Star Wars Holiday Special
1978 American television special
The Star Wars Holiday Special is an American television special originally broadcast by CBS on November 17, 1978. It is set in the universe of the sci-fi-based Star Wars media franchise. Directed by Steve Binder, it was the first Star Wars spin-off film, set between the events of the original film and the yet-to-be-released sequel The Empire Strikes Back (1980). It stars the main cast of the original Star Wars and introduces the character of Boba Fett, who appeared in later films.
In the storyline that ties the special together, following the events of the original film, Chewbacca and Han Solo attempt to visit the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk 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.
The program also features the rest of the main Star Wars characters, including Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader and Princess Leia, all portrayed by the original cast (except R2-D2, who is simply billed as "himself"). The program includes footage from the 1977 film and a cartoon produced by Toronto-based Nelvana featuring the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Scenes take place in space and in spacecraft including the Millennium Falcon and a Star Destroyer; segments also take place in a few other locales such as the Mos Eisley cantina from the original film.
The public source identifies “Star Wars Holiday Special” as 1978 American television special. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Star, Wars and Holiday.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1538082. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1980 and 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “Star Wars Holiday Special” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.