This past Monday was a very special anniversary for Star Wars fans. Thirty years ago saw the release of the Star Wars Holiday Special.

What? You’ve never heard of it? Back in the 70’s, if you were famous, you were required by law to do something involving a variety show. Star Wars was not exempt. Yes, a year earlier, Star Wars was featured on Donny and Marie Osmand’s show complete with dancing storm troopers and.. well, maybe it’s best if you see for yourself. Yes, that really is Kris Kristofferson playing Han Solo.

You’d think that Star Wars paid its dues with Donny & Marie, but no. Star Wars wouldn’t truly be allowed to exist in the world of the 70’s without a variety show of its own.

Thus they brought us: the Star Wars Holiday Special! It starred Harrison Ford, Mark Hammill, Carrie Fisher, the voice of James Earl Jones and Anthony Daniels. But what variety show would be complete without a star-studded 1970’s cast? Oh yes! Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, Art Carney and Jefferson Starship are all on board to help Chewbacca get back to his home planet of Kashyyyk so they can all celebrate Life Day together.

Seriously. They spend two freaking hours on this. George Lucas was very serious about his 1970’s street cred (though he denies it to this day).

This aired on November 17, 1978 and was pretty much panned across the board. Yeah, it’s hard to believe, but nobody liked it.

I got my copy five or six years ago. It’s a bootleg, of course, since Lucas never released it. I guess I don’t blame him for that, it’s pretty bad. No, not Episode One bad… but close.¹

And even though I tried many many times, I could not make it all the way through it.² That is, until I finally bought the Rifftrax version of this infamous special.

Remember Mystery Science Theater 3000? Some folks who used to do that show have started another venture called Rifftrax. They record “audio commentaries” to popular movies (mostly). You play their MP3 while watching the movie in question and it’s just like the old days! I’m a pretty big fan.

For them to record a Rifftrax for a movie that is only available via bootlegs is gutsy and fun. Thankfully for the entire world, the original Star Wars Holiday Special is up on Google Video. This is the version you want to use for Rifftrax (you can watch a clip from it there – and you should).

I just watched a few minutes of it and you know… this is pretty funny. Way to go, guys! What’s fun is that you can tell they’re fans (for example, when Han Solo was introduced they said, “And I shot FIRST, ok?!”).

So Happy Lifeday, everybody! And happy 30th anniversary to the Star Wars Holiday Special! You deserve it!

1. It’s about as bad as Episode II. [↩]
2. Ok, I tried twice. [↩]