Long, long ago...

in a galaxy far, far away....

the younger generation of Doepkens also fell in love with Star Wars.  Especially Susannah, who developed a huge crush on Han Solo.  Yeah, we know.  She knows.  He's 'old' now.  She doesn't care.  He's cute in the movie and that's good enough for her.  In fact, she's so enamored of the first (last?) three movies, Susannah has orchestrated two different movie marathons with her friends to introduce them to the joy that is gazing at Mr. Solo.

Susannah is currently at a friend's house, possibly watching part two (or five?) right now.  Or maybe she's asleep, dreaming Han Solo dreams.

Anyway!

Samuel, Moriah, Jim and I all watched The Count of Monte Cristo tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it.  After the movie, we had a discussion about whether or not the movie followed the book (it doesn't completely, according to one of Samuel's friends who's read it....it's still on my mental reading list).  Then, we had a discussion about the name of the friend who betrayed the 'count'.  None of us could remember what it was, but we all knew that it wasn't whatever Samuel was saying it was.

That led us to imdb.com to look at the cast.  Aha!  Guy Pearce played Count Mondego.  Jim (now James) Caviezel played the 'Count' of Monte Cristo (I swear I thought it was the Count of Monty Crisco, once upon a time).  I followed various links to see what actors had been in what movies, thankfully satisfying Moriah's nagging suspicion that she had seen Guy Pearce in something else.  Yes! an ad for The King's Speech.

What in the world does this have to do with Star Wars you ask?  Good question!  Somehow, and I truly don't recall the particular rabbit trail at this point, we looked up Mark Hamill's imdb listing.  Did you know that he's been a hugely successful and prolific voice-over actor for tons (and tons!) of animated series and video games?  Yep.  Stickybeard and The Joker and some part on a Spongebob episode.  Well, he has.

Anyway!

I scrolled way down to see what movies or shows he had been in right before he hit it big with Star Wars.  And there it was, sandwiched between Corvette Summer and The Empire Strikes Back.  Do you know what I am talking about?  Do any of you have flashbacks from a childhood viewing of what I'm about to reveal?  Okay.  Here goes.

There was a Star Wars Holiday Special.  In 1978.  A TV movie, apparently starring Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones' voice.  Seriously.  Oh, and it also starred Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Diahann Carroll and (wait for it...) Harvey Korman!

Amidst all of the laughter and snorting, I went directly to Netflix to look for it.  Sigh.  Not there.  Off to YouTube, where we found it, uploaded in segments.  The 'channel' I found looked to have the 97 minute movie in five-minute pieces and we began to watch.  And giggle.  And chuckle.  And wonder why in the WORLD anyone thought this was a good idea.

We ended up watching the next two (or three?) segments, cringing at the 'plot' and noting that the number of views for each segment kept decreasing.  Smart people stop watching really bad movies when their eyeballs start to itch.  Not us.  What finally got us to stop watching was that it was after midnight and we had to get to bed.

But we always have tomorrow....