Versions and Availability Today
The Star Wars Holiday Special was mostly forgotten after its only airing in 1978, until sometime in the early-to-mid-1990s when individuals came forward and offered original videotape recordings of the TV airing. These have since been duplicated and reduplicated so that most copies of the special available today are based on second to sixth generation VHS dubs. Some of these fan-made copies include the original commercials that aired during the show. One first generation VHS recording available on many BitTorrent websites was recorded from Des Moines, Iowa station KCCI. This recording is the highest quality copy available. Another recording from then-CBS affiliate WMAR-TV in Baltimore, Maryland was posted on Google Video, also featuring the original commercials.
It soon became a cult classic among Star Wars fans. While originally shared or sold as a bootleg video at conventions or outlets such as eBay, peer-to-peer file sharing networks have made the special more widely available to fans curious to see for themselves. Online video sites such as YouTube have also been known to host clips of the special, but to this day, the special has not officially been made available. (A so-called "Platinum Edition" DVD mentioned in a review by Lawrence Person on Locus Online is an April Fools Hoax.)
Animation cels sold in the mid-1990s came from the special's animated Boba Fett segment. Segments of that cartoon appear in the 2002 Attack of the Clones web documentary "Bucket Head", and Jeremy Bulloch, who portrayed Fett in the original films, introduces the segment as coming from the Holiday Special. In 2004, the official Star Wars site confirmed that documentary filmmaker Kevin Burns was allowed access to the original print for use in his Empire of Dreams documentary; however, the segment using footage from the holiday special was ultimately left out of the final cut.
However, the entire Fett cartoon would see an official home video release as an "Easter Egg" on the 2011 Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set, and therefore the only portion of the Holiday Special officially released in any home video format.
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