Much loved and presumably still embarrassing for a lot of folks, the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special is famous for its strange creative decisions, Bea Arthur, Lumpy and much more. Despite its reputation, though, it’s actually led to a lot of surprising Star Wars tie-ins and in-jokes, with a reference to Life Day even making its way into the first episode of The Mandalorian.
For those unfamiliar, the Star Wars Holiday Special was produced to fill the gap between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, airing on November 17th, 1978 on CBS. To say the least, it turned out to be a hot mess and probably something that Lucasfilm wishes had never happened. But happen it did and for better or for worse, everyone still remembers it.
As bad as it was, though, it apparently wasn’t on the same level as last night’s presidential debate. Or so says Mark Hamill, who took to Twitter following the event to share that it was “the worst thing” he’s ever seen. And as he reminds us, he was in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen & I was in The Star Wars Holiday Special.
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) September 30, 2020
Indeed, just like the aforementioned special, the debate was also a bit of a mess, and everyone’s been weighing in with their opinions on it. Earlier today, for instance, Fantastic Four reboot writer Jeremy Slater echoed Hamill’s thoughts, sharing the following on Twitter:
That was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I wrote FANTASTIC FOUR.
— Jeremy Slater (@jerslater) September 30, 2020
With more debates still to come, and things likely to go the same way as the first one, it’ll certainly be interesting to see what all these celebrities have to say about the next time Donald Trump goes up against Joe Biden. Maybe the second one will be even more of a disaster than Battlefield Earth, which is widely considered one of the worst movies ever made?