TV Good Sleep Bad Podcast: That Star Wars Christmas Special & The Jug Band Christmas

Turn up the fire, pour yourself a cup of nog, and join Elwood and Lackey as they travel back to the late ’70s for a pair of holiday specials—one sublime, one ridiculous—from beloved creators Jim Henson and George Lucas.

In this episode, we discuss:

Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas (1978): The good-hearted but impoverished Emmet Otter joins a jug-band in an attempt to win a $50 prize in a holiday talent contest and buy a nice Christmas present for his Ma. Unbeknownst to him, Ma has also entered the contest and hopes to buy Emmet a fancy guitar with the prize money. Directed by Jim Henson, this adaptation of Russell Hoban’s classic story features performances by legendary Muppet performers Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson, and songs by Paul Williams.

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978):  It’s Life Day on the the Wookiee homeworld, and Chewbacca’s family anxiously waits for the arrival of the Millennium Falcon. This notoriously awful one-off special was never repeated since its original broadcast, and is mainly remembered today for introducing Boba Fett in an animated segment, two years before his appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Most of the main cast of Star Wars appears, including Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher, alongside guests Art Carney, Harvey Korman, Diahann Carroll, Bea Arthur, and Jefferson Starship.