The Morning Watch: 'Star Wars' Holiday Special Explained, 'Peanuts' Goes 'Riverdale' & More

The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.

In this edition, the infamously terrible Star Wars Holiday Special gets explained and is even given some surprising credit for making Star Wars what it is today. Plus, the classic Peanuts comic strip gets the Riverdale TV series treatment and Avengers: Infinity War gets a retro trailer using footage from old school superhero movies.

First up, Vox takes a deep dive into the awful Star Wars Holiday Special from 1978. Funnily enough, the TV special was the first time the Star Wars universe had expanded outside of the original movie, and it serves as the basis for the expanded universe that would follow in the decades to come. Thankfully much of what came from the holiday special didn't stick around into other facets of the Star Wars universe with the exception of Boba Fett.

Since Riverdale is all the rage on The CW now, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon figured now was the best time to give Peanuts the same moody thriller treatment. Plus there's cameos from Riverdale stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Madelaine Petsch and Cole Sprouse.

Finally, Darth Blender created a retro trailer for Avengers: Infinity War using a bunch of footage from some of the worst superhero movies ever made in the 1970s and 1980s. Where else can you get Burt Reynolds as Iron Man and Max von Sydow as Thanos?