The ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ Is Good, Actually?

An explanation of Star Wars is our ongoing series where we delve into the latest Star Wars plans, movies, trailers and news stories to predict the future of the franchise. In this entry, we talk with A Disturbance in the Force co-director Jeremy Coon about the Star Wars holiday special and why we should rethink its infamous status.

Art is subjective. One person can watch one movie and love it. Another person can watch the same movie and hate it. Still, you’ll find few people on this planet who will defend Star Wars holiday special. premiered on CBS a year later George LucasThe original movie shattered box office speculation and carried an unprecedented fandom that we still swim in today, the sci-fi show played out like a psychotic fever dream. It’s got Bea Arthur, the singing canteen maid, Harvey Corman doing Julia Child with a few extras, and Itchy Wookie plugging into a VR headset so he can experience a one-on-one disco fantasy with DeHaan Carroll.

God Holiday special It’s one of those things that has to be seen to be believed, and Lucas did his best to make it unwatchable from the moment it aired. only once Infamy swirled around him almost immediately; Over the years, it has become the hottest bootleg item at every comic convention. Now, you can watch it easily via YouTubeAnd the animated segment that introduced Boba Fett to the world can even be streamed on Disney+. The mystique has waned a bit, but its abnormality remains pure.

Released during SXSW this week, the documentary force interference Trying to figure out how Star Wars holiday special Became. Forty-five years later, it’s hard to understand how the franchise allowed such an obvious atrocity. what directors Jeremy Cone and Steve Cusack It is assumed that the one-shot may not actually be as significant an oddity as we see it today. God Star Wars holiday special is actually pretty pedestrian, just another weird variety show in a sea of ​​weird variety shows.

Bee Arthur dancing with the Walrus Man (eventually rebranded to Fonda Baba) doesn’t look crazy when Wayne Newton did almost the same thing with Shamo during his Sea World special. A holographic Jefferson ship makes perfect sense after Kiss meets the Phantom of the Park at their primetime event. Even the Carpenters wanted to look at the atmosphere of George Lucas, to release their own space encounters show in the same year as the Holiday special.

“I knew the variety stuff was out there,” says Jeremy Coon, “but I didn’t know the level of how bad it was because a lot of that stuff just doesn’t see the light of day. They can’t re-play it because of rights issues with the music they’re using. So most of it is just Sit in a vault somewhere Steve [Kozak] Grown up with these things, and he makes music videos okay. Once he handed me that stuff, it’s like, ‘This thing is gold!’ There’s so much there, and it puts things in the context of the seventies and how bad television was at that time.”

What separates Star Wars holiday special From a variety of other shows of its time it is this one Star Wars. The studio invested a lot of money; A million dollar report. The security that comes with such a large cash flow is baffling in itself.

“I was intrigued by how expensive it was,” Cohn says. “It was one of the most expensive TV deals at the time. So, my thought process was, ‘At some point, somebody thought this was a good idea.’ No one in the vacuum was like, ‘Let’s just burn money.’ So, we dug into it.”

The documentary features a wide variety of talking heads. Some celebrity guests like Kevin Smetich and Paul Sher watched in Holiday special at the time and marveled at his madness. And then there are those who helped bring it to life, at least those who are willing to talk. Convincing the talent below the line to spill the tea required some finesse, but the executives had an inside edge.

“Steve Cusack’s dad was Bob Hope’s producer,” Cohn says. “He started the process at the beginning. He went through the Holiday specialThe credits of, and he was like, ‘Wait! I know this photographer because he shot all of Bob Hope’s shows. They were family friends. That was our goal. They trusted Steve and knew he wouldn’t embarrass them or make them look bad. Almost everyone we talked to, once people found out they worked on Holiday specialThat’s all they want to talk about.”

of course, force interference Does not hold all responsible for Star Wars holiday special. George Lucas does not want to reflect on the project in any way, having rarely acknowledged the show in interviews. One of his most famous quotes surrounding the special — “If I had time and a hammer, I’d track down every copy of that show and smash it” — might never have been said.

“If I ever get a chance to interview Lucas,” Cohn says, “I’d love to ask him about that quote. It’s funny. It’s a great hook. It’s one of the things we had to address, and Paul Sher talks about it specifically. It’s one of the things that made me to watch Special. I was like, ‘Oh, Lucas hates it? I have to see it’. But I don’t think he ever said that publicly. There is no reference to it, or if there is a reference to it, it is for Comic Con in Australia, and he has never participated in Comic Con in Australia.”

Kuhn and Kozak weren’t done force interference. The film may have had a big premiere, but it’s a work in progress. They may not be able to get George Lucas involved, but they are targeting others Holiday special participants.

“Obviously,” Coon continues, “any of the crew, we’d love to interview. We’re slowly working on the movie still. The goal was actually to finish it, put our foot forward, and have a successful SXSW premiere. It’s not like we’re just fans who made a crappy movie . The idea is, ‘Hey, people seem to really enjoy this. We’d love for you to be a part of it.’

force interference Emphasizes the difficult period between the source Star Wars and The empire strikes back. The first film was a huge success, but his future was unclear. Between 1977 and 1980, there were several Star Wars toys, some comic books and some expanded universe novels. At no point could you press a button and watch a movie on your television set. God Star Wars holiday special Had what the fans had.

“I can’t defend it,” Cohn says. “I can’t be like, ‘This is it the godfather.’ But I like the silliness of it. There are people out there who wear it as a badge of honor. They had fond memories of him, and this was their only point of access Star Wars On time. It wasn’t on TV every day. You couldn’t hire him. Video was not an issue. That’s all they got.”

God Star Wars holiday special Basically existed to save Star Wars in the public consciousness while Lucas was preparing The empire strikes back and several other projects. It was always supposed to broadcast once. The stakes surrounding his quality were low because his audience would forget about him a week after he played. It can afford to be just another silly variety show, right? Wrong.

“More empathy for Lucas is actually the thing that surprises me the most,” Cohn says. “It’s not something I was looking for. I was very typical, ‘Why do they have to be so lame about this? Why can’t they put everything on Disney+?’ Something like that. I came more to understand their position.”

Without Lucas joining the conversation, we’ll never know how much thought he ever put into the conversation Star Wars holiday special. Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford join Jeremy Coon next time Disruption of the force Editing can help clarify. As it stands today, Kuhn and Kozak’s documentary lovingly explains how the anomaly came to be in the context of its time. As history lessons go, this is compelling.

Is the Star Wars holiday special good actually? compared to others Star Wars Movies and shows, no. Compared to a variety of other performers from the seventies, definitely. And most importantly, it’s a time machine, traveling back to Iza Star Wars could have dwindled into obscurity, a fond memory for hardcore sci-fi fans only. There is no other Star Wars The rod does the trick quite like it.

Related topics: Star Wars, Star Wars Explained, SXSW

Brad Gullickson is a weekly columnist for Film School Rejects and senior curator for One Perfect Picture. When he’s not hanging out here on movies, he’s hanging out on comics as the co-host of Comics Couples Counseling. Hunt him down on Twitter: @MouthDork. (he/she)