For many years, the Star Wars Vacation Particular was a misbegotten artifact of a selected period of community TV variety-show considering, and Lucasfilm appeared content material to fake it by no means occurred. Followers thought of it a black mark on George Lucas’ franchise, and made it the butt of limitless fandom jokes. However that’s modified over the previous decade — Lucasfilm has been quietly honoring the vacation particular and bringing components from it into the canon. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the most effective factor Lucasfilm has accomplished within the Star Wars galaxy since Andor, is the newest proof that the corporate is now not so embarrassed about the entire thing.
The Star Wars Vacation Particular aired on CBS on Nov. 17, 1978. It offered a mixture of skits, musical numbers that includes Bea Arthur, Jefferson Starship, and Diahann Carroll, and an animated brief that launched the world to bounty hunter Boba Fett. At almost two hours in size, and filled with cringeworthy moments, the Star Wars Vacation Particular was a so-bad-it’s-bad occasion. Star Wars followers who’ve seen it typically warning those that haven’t to skip it; it’s not definitely worth the time funding. (Others assume in another way.) Even Star Wars actors Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels, and Carrie Fisher had been identified to trash it.
For a very long time, the one technique to watch the Star Wars Vacation Particular was on bootleg VHS tapes. However because of uploads on YouTube and the Web Archive, it’s simpler than ever to topic your self to it. Because it’s develop into extra accessible, Lucasfilm has appeared more and more prepared to include it into the present Star Wars canon.
As Star Wars authority and Lucasfilm Story Group inventive govt Pablo Hidalgo wrote in 2023 on StarWars.com, among the earliest adopters of Star Wars Vacation Particular lore had been video video games. On-line video games Star Wars Galaxies, Clone Wars Adventures, and Star Wars: The Outdated Republic integrated Life Day, the Wookiee celebration of household and togetherness launched within the vacation particular, as in-game occasions.
Life Day grew to become totally entrenched in fashionable, post-Disney-acquisition Star Wars canon because of The Mandalorian. Within the first episode of that Disney Plus sequence, Din Djarin’s bounty The Fledgling Mythrol proclaims that he “hoped to be free for Life Day,” indicating that the Wookiee vacation is a galaxy-wide celebration — not only for people on Kashyyyk.
The idea of Life Day has since appeared in Marvel’s Star Wars comics and the comedic, non-canon one-off The Lego Star Wars Vacation Particular. Star Wars theme parks have additionally gone all in on Life Day. Since 2022, Disneyland’s and Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge parks have held Life Day celebrations on Nov. 17 — the anniversary of the Star Wars Vacation Particular — with particular meals and merchandise choices. Successfully, Life Day has develop into a second annual Star Wars-themed vacation, comfortably six months away from Might the Fourth.
Life Day isn’t the one side of the Star Wars Vacation Particular to resurface lately. The animated brief that marked Boba Fett’s first look was formally rereleased by Lucasfilm in 2011 as a part of the Star Wars: The Full Saga Blu-ray set — the one time a section from the vacation particular was formally launched on house video. The unique Boba Fett cartoon was added to Disney Plus underneath the identify “The Story of the Trustworthy Wookiee” in 2021.
Different components from the Star Wars Vacation Particular have crept into fashionable canon, together with the four-armed alien chef Gormaanda. Within the vacation particular, Chewbacca’s spouse, Mallatobuck, prepares for Life Day celebrations by watching a cooking present starring Gormaanda (performed by Harvey Korman). Gormaanda has since made small however canon-level appearances in short-story collections (Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens: Quantity I) and a number of official cookbooks.
Most not too long ago, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew paid homage to the Star Wars Vacation Particular, confirming that youngsters throughout the galaxy love watching hologram circus performances. Chewbacca’s son Lumpawaroo (“Lumpy”) turns into entranced by a holo children’ present within the vacation particular, and a re-creation of that program seems in episode 2 of Skeleton Crew. Neel’s brothers Jobo, Jorko, and Tuloo sit across the household room glued to a holo-projection that’s lifted straight out of the vacation particular. Then, in episode 4, Jod Na Nawood discovers a hologram puck that incorporates a clip of those self same circus performers.
That stage of deep Star Wars reverence isn’t uncommon for Skeleton Crew, which has additionally winked and nodded at Lucasfilm’s Captain EO and the 1985 made-for-TV film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. However it’s good to know that youngsters of all alien species throughout the Star Wars galaxy are consuming that good hologram circus content material and looking out ahead to holding glowing orbs on the subsequent Life Day.