Holiday
Special > News > 2005
December 18, 2005
The
next best thing to being there
Just added to the site: two diary entries from Heather Semmens,
as written at age 12 in 1979 and 1980, from two separate nights
the Holiday Special aired in South Australia. This is a unique
artifact, and many thanks to Heather for sharing it with us.
Check the Memories section under Feedback
for full details and scans of the entries.
December 14, 2005
Bea Arthur on the Holiday Special: in her own words
Head on over to the Quotes in our Text
section to read a new entry from Bea Arthur commenting on her
experience working on The Star Wars Holiday Special, as seen in
The Portland Mercury's October 13-19, 2005 issue.
December 11, 2005
The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments: #59 clip now online
We've now added a 1 minute 32 second clip from TV Land's "The
100 Most Unexpected TV Moments" (see News mention below),
featuring the Holiday Special at #59. Check it out in our Multimedia
section.
December 10, 2005
Richard Pryor dies at 65
Well-known
comedian Richard Pryor died of a heart attack today at the age
of 65. Although this news is not directly related to the Holiday
Special, it does have a certain connection: the first episode
of the short-lived "The Richard Pryor Show" (broadcast
September 13, 1977) featured a segment called "Star Wars
Bar", where Pryor played the bartender of a standard hole-in-the-wall
bar with one unusual difference: this bar's regulars were the
creatures from the Star Wars cantina... the same ones featured
almost a year later in The Star Wars Holiday Special.
There
was a lot of similarity between this scene and the cantina scene
in the Holiday Special, as both Richard Pryor and Bea Arthur (as
Ackmena) tended their respective bars and made wisecracks at the
expense of their odd-looking patrons. In the wacky world of Star
Wars appearances on 70s television, both the Holiday Special and
the "Star Wars Bar" skit stand out as a bizarre and
funny product of their times.
So long, Mr. Pryor. Thanks for the laughs...
December 8, 2005
Sally Forth's family holiday tradition
You never know when the Holiday Special will suddenly pop up.
Take, for instance, the December 3rd Sally Forth comic strip as
seen at the Seattle Times website here
(choose December 3rd for the date from the drop-down menu).
Thanks to Garrett Gilchrist for pointing this one out.
December 5, 2005
The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments
Tonight, December 5th, and continuing through December 9th, TV
Land will air "The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments".
Guess which show got #59? That's right, the infamous Holiday Special
will receive its mention on Wednesday night the 7th--sadly, only
photos and no actual footage will air for this one. Check the
TV Land website for more details and broadcast info here.
UPDATE: You can now download a clip featuring the segment
about The Star Wars Holiday Special in our Multimedia
section.
November 17, 2005
Happy 27th Anniversary of The Star Wars Holiday Special
Yes,
it's been 27 years now since the Special aired, and also 2 years
since this site opened for the 25th anniversary. I imagine we'll
have to plan something special for the 30th...
And in honor of the 27th anniversary, custom figure maker Paul
Hruby (aka Master Phruby) has created what is certain to be a
first: a custom figure of The Great Zorbak from Lumpy's holographic
circus table (see photo). Check out more details in the Fan Creations
section under Feedback.
August 18, 2005
Fett cartoon clip shown at Comic-Con, featured in Hyperspace
video
One of the recent additions to Hyperspace, the paid membership
section on Starwars.com,
was the video clip "Animation Sizzle", which was shown
at Comic-Con International 2005 in San Diego. The clip is a run-down
of all the Star Wars animation projects over the years, and naturally
it starts out with a segment from the 1978 animated Boba Fett
cartoon used in the Holiday Special. This is one of the few occasions
when a part of the Holiday Special has been shown officially.
Previously a clip from the cartoon appeared in the Episode II
webdoc "Bucket Head", which was later included on the
Episode II DVD.
June 3, 2005
Fighting the Frizzies
At eleven.
May 30, 2005
New article on the Holiday Special at TVparty.com
A very interesting and informative article is up at the TVparty!
website. Written by L. Wayne Hicks, the article also features
an interview with and link to us. The interview was originally
conducted for a piece in the Denver Business Journal. Direct link
to the article is here.
Holiday Special cartoon online at Kensforce
Over at the Kensforce
movie website, they are hosting the cartoon from the Holiday Special
(aka "The Faithful Wookiee"), which is the Nelvana-produced
short featuring all the voices of the original cast. It is also
the first appearance of Boba Fett. You can go directly to view
the cartoon here.
May 13, 2005
The Joplin Globe interviews us on the Holiday Special
The Joplin Globe (Joplin, MO) newspaper has done a story on the
Holiday Special living on through illicit copies in the hands
of fans, featuring our own SKot Kirkwood being interviewed. Check
the online version out here.
Also, look for a similar article and interview soon in the Denver
Business Journal.
Forbes calls Holiday Special one of the 'Worst Star Wars Flops'
In their recent 'Star
Flops' article, Forbes.com unsurprisingly put the Holiday
Special first on the list of biggest Star Wars disasters of all
time. Along with the slightly inaccurate article (they should
have consulted us first!), you can watch a very short clip of
the Special with Leia singing.
May 11, 2005
New exclusive Tom Burman interview
We have just added a new Interviews
section to the site in the Text area. Starting
this off is an exclusive interview with Tom Burman, who worked
with Stan Winston on make-up effects, specifically the Wookiee
family. Tom had a number of interesting insights to share, so
check out the interview here.
Also, look for future interviews with more of the original cast
and crew from the show.
And in other news, we were interviewed recently for both The
Joplin Globe (Joplin, MO) and the Denver Business Journal (Denver,
CO) about the Holiday Special, for upcoming articles corresponding
with the release of Revenge of the Sith. Keep an eye out for those
if you're in the area.
May 7, 2005
Celebration 3 was a blast! Despite the usual drawbacks with lines
and organization, the fun was there if you made up your mind to
just have fun. Of course, we were there with eyes and ears open
for anything Holiday Special related. Here's what we brought back:
Don Bies confirms Holiday Special props in Lucasfilm archive
During a little chat at Celebration 3 with former Lucasfilm archive
curator Don Bies, we were able to confirm the existence of all
the props from the Holiday Special that made it into the Lucasfilm
archives. Don tells us the following items have survived through
the years and reside at the Ranch:
- Itchy's suit & mask
- Lumpy's suit & mask
- Malla's suit (unfortunately, the mask is missing)
- two "wood carved" X-Wing models
- the yellow control panel where Lumpy watches the cartoon
And that, sadly, is all there is besides the things that were
reused from Star Wars. Any other items from the Holiday Special
set are either in private collections or were discarded long ago.
Many thanks to Don, one of the nicest guys we've ever met.
April 17, 2005
Well, we are only a few days away from the biggest Star Wars
celebration yet... Star
Wars Celebration 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 21-24.
We will definitely be there absorbing the fun and atmosphere.
And along with this comes is a piece of news...
Boba Fett cartoon to be shown at Celebration 3
Those
of you attending Star Wars Celebration 3 will not want to miss
the showing of the Boba Fett cartoon from the Holiday Special
in the Star Wars in Pop Culture theater, Room 205 at the
convention. The showings will repeat throughout the day. Here's
the viewing schedule:
Star Wars in Pop Culture
Continuous footage of Star Wars in popular media
Room 205
Thurs. 12:00 noon -- 12:00 Midnight
Fri. & Sat. 9:00 AM -- 12:00 Midnight
Sun. -- 9:00 AM -- 4:00 PM
Holiday Special article in Film Review magazine
Star Wars Special Issue #56 of UK magazine Film
Review has an article on the Holiday Special as the "lost
episode" of Star Wars. The 5-page article has some big color
photos and a review of just why the Special was forgotten.
February 18, 2005
We are overdue for some updates here, so without further ado...
New Holiday Special article in German Star Wars magazine
The
official German Star Wars magazine #36 has a new article all about
the Holiday Special, tying it in with the cover feature on Kashyyyk
and the Wookiees of Episode III. This article, written by our
friend and correspondent Marco Frömter, is a fantastic follow-up
to his earlier overview article on the Special from issue #24
- this time featuring an exclusive (and first ever for Star Wars!)
interview with Patty Maloney, who played Lumpy, and a lot of behind-the-scenes
information. The rest of the non-German-speaking world is definitely
missing out on some great content and photos with this issue.
At a later date we hope to produce an English translation of the
interview that can be posted here, and Patty has promised us our
own interview as well, so keep an eye out.
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