The Star Wars Holiday Special was a two-hour television special (including commercials) broadcast on November 17, 1978 on CBS. In it, Chewbacca and Han Solo visit Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's home world, to celebrate Life Day. Along the way, they are pursued by agents of the Galactic Empire who are searching for rebels on the planet. The special introduces three members of Chewbacca's family: his father, Itchy, his wife, Malla, and his son Lumpy.

The program also features cameos by 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). The program is best known for an animated cartoon that introduces the bounty hunter Boba Fett.

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The Holiday Special is important for being the first film-length Star Wars story after the original movie, and for showing an expanded look at parts of that universe. For the most part, however, the plot serves as little more than a means to string together a series of musical numbers, celebrity cameos, and other variety-show acts. These include songs and comedy routines by such '70s talents as Jefferson Starship, Diahann Carroll, Art Carney, Harvey Korman, and Bea Arthur. Easily the most notable segment is an animated cartoon featuring the pre-Empire Strikes Back debut of Boba Fett.

The special features four songs. The first, sung by Diahann Carroll, is best remembered for the bizarre monologue which precedes it in which Carroll—who is supposed to be an image created by a virtual-reality machine—tells Chewbacca's father, Itchy, that she is his "fantasy" and suggestively invites him to "experience" her. The second musical number is the song "Light the Sky on Fire", performed by Jefferson Starship, which is presented as a 3-D music video watched by one of the Imperial guards. Later, Bea Arthur, who plays the bartender in the Mos Eisley cantina, sings a song to the same set of aliens that were seen in the cantina in Star Wars. Finally, at the end of the special Carrie Fisher sings (somewhat off key) a song in celebration of Life Day to the tune of the Star Wars main title.

Harvey Korman provides comedy in three of the special's skits, including the cantina skit with Bea Arthur. He also performs two solo routines: one as a four-armed parody of Julia Child, whose four arms allow her to work much faster than Malla can keep up with, and one as a malfunctioning android in an instruction video watched by Lumpy. Art Carney has a more integral role in the story, playing a trader on the Wookiee planet who is a member of the Rebellion and helps Chewie's family. His segments are also largely played for laughs.

The high point of the special is generally considered to be the animated segment, produced by Nelvana. While the artistic style takes great liberties—R2-D2's body is rubbery and Han's face nearly unrecogniable, the animation is good and the music and sound effects are straight out of the film. With all the main stars from the film doing the voice work for their characters the cartoon sounds like a Star Wars film even if it looks a little odd at times. Not only does the cartoon introduce Boba Fett, but both his jet pack and rope gun, which do not appear again in the movies until Return of the Jedi four and a half years later, are both seen in the cartoon.

The Holiday Special also includes a circus-style acrobatics routine that includes uneven bars and juggling. All the acts were loosely linked together with material which involves the Wookiees' preparation for Life Day, Han and Chewie's attempt to evade the Imperials and make it to Chewie's family, and the Imperial garrison's search for rebels.

The Star Wars Holiday Special had been lost to the world and mostly forgotten after its premiere in 1978. There was very little evidence of its existence until sometime in the early to mid 1990s when people who had in their possession original recordings of the show from 1978 came forward and began to actually copy this show and sell it illegally at conventions. It soon became a cult classic and a legend among die-hard Star Wars fans. File-sharing technologies have made the special more widely available to curious fans to see for themselves.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is reviled by most Star Wars fans for its meager plot and low production values, and beloved by others for its wackiness. It continues to be sold and traded illegally as a bootleg video or DVD, and many Star Wars fans have a copy in their collection. Nevertheless, some fans hope that one day it will see an official release, if only as a comedic novelty.

Rumors of a follow-up special called A Very Star Wars Christmas have spread in recent years, but are an April Fool's prank. A digitally remastered version of the original special was created around 2001-2002 by a video professional and remastered with Dolby Digital Technology. The remastered copy was of an original bootleg recording from the special's public television airing. The remastered copy, although in existance, is many times used as a slogan to sell illegal copies on eBay and at conventions. A copy of the special has been a source of rumor in the past to contain a few extra seconds of the famed Boba Fett cartoon, one of the many segments of the special.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is also technically in the Star Wars canon, which means that the events depicted are part of the greater continuity that includes the other films, novels, comic books, etc. Elements from the film appear in several other Star Wars projects. The Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk, for example, reappears in various novels and is an important location in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Chewbacca's family feature in various stories, notably Michael P. Kube-McDowell's Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, Patricia Wynne's The Wookiee Storybook, and Troy Denning's A Forest Apart.

Nevertheless, George Lucas, who wrote the basic story for the special but otherwise had very little to do with it, is quoted as saying at an Australian fan convention, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." Later, In a May 2005 interview, Lucas was asked if the episode had soured him on working in television:

"The special from 1978 really didn't have much to do with us, you know. I can't remember what network it was on, but it was a thing that they did. We kind of let them do it. It was done by... I can't even remember who the group was, but they were variety TV guys. We let them use the characters and stuff and that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you learn from those experiences. I had a wonderful time on Young Indiana Jones. It was a great series. We did it for four years. I spent those four or five years actually working on it. That's really all I did during those years. It was really a great experience and I love television."[1]

• Star Wars Holiday Special comprehensive fansite
• Star Wars Holiday Special original fansite
• Star Wars Holiday Special German fansite
• The Star Wars Holiday Special at IMDb
• TVObscurities.com - The Star Wars Holiday Special
• Category at ODP
• When the Force Was a Farce
• Site with some of George Lucas's comments on the special.
• Nonofficial, but very informative site on The Star Wars Holiday Special