El-Kabong

A friend of mine - a huge Star Wars geek - dropped a stunning one on me last weekend. He asked if I knew about the Wars discs coming out.

"Yeah, the Ewoks movies and the two animated series compliations."

"And the Christmas special."

"The what?"

"Yeah, the Chistmas Special is coming to DVD!"

At this point I went, "Uh huh" knowing that he was full of shit, and not wanting to drag out the 'but I KNOW I'm right' conversation. Surely I would have heard something through the grape vine if this was the case. There would have been a thread, a posting, news somewhere, Rivero would be claiming that Lucas murdered his dog on Thanksgiving - SOMETHING would have turned up.

And yet - nothing. So to make sure that nothing fell through the cracks, I decide to ask the peanut gallery. Is the release of the Star Wars holiday special in the near future, or is Lucas sticking to his "I'd like to burn all copies of this FOREVER!" policy.

emhello

I don't think Lucas would ever agree to mass produce that pile of crap.

jeffkjoe

And for the record,

it's not the Star Wars CHRISTMAS Special.

It was shown on my sister's birthday, November 17th, 1978.

I remember, because we were all at a restaurant, and I begged my parents to cut the dinner short so that we could race home and watch this piece of crap.

So, it's more like the Star Wars Holiday (THANKSGIVING) Special.



So your friend's wrong on both accounts.

Duder

The only way this would have been released is hidden amongst the bonus features for the Ewok movies, since those are the next-crappiest "entries" in the Star Wars saga. But if George Lucas isn't releasing the original theatrical versions of the SW trilogy, there isn't a chance in hell he'll even think about considering possibly maybe releasing the Holiday Special.

Rogue588

Quote:

Originally posted by emhello
I don't think Lucas would ever agree to mass produce that pile of crap.

Must.resist.the.dark.side.

Chew

At every turn, Lucas has tried to wipe the Special from the face of the earth. It will only get released over his dead body.

speedy1961

This topic is mentioned in this week's Entertainment Weekly in their "Hidden Treasures" article.

LorenzoL

Your friend is wrong. Absolutely nothing has been reported by more reputable sources about the impending release of this special.

bboisvert

I doubt this will ever get released -- although it should.

However, even if it *did* eventually get released, I don't think that Lucas would pick just before the release of Episode III to do it.

Nothing like a dorky Wookiee TV show with Harvey Corman to help generate buzz for your new film! There is no way this is coming out in the near future.

GuessWho

Precisely. It's the Star Wars Holiday Special.


How would the characters celebrate Christmas? They know about Jesus being born in Bethlehem?

The holiday they're celebrating is "Life Day"

scott shelton

So that's why Ebay prices have gone crazy this week...

Spiderbite

Crazy as in up or down?

I have this on a bootleg dvd but would definitely buy a legit copy if it is ever released. It is terrible but fascinating at the same time.

Some of it is probably nostalgia since I saw it as a kid when it was first shown on TV.

Turd Ferguson

Your friend needs to lay off the airplane glue.

Fok

If Lucas does release it, he'll probably want to add changes in it first.

GoVegan

I hope not. I'd prefer to keep the complaints to a minimum, and "Han shot first" is much catchier than "Leia is drunk and on coke."

El-Kabong

Thats what I thought. Theres no way that I could have missed news of this coming to disc.

Of course, getting the bootleg is the way to go - NOT for the content that you cant get through ligitimate sources, but for the commericals. Those ads from the 70's (at least on my copy) are a BLAST! I love the big collar, big hair, bell bottoms - great stuff indeed. Getting a pristine copy from a ligitimate source will have some of the charm missing without the ads.

Class316

I have a bootleg with the ads too.

By the way does ebay shut down acutions of the Holiday Special?

Wannabe

Did you ask your friend what his source of information was?

majorjoe23

Do you have the one with the "Fighting the frizzys"? thing? My copy doesn't have any ads.

bboisvert

eBay only shuts down auctions if the copyright holder complains. So it really depends on who owns the rights (I assume this is Lucasfilm) and if they are monitoring auctions at that moment. I see that most of them tend to finish without being pulled.

Class316

Does it? I thought ebay always has a team cracking down on these things.

Numanoid

Huh? Episode I has been out for years.






Sorry, Rogue588, I couldn't resist.

Rogue588

[though, I was actually thinking of AOtC more than tPM...]

rennervision

My first instinct is to say no, simply because this is auctioned all the time off Ebay.

However, one guy who kept selling these on DVD (and from whom I purchased one) is now listed as "no longer a registered user," which would seem to suggest Ebay kicked him out of their community.

So I'm honestly not sure.

bboisvert

They have people who deal with fraud and such, but for tackling bootleg merchandise (of any variety, not just film), they need to hear from the rights owners. That way, eBay can be hands off about it and they don't have to become 'experts' in grading what material is illegal or not.

Many big companies (including Lucasfilm) have people who monitor auctions and turn people into eBay. Those auctions are then shut down, no questions asked. It's up to the sellers to appeal if the auction was actually legit.

A few years back, Lucasfilm shut down my auction for the (legal) Stars of Star Wars interview disc. It was a long and complicated process to get eBay off my back and allow me to relist. A lot of other sellers were having issues at that time too... This was before *any* of the Star Wars movies were out on DVD, so the Lucasfilm employee did a search for "Star Wars" DVDs and turned *everyone* in. Annoying.