STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL

I've owned Star Wars Holiday Special on vhs for several years, but never got around to watching it. After having it transferred to DVD and seeing Jefferson Starship was one of the guests, I thought I'd watch it before another Christmas rolled past me. There was only one thought that kept running through my head while viewing Star Wars Holiday Special: "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LET THIS THING BE OVER".


The story revolves around Chewbacca's family, wife Malla, father Itchy, and son Lumpy who are awaiting his return so they can celebrate Life Day. The special is filled with LOTS of grunts (Wookie language) from the family. This became irritating within the first five minutes and is one of the many reasons this is such an unwatchable mess.


Star Wars Holiday Special incorporated the guest stars in a variety of ways. Diahann Caroll is created by a virtual reality machine. Art Carney is a human trader and a friend of the Chewbacca family. Harvey Korman is a cooking show host that Malla is watching on her TV. Bea Arthur runs the Mos Eisley Cantina, where Harvey Korman once again appears, this time with "the hots" for Bea. Jefferson Starship are on Malla's music video box.


The music in Star Wars Holiday Special is just as bad as the rest of the special. Diahann Carroll sings "This Minute Now" and along with her dialogue in this segment and the inclusion of Wookie-Women, this segment looked like a bad outtake from a soft core porn movie. Bea Arthur sings "Goodnight, But Not Goodbye" while being backed by The Cantina Band. Carrie Fisher sings a song celebrating Life Day to the tune of The Star Wars Theme. Jefferson Starship (featuring Marty Balin and Paul Kantner) perform "Light The Sky On Fire" in what I guess was supposed to be some type of far out groovy psychedelic segment. I'm no fan of Jefferson Starship, but this really sounded no worse than any other songs I've heard from them.


The only parts of Star Wars Holiday Special which were tolerable were the cartoon of Chewbacca's past adventures (This cartoon also introduced the Star Wars character Boba Fett) and the commercials. Neither the cartoon or the commercials, with the exception of the Kenner toy commercials, were all that entertaining, but compared to the mess which Star Wars Holiday Special was, they were a welcome relief in this otherwise dreadful special.