WEBVTT - Selects: Star Wars Holiday Spectacular 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.360 Ho ho ho, and welcome to the annual Star Wars 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:08.200 Holiday Special Select episode release. It's that time of year again, 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.200 and now that we're airing this episode, the holiday season 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:15.520 can officially officially begin as of today. We hope this 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.920 select finds you and yours warm and totally overwhelmed by 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.400 a tidal wave of glad tidings from us at SYSK 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:27.600 to you. Happy holidays. May they now begin in earnest. 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:41.040 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.720 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:53.400 Chuckers Bryant and Jerry Jerome Roland. Who's the Wookie mother? Yeah? Mala, 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.760 that was the Wookie wife. Oh and mother? Yeah? Sure. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.720 Chewbacca's bomb is not with them any longer. She left, 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.399 she was not about to appear in that. She went 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.600 out the window. I'm excited about this. I have to 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:13.119 say we should say Happy Star Wars Day. Yeah, today 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.520 is um December seventeenth. I have my opening night tickets? 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:24.880 Do you really sure? Wow? You know? I you into it? Oh? Yeah, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:26.880 well I will definitely go see it in the theater. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.000 But um, why won't be the opening night? Sure? I've 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:34.679 gotten really adept at like ignoring spoilers, people talking about 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.000 stuff all like, so I can I could conceivably see 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.680 this movie a month after it comes out and still 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.880 going fresh. Yeah it's I'm an ostrich. Yeah you black 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.080 yourself out. Yeah, you go dark I do. I make 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.560 myself go to sleep face, you go to the dark side. 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.760 I've been there a while now. Uh well, Happy Star 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.200 Wars Day though, I'm sure that I think this pairs 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:03.800 nicely with Chris Smiths Star Wars Day. It's all come together. Yes, Um, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.200 we already missed Life Day though, so happy belated Life Day. 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.640 Are they celebrating it this year? November seventeenth? Yeah, but 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:17.160 it's every three years. M hmm, our cane yeah, man job, Okay, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.639 so it's every three years, started in nineteen seventy eight. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:25.640 Let's do the math, shall we m? Quick? Math break? 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:30.679 I believe that twenty fourteen was the last Life Day. Man, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.359 we just missed it, and then again in twenty seventeen. Okay, 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.200 so twenty seventeen we'll celebrate Life Day. We'll put on 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.400 our red robes, our ultralong, straight ironed wigs, sure, and 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.000 we'll celebrate Life Day. The way it was meant to. Yes, 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.440 and if you have no idea what we're talking about, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.880 we are talking about Life Day, which is a celebration, 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.320 uh that Wookies in the Star Wars universe have every 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.480 three years. Yeah. It's like their Christmas, Yeah, or their 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.960 Quanza there. Supposedly, it's sort of like Earth. They two. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.160 They celebrate the diversity of their ecosystem and also remembrance 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.720 of the dead, and they also give the gifts. They're 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.320 like the Finns basically. Yeah, it's it's a very interesting 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.240 part of the Star Wars canon. It is, and it's 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.040 almost entirely made up, dashed off you could possibly say, 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:24.560 by George Lucas in the seventies. Yeah, and it's the 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:29.280 basis of what has become derided as like one of 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.440 the worst things that ever happened to the Star Wars galaxy. Well, 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.840 not only that, one of the worst things ever aired 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:39.280 on television. Yeah, this galaxy. Yeah, at first that sounds 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.040 like hyperbole, like, come on, it's because it was Star Wars, 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.120 we had high expectations, but it's really that bad. Yeah. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.440 The people who say that haven't seen even a second 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.840 of it. Yeah. Yeah, However, I watched it when I 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.760 was a kid, then again this week. Yeah, and you 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.240 watched it twice this week. Yeah, I watched it last 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.800 night and this morning. There's something about it. It's mesmerizing, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.080 it really is. It's one of those things that you 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.360 start watching it and you want to turn it off, 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.200 but you want to see just how absurd it can get. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:14.160 Almost Yeah, and it starts absurd, it stays absurd in 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.400 the middle. Yeah, it's increasingly more absurd, it gets a 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.960 little less absurd, finishes super absurd. Yeah. It's just a 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.800 train wreck in every single sense of the word. Talk 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.640 to bottom. It's extraordinarily difficult to overstate how bad this is. Yeah, 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.680 and some people, you know, in researching this, you read 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.880 about it, you read descriptions of these things, and it 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.000 just can't possibly be gotten across until you see it. 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.640 So luckily, as we will see, you can go onto 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.680 YouTube and watch it, and you may even enjoy this 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:48.200 episode more if you pause, go spend two hours watching 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.600 this thing, and then come back and laugh along with us. Yeah, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:53.880 there's a great Over the years, there have been many 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.520 segments of it on YouTube from badly dubbed VHS tapes, 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.840 but there is one really pretty good version of it 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:06.040 in full, brought to you by a w HIO Dayton, 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.320 Ohio channel seven. Who because that flashes up on the 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:14.159 screen periodically. Man, it is high quality. It looks good. 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.440 It has to basically be the copy that the actual 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:22.120 affiliate broadcast. Yeah, it's like that, that quality compared to 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.160 the other stuff floating around ninety two. It's clearly recorded 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.440 on a nineteen seventy eight PCR, which we're really expensive, 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.720 very expensive. I did some calculating on west Egg. Okay, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.000 so the average VCR went for about one thousand dollars. 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.359 There were brand new it's amazing one thousand dollars in 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.400 nineteen seventy eight money. So they were about thirty eight 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.280 hundred dollars in twenty fourteen money. Crazy. Luckily there were 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.479 some rich people out there recording this stuff, and the 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.960 wealthy have saved us all again, yes, yet again, as 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.280 they always do. Yes, we need to shout out some 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.480 articles that we use for this. There's great a great 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.159 article in Vanity Fair called the Han Solo Comedy Hour 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.839 X Glamation Point Yes by Frank D. Jacomo. And then 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.640 there's the Star Wars Holiday Special was the worst thing 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.120 on television ever by someone we kind of know, Alex Pasternak. Yeah, 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:16.520 from Motherboard, Yeah, which is not wired. It's a vice. Yes, 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:18.960 we wrote a little bit for Motherboard back then and 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:23.280 we had a call without like we're like old Motherboard vets, yeah, basically, 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.960 and when they're one more, there was another one and 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.560 I don't know who wrote this one. Chuck uh, yeah, 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.960 it's the titles the Star Wars Holiday Special. George Lucas 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.240 wants to smash every copy of with a sledgehammer, which 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.719 was a famous quote supposedly at a convention by Lucas, Yes, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.880 which is not correct. He didn't ever say that. No, Okay, 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.600 that that sounded like something that people made up. Yes, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.080 but if you go on the internet you will quickly 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.599 believe that he did. Sure apparently didn't. So I'm sure 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.080 he felt that way though, clearly, you know, because he 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.520 did appear on Robot Chicken and I think two thousand 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.720 and five on the Therapist Couch talking about how much 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.279 he hate did the Speci show. All right, so let's 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.039 set the background, shall we Shall we go back to 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.840 nineteen seventy seven, Yeah, summer getting the old wayback machine, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:16.080 all right, let's do it, all right, here we are, 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.440 there's Waterson. Yeah, I'm just a little six year old 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.920 excited about Star Wars. I am, I've just turned one. Yes, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.560 you don't know what's up yet. I please forgive me 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.960 if I urinate myself, no problem. Okay. So what has 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.200 happened is Star Wars has become a huge, huge hit, 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.480 seemingly out of nowhere. Yeah, establishing George Lucas is one 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.880 of the brilliant young minds in filmmaking. Even though it 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.080 was in his first movie, it was his first huge, 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.880 huge breakout hit. Oh yeah, for sure. Don't mean to 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.240 talk about a breakout hit like no one had ever 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.120 seen anything like it before two thousand and one had 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:56.320 come out in the late sixties. Yeah, but it wasn't 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.360 it still isn't accessible to all audiences, you know. Yeah, 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.520 it's kind of a rebral film. Yeah, it's not an 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.160 adventure movie. This was this is like basically swashbuckling on 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:07.960 the screen. But you know, in a galaxy far far away, 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.840 Star Wars just changed everything and it came on just 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.520 like a hammer. Yeah, um, a new hope by the way, yes, 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.880 and then then we're gonna get stuff wrong, nerds, So yes, 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:20.120 just go ahead, and get your little fingers ready to 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.760 email us, like if it wasn't driven home that I'm 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:24.520 not a nerd by the fact that I don't have 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.240 opening night tickets or any tickets yet, give me a break, okay, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.240 and by proxy Chuck too, Okay, thank you. So um, 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.120 it's it's hard to state how great Star Wars was 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.000 in everyone's mind. Yeah right. Bill Murray came out with 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.880 that lounge singer Star Wars thing. Yeah, it was everywhere 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:44.880 and if you if you just listen to the lyrics 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.960 of it, he's really it's just Bill Murray singing about 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.800 how much Star Wars is awesome. Yeah right. So by 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:57.040 the following year, George Lucas was he wanted to figure 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.640 out a way to keep audiences just to engaged with 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.080 the whole Star Wars franchise that he was just starting 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.719 to build. But he knew the Empire Strikes Back was 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.640 a couple more years out, sure, so um he I 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.680 think he was approached by some TV executives who said, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.880 have you considered doing some sort of TV special? They're 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.360 all the rage right now. We have a we have 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.360 a graphic that's really awesome that we set aside just 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.400 for TV. Specials here at CBS. Why don't you let 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:28.840 us let's get together and do a Star Wars special. 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.920 That's right, producers Gary Smith and Dwight Himeon, we're working 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.160 over at CBS, and they say, this is a great 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.800 way to keep the spirit alive while you're making your 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.720 other movie. Maybe move some more toys. Yeah, which George 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:47.640 Lucas got to cut. So it was right before Thanksgiving, 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:48.959 and he said there'd be a lot of people watching 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:53.360 TV pre holiday season, or I guess in the holiday season. Well, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.040 the weekend before Thanksgiving, it's like everybody's shopping, sitting around 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.560 family like waiting to actually do stuff. That's right, perfect 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.280 time to broadcast something on TV. So Lucas says, all right, 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.920 let's do this. I don't have a ton of time, 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.480 but how about this. I'll get I'll get a story 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.320 together and then you can go hire a whiz bang 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.960 team of veteran writers and producers and directors whatever genre 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.480 you think is appropriate. And those are the words that 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:24.120 will haunt George Lucas to his grave. Yeah. So Lucas said, 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.319 here's my idea. I want it to be based on 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.160 Wookie's and I want it to take place on their 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.480 home planet of Kizuk or Wookie Planet C. Is that 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.640 how you say kazuk? That's how it's pronounced in the 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.839 episode the Holiday Special, but it's also pronounced different ways 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.319 other times. I would have pronounced that cash E E 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.040 got spell it k A s h y y y 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.640 k yeah, which I mean. I guess that sounds like 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.240 Chewbacca's planet sure also called G five six twenty three. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.400 Wookie Planet C or edon is a mid rim planet. Right. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.720 So the whole reason apparently that George Lucas was interested 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.640 in featuring the Wookies was it is what we in 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.599 show business call low hanging fruit. The reason why it 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.440 was low hanging fruit was because they had just established 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.280 the different scenes that would make the cut for Empire 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.480 Strikes Back. Yeah, and how did you pronounce it? Again? 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:26.880 Kaz Kazuok had not made the cut. Even prior to this, apparently, 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.040 for a new hope, George Lucas had whipped up a 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.640 forty page what's known as the Wookie Bible. It's like 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:36.760 a forty page supplement that's all about Kazuok and Wookies 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:41.040 and Chewbacca and his family and everything about wookieedom. Right. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.240 So he's like, I've got this thing already. You know 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.319 established I love Wookies. They didn't make the cut. I'm 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.679 a little sad about that. They're not gonna kazuk is 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.400 not gonna show up in an Empire strikes back. Let's 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.480 let's build the entire special around wookies. It's basically the 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.400 one demand me, George Lucas y. Yeah, that's it. I'll 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:03.800 be totally hands off from this point on which he 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.199 kind of was. He totally wasn't. It was actually this 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.839 experience that apparently taught him to be the very hands 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.360 on person that he is famous for being. It came 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.559 out of this Christmas special. Absolutely, he was burned and 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.719 he had an iron grip after that on everything. So 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:23.680 here's some some of the folks behind it. Bruce Valanche, 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.480 famous TV writer. You probably seen him on Hollywood Squares. 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.000 Wasn't he suspected of being Thomas Pinchon for a while? Oh? 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.080 I don't know, Or was Thomas Pinchon on Hollywood Squares? 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:39.360 I have no idea. I maybe confabulating some stuff confounding. Yeah, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.280 there's some kind of some sort going on. It sounds 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.720 like it. Yeah, so Valanche was hired as a writer. 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.840 A guy named Lenny RiPPs was hired as a writer 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.560 who has some great quotes in that Vanity Fair article 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.920 he does. His first quote was, we were really excited 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.080 because this is Star Wars. How could it lose? Yeah? 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.599 Famous last words? Who else was hired? There was a 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.520 husband and wife team, the Welch's. Yeah, who are the 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:11.719 parents of folk singer Gillian Welch. I'm a big fan 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.360 of and I had no idea that her parents. They 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:18.600 were producers slash songwriters of the day. They were big 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:20.599 on the variety show scene, which would turn out to 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.640 be a really key cog in this whole experience. So 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.160 I feel like a right about here, Jerry should insert 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.720 a needle coming off of a record sound effect. Yeah, okay, 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.560 thanks Jerry, So Chuck, you just said singer songwriters. Yeah, 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.280 what would that have to do with Star Wars? Yeah? Well, actually, 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.679 in this Star Wars Holiday special, for those of you 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.440 who hadn't seen it, there are musical numbers. They decided 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:48.920 from the outset that there should be musical numbers. And 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.559 the reason that they decided that there should be musical 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.599 numbers is because the people who sold George Lucas and 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.680 at the time it was Star the Star Wars Corporation 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.719 was what it was called. Yeah, on the idea of 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.040 doing this TV special was that everyone would love a 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.920 variety show. Yeah, it was the seventies. Great idea, let's 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.079 do a variety show. The problem was this, Apparently George 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.480 Lucas didn't watch enough TV and he also overly trusted 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:17.560 people who talk to him. Sure, because by nineteen seventy eight, yes, 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:23.040 variety shows had dominated television for over ten years, but 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.400 it had come to an end. It was getting stale. Yeah, 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.080 we're talking. Carol Burnett Show, one of my favorites had 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.400 just been canceled after eleven seasons, a big red flag. 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.200 Sonny and Chair had just had its last season. Yeah, 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.520 I mean what else, Like he Hall was tall was 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.480 still going on probably, I think he was still on 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.440 solid Gold. It yet to come on and take up 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.040 the mantel. That wouldn't a variety show. Oh that was 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.320 a little bit and there was talking in between the songs. Yeah, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.400 I remember the Mandrell's Sisters show. I never watched that one. Well, 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.080 it's with that country chic thing that happen. Yeah, it 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:01.280 was a big deal in this it's kind of happening again. 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.800 I think, oh, because of that dude, the guy who 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.280 won all the CMA Awards. I don't know, he's like 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.760 he's he came along and he's like, actually country. His 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.560 dad's like a coal miner for real from Kentucky. I think, 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.480 I know you mean Chris something. Yeah, yeah, he is good. 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.160 He's come along and been like, what are you guys doing? Well, 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.040 there's a revival in like good country music again. That's great, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.960 like in the tradition of Merle Haggard and Shash And 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.200 I guess it's probably where the Country sheet came from, 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.000 because there was actually good country going on. Yeah, Johnny 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.760 Cash out of a variety show, did he really? Oh yeah, 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.520 I knew they did, like a Sunday singing thing like 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.800 out in Virginia. Yeah, he had his own variety show 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.160 is actually pretty good. There's some like really great performances. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.440 Do you know how many nerds are like, get back 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.240 to Star Wars. I know, I'm so sorry. All right, 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.240 So the Variety Show is is dying sort of, and 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.880 so they figure what a great time to take the 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:57.320 biggest movie property on the planet and wedge it into 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.520 the Variety Show. Milieu. I don't know if wedge is 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.240 the right word. I think maybe nestle it in there, yeah, 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.840 and then start hitting it with the blunt edge of 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.960 an axe until it mashes into that crevice. You know. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.440 Because this is the time when Fantasy Island had just started, 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:19.760 Mork and Mindy was about to change things, Charlie's Angels 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.840 was getting huge. It basically television as we knew it 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.520 from nineteen eighty two, whenever the real world came along. Yeah, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.280 just escape as television is what they called. It was 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.080 starting and it was the hip new thing. So basically, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.840 if they had turned Han Solo and Princess Leia and 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.400 Luke Skywalker into maybe you know, sexy detectives, it might 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.120 have gone over even better. But they went the other way. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:49.239 They decided to latch onto this extraordinarily stale genre of television, 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.120 and they hired the best in the business. Yeah, like 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:53.880 there was there was. There was a quote from I 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.000 think Lenny RiPPs who was saying, like we had literally 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.560 a dream team, a variety show dream team, and everybody 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.520 was good, but there were probably no bad welders on 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.440 the Titanic. He there, That's a great quote. Yeah, the 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.640 guy they hired to direct it initially was a dude 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.800 named David A. Coomba, and he had made his name 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.639 for Welcome to the Fillmore East. It was a concert 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.800 documentary with Van Morrison Van Morrison and the Birds in 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.640 nineteen seventy one, and he actually was at usc Film 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.040 School at the same time as Lucas, even though they 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.919 didn't know each other. And he only ended up directing 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.160 about three segments of the thing before he quit. Yet 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.480 before he walked off, some say he was actually let go, 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.040 but we'll get to him in a minute and who 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.320 replaced him. Okay, as we get along down this gross road, 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.760 well let's let's take a little break because I'm overly excited. Okay, 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.760 all right, so we've established most of the main players. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.400 Well we'll get to a few more. We should point 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.040 out that um Mark hamill And and Harrison Ford and 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:21.240 Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, they had no grounds to refuse 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.199 to be on this basically, yeah, pretty much. They were 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.720 not huge, huge stars. Yet they could throw their weight 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.680 around and say this is terrible and I'm not doing it. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.159 They were. They were big overnight because of Star Wars, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.400 for sure, but they weren't to the adoring public. Sure, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.320 back at the studio they could still be bossed around 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.560 and this was the result of it. And you can 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.840 tell also, um, just from watching the actual special, like 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.920 Harrison Ford is not happy to be there at any point. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.560 Oh no, Um, Princess Leia is clearly on drugs. Uh 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.760 was she on drugs at this point? She? If you 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.000 watch it, she's she's on drugs. Especially the ending scene. 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.360 Mark Hambell, it looks like he's happy to be there. 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.560 Actually he was fine, but apparently he said, no, I'm 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.400 not doing a musical number. Yeah, and if you watch 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.159 his part, wedging a musical number in there would have 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:18.200 been even more painful. Sure, but they everybody who was 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.159 part of the actual Star Wars franchise that wasn't wearing 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.159 like a full body costume. Yeah, it was like I 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.320 really wish I wasn't here. And you can tell, oh yeah. 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:31.960 In fact, in the opening credit sequence, they're showing the picture, 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.960 you know, the faces of the people, and you see 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.320 Harrison Ford as if he's flying the Millennium Falcon and 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.359 you can you can just hear the guy off screen 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.000 going now look at the camera and just give a nod. 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.320 Just look at the camera and give a nod, and 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.080 he finally you can tell he's pissed off, and he 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.520 looks up at the camera and just sort of smirks yeah, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.720 and points at the camera like okay, I'm looking at 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.400 the camera, and then goes back to what he's doing. Yeah, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.720 it's pretty awesome. I felt bad for him so early 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.800 on Valanche and others did. Did you feel bad for him? Though? Really? 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.560 I mean, like, come on, it's Harrison Ford, it's Hans Solo. 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.560 He has to go do this for like five days. Yeah, 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.280 I felt terrible for him. I think it's hilarious that 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.320 they had to do this, especially now. Well, early on, 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:15.520 Valanche and others knew that they may be in trouble 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.840 because they decided not to subtitle any of the Wookie dialogue, 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.560 and they literally started after a brief opening scene setting 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.480 it up here. Here's the basic plot is Han Solo 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.680 is trying to get Chewbacca back to Kazuok in time 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.160 for Life Day so we can celebrate with his family. 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.080 That's the basis of the entire two hours. The basis 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.600 the entire two hours. They encounter a space battle and 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.800 they're delayed, and the next two hours are kind of 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:48.359 what's going on while the delay is happening back on 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.359 Kazuk because you hear like, okay, well Han Solo and 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.840 Chewbacca evading the Imperial Guard and all that stuff for 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:58.240 two hours. I would watch that, Sure, I would too. Yeah, 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.520 that's not what they show. Killing time at the Wookie household, 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.840 that is what they show. Yeah, that's what they do. 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.920 It's people hanging out waiting for Chewbacca, worrying about him, yeah, 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.639 and then killing time while they wait for him to 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.800 come back. Yeah. Literally, so um and so hold on. 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:16.920 So you say there's a setup, right, Yeah, that's the 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:21.280 initial setup and then chuck. That's followed by this. Yeah, 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:27.359 it's followed by literally ten minutes, ten solid minutes of 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:32.040 incomprehensible Wookie speak. So let's let's join it for a second, 0:21:32.080 --> 0:22:19.399 shall we. Yeah, let's all enjoy it. And again, you 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.800 said ten minutes, and you're not exaggerating, you're not being hyperbolic. 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.200 You can time it. That's it's ten minutes of Wookie's 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:30.879 talking to each other with no subtitles. Fortunately, I couldn't 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.360 follow it at first, Like I didn't even know who 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:37.280 it was. I thought it was might have been Chewbacca's 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.560 mom and dad. Oh yeah, that's a little brother. And 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.000 I don't find out until later when Mark Camill shows 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:48.200 up via skype call and says, he really explains everything 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.399 that had just happened, Like, you're Chewbacca's father, right, Itchy, 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:59.000 your Chewbacca's son, Lumpy Lumpy, and you're Chebacca's wife. Oh mama, yeah, 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:02.600 thank you. So before everybody starts like freaking out, we 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.480 know that that's actually their nicknames. Their real names are. 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:11.880 His father is a tichik cook a cook it's really 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.840 hard to pronounce. Mulatto buck is his wife, and his 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:19.720 son is Lumpo or rump but as named by Lucas. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:23.720 But yeah, but Lucas also named him Lumpy, Itchy and Malaya. 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.360 So um. They're all back there wringing their hands, trying 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:31.399 to figure out ways to pass the time until they 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.399 get word from Chewbacca that he's made it to uh 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:40.160 what is it? Ketchukaz kazuk um just like ketchup, ketchup 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:45.399 or cats up if you're fancy um. But Chewbacca is 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:51.240 having trouble getting back to ketchuk because there's kazuk because 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:55.160 there's a blockade by the Empire and they're looking for rebels, 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:58.120 specifically Chewbacca, who I didn't realize this. He's the most 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:00.480 famous Wookie of all. Did you know that? Yeah, of 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:02.879 course I didn't know that. Well, I mean he's the 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:05.679 only one that really appears in the movies. I mean 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:10.320 we're seeing, like, you know, these people's view of the universe. 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:14.000 What about back on Kazook. Yeah, he might have just 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:16.480 been a fly by night wookie, right, Yeah, but not 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:19.720 the case very famous wookie. Yeah, and he really loved it, 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:23.480 like soak in his fame. All right, So he realizes 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:26.200 there's a problem Valanche. He goes to Lucas and was like, 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:29.800 I don't know, man, this is your world, but it 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:33.280 may not be the strongest thing to do to set 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:36.840 this in wookie Land and have all this incomprehensible dialogue. 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:40.720 And he says he was met with a glacial stair. Well, 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:43.399 he put it a little differently than that. Well, he 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.760 said glacial stair. He did. The glacial stair that he 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:50.720 got was for this quote. He said, these people just 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:53.880 talk and what sounds like fat people having an orgasm. Yeah. 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:55.520 He goes, if you want, you can set up a 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:57.639 tape recorder in my bedroom and I'll do all of 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:00.359 the follying for it. Yeah. He's a large guy, he is, 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:04.240 so that's what got the glacial stare. But Valanche later 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.320 said that from this, there was one development meeting that 0:25:07.480 --> 0:25:11.520 Lucas attended, and it was here's the Wookie Bible, tell 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:14.399 me what you got. And Valanche said he and the 0:25:14.480 --> 0:25:17.440 other writers and producers and director were just kind of 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:20.920 throwing ideas, and George Lucas would either say like, no, 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:24.320 that doesn't work, give him a glacial stare, or say, yes, 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:28.400 that's exactly it. Yes, let's make this a variety show. Yeah. 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:31.399 And there was a little bit of background there. The 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:35.800 cantina players in the band had appeared on other variety 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:38.840 shows at that point. Yeah, and I think it went 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:41.760 over fairly well, just as a short segment on like 0:25:41.840 --> 0:25:47.119 the Richard Pryor Variety Show or Donnie Marie yep Man. 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:49.359 There were a lot of variety shows. But that's what 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:52.200 I'm saying. It was that was television. That's what you did, 0:25:52.480 --> 0:25:57.560 like the breaks. The show had its course, and then 0:25:57.640 --> 0:26:01.920 it became a variety show. It was everybody love variety shows. Yeah. 0:26:02.000 --> 0:26:05.119 By this time, though, everybody was sick of variety shows, 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:08.560 and so it really was a terrible choice. In fact, 0:26:08.600 --> 0:26:11.879 they even hired a couple of writers from Shields and Yarnell, 0:26:12.440 --> 0:26:14.320 which I hadn't heard of, had you? Oh yeah, I 0:26:14.440 --> 0:26:18.280 watched it. It was creepy, this mime couple who had 0:26:18.280 --> 0:26:22.640 their own variety show, and they figured these two will 0:26:22.680 --> 0:26:26.840 be great because they are used to working without words, right, So, 0:26:27.000 --> 0:26:29.360 and so there is a certain logic to the variety show. 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.840 It's not that's just that variety shows were popular. Yeah, 0:26:32.920 --> 0:26:36.200 at the time, somebody was like, well, Wookie's you don't 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:38.240 understand what they're saying. So this is all going to 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:42.159 be very physical. So these people who who did what 0:26:42.320 --> 0:26:45.520 is it? Shields and Yarnell. Yeah, that's a perfect choice. 0:26:45.560 --> 0:26:48.760 That that makes complete sense. You can see this whole 0:26:49.080 --> 0:26:51.480 this whole process of leading up to the point where 0:26:51.480 --> 0:26:54.400 it was produced and shot and everything. Yeah, a series 0:26:54.480 --> 0:26:57.160 of like, oh we have this problem, well here's a fix. Yeah, 0:26:57.680 --> 0:26:59.440 but that leads to another problem. Well we'll fix it 0:26:59.520 --> 0:27:02.240 with this, and no one stepping back and being like, 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:06.119 all we've done is create a series of problems that 0:27:06.240 --> 0:27:09.159 are going to come together and make one extraordinarily large 0:27:09.240 --> 0:27:12.560 problem that will become legendary. No one did that, and 0:27:12.680 --> 0:27:15.600 so the whole thing was made. That's right, and it 0:27:15.920 --> 0:27:21.200 eventually airs on November seventeenth, nineteen seventy eight, a Friday, 0:27:21.440 --> 0:27:24.720 at eight pm Eastern time. That's right, And according to 0:27:24.720 --> 0:27:30.000 CBS Nielsen ratings, it attracted thirteen million viewers lost the 0:27:30.160 --> 0:27:33.480 second hour just in the US. It aired in six 0:27:33.880 --> 0:27:36.920 or seven countries total. Yeah, but no one cares about that, 0:27:37.000 --> 0:27:38.919 I guess not because none of those are on the internet. 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:42.240 You know. It finished second to the Love Boat in 0:27:42.320 --> 0:27:44.760 the second I'm sorry, from eight to nine, and in 0:27:44.840 --> 0:27:47.399 the next hour I actually finished behind part two of 0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:50.560 a mini series about Pearl Harbor starring Angie Dickinson. So 0:27:51.040 --> 0:27:54.480 it didn't even win their respective hours. No, thirteen million, 0:27:54.560 --> 0:27:57.680 that's that's not bad. The thing is, apparently if you 0:27:57.720 --> 0:28:01.360 look at the Nielsen ratings graph for the first hour, 0:28:01.520 --> 0:28:03.920 Yeah we know about that graph, It's okay, Yeah, we do. 0:28:04.400 --> 0:28:07.959 And then after a very important part, which we'll talk 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:11.040 about soon, it just drops off at the end of 0:28:11.080 --> 0:28:14.399 the first hour, and that actually probably made the executives 0:28:14.440 --> 0:28:17.520 at CBS cringe for a number of reasons. Number one 0:28:18.000 --> 0:28:21.200 is this special was originally supposed to just be an hour, 0:28:21.680 --> 0:28:25.200 but so many advertisers wanted to sign one that they 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:29.920 extended it to two hours. And it shines through. You 0:28:30.080 --> 0:28:33.119 can totally tell that this thing was never supposed to 0:28:33.480 --> 0:28:35.560 I think an hour might have been stretching it, to 0:28:35.600 --> 0:28:38.600 tell you the truth. Yeah, it's thirty minutes of content, 0:28:39.000 --> 0:28:42.840 forty if you're generous, an hour and then two hours. 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:45.600 It becomes one of the worst things that was ever 0:28:45.680 --> 0:28:47.880 put on television. All right, Well, let's take a break 0:28:47.960 --> 0:28:49.680 and then we'll talk a little bit more about the 0:28:49.760 --> 0:28:55.400 actual even don't want to call it content, but it 0:28:55.560 --> 0:29:20.560 is content in the strictest definitions. Right after this, all right, 0:29:20.680 --> 0:29:23.480 so the show itself, we've given you the main plot line, 0:29:24.120 --> 0:29:27.200 which again is that Chewy is trying to get back 0:29:27.240 --> 0:29:30.000 to his home planet to celebrate life Day with his family. Right, 0:29:30.320 --> 0:29:34.920 that's it, And again we almost barely see Chewy. Yeah, 0:29:35.080 --> 0:29:39.320 the rest is his family on because look waiting for 0:29:39.440 --> 0:29:41.760 him to come back for a life Day. Yeah. So, um. 0:29:41.840 --> 0:29:44.240 Some of the various things they did there were guest stars. 0:29:44.400 --> 0:29:47.280 There was Harvey Corman from the Carol Burnette Show. Okay, 0:29:47.480 --> 0:29:51.280 one of my all time favorites him or Carol Carol 0:29:51.320 --> 0:29:54.560 Burnette show both. He's great. Yeah, he actually if you 0:29:54.680 --> 0:29:57.800 watch what he's doing, you're like, this is comedy genius 0:29:57.920 --> 0:30:00.320 for sure. Apparently he too was like the only one 0:30:00.360 --> 0:30:02.680 on set that was bringing levity. He was joking around 0:30:02.720 --> 0:30:05.000 and kind of kept spirits up. Good for him, that's 0:30:05.040 --> 0:30:08.640 what I say. And he had three, three different parts. Yeah, 0:30:08.720 --> 0:30:13.240 he played uh well, I don't even know the names. Actually, 0:30:13.400 --> 0:30:15.960 we could look him up, but he played a he 0:30:16.120 --> 0:30:20.800 played a Julia child like cook. There's an actual cooking segment, 0:30:21.440 --> 0:30:25.120 a long one, a very long cooking segment where Chewbacca's 0:30:25.160 --> 0:30:29.440 wife makes Banta stew to kill some time, to kill 0:30:29.520 --> 0:30:32.960 some time because there was waiting on her planet and 0:30:33.600 --> 0:30:35.960 in our living room. Yeah, so Harvey Corman is in 0:30:36.080 --> 0:30:41.280 Drag as a foe armed Julia childlike TV chef and 0:30:41.480 --> 0:30:44.480 I think it's Gormanda. It's her name, Gormanda. That makes 0:30:44.520 --> 0:30:48.520 total sense. Yeah, he also plays um. There's this one 0:30:48.560 --> 0:30:52.280 weird bit where Chewbacca's son tries to figure out a 0:30:52.320 --> 0:30:55.520 way to trick the stormtroopers that the Empire had come 0:30:55.560 --> 0:30:58.000 and kind of because the blockade raided the house and 0:30:58.120 --> 0:31:01.160 other properties, so he tries to trick them by I 0:31:01.240 --> 0:31:05.040 think rigging a calm link to speak in a different voice. 0:31:05.200 --> 0:31:10.000 So he has to watch the instruction manual. He watches 0:31:10.520 --> 0:31:15.200 an instruction video which was Harvey Kitel as a robot. Oh, 0:31:15.280 --> 0:31:18.040 it would have been wonderful of big Harvey Kitel. What 0:31:18.120 --> 0:31:22.760 I'd say, Harvey Carvey Corman. Oh, many Kite murders someone 0:31:22.840 --> 0:31:26.280 in the middle of the instruction grade Harvey Corman. And 0:31:26.360 --> 0:31:29.400 then the final role he had was as a bar 0:31:29.520 --> 0:31:33.680 patron in the cantina that drinks. He has a hole 0:31:33.880 --> 0:31:36.320 in the top of his head like a volcano where 0:31:36.400 --> 0:31:38.280 he pours his drinks in. That's how he drinks. And 0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:41.600 he he loves be Arthur. Did we mention be Arthur 0:31:41.720 --> 0:31:43.760 was in it? Be Arthur is not only in it, Chuck. 0:31:43.880 --> 0:31:47.080 She sings a song. She does. She is the unknownst 0:31:47.080 --> 0:31:51.200 to everyone. She manages or maybe owns the owner. Yeah, 0:31:51.400 --> 0:31:55.160 the what's the mos? What mos def cantina? Uh No, 0:31:55.960 --> 0:31:58.360 most deaf is a rapper? Oh yeah, I think you 0:31:58.400 --> 0:32:02.080 mean Moss Eisley. Yes, yes, that cantina. She's the owner. 0:32:02.200 --> 0:32:04.880 Be Arthur is the owner. Be Arthur of the Golden Girls, 0:32:05.160 --> 0:32:07.840 but in this case be Arthur of Maude because as 0:32:07.920 --> 0:32:09.640 one of the people who wrote one of the articles 0:32:09.720 --> 0:32:12.480 we based this on points out she's just basically playing 0:32:12.520 --> 0:32:15.000 Maude as the owner of the cantina. Yeah, and her 0:32:15.040 --> 0:32:20.440 song comes because they basically say there's a lockdown, so 0:32:20.480 --> 0:32:23.680 you gotta call last call at your bar. So she 0:32:23.800 --> 0:32:26.959 calls last call by singing a song to everyone. Right, 0:32:27.000 --> 0:32:31.360 and again, we can't possibly have the script lead anywhere 0:32:31.440 --> 0:32:34.320 else but Chewbacca's house while his family waits for it. 0:32:34.800 --> 0:32:37.680 So all this takes place as part of a public 0:32:37.840 --> 0:32:43.080 service announcement basically broadcast by the Empire about how immoral 0:32:43.240 --> 0:32:46.560 life on Tattooen is. So let's go see what's going 0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:50.880 on in the mos Eisley Cantina as it's being shut 0:32:50.960 --> 0:32:56.400 down for curfew. Yeah, all right, this is incomprehensible, but 0:32:56.840 --> 0:33:00.760 it goes on. So they're in it. There's also Art Carney, yes, 0:33:01.400 --> 0:33:04.000 of the Honeymooners, finally the star of the whole thing. Really, 0:33:05.240 --> 0:33:07.920 he has the most lines, I would say, the most 0:33:08.320 --> 0:33:12.200 comprehensible line, right, Yeah, So he plays a trader, a 0:33:12.360 --> 0:33:16.440 human trader that has recently been with Han Solo and 0:33:16.520 --> 0:33:19.760 Chewy and actually gets to Kazuk and says they're on 0:33:19.880 --> 0:33:23.840 the way, it's all good. Yeah, a trader, not trade tour. Yeah, 0:33:23.960 --> 0:33:29.160 traders in trades humans for you know, money. No, he 0:33:30.080 --> 0:33:34.200 sells goods. Yeah, a trader. He isn't trade humans. Yeah, 0:33:34.240 --> 0:33:37.720 he's in the human trade. He No, he isn't really, Yeah, 0:33:38.360 --> 0:33:41.800 he trades humans like he sells humans. Looked it up 0:33:41.840 --> 0:33:44.200 in the Star Wars Encyclopedia said that he was in 0:33:44.280 --> 0:33:48.080 the human trade. Huh so in this Christmas special, Yeah, 0:33:48.240 --> 0:33:52.520 apparently they sanitized his background because he's basically just selling 0:33:52.600 --> 0:33:55.320 like gadgets and novelties and stuff like that to the 0:33:55.400 --> 0:33:59.720 Wookies and the Empire who were occupying the area. Yes, 0:34:00.040 --> 0:34:04.360 he comes bearing gifts because he's a friend of Chewbacca's family. Yeah, 0:34:04.840 --> 0:34:06.640 so he comes bearing gifts. One of the gifts he 0:34:06.720 --> 0:34:11.040 gives is a sort of like a little digital insert 0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:14.680 to a Oh, I guess you would call it a 0:34:14.840 --> 0:34:19.680 virtual reality hair dryer hair dryer, like a beauty shop 0:34:19.760 --> 0:34:23.760 hair dryer. Right. He gives it to Grandpa Itchy. Grandpa 0:34:23.880 --> 0:34:29.680 Itchy sits under this hair dryer, pops in this digital cassette, 0:34:30.200 --> 0:34:34.600 and it can only be described as softcore porn. Apparently, 0:34:34.800 --> 0:34:37.080 the writers who were interviewed for this said that was 0:34:37.560 --> 0:34:40.400 totally the intent. They were trying to get what amounted 0:34:40.440 --> 0:34:43.359 to softcore porn that would pass the sensors. That's right. 0:34:43.560 --> 0:34:48.399 So it's all you can't even say it's innuendo. It's 0:34:48.440 --> 0:34:52.480 too obvious in overt for innuendo. Instead, it's just it's 0:34:52.600 --> 0:34:58.760 just it's just gross. It's really gross. Diane Carroll, great singer, 0:34:58.960 --> 0:35:03.800 Yes she is a Vegas staple, shows up and starts 0:35:03.920 --> 0:35:09.920 basically tantalizing. M Grandpa Itchy, who again, this is Chewbacca's 0:35:09.960 --> 0:35:14.239 elderly father who now engages in some sort of well 0:35:14.280 --> 0:35:17.680 he's he's watching virtual reality pornography now, and this is 0:35:17.760 --> 0:35:20.560 a pretty lengthy segment in and of itself. Well yeah, 0:35:20.560 --> 0:35:23.520 and she literally says to him like, now I can 0:35:23.560 --> 0:35:28.319 see you're really excited. Yeah, it's pretty rough to watch. Yeah, 0:35:28.400 --> 0:35:30.919 So then you've got another musical number because also again 0:35:31.040 --> 0:35:37.279 he shudders, Yeah, it's really strange. All right. So there's 0:35:37.360 --> 0:35:39.879 also a I know, it seems like we're jumping around, 0:35:39.920 --> 0:35:42.120 but it's it's so mind blowing, not like this is 0:35:42.160 --> 0:35:45.160 pretty much like blow for blow. Um. Actually I forgot 0:35:45.239 --> 0:35:49.640 earlier on in the in the special, there's one of 0:35:49.719 --> 0:35:53.560 my favorite sequences is when Grandpa Itchy goes over to 0:35:54.320 --> 0:35:58.680 Lumpy and basically sets up remember the hologram chessboard that 0:35:58.760 --> 0:36:01.160 they played in a New Hope. Yeah, basically kind of 0:36:01.160 --> 0:36:03.600 sets that up and says, here, just play this. He 0:36:03.719 --> 0:36:07.000 pushes the button which is clearly a nineteen seventies cassette recorder, 0:36:08.400 --> 0:36:15.320 and another like it's like a cirque desolate acid trip 0:36:17.040 --> 0:36:20.960 gymnast routine happens in front of the kid's eyes. Yeah, 0:36:21.320 --> 0:36:23.600 and again this all just it's not like it shows 0:36:23.600 --> 0:36:26.920 a snippet. They show the entire segments, like five, six, 0:36:27.080 --> 0:36:29.440 ten minutes long. Sure of all of these things. So 0:36:29.560 --> 0:36:32.680 you would think, Okay, they've gone to this hologram well 0:36:32.760 --> 0:36:35.400 a couple of times, why not go to it again? 0:36:35.600 --> 0:36:39.439 Well they do. They do to kill more time. While 0:36:39.480 --> 0:36:44.400 the Imperial Guard is ransacking their house. Art Carney apparently, 0:36:44.960 --> 0:36:47.160 I guess, is trying to get one of the Imperial Guard, 0:36:47.440 --> 0:36:49.879 the leader I think, or one of the leaders who 0:36:49.920 --> 0:36:52.960 looks like somebody from Spaceballs, by the way, very much so. Yeah, 0:36:53.920 --> 0:36:56.160 And the writer of the Vanity Fair article, by the way, 0:36:56.239 --> 0:37:00.720 said this, this is so incomprehensible. The specialist George Lucas 0:37:00.760 --> 0:37:02.839 didn't even have the Schwartz with him at the time. 0:37:03.920 --> 0:37:10.279 So anyway, Art Carney's distracting this Imperial leader while they're 0:37:10.400 --> 0:37:14.680 ransacking the Wookie's house Chewbacca's house with a hologram, and 0:37:14.800 --> 0:37:18.320 this hologram, instead of being an acrobat or Diane Carroll 0:37:18.440 --> 0:37:21.000 or any kind of porn or anything like that, is 0:37:21.440 --> 0:37:26.560 Jefferson Starship. And they decide that they're going to play 0:37:26.719 --> 0:37:29.680 Light the Sky on Fire, which apparently is about UFOs. 0:37:29.800 --> 0:37:33.000 It's a little music video basically, it's a Yeah, it's 0:37:33.040 --> 0:37:35.880 the predecessor to like video Kill the Radio Star, you 0:37:35.960 --> 0:37:42.200 can tell. And again it is the whole lengthy song. Yeah, 0:37:42.440 --> 0:37:45.360 the whole thing. So every time that somebody's like we 0:37:45.520 --> 0:37:48.880 need to escape mentally from what's going on here in 0:37:48.960 --> 0:37:52.560 our house, let's go into the video world, it's not 0:37:52.760 --> 0:37:56.680 just and they don't cut back and forth. It's okay, 0:37:57.080 --> 0:38:00.919 here's five minutes of Jefferson Starship performing this song. Yeah, 0:38:01.000 --> 0:38:04.040 and even the Jefferson Starship guys m were like, yeah, 0:38:04.080 --> 0:38:06.200 it's sort of a weird trip, like we didn't get it, 0:38:06.800 --> 0:38:09.240 but we did it right. They gave us some money 0:38:09.840 --> 0:38:14.680 and some cocaine. Well probably, so we said yeah, chuck, 0:38:14.760 --> 0:38:18.759 I think though there yet another segment like this is 0:38:18.800 --> 0:38:22.640 actually widely regarded as the high point of the whole thing. 0:38:22.760 --> 0:38:25.800 Oh sure, so there is a cartoon actually, yeah, that 0:38:26.360 --> 0:38:30.440 lump Lumpy watches Yeah lumpies, like the Imperial Guard is 0:38:30.520 --> 0:38:34.319 still ransacking my house. I think I'll entertain myself by 0:38:34.400 --> 0:38:37.520 watching a cartoon on my little um, I don't know what. 0:38:37.960 --> 0:38:41.520 I guess it was an iPad and he watches this 0:38:41.640 --> 0:38:45.320 cartoon and it's it's actually remarkable for a number of reasons. 0:38:45.440 --> 0:38:48.000 It's the best part of the whole special. Yeah, generally 0:38:48.080 --> 0:38:51.759 agreed upon as such, right, not just us. And it 0:38:51.880 --> 0:38:54.279 introduces Boba Fett. It's the first time Boba Fett ever 0:38:54.360 --> 0:38:56.719 makes an appearance in the Star Wars universe. Yeah, it's 0:38:56.719 --> 0:38:58.759 actually not a bad And you can't find it in 0:38:58.840 --> 0:39:01.440 the the one version I told you to watch. They 0:39:01.520 --> 0:39:04.560 removed it for copyright, but they didn't watch a separate version, right, 0:39:04.600 --> 0:39:06.640 you can find it on its own. Yeah, and it's 0:39:06.800 --> 0:39:09.520 um it's very much reminiscent of like the cartoon style 0:39:09.560 --> 0:39:11.600 of the day, like a he Man or something. Sure, 0:39:11.719 --> 0:39:16.080 even even it's even a little more artsy than that. Yeah, 0:39:16.160 --> 0:39:18.360 but it does have a plot that you can follow 0:39:18.480 --> 0:39:21.360 that makes sense as a Star Wars thing. Yeah, and 0:39:21.480 --> 0:39:24.480 it introduces Boba Fett, like you said, and it's actually 0:39:24.520 --> 0:39:26.560 not bad. It's like Luke and R two and C 0:39:26.760 --> 0:39:29.320 three po Yeah, and they're like they crash on a 0:39:29.400 --> 0:39:31.279 planet or something. Yeah, and Han and chewhere you're in it. 0:39:31.360 --> 0:39:33.200 And it's the first time we see in Darth Vader. 0:39:33.440 --> 0:39:36.520 It's first time we see Boba Fett and that he 0:39:36.760 --> 0:39:40.239 is that he is just doing whatever he can do 0:39:40.400 --> 0:39:42.640 for money, right, Like Luke trusts him at first. C 0:39:42.800 --> 0:39:44.719 three pos like you sure you should trust him this quick? 0:39:44.960 --> 0:39:47.520 And he's like, oh, three po, you and your non 0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:50.000 trusting ways, and then it turns out he's selling them 0:39:50.040 --> 0:39:53.160 out to the dark side. So it's it's basically Boba 0:39:53.200 --> 0:39:58.160 Fett is an allegory for George Lucas himself. Um. So 0:39:58.360 --> 0:40:00.640 the cartoon comes and goes, and that was the thing 0:40:00.760 --> 0:40:03.120 that came at about the end of the first hour 0:40:03.320 --> 0:40:08.839 mark and after that everybody just turned off their television sets. Yeah, 0:40:09.000 --> 0:40:12.000 I don't remember. Did you watch this when it came out? Yeah? 0:40:12.000 --> 0:40:14.759 I remember watching it, but I don't remember much about it, 0:40:14.880 --> 0:40:16.759 Like if I made it through at all, I mean 0:40:16.840 --> 0:40:18.799 it was I was seven and it was on till ten, 0:40:18.920 --> 0:40:21.080 so I probably didn't make it through it all. Yeah, um, 0:40:21.280 --> 0:40:24.719 plus you're probably disturbed. Who knows, I just remember that. 0:40:25.360 --> 0:40:26.920 I'll have to ask my brother. He might have a 0:40:26.960 --> 0:40:29.600 memory of this. Oh, Betty does. I'm sure he met 0:40:29.680 --> 0:40:31.880 everybody afterwards or something like that. You know, it has 0:40:31.920 --> 0:40:33.759 a picture. Well, he was ten at that point, so 0:40:33.960 --> 0:40:36.399 cynicism had, you know, become a thing in his life 0:40:36.440 --> 0:40:40.439 probably by then. Sure didn't that when cynicism kicks into 0:40:41.400 --> 0:40:45.160 Scott holding out the fourteen fifteen Yeah maybe so so um, chuck, 0:40:46.200 --> 0:40:48.320 the whole thing finally does end. And actually there's a 0:40:48.400 --> 0:40:51.480 guy his name is Nathan Raban, he writes over at 0:40:51.520 --> 0:40:53.680 the av Club. He had a great quote. He basically 0:40:53.719 --> 0:40:56.400 said that one of the great redeeming values of this 0:40:56.840 --> 0:40:59.680 um this special is that it does eventually end. Yeah, 0:40:59.760 --> 0:41:02.359 you know, the first part of the quote is, I'm 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:05.040 not convinced the special wasn't ultimately written and directed by 0:41:05.120 --> 0:41:09.160 a sentient bag of cocaine. And like, go read his 0:41:09.640 --> 0:41:12.600 review of the Star Wars Holiday Special, because he goes 0:41:12.640 --> 0:41:14.880 on to describe exactly what that must have been like 0:41:15.440 --> 0:41:17.920 development meeting where the bag of cocaine is pacing back 0:41:17.960 --> 0:41:21.080 and forth talking about what should happen. That's what it 0:41:21.160 --> 0:41:25.920 feels like. But it doesn't, and it ends even more. 0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:28.880 It takes this bizarre two hours and wraps it up 0:41:28.880 --> 0:41:31.760 in just a nice bizarre bow. Yeah, so what happens 0:41:31.880 --> 0:41:37.320 is eventually Han Solo should we say spoiler alert. Eventually 0:41:37.400 --> 0:41:39.279 Han Solo and Chewy make it to the planet. They 0:41:39.320 --> 0:41:41.960 park on the far side of the planet because they 0:41:42.000 --> 0:41:45.879 know the Imperial forces are there and the exercise will 0:41:45.920 --> 0:41:48.799 do Chewy good. Yeah, so they have to hike over there. 0:41:48.800 --> 0:41:51.479 They eventually make it back home. They find a storm 0:41:51.600 --> 0:41:57.160 the stormtroopers at their house, their tree hut. Yeah, which 0:41:57.200 --> 0:42:00.239 way by the paintings that set this up, I don't 0:42:00.239 --> 0:42:03.120 think we mentioned I don't even call him Matt paintings. 0:42:03.320 --> 0:42:05.960 It looks like someone painted something on the wall and 0:42:06.040 --> 0:42:07.480 they just like put a camera in front of it. 0:42:07.520 --> 0:42:12.480 Pretty much. Yeah. So they get back and Chewbacca, Han 0:42:12.560 --> 0:42:14.839 Solo hides around the corner of Chebacca steps in front 0:42:14.840 --> 0:42:17.919 of his son to protect him. Han Solo jumps out 0:42:18.719 --> 0:42:23.640 and the stormtrooper trips over a pile of logs and 0:42:23.760 --> 0:42:26.720 falls over the balcony. And dies in a holiday special, 0:42:26.760 --> 0:42:28.920 So they wouldn't even not only could he not shoot 0:42:29.000 --> 0:42:33.640 first with Grido, but they couldn't even have him like 0:42:33.760 --> 0:42:36.560 wrestle the stormtrooper and throw him off. He trips over 0:42:36.640 --> 0:42:40.239 a log, right and Han Solo has his hands thrown 0:42:40.320 --> 0:42:42.160 up like wasn't me? It might as well been a 0:42:42.239 --> 0:42:48.040 banana peel, you know. But again, this is basically produced 0:42:48.080 --> 0:42:52.000 by Vaudevillians starring vaudevillians. Why not have the one death 0:42:52.080 --> 0:42:55.080 take place from basically what it mounts to somebody slipping 0:42:55.120 --> 0:42:57.760 on a banana peel? Exactly, It's a it's a perfect 0:42:57.840 --> 0:43:01.840 way to end it. So that's that guy basically represents 0:43:01.880 --> 0:43:04.040 the end of the Imperial threat for the rest of 0:43:04.160 --> 0:43:09.600 Life Day. Yeah. And we then see Life Day being celebrated, 0:43:09.680 --> 0:43:14.320 which is celebrated by lots of wookies assembling in what 0:43:14.600 --> 0:43:18.920 looks like a giant Olan Mills portrait. Yea, and all 0:43:18.960 --> 0:43:23.680 of them are wearing red robes sor and I know 0:43:23.760 --> 0:43:26.160 I'm up talking, and it's because my mind is still 0:43:26.320 --> 0:43:30.839 having trouble like wrapping around us. And then Princess Leia 0:43:30.960 --> 0:43:34.879 comes out with C three po is Mark Hamill. There 0:43:35.160 --> 0:43:37.160 the whole gang Zerifi. Okay, the whole gangs there, and 0:43:37.280 --> 0:43:40.680 then they all gather around to hear a great quote 0:43:41.080 --> 0:43:46.520 from Princess Leia, which we will read verbatim. This holiday 0:43:46.640 --> 0:43:49.520 is yours, but we all share with you the hope 0:43:49.840 --> 0:43:52.320 that this day brings us closer to freedom, into harmony, 0:43:52.640 --> 0:43:55.839 and to peace. No matter how different we appear, we're 0:43:55.960 --> 0:43:57.960 all the same in our struggle against the powers of 0:43:58.040 --> 0:44:00.840 evil and darkness. I hope that this day will always 0:44:00.920 --> 0:44:03.839 be a day of joy in which we can reconfirm 0:44:03.920 --> 0:44:06.919 our dedication and our courage, and, more than anything else, 0:44:07.000 --> 0:44:09.680 our love for one another. This is the promise of 0:44:09.760 --> 0:44:13.160 the Tree of Life que song, right, And we should 0:44:13.200 --> 0:44:15.520 also point out the tree of Life has never been 0:44:15.560 --> 0:44:17.960 mentioned up to this point, no idea what this takes 0:44:18.000 --> 0:44:20.319 a sudden appearance at the end. And when you said 0:44:20.440 --> 0:44:25.399 Q song, by Q song, you mean Princess Leia starts singing. Yeah. 0:44:25.520 --> 0:44:28.759 And apparently that was one of the big contingencies on 0:44:28.920 --> 0:44:31.680 Carrie Fischer being involved. Yeah, she's going through a phase 0:44:31.719 --> 0:44:33.880 where she's like, I kind of like singing. Bruce Valancie 0:44:33.880 --> 0:44:36.680 calls it her Joni Mitchell period. Yeah, And she somehow 0:44:36.760 --> 0:44:39.960 convinced them to let her sing as Princess Leiah and 0:44:40.160 --> 0:44:43.600 she does. And again I've said that she looks like 0:44:43.719 --> 0:44:45.799 she's on drugs. This is the point where she really 0:44:45.840 --> 0:44:47.520 does look like she's on drugs. And it's not just 0:44:47.680 --> 0:44:52.640 me other writers who've written reviews of this. It's really 0:44:52.719 --> 0:44:57.239 obvious that she possibly smoked a decent amount of pot 0:44:57.320 --> 0:45:02.080 before she shot this, shot this, but she sings, Oh, okay, 0:45:02.400 --> 0:45:07.120 it's fine. It's just the fact that Princess leigh is singing. 0:45:07.400 --> 0:45:09.879 And actually, Bruce Valanche had a really great quote too. 0:45:10.280 --> 0:45:13.279 He says that she very much wanted to show this 0:45:13.400 --> 0:45:16.280 side of her talent, and there was general dismay because 0:45:16.360 --> 0:45:19.439 this was not what we wanted Princess Leia to be doing. Yeah, 0:45:19.680 --> 0:45:22.160 she did it anyway. So the whole thing ends with 0:45:22.280 --> 0:45:25.279 her singing this song about life day, which is set 0:45:26.280 --> 0:45:31.840 loosely to the John Williams Star Wars theme. Yeah. So 0:45:31.960 --> 0:45:35.240 along the way, the director original director quit, A new director, 0:45:35.320 --> 0:45:37.719 Steve Binder, was hired to finish the job and bring 0:45:37.800 --> 0:45:41.399 it in, and he did over the original one million 0:45:41.440 --> 0:45:44.880 dollar budget. Of course, always he did bring it in 0:45:45.200 --> 0:45:50.480 and at this point George Lucas said he was he 0:45:50.600 --> 0:45:52.440 was working on Empire Strikes Back. He didn't know what 0:45:52.600 --> 0:45:54.960 was going on. He wasn't around for the shoot. No, 0:45:55.160 --> 0:45:57.200 it wasn't until it aired. I think that he actually 0:45:57.280 --> 0:46:00.960 saw it. Yes, and it was a travesty, obviously, if 0:46:01.000 --> 0:46:04.600 you haven't noticed that by now. Critics hated it. Star 0:46:04.640 --> 0:46:07.680 Wars fans really hated it. Everybody hate The people who 0:46:07.719 --> 0:46:10.800 were in it hated it. Lucas hated it. Even Harvey 0:46:10.880 --> 0:46:13.719 Corman secretly hated it. Yeah, even Harvey Keitel hated it. 0:46:14.680 --> 0:46:18.560 Actually he loved it. But Lucas has been asked over 0:46:18.600 --> 0:46:20.319 the years about it a lot, and he doesn't talk 0:46:20.360 --> 0:46:23.080 about it much. But in two thousand and five, and 0:46:23.160 --> 0:46:25.960 I don't buy this for a second, he says it 0:46:26.120 --> 0:46:29.080 was an interview he said special from nineteen seventy eight. 0:46:29.600 --> 0:46:31.600 I really didn't have much to do with us. You 0:46:31.680 --> 0:46:34.280 know that part is true. I can't remember what network 0:46:34.360 --> 0:46:36.480 it was even on, but it was a thing that 0:46:36.520 --> 0:46:39.160 they did. That's a lie. There's no way he doesn't know. 0:46:39.239 --> 0:46:42.239 That was CBS. Yeah, we kind of just let them 0:46:42.320 --> 0:46:44.640 do it. I believe that it was done by I 0:46:44.719 --> 0:46:46.799 can't even remember who the group was, but they were 0:46:46.920 --> 0:46:49.799 Variety TV guys. I'm sure he remembers a few of them. 0:46:50.719 --> 0:46:52.400 We let them use the characters and stuff, and that 0:46:52.440 --> 0:46:54.640 probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you learn 0:46:54.719 --> 0:46:58.040 from those experiences. Yeah, I think they even use some 0:46:58.160 --> 0:47:01.840 of the footage from the movie. At the end. It 0:47:01.920 --> 0:47:04.359 looks like some of the space like a highlight reel. Yeah, 0:47:04.960 --> 0:47:08.320 the gang. Well, and during the um it looked like 0:47:08.400 --> 0:47:10.600 some of the they had some insert shots of like 0:47:11.000 --> 0:47:14.160 Imperial cruisers and Taie fighters and stuff that. Yeah, and 0:47:14.840 --> 0:47:17.960 remember when when Chewbacca like leans back and puts his 0:47:18.040 --> 0:47:20.560 hands behind it, Yeah, that's in there. It's it's like 0:47:20.680 --> 0:47:22.839 a it's just a highlight reel from the movie. Saying 0:47:22.920 --> 0:47:25.000 like I feel like this, go see the movie. Well, 0:47:25.000 --> 0:47:27.560 and also that means it doesn't match the look of 0:47:27.600 --> 0:47:29.319 the rest of it at all. Yeah, that's true. It's 0:47:29.320 --> 0:47:33.320 just sort of inserted. They tried, They definitely tried. And 0:47:33.400 --> 0:47:35.840 George Lucas is totally full of it, because in nineteen 0:47:35.920 --> 0:47:39.400 eighty seven he told Starlog magazine that the Christmas Special 0:47:39.480 --> 0:47:42.759 would be out on video cassette very soon. Yes, And 0:47:43.080 --> 0:47:45.359 in two thousand and seven, two years after that quote, 0:47:45.400 --> 0:47:46.759 you just read where he's like, I don't even know 0:47:46.760 --> 0:47:52.000 what you're talking about. Basically, he apparently considered releasing the 0:47:52.080 --> 0:47:55.880 Christmas Special as a bonus on the DVDs of the 0:47:56.000 --> 0:48:00.560 first three right, but did not did and apparently Carrie 0:48:00.600 --> 0:48:02.640 Fisher told Lucas that if you want me to do 0:48:03.719 --> 0:48:07.879 DVD extras commentary, yeah, commentary, then I want a clean 0:48:07.960 --> 0:48:12.000 original copy of the Holiday Special? Yes, so why go 0:48:12.200 --> 0:48:14.319 ahead so I can play at parties when I want 0:48:14.360 --> 0:48:19.480 people to leave. It's pretty great, it is so, and 0:48:19.640 --> 0:48:22.280 there is one of those clean copies is floating around 0:48:22.320 --> 0:48:25.000 out there, so you can watch this in its entirety. 0:48:25.239 --> 0:48:28.520 Some of it, like the cartoon, was removed due to 0:48:28.600 --> 0:48:32.000 copyright infringement and that kind of stuff, but as as 0:48:32.120 --> 0:48:33.640 the case with the rest of the Internet, you can 0:48:33.680 --> 0:48:36.239 just go find it elsewhere and piece it together. There's 0:48:36.280 --> 0:48:41.160 also the original ads that aired in Baltimore. Yeah, that 0:48:41.280 --> 0:48:44.960 are just fascinating. Yeah, those are always fun gm ads 0:48:45.400 --> 0:48:47.800 where one of the guys who's in quality control is 0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:50.520 he says, did you watch it? I don't think I 0:48:50.560 --> 0:48:53.040 saw that. He goes, um, we really care about these 0:48:53.120 --> 0:48:56.600 cars and that's no job, man, I'm a gm ad 0:48:56.640 --> 0:48:59.319 and he's like, that's serious. They're trying to be hip. Yeah, 0:49:00.120 --> 0:49:04.320 it's pretty good stuff. Here's my final thought on it. 0:49:05.239 --> 0:49:07.839 I love it. It does not taint my Star Wars 0:49:07.960 --> 0:49:11.200 experience or my love for the franchise. And I'm glad 0:49:11.320 --> 0:49:15.000 it is out there because it's a it's a fun 0:49:15.120 --> 0:49:20.839 little stain that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I think 0:49:20.880 --> 0:49:24.560 it adds to it actually, because it's campy and awful. Yeah, 0:49:24.760 --> 0:49:27.360 and I don't know somehow that enriches the rest of it. 0:49:28.200 --> 0:49:30.839 I'm with you, you like it? Oh yeah, I mean 0:49:30.920 --> 0:49:32.799 I watched it twice. I wouldn't watched it a second 0:49:32.800 --> 0:49:35.359 I wouldn't have made it through the first time. Let 0:49:35.400 --> 0:49:37.600 me take that back, as I'm a pro. Yeah, so 0:49:37.640 --> 0:49:38.920 I would have made it through the first time. I 0:49:38.960 --> 0:49:40.839 wouldn't have watched it a second time if I wasn't. 0:49:41.120 --> 0:49:43.200 There wasn't something about it, and I figured out. I 0:49:43.239 --> 0:49:44.759 think the thing that I liked the most about it 0:49:45.160 --> 0:49:50.120 is Lumpy Chewbacca's son, played by an actress named Patty Maloney, 0:49:50.560 --> 0:49:53.920 who frankly is hands down the best actor in the 0:49:54.200 --> 0:49:59.160 entire thing. She like her responses and everything. It's just awesome. 0:49:59.400 --> 0:50:03.000 I think my favorite parts are well there's a great 0:50:03.080 --> 0:50:07.200 Wilhelm scream yes, trips over the law. Jerry would not 0:50:07.280 --> 0:50:10.640 have noticed it. Uh. And then there's a part where 0:50:11.280 --> 0:50:13.920 all the Wookie dialogue you can't understand, but there's clearly 0:50:14.000 --> 0:50:17.120 one part where where Itchy and Lumpy are have any 0:50:17.200 --> 0:50:20.880 exchange where Lumpy you can make it out, goes I 0:50:21.040 --> 0:50:24.000 love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I noticed that, but it's 0:50:24.040 --> 0:50:26.480 covered up. But someone was like, we have to have 0:50:26.560 --> 0:50:28.520 at least one exchange where you sort of know what 0:50:28.560 --> 0:50:31.200 they're saying, or they were like, I think she just 0:50:31.239 --> 0:50:33.160 said I love you. Should we have them redo it? 0:50:33.239 --> 0:50:36.759 And then director's like, no, I want to go and chuck. 0:50:36.800 --> 0:50:38.680 There's one other thing that I figured out from watching this. 0:50:38.880 --> 0:50:42.200 What's that it's not readily apparent the whole thing is 0:50:42.239 --> 0:50:45.480 made all the more odd, and that there's situation after 0:50:45.600 --> 0:50:50.240 situation after situation where we, as normal audiences, were trained 0:50:50.280 --> 0:50:53.240 to expect the laugh track, but there's not a laugh track. 0:50:53.800 --> 0:50:56.759 Had there been a laugh track, yeah, it it might 0:50:56.840 --> 0:51:01.160 have been less bizarre. Yeah, but the fact that it's 0:51:01.239 --> 0:51:04.359 missing just makes your It agitates the mind. So it's 0:51:04.400 --> 0:51:06.960 this whole additional element that it is weird. I never 0:51:07.040 --> 0:51:09.279 thought about that there's just weird moments of silence all 0:51:09.280 --> 0:51:11.960 throughout it. Yeah, like when Art Carney's doing his thing, Yeah, 0:51:12.200 --> 0:51:16.040 telling jokes. Yeah, okay, I agree with you, Chuck. Don't 0:51:16.080 --> 0:51:18.320 take things too seriously. I think that's the great lesson 0:51:18.400 --> 0:51:20.479 in this. Yeah, and then it's the lesson of life 0:51:20.560 --> 0:51:23.560 day it is. And in two thousand and seven, Riff 0:51:23.600 --> 0:51:27.720 tracks The Great Mystery Science Theater. Three thousand guys. Mike Nelson, 0:51:27.760 --> 0:51:32.239 Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy provided audio commentary for the 0:51:32.280 --> 0:51:35.520 full version of the special. So try and go grab 0:51:35.640 --> 0:51:37.080 that if you can as well. Oh you can, it's 0:51:37.080 --> 0:51:38.560 on their site because it's great. I think it's like 0:51:38.640 --> 0:51:41.440 eight bucks. And those guys are awesome. And yeah, at 0:51:41.520 --> 0:51:45.920 least I think Corbett listens to us. So, hey, Corbett, 0:51:47.880 --> 0:51:51.880 you got anything else? No, No, I think we did this. 0:51:52.600 --> 0:51:55.040 There's some good stuff. Go read the Vanity Fair article 0:51:55.480 --> 0:51:58.359 a Han Solo comedy hour. There's a book called How 0:51:58.440 --> 0:52:01.080 Star Wars Conquered the Universe has a very interesting chapter 0:52:01.120 --> 0:52:03.360 about this. That's where we found it. Asserted that George 0:52:03.400 --> 0:52:05.440 Lucas never said that he would smash this thing with 0:52:05.520 --> 0:52:09.600 a sledgehammer, right, And there's also an entire website dedicated 0:52:09.640 --> 0:52:12.440 to a Star Wars holiday special dot com. Yeah, and 0:52:12.840 --> 0:52:14.960 if you want to know more about the Star Wars 0:52:15.040 --> 0:52:18.280 holiday special, we have a ton of Star Wars stuff 0:52:18.280 --> 0:52:20.439 on how Stuff Works by the way, Yeah, we have cool, 0:52:21.040 --> 0:52:23.759 sort of fun articles about the Death Star and Lightsabers 0:52:23.920 --> 0:52:27.879 videos with Holly Fry from Stuff you missed in history class. Yeah, 0:52:27.880 --> 0:52:30.960 who she knows her stuff. She does. So you can 0:52:31.000 --> 0:52:33.120 just type star Wars in the search bar how stuff 0:52:33.120 --> 0:52:34.680 works dot com and it will bring up some cool 0:52:34.719 --> 0:52:37.160 stuff for you. Since I said search bar's time for 0:52:37.280 --> 0:52:42.560 listener mail. Hey guys, just finished listening to the Voytage 0:52:42.600 --> 0:52:46.000 Manuscript podcast. Found it's super interesting, especially the theories on 0:52:46.040 --> 0:52:49.000 its definition or origin. I know, Josh Menchin Chuck Siri, 0:52:49.120 --> 0:52:52.080 but being drug induced a somewhat surprising or even unlikely 0:52:52.120 --> 0:52:56.439 given the language in the manuscript follows linguistic laws only 0:52:56.480 --> 0:52:58.279 founded in the past one hundred years. But if you 0:52:58.440 --> 0:53:01.480 think about it, it's a tough. It's tough to stray 0:53:01.600 --> 0:53:05.640 away from familiar structures, especially for something like language. I 0:53:05.719 --> 0:53:07.560 think back to when I was younger and friends invented 0:53:07.560 --> 0:53:10.760 their own languages, or even in writing a song or poetry. 0:53:10.800 --> 0:53:14.400 Creativity can sometimes be limited by what we know, so 0:53:14.600 --> 0:53:17.640 just thought I contribute that to the conversation. Nice. Thanks big, 0:53:17.680 --> 0:53:19.240 thanks for all you guys do. I found the podcast 0:53:19.320 --> 0:53:22.160 after moving to San Diego in the last few years 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:26.440 for some noise around my apartment, so basically we were 0:53:26.760 --> 0:53:30.600 blocking out noise if we do that, jo love and 0:53:30.640 --> 0:53:32.080 then as a way to get through traffic on my 0:53:32.160 --> 0:53:34.480 commutet home from work. You guys are far more interesting 0:53:34.520 --> 0:53:37.600 and enjoyable than television and YouTube videos. Sure, I've listened 0:53:37.600 --> 0:53:39.600 to hundreds and we'll continue to listen to hundreds more. 0:53:40.000 --> 0:53:43.400 Keep on Keeping on. That is from Amy Jay Moffatt. 0:53:43.560 --> 0:53:46.359 Thanks a lot, Amy in San Diego. Does that mean 0:53:46.400 --> 0:53:52.160 like place of the whales in German or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. 0:53:53.000 --> 0:53:54.320 If you want to get in touch with this, you 0:53:54.400 --> 0:53:56.920 can tweet to us at sysk podcast. 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