The Star Wars Holiday Special

Star Wars Holiday Special
An advertisement for the special in a 1978 TV Guide
Written by	Pat Proft Leonard Ripps Bruce Vilanch Rod Warren Mitzie Welch
Story by	George Lucas (uncredited)
Directed by	Steve Binder David Acomba (uncredited)
Starring	Harrison Ford Peter Mayhew Mark Hamill Carrie Fisher Anthony Daniels Art Carney Bea Arthur Harvey Korman David Prowse
Voices of	Don Francks James Earl Jones
Composer(s)	John Williams (Star Wars theme) Ian Fraser (Score) Ken Welch Mitzie Welch (Songs)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Gary Smith Dwight Hemion
Producer(s)	Joe Layton Jeff Starsh Ken Welch Mitzie Welch
Running time	98 minutes
Production company(s)	Smith-Dwight Hemion Productions Winters Hollywood Entertainment Holdings Corporation 20th Century Fox Television Nelvana (animated segment)
Distributor	Disney–ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	November 17, 1978 (1978-11-17)

The Star Wars Holiday Special is a 1978 American musical science fiction television film set in the Star Wars galaxy. It stars the series' first film's main cast while introducing the character Boba Fett, who would appear in later films. It is one of the first official Star Wars spin-offs and was directed by Steve Binder.

In the storyline that ties the special together, Chewbacca and Han Solo visit Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's home world, to celebrate Life Day. They are pursued by agents of the Galactic Empire, who are searching for members of the Rebel Alliance on the planet. The special introduces three members of Chewbacca's family: his father Itchy, his wife Malla, and his son Lumpy, though these names were later explained to have been nicknames, their full names being Attichitcuk, Mallatobuck, and Lumpawarrump, respectively.

The program also features many other Star Wars characters, including Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader and Princess Leia (who sings the film's "theme song", set to the music of John Williams' Star Wars theme, near the end), all of them portrayed by the original actors. The program includes stock footage from Star Wars, and also features a cartoon produced by Toronto-based Nelvana that officially introduces the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Scenes also take place in outer space and in spacecraft including the Millennium Falcon and an Imperial Star Destroyer. The variety-show segments and cartoon also take place in a few other locales, such as a Mos Eisley cantina on the desert planet of Tatooine and a newly introduced red ocean planet known as Panna.