The Story Behind the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special

To celebrate the Christmas season and The Last Jedi landing in theaters this week, Christophe Haubursin and Mac Schneider of Vox created a video where they explain the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special and explore how it accidentally helped shape the Star Wars universe.

A long time ago in living rooms across the US, a bizarre 98-minute Star Wars-themed variety show aired on CBS to an estimated 13 million viewers. It wasn’t necessarily the first of its kind: hosts like Donny & Marie Osmond and Richard Pryor had done TV variety shows with Star Wars characters in 1977, which had helped boost box office sales. But unlike those shows, the Holiday Special featured the original film’s cast. George Lucas was convinced to approve the project in order to maintain interest in the franchise until The Empire Strikes Back’s 1980 release — but the special itself is a confusing mess. (read more)

Here is the full Star Wars Holiday Special spinoff film.