In 1978, Fox aired Star Wars Holiday Special, a 98-minute television special featuring the characters from Star Wars as they prepare to celebrate Life Day -- a Wookiee holiday basically equivalent to Christmas-- despite the ongoing conflict with the Empire. It's celebrated by spending time with family and giving presents, and that's what Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) intends to do, if he can only get home to Kashyyyk.
The Holiday Special is notorious for how bad it is. It was so poorly received that it only aired once on television, and was never released on home video; however, it has lived on through whispers and bootlegs shared by fans. The cast openly derided the project, with Carrie Fisher saying she would play the Holiday Special at parties, "mainly at the end of the night when I want people to leave." Mark Hamill even jokingly asked the president to pardon the special.
Despite all of that, the Holiday Special has gained a cult status among fans. It's the very definition of "so bad it's good," from the decidedly 1970s celebrity cameos (Bea Arthur, Diahann Carroll and Jefferson Starship) to the variety-show format, complete with musical numbers and comedy skits. It's also the first appearances of the planet Kashyyyk and, in animated form, the fan-favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett (voiced here by Don Francks).
People have long lobbied for the Holiday Special to be re-released, and Disney+ is the perfect platform. Fox, the original distributor, has been acquired by Disney, so there's theoretically no rights issue. The cost of presenting the Holiday Special digitally would be minimal as well, if Disney chooses to do so on Disney+. Most interestingly, Disney+'s own flagship series The Mandalorian and the upcoming LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special have established Life Day as being part of the canon.
The Holiday Special is objectively bad. The actors were disinterested, at best, the script was a disaster, and the production value was embarrassingly minimal. After a brief introduction, the special starts with an extended sequence of Chewbacca's family interacting with each other in the Wookiee's native language, minus any subtitles. Meanwhile, the animated sequence, centering on Boba Fett, is widely regarded as the best part of the special, even though it has stiff dialogue (written by George Lucas himself), and disproportional characters.
The aforementioned musical numbers are possibly the strangest part of the special. Arthur plays a barmaid at Mos Eisley Cantina, and when the Empire enacts a curfew, she has to bid her patrons goodnight by singing melancholy lyrics over the iconic Cantina Band song from A New Hope. Carroll, a groundbreaking film and television actress, also plays an uncomfortably seductive singing hologram that Chewie's grandpa seems to enjoy a little too much. The narrative even screeches to a halt so an Imperial guard can watch a hologram of Jefferson Starship performing "Light the Sky on Fire." Finally, the special ends with Leia singing a Life Day song to the tune of the main Star Wars theme that includes the lyric, "a day of joy we can all share together joyously."
The Star Wars Holiday Special is canon and a part of Star Wars history, regardless of the initial reception. It's worth sitting through at least once, and fans deserve the chance to see it like it was meant to be seen: properly and officially presented on a platform that appreciates its absurdity.