NEVER FORGET....

A happy Wookiee family reunited for LIFE DAY! Ahhhh!

THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL aired on CBS this very date way back in 1978. Despite its faults- and there are many!- AFICIONADO still hopes that it will one day get an official release of some kind!

CLASSIC IMAGE: THE NET IS CLOSING IN...

Within one of the labyrinth corridors of the Death Star battle station, Chief Bast (as played by UK actor Leslie Schofield (who was referred to as a commander in the official movie cast listing of 1977)) informs Lord Vader (Dave Prowse), aware that the angry Dark Lord's unique interrogation of Princess Leia Organa is not working, that the search of Tatooine's Mos Eisley spaceport for the escaped droids continues apace in this classic STAR WARS deleted scene (of which many stills exist), which was eventually shown, with new re- dubbed dialogue by James Earl Jones and an unknown US actor, for the 1978 STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL.

Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvSDm8w08-I

However, whether the original, legendary 1976 scene, one of the earliest filmed by Dave Prowse, and which would have been recorded on set with his and Schofield's original voices, ever made it past the post-production editing stage to the later point where James Earl Jones added his unique voice to Vader is not known, but, regardless, and after years of seeing that scene in poor quality form from bootleg HOLIDAY SPECIAL copies, let's hope we get it in the best quality possible on the upcoming Blu-ray.

AFICIONADO OPINION: WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEXT ANIMATED STEP...

If ever there was proof needed that the Original Trilogy could be made as a superb animated weekly series, following the success of CLONE WARS, this wonderful image from 1978's HOLIDAY SPECIAL is it!

C'mon, George and the gang, bring these great heroes and villains back to us in an all-new dimension!