these weren't the droids I was looking for

"If I had time and a hammer, I'd track down every bootleg copy and smash it..."
George Lucas.

Yep, I can see why. Bloody awful. I had heard this was bad, and seen snippets, but nothing had prepared me for just exactly how appalling (and long - it seems to go on for ever) this 1978 TV Holiday Special is.

Chewbacca runs the gauntlet of an Imperial Guard trap to rush home to his family on the planet something-or-other to celebrate 'Life Day'. Sadly I never got to watch the big climax (if there was one), or even see Carrie Fisher sing - we didn't even make it half way through this bum-numbing, legend-sullying franchise spin-off. My son was lent this by a school chum about a month ago, but it was returned this morning, only half-watched. Pretty early on the novelty and kitsch-ness wears thin, the guffaws and sniggers at Chewwie's 'family' turn to gasps of disbelief (songs! dance routines! Jefferson Starship!) and then yawns. It's 2 hours long! Jeez, this is BAD.

Seems that following the first Star Wars film, George Lucas sold the rights to a TV company to do a one off 'Holiday Special' (with all the original cast) and has spent the next 30+ years trying to pretend it never happened. I can understand why. Even the prequel-sequels weren't this bad. Happy to return it to it's owner, I though can't imagine he wanted it back to watch it again!