In the spirit of the Holiday Special's 30th anniversary, we thought we'd try to hunt down what remains of this sadly misguided gem, at least within the walls of Skywalker Ranch. We found that we actually had to tap several sources from the Ranch's many facilities in order to put together this collection, including the prop, film and imaging archives, as well as the Skywalker Library. While a lot has not survived -- no stuffed bantha, for example -- we were surprised at how much actually was saved, given the somewhat lackluster reputation the show has endured over the years.
The show's animated short feature, which introduced Boba Fett, seems to have fared the best over the years. There were literally boxes full of original animation cels from this brief 10-minute segment of the show, and still more boxes containing the original voice recordings of actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones, and others. Even the viewscreen device Lumpy uses to watch the cartoon has survived, and to our knowledge has never been photographed since its initial appearance 30 years ago.
So, enjoy our presentation of surviving "Holiday Special" items gathered below, and be sure to click on the images for some additional info.
Since we know everyone's disappointed we couldn't locate Lumpy's stuffed bantha (believe us, we looked!), we thought we could at least share a rare photograph of the toy shot on set 30 years ago. If you've just got to get your hands on a stuffed bantha, though, look for an upcoming craft tutorial this week on starwars.com that will teach you how to make your own!
Special thanks to Laela French, Joanee Honour, Tina Mills, Stacey Leong, Sterling Hedgpeth, Steve Yamane, and Jo Donaldson for helping us compile these images.
