Richard Pryor At The Star Wars Bar

And you thought Wuher and Bea Arthur were the only Cantina owners... In 1977, comic genius Richard Pryor made a production-deal with NBC for an evening comedy and variety show. Pryor had already done several successful specials for the station. The show starred himself, Sandra Bernhard, Robin Williams, and several other up-and-coming comedians. It was much like Saturday Night Live, with hilarious skits throughout the program. One of these skits was 'Star Wars Bar'. Richard Pryor plays the owner of the Cantina, and all the Cantina regulars are there: Hammerhead, Figrin D'an the Barquin, Ponda Baba, and many more. In fact, these were the actual costumes from the movie, used with permission from Lucasfilm.

The clip, although extremely funny, is not among Pryor's best, but it is still a must-see for Star Wars fans. The most impressive are the costumes (sadly, it's too dark to see if there are any costumes not used in the movie), but it is the idea of having Richard Pryor interact with the aliens and being in the Star Wars universe that is the funniest. Another interesting fact, I'm pretty sure that this was done before the Holiday Special, so Pryor is in fact the second owner of the Mos Eisley Cantina.

'The Richard Pryor Show' was too racy for NBC's standards, so they quit the show after only about seven or eight episodes. Despite its huge (but short) success, the show was great; but due to some of the content of the episodes, clips like 'Star Wars Bar' have been seen only rarely