.
Speaker 3: Well, and also that means it doesn't match the look
Speaker 3: of the rest of it at all. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3: It's just sort of inserted. They tried, They definitely tried.
Speaker 1: And George Lucas is totally full of it, because in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven he told star Log magazine that the
Speaker 1: Christmas Special would be out on video cassette very soon. Yes,
Speaker 1: And in two thousand and seven, two years after that quote,
Speaker 1: you just read where he's like, I.
Speaker 3: Don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Basically, he apparently considered releasing the Christmas Special as a
Speaker 1: bonus on the DVDs of the first three.
Speaker 2: Right, it did not, didn't, And apparently Carrie Fisher told
Speaker 2: Lucas that, if you want me to do DVD extras commentary, Yeah, commentary.
Speaker 3: Then I want a clean original copy of the Holiday Special.
Speaker 2: Yes, so why go ahead so I can play at
Speaker 2: parties when I want people to leave.
Speaker 3: It's pretty great.
Speaker 1: It is so and there is one of those clean
Speaker 1: copies is floating around out there, so you can watch
Speaker 1: this in it in its entirety. Some of it, like
Speaker 1: the cartoon, was removed due to copyright infringement and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, but as as the case with the
Speaker 1: rest of the Internet, you can just go find it
Speaker 1: elsewhere and piece it together. There's also the original ads
Speaker 1: that aired in Baltimore. Yeah, that are just fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Those are always fun gm ads where one of the
Speaker 1: guys who's in quality control is.
Speaker 3: He says, did you watch it? I don't think I
Speaker 3: saw that one. He goes, we really care about these
Speaker 3: cars and.
Speaker 1: That's no jibe man on a gm ad and he's like,
Speaker 1: it's serious to be hip. Yeah, it's pretty good stuff.
Speaker 3: Here's my final thought on it. I love it.
Speaker 2: It does not taint my Star Wars experience or my
Speaker 2: love for the franchise, and I'm glad it is out
Speaker 2: there because it's a fun little stain that shouldn't be
Speaker 2: taken too seriously. I think it adds to it actually,
Speaker 2: because it's campy and awful, and I don't know somehow
Speaker 2: that enriches the rest of it.
Speaker 3: I'm with you. You like it?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I watched it twice. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: watched it a second I wouldn't have made it through
Speaker 1: the first time. Let me take that back, as I'm
Speaker 1: a pro. Yeah, so I would have made it through
Speaker 1: the first time. I wouldn't have watched it a second
Speaker 1: time if I wasn't. There wasn't something about it, and
Speaker 1: I figured out. I think the thing that I like
Speaker 1: the most about it is Lumpy, Chewbacca's son Yeah, played
Speaker 1: by an actress named Patty Maloney, who frankly is hands
Speaker 1: down the best actor in the entire thing. She like
Speaker 1: her response is and everything's just awesome.
Speaker 3: I think my favorite parts are, well, there's a great
Speaker 3: Wilhelm scream.
Speaker 1: Yes, the trooper trips over the laws, Jerry would not
Speaker 1: have noticed it.
Speaker 2: And then there's a part where all the Wookie dialogue
Speaker 2: you can't understand, but there's clearly one part where where
Speaker 2: Itchy and Lumpy are having exchange where Lumpy you can
Speaker 2: make it out goes.
Speaker 3: I love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's covered up.
Speaker 2: But someone was like, we have to have at least
Speaker 2: one exchange where you sort of know what they're saying.
Speaker 1: Sure, or they were like, I think she has said
Speaker 1: I love you. Should we have them redo it? And
Speaker 1: the director's like, no, I want to go and Chuck.
Speaker 1: There's one other thing that I figured out from watching this.
Speaker 1: What's that it's not readily apparent the whole thing is
Speaker 1: made all the more odd, and that there's situation after
Speaker 1: situation after situation where we, as normal audiences, were trained
Speaker 1: to expect the laugh track, but there's not a laugh track,
Speaker 1: and there's been a laugh track. It might have been
Speaker 1: less bizarre. Yeah, but the fact that it's missing just
Speaker 1: makes your agitates the mind. So it's this whole additional element.
Speaker 3: That it is weird.
Speaker 2: I never thought about it, that there's just weird moments
Speaker 2: of silence all throughout it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like when Art Carney's doing his thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm telling jokes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I agree with you, Chuck. Don't take things
Speaker 1: too seriously. I think that's the great lesson in this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the lesson of life day it is
Speaker 2: and in two thousand and seven Riff Tracks a great
Speaker 2: mystery science Theater. Three thousand guys Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett,
Speaker 2: and Kevin Murphy provided audio commentary for the full version
Speaker 2: of the special. So try and go grab that if
Speaker 2: you can as well. Oh you can, it's on their
Speaker 2: site because it's great. I think it's like eight bucks and.
Speaker 3: Those guys are awesome.
Speaker 1: And yeah, at least I think Corbett listens to us. So, hey, Corbett,
Speaker 1: you got anything else? No, No, I think we did this.
Speaker 1: There's some good stuff. Go read the Vanity Fair article
Speaker 1: han Solo Comedy Hour. There's a book called House Star
Speaker 1: Wars Conquered the Universe that has a very interesting chapter
Speaker 1: about this.
Speaker 3: That's where we found it.
Speaker 1: Asserted that George Lucas never said that he would smash
Speaker 1: this thing with a sledgehammer, right, And there's also an
Speaker 1: entire website dedicated to it. Star Wars Holiday Special dot com. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you want to know more about the Star
Speaker 1: Wars Holiday Special, we have a ton of hard Star Wars.
Speaker 3: Stuff on how stuff works by the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have cool, sort of fun articles about the
Speaker 2: Death Star and Lightsabers.
Speaker 1: Videos with Holly Fry from Stuff You missed in history class.
Speaker 3: Yeah, who she knows her stuff. She does.
Speaker 1: So you can just type Star Wars in the search
Speaker 1: bar at HowStuffWorks dot com and it will bring up
Speaker 1: some cool stuff for you. Since I said search bar,
Speaker 1: it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, just finished listening to the Voyage Manuscript podcast.
Speaker 2: Found it's super interesting, especially the theories on its definition
Speaker 2: or origin. No Josh mentioned Chuck siy but being drug
Speaker 2: induced is somewhat surprising or even unlikely given the language
Speaker 2: and the manuscript follows linguistic laws.
Speaker 3: Only founded in the past one hundred years. But if
Speaker 3: you think about it, it's a tough.
Speaker 2: It's tough to stray away from familiar structures, especially for
Speaker 2: something like language. I think back to when I was
Speaker 2: younger and friends invented their own languages, or even in
Speaker 2: writing a song or poetry. Creativity can sometimes be limited
Speaker 2: by what we know.
Speaker 3: So just thought i'd contribute that to the conversation.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 3: Thanks big, thanks for all you guys do.
Speaker 2: I found the podcast after moving to San Diego in
Speaker 2: the last few years for some noise around my apartment,
Speaker 2: so basically we were blocking out noise. We do that,
Speaker 2: which I love and then as a way to get
Speaker 2: through traffic on my commute home from work. You guys
Speaker 2: are far more interesting and enjoyable than television and YouTube videos.
Speaker 3: I'm sure I've listened to hundreds, and we'll continue to
Speaker 3: listen to hundreds more. Keep on Keeping on. That is
Speaker 3: from Amy Jay Moffett.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Amy in San Diego. Does that mean
Speaker 1: like place of the whales in German or something like that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with this, you
Speaker 1: can send us an email. The Stuff podcast at house
Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot Com has always joined us at our home
Speaker 1: on the web, Stuff Youshould Know dot Com.
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