Where Does The Star Wars Holiday Special Fit In The Timeline?
Whether you think of it as a camp classic or a black mark on the "Star Wars" saga at large, "The Star Wars Holiday Special" definitely has a special place in the franchise's history. It features the worldwide debut of Boba Fett in an animated sketch, and it also gives fans their very first glimpse of Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's (Peter Mayhew) tree-laden home world.
Where in the series' timeline does the special fit in? Airing on November 17, 1978, it comes after "Star Wars: A New Hope" but before "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" within the "Star Wars" universe and in terms of release dates. It offers a rare glimpse into the peace that exists after the explosion of the Death Star, but it also manages to hint at portents of danger in the future for the team of lovable misfit rogues. After all, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca are on the run from Stormtroopers as they race against time to deliver Chewie to his Life Day celebration.
"The Star Wars Holiday Special" also succeeded in keeping the "Star Wars" world at the forefront of the public imagination as fans waited for more than a year to see "The Empire Strikes Back." But in spite of all of these pluses, most of the people connected to the making of "The Star Wars Holiday Special" see it as a big minus — including Mark Hamill, who admitted he thought it was a mistake, and George Lucas himself.
George Lucas referred to the Star Wars Holiday Special as a 'travesty'
Unfortunately, George Lucas has never looked warmly upon the "Star Wars Holiday Special," no matter how important it might be to the film series. For years Lucas refused to acknowledge the special's existence until bootlegged copies from its single airing began to surface on the internet — first through tape trading circles, then digitized for platforms like YouTube. However, rumors that he once told a convention panel filled with fans that he wished he could round up every single copy of the special and smash it with a sledgehammer remain apocryphal. On the other hand, he told a reporter for Vanity Fair in 2008 that he wished he'd kept a tighter rein in his intellectual property, and used the word "travesty" to describe the production.
Per Vanity Fair, Lucas had very little to do with the special creatively beyond delivering the television film's general premise as he was busy mounting "The Empire Strikes Back" at the time. Neither did anyone involved with Lucasfilm stay with the special for very long. Thus, many of the special's creative decisions — from allowing Chewbacca's relatives to speak to each other in subtitle-free growls and whimpers for minutes on end to its musical numbers — were guided by CBS executives.
Love it or hate it, the "Star Wars Holiday Special" has been namedropped in multiple related properties since its release. Not only can you buy a Life Day Chewbacca figure in which he wears his red ceremonial robes, but the holiday also has been mentioned in "The Mandalorian," and the special at large has been discussed in the fan documentary "A Disturbance in the Force." The force remains with it, in spite of itself.