Star Wars Holiday Special was 'Bait and Switch'!

Happy holidays everyone! This is Antibishonen Speaks.

I know you're interested in Star Wars and I know you're waiting in line right now to watch 'The Force Awakens'. Unfortunately, I'm not the kind of guy who's going to fall for a Star Wars hype again

(Ep. 1)

Ah, hem....

However, despite the great press, George Lucas himself doesn't want to hear Star Wars and the holidays on the same sentence. Why? Out of all the creative blunders he did, the one he regretted the most was 'The Star Wars Holiday Special'.

For those who don't know, the 'Star Wars Holiday Special' was a special that briefly aired on CBS on Nov. 17, 1978; a year after 'Star Wars' went into theaters.

It's a shame because the concept itself doesn't seem too bad.

"A 'Star Wars' Special taking place in the holidays and they actually got the Star Wars'

cast? I'm sold! Oh, who is this Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman and Art Carney?"

After all the built-in hype and fighting the frizzies at 11, you watched the 'Star Wars Holiday Special'! You can't wait to see the epic lightsaber battles, the space fight scenes, or perhaps the countless stormtroopers raiding the city.

After hearing the discussion with Han Solo regarding 'life day' and the familiar 'Star Wars' scene...

10 minutes in and you're pissed.

20 minutes in and you're really, really pissed.

30 minutes in and for some odd reason you wanted a refund.

As you had already figured out, everybody hated it. But at least they had a Boba Fett cartoon. Boba Fett: Greatest bounty hunter and people still talk about him to this day....

Yeah, there's no way to recover this mess. What happened?

For one thing, the 'Star Wars Holiday Special' was misleading. It's no wonder why many fans were pissed: They were promised the big name stars and all they focus on was the Chewbacca family. Instead of the epic lighsaber battles, you hear the screams from the Chewbacca Family you can't even understand.

In fact, what was the point of featuring the main Star Wars cast? Not only it was wasted potential, they had to cover the outrageous booking fees!

Instead, the real title should have been:

'The Star Wars Variety Hour Holiday Special' starring the Chewbacca family with special guest stars Art Carney, Harvey Korman, and Bea Arthur. Special cameos include Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Darth Vader.

Speaking of variety shows, that genre was a dying breed and it became official when NBC premiered 'The Pink Lady and Jeff Show'. They may have been responsible for ending the variety hour, but it was 'Star Wars' that reached the tipping point.

If you want to get even more technical, this was bait-and-switch: Using the 'Star Wars' name as a desperate attempt to gain variety show viewers.

But wait....we have Princess Leia discussing Life Day and....

(interrupts)

No, that's pushing it too far....

After this TV disaster, nobody wanted to talk about that special again; not even George Lucas. He admitted he wanted to smash every single copy of that special. It was really personal and I'm surprised he was able to recover in 'The Empire Strikes Back'!

Because they refused to release an official copy, the only way you could actually watch this special is a bootleg copy on VHS or YouTube. Let's hope he won't take it down.

Bottom line: Don't believe the hype until it's official. I learned that the hard way when I encounter Jar Jar Binks. Not only he's annoying as hell, fans accused him for creating the empire. I have yet to meet anybody who actually liked Jar-Jar in a unironic fashion.

Until then, this is Antibishonen Speaks. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Happy Life Day, just whatever. Just don't mention 'Disney' about this Holiday Special.

How Muppet Babies Influence Pop-culture

This is Antibishonen Speaks discussing current events and The Muppets.  I know it's bad timing, but I have to speak about this.  

Yeah, yeah, along with other relationships that ended in divorce, it shocked everyone Miss Piggy and Kermit the frog broke up.

Honestly, I wasn't too surprised.  Kermit was a pushover every time he upsets Miss Piggy.  I mean, look at his predicament.  I'm surprised he took one beating after another.  It even boggles my mind Miss Piggy wanted to be part of his childhood as well. 

Which is why I'm going to discuss ‘Muppet Babies’, one of the cartoons I watched when I was a kid!  What surprised me is the origin of ‘Muppet Babies’, the effects on other franchises, and why it hasn’t been released on DVD!  For starters, let’s take a look how ‘Muppet Babies’ got the greenlight.

The first prototype on the ‘Muppet Babies’ appeared in the movie ‘Muppet Takes Manhattan’ where Miss Piggy imagined if Kermit the Frog and the rest of the cast grew up together at a daycare.  It’s only a three minute musical sequence, but it gave the producers an idea to make a spin-off of ‘The Muppet’ franchise.  And boy, a hit it was!

Spanning for more than 65 episodes in seven years, it’s no surprise ‘Muppet Babies’ revitalized the Muppet franchise and pretty much made daytime cartoons popular again.  Because ‘Muppet Babies’ was a huge hit, other networks and franchises followed up with their ‘young cartoon counterparts’.  Some was mildly successful, while other are best left forgotten.  

However, ‘Muppet Babies’ unofficially revitalized another franchise from left field:  ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’.

‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’ was a low-budget horror parody about killer tomatoes.  Yes, it’s cheap and cheesy, but it’s that kind of B-movie expectations you have expected.

Then came ‘Muppet Babies’ when they made an episode ‘The Weirdo Zone’ around ‘The Killer Tomatoes’.  In this episode, Fozzie made a terrible tomato joke that the ‘Silly Tomatoes’ attacked him, only to get caught by a giant ketchup bottle.  

This ‘Killer Tomatoes’ parody was among one of the highest rated episodes on ‘Muppet Babies’.  Naturally, the producers made a deal with the original creators to create a sequel; ‘Return of the Killer Tomatoes’.  That too was also successful that it lead to the animated series.  

For me personally, ‘Return of the Killer Tomatoes’ is among my favorite in the ‘Killer Tomatoes’ series, especially when the main hero poked fun at product placements.  The jokes was way ahead of its time.

Unfortunately, I only recommend that movie because in the third movie, it starred…. (Rick Rockwell)

OH DEAR GOD, NO!!!!!!!  I’ll get to ‘him’ some other time....

Now comes to the ultimate question:  If ‘Muppet Babies’ was a popular show, why hasn’t it been released onto DVD?  

There’s a valid explanation about this situation.  The jokes that were used on ‘Muppet Babies’ had other footage from other popular shows.  That means unless you got the rights or release permits from other producers, you’ll end up in a landmine of lawsuits.

Sad, but true.  That’s the big reason why you shouldn’t hold your breath for a ‘Muppet Babies’ official release.  It’s also doesn’t help that some clips were from rival studios.   So yeah, it’s not that easy to get around this legal issue and I know getting clearance from the copyright holders is time-consuming and expensive.  Yes, I know they are VHS copies that pop around, but it’s 2014.  Yes, I know fans had made DVD versions, but that’s frowned upon.  Also, it’s just ripped from the VHS.  

Another factor to point out; because Disney obtained the rights from Jim Henson, Marvel, and Star Wars, it might be a possibility to see some ‘Muppet Babies’ episodes released in the future.  Again, don’t hold your breath for an official release.

This is Antibishonen Speaks.  Seriously, why was Miss Piggy and Kermit a couple?