9 Reasons You Should Watch “The Star Wars Holiday Special”

"If I had the time and a hammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." George Lucas’s comment about 1978’s The Star Wars Holiday Special might be apocryphal, but the sentiment surely isn’t. Nothing, not even Jar-Jar Binks, is as embarrassing to Lucas as the holiday-inspired TV special that aired only once in its entirety on U.S. screens. It’s not just a little bit bad: it is a thing of awesome horror, a goofy, song-filled two hours born from the worst excesses of stunt-filled late-1970s television. There are moments you will never be able to unsee, no matter how hard you try. Yet it’s these moments that make the show so amazing, and definitely worth seeking out. Lucas’s wish for a hammer is pointless in the age of online video, so there’s nothing preventing you from reveling in the worst folly of one of the biggest filmmakers of the past 50 years.

The plot, such as it is, concerns Chewbacca’s desire to get home to see his family for "Life Day," a Wookiee holiday never mentioned before or since that probably seemed like a decent parallel with Thanksgiving or Christmas from an advertiser’s point of view. That’s pretty much it, but it’s all the excuse the show needs to offer up bizarre songs, nonsensical stories, and a general attitude of indifference from the big-in-the-’70s stars. Don’t you owe it to yourself to see the rest? Sure, it’s terrible, but how can you resist?