The Star Wars Holiday special……the horror of it all!
As a gentleman of a certain age I sometimes forget that my podcast co-host Zack, him being much younger and impressionable then me, may still have some catching up when it comes to pop culture. For example, I didn’t realise until today that he had never seen (and wasn’t even aware of) perhaps one of the most horrifying examples of 20th century entertainment. I’m talking about the notorious 1978 monstrosity that was the Star Wars Holiday special.
For those, like co-host Zack, who are happily oblivious to what I’m talking about (no change there I hear you say) well let me put you into your misery…. It was shown in it’s entirety for the one and only time in November 1978 when the cultural Star Wars behemoth was finding it’s way into every corner of our consciousness. The good people at CBS television thought that it would be a great idea to ride on this wave of pop culture Zeitgeist by getting together the majority of the cast of A New Hope and put them in a story featuring songs and dance….. just what could possibly go wrong?.
Chewbacca and Han Solo try to get to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day, but are impeded by an Imperial blockade.
Chewie’s family passes the time with various forms of entertainment.
In the pantheon of never-ending ‘worst of lists’ the Star Wars Holiday special is regarded as perhaps the most gut-wrenchingly embarrassing examples of mis-placed ideology. David Hofstede, author of What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History, ranked the holiday special at number one, calling it “the worst two hours of television ever”
Is it really that bad….god, yes it is. To paraphrase Nicolas’s Cage character in another abomination, the remake of The Wicker Man…………
NOT THE DANCING STORMTROOPERS…………GOD, NOT THE DANCING STORMTROOPERS!!!!!!!”
Apparently this thing can be seen online in various guises – I’ve advised co-host Zack to go and watch it. I’m sure he’ll thank me for it.
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Better late than never for Sons of Anarchy
Ever since I can remember I have regularly been behind the curve ball when it comes to films, TV and music. In fact I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve ‘found’ something way, way, way after the rest of humanity. The examples are probably endless; Breaking bad (Season 3 was currently one when I ‘discovered’ it); The Wire had finished by the time I was raving about it; M*A*S*H was in its 2nd to last season when I started becoming obsessed by it.
It’s not as if I hadn’t heard of them, because that would be REALLY embarrassing for someone in my, erm, position. No, it’s must that sometimes I just ‘take my own sweet time’ in seeing what the fuss is about. it could be that I’m doing it on purpose, you know, rebelling against the public tide and being all ‘I am a rock’ type thing. After all, I’ve always quite liked Groucho Marx’s saying of not wanting to be part of any club that would have me as a member. Or, maybe I’m just a bit on the slow side.
Well you can add to the list Sons of Anarchy. Yes that’s correct, because yours truly has finally began watching (some may say binging) that began way back in 2008 and finished a mighty six years ago. Finger on the pulse of Pop culture or what?!
No spoilers people!!
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Prepping for the 5D Podcast
Being the, ahem, professional that I am I’m currently busily (sic) researching material for this weekend’s podcast episode. So with a little luck we’ll be talking about the new Snowpiercer series on Netflix and providing our considered opinions on Afterlife 2 from Ricky Gervais. In addition co-host Zack is taking a leaf out of my book in eventually catching up with the rest of the world, in his case by finally getting around to watching Game of Thrones – finger on the pulse my man, finger on the pulse.
As well as that there will be the regular (well, second) 5DNEWS feature during the podcast, plus we’ll chatting about last week’s marvellous Podcast special with actor Patrick Gallagher.
If you’d like to agree, disagree or simply chew the fat about these musings, or any other things for that matter, then leave your comments in the box below.
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Later!