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The Star Wars Holiday Special 1978

With all the buzz about the new film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which continues to break box-office records, one is bound to think back to another holiday season affected by the Star Wars franchise. After the successful release of the original Star Wars film in 1977, the following November gave television viewers The Star Wars Holiday Special.

The Special

CBS broadcast the 97-minute television show on Friday, November 17, 1978 at 8:00-10:00 p.m. The Star Wars Holiday Special centered around Chewbacca and his family celebrating Life Day, a holiday that happens to be a lot like Christmas.

The musical-variety show featured many of the characters from Star Wars, even though many of the stars did not really want to be involved in the show. As Harrison Ford explained during a 2011 press tour: “It was in my contract. There was no known way to get out of it.” In the special, the movie stars were helped out by TV stars of the era like Bea Arthur, Diahann Carroll, Art Carney, and Harvey Korman.

The Star Wars Holiday Special included an animated segment that is notable for showing Luke, Han, and Leia having their first encounter with bounty hunter Boba Fett. The bounty hunter, of course, would later appear in The Empire Strikes Back.

Below is the special.

Reception

Fans of the movie had high expectations for anything related to Star Wars. So, they were disappointed with the Star Wars Holiday Special, including its low budget and its motivation to sell toys to kids. The special became pretty much universally reviled by everyone including George Lucas.

Still, through the years, some fans have grown more fond of the show for its kitschy and nostalgic appeal. There is an entire website devoted to the TV show. And Mental Floss recently posted “An Oral History of The Star Wars Holiday Special.”

Below is a 15-minute “best of” compilation from the special.

If you still want more, you may watch the entirety of The Star Wars Holiday Special on YouTube. May the Force be with you through this holiday season.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Paul McCartney Joins Springsteen for “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”

SNL Springsteen
After it was announced that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would appear on NBC’s Saturday Night Live during the week of Christmas, it was a safe bet to predict that the band would be busting out its Christmas classic “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.” But who would have known that they would be joined onstage by Paul McCartney?

After performing “Meet Me in the City” and “The Ties That Bind” earlier in the evening to promote the new box-set release of The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, Springsteen and the E Street Band appeared at the end of the show for the goodbyes from the show’s hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Then, the whole cast danced while Springsteen sang “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” capturing the joy of what Christmas music should be, with a little help from Paul McCartney.

Although McCartney stays in the background on the singing, it is great to see two rock legends on stage together having fun. Check it out.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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The Kinks: Ray and Dave Davies Reunite

You Really Got Me

One of the most famous feuding brothers in rock history are the brilliant musicians Ray Davies and Dave Davies of the Kinks. The band disbanded in 1996, and its been nearly twenty years since the brothers performed onstage together. But that all ended on December 18 during Dave Davies’ concert at Islington Assembly Hall in London.

Dave welcomed Ray onstage for the Kinks classic, “You Really Got Me.” In recent interviews, the brothers have left open an outside shot for a reunion of the Kinks. The hopeful signs may be related to a planned biopic about the Kinks directed by Julien Temple called, of course, You Really Got Me.

We will have to wait to see what the future holds for a reunion tour, but for now at least we have Friday night’s performance. Check out Ray and Dave together again performing “You Really Got Me,” with a little help from Dennis Diken The Smithereens on drums.

After the show, Dave Davies gave us additional hope with the following tweet.

We had a great night – it was a fun show – had a blast with Ray – Dave https://t.co/L3PzOdh9O6
— Dave Davies (@davedavieskinks) December 19, 2015

What song would you most like to hear again from the Kinks? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Laugh of the Day: Shining Trailer Parody

Shining Comedy

If you ever wondered how Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining might work as a comedy, look no further than this parody movie trailer. Posted awhile ago on YouTube by jlgpyv1, the trailer of the film starring Jack Nicholson never fails to make me laugh.

Among other things, the lead up and then the start of Peter Gabriel’s oft-used “Solsbury Hill” is genius. Check out the trailer for the light comedy, Shining, a movie about a boy who wants to spend more time with his dad.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Weird Al Summarizes “The Phantom Menace”

If you are like me, you may be or have been re-watching all or some of the Star Wars movies to get ready for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Of course, everyone loves Star Wars (A New Hope) (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). And maybe you do not mind Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). But what if you really do not want again to watch The Phantom Menace (1999), generally considered the worse of the lot?

Fortunately, we have a solution from Weird Al Yankovic, who summarized Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in his song “The Saga Begins,” which appeared on his 1999 album Running with Scissors. Set to the tune of Don McLean’s epic “American Pie,” Yankovic’s parody song presents the story from the point of view of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“The Saga Begins” is pretty funny in the way it rhymes all of the strange Star Wars locations like Boss Nass, Coruscant, Naboo, and Tatooine. More surprisingly, Yankovic does a really excellent job of covering the plot points. And of course there is that memorable “American Pie” tune that just makes us want to sing along.

Oh my my, this here Anakin guy,
Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry;
He left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye,
Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi, soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”

Weird Al also made a cool video to go with the song. Maybe you do not want to watch The Phantom Menace because there is too much Jar Jar Binks or because that kid’s pod race goes on way too long. Maybe you just think the movie is irrelevant to the series or that the film is a “failure on every possible level.” Or maybe you loved the move. Either way, you probably will enjoy Weird Al Yankovic’s “The Saga Begins.”