The Star Wars Holiday Special

Though this is popularly known (and universally reviled) as "the Christmas special", the Holiday Special was actually first broadcast on CBS on November 17, 1978, that is, it was a Thanksgiving special. I believe it was rerun a month later closer to Christmas, and possibly combining memories of Meco's classic "Christmas in the Stars" LP lead to the popular idea that "Life Day" is the Star Wars universe equivalent of Christmas. I personally consider it Thanksgiving, and I (and many other Star Wars fan the world over, even the ones who don't like ANY part of this special, not even ironically) acknowledge Life Day every year on November 17 (which is close enough to my birthday that I acknowledge it literally as "Life Day").

What can I say about the Star Wars Holiday Special? I like parts of it. Diahann Carroll has a beautiful number, as long as you ignore the fact that Itchy is jerking off to it. I love Bea "Beatrice" Arthur's song, both in and out of context - it's a great show-stopping cabaret number that is simultaneously joyous, poignant, fun, bitter and sad. And finally there's Carrie Fisher's Life Day anthem, which I enjoy for its sheer, extraordinary strangeness.

As for the rest of it...I don't love it. In fact, I find much of it disturbing, even horrifying (the bits with Itchy and Lumpy in particular - those faces). Even the bit that even the haters acknowledge to be at least interesting - the animated part - I personally find to be ugly, and even sort of nauseating. That's pretty much my final thought on the Special as a whole, in fact: ugly, and even sort of nauseating.