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Retro Star Wars TV specials ridiculed by Honest Trailers

Murder bears and Bea Arthur cantina ballads! Honest Trailers skewers the Star Wars Holiday Special and Ewok TV movies.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
2 min read

As Star Wars fans head to see Solo: A Star Wars Story and news hits of a possible new movie all about Boba Fett, Honest Trailers is reminding us of Star Wars TV movies from the '70s and '80s many would rather forget. 

The campiness of the Star Wars Holiday Special that originally aired on TV in 1978 is perfect fodder for Honest Trailers, a webseries on the Screen Junkies YouTube channel that delivers brutally honest but funny reviews of past movie trailers. Where else could you see singing Wookiees wearing Snuggies, and comedian Harvey Korman cooking in drag?

However, Honest Trailers reminds us in its video posted this week that the Star Wars Holiday Special was so bad "George Lucas wanted it destroyed forever." After all, it's not every day fans got to see "Chewie's family spend over an hour horrifically groaning at each other while you try to maintain your last shred of sanity."

If that wasn't a weird enough memory, perhaps the Ewoks' two TV movie spinoffs -- Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle of Endor (1985) will ring a few bells.

"Embark on an adventure with no one's favorite unblinking murder bears as they team up with another creature that's better in small doses... a kid," Honest Trailers says in the video. "Together they'll search for her missing parents with her brother Mace -- a Skywalker knockoff with the hair of Luke and the acting of Anakin."

Honest Trailers then compares the much darker Star Wars special The Battle of Endor to Game of Thrones, complete with Ewok slaughters, dead parents and a dragon who kidnaps children. 

Honest Trailers has a good lesson for disgruntled Star Wars fans. "No matter what Disney decides to throw at us next, there's no way it will be as bad as Chewie's dad watching VR porn in the middle of the living room."