Star Wars Holiday Special

The Star Wars Holiday Special is an American television special originally broadcast by CBS on November 17, 1978. It was commissioned in order to keep attention on Star Wars until the release of The Empire Strikes Back two years later. It is notorious for its poor quality, featuring incoherent storylines, musical segments, character directions, and strange events. It stars most of the original cast of Star Wars, returning the characters of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca, as well as the droids C-3PO and R2-D2.

The special focuses on the family of Chewbacca preparing for Life Day, while awaiting Chewbacca's long-due arrival home. However, a blockade set up by the Galactic Empire troubles Han Solo's plans of bringing Chewbacca home to his family. On Chewbacca's home planet, Kashyyyk, a local merchant does business with the wookie family, gifting them various novelties. In an attempt to locate Chewbacca, an Imperial officer and Stormtroopers raid the residence. However, Han and Chewbacca arrive to dispose of them, and Chewbacca reunites with his family for the holiday.

One of the segments of the special featured Chewbacca's father Itchy watching a pornographic video through a virtual reality headset. It was criticised for its inclusion in an advertised "family-friendly" television special.

The cartoon segment of the special is more considerably well-received, as it debuted Boba Fett on-screen for the first time. It was praised for its unique animation style, characters, and overall plot. Boba Fett would go on to feature in The Empire Strikes Back as well as Return of the Jedi, quickly becoming a favourite character amongst the fanbase.

Due to its extremely poor reception, the Star Wars Holiday Special was never rebroadcast nor released on home video, save for the cartoon segment. It is viewable today from various sources on content-sharing websites and bootleg media.