1 00:00:16,328 --> 00:00:18,099 Because of the following special program, 2 00:00:18,099 --> 00:00:19,903 Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk 3 00:00:19,903 --> 00:00:22,070 will not be presented this evening. 4 00:00:28,538 --> 00:00:29,506 Let me ask you something. 5 00:00:29,506 --> 00:00:31,574 And this is a question I’ve wanted to ask you for a while, 6 00:00:31,574 --> 00:00:33,378 and I’ve always restrained myself. 7 00:00:33,378 --> 00:00:35,413 A Christmas special came out that was produced 8 00:00:35,413 --> 00:00:41,925 by George Lucas in which all of the participants in Star Wars 9 00:00:41,925 --> 00:00:42,453 were-- 10 00:00:43,993 --> 00:00:44,587 came together. 11 00:00:44,587 --> 00:00:46,325 And they made this Star Wars Christmas Special, 12 00:00:46,325 --> 00:00:48,063 and the tape’s been passed around for years. 13 00:00:48,063 --> 00:00:50,527 And the rumor is that Lucas is trying to suppress it. 14 00:00:50,527 --> 00:00:55,235 It all started in 1978 when I let people make a Star Wars TV 15 00:00:55,235 --> 00:00:56,203 special without me. 16 00:00:56,203 --> 00:00:57,534 The Holiday Special. 17 00:00:57,534 --> 00:00:58,337 I remember. 18 00:00:58,337 --> 00:01:00,504 It came out so bad. 19 00:01:00,504 --> 00:01:02,044 I hate it. 20 00:01:02,044 --> 00:01:03,012 I hate it! I hate it! 21 00:01:03,012 --> 00:01:04,178 George, George. 22 00:01:08,479 --> 00:01:11,955 Do you remember making this Christmas special? 23 00:01:11,955 --> 00:01:13,484 No, you don’t remember it? 24 00:01:16,025 --> 00:01:18,687 I-- nobody is allowed to mention this. 25 00:01:18,687 --> 00:01:20,161 It is so bad. 26 00:01:20,161 --> 00:01:21,327 It’s not good. 27 00:01:22,097 --> 00:01:26,431 You are about to see the worst half hour of television ever. 28 00:01:29,731 --> 00:01:30,501 Star Wars. 29 00:01:30,501 --> 00:01:32,503 Star Wars is going to be on TV? 30 00:01:32,503 --> 00:01:34,175 And it’s a new thing? 31 00:01:34,175 --> 00:01:35,044 Oh, I see. 32 00:01:35,044 --> 00:01:36,738 It’s the Star Wars holiday special. 33 00:01:36,738 --> 00:01:41,017 We popped it in, and my life was never the same. 34 00:01:41,017 --> 00:01:41,677 Come on, Malla. 35 00:01:41,677 --> 00:01:42,645 Let’s see a little smile. 36 00:01:42,645 --> 00:01:44,548 It will provide many years of fun. 37 00:01:44,548 --> 00:01:46,385 I felt a great disturbance in the force. 38 00:01:46,385 --> 00:01:48,717 We rolled a doob and sat back and watched it. 39 00:01:48,717 --> 00:01:50,653 And we thought it was fabulous. 40 00:01:50,653 --> 00:01:52,193 I feel something terrible has happened. 41 00:01:52,193 --> 00:01:53,997 To explain the Star wars Holiday Special is 42 00:01:53,997 --> 00:01:56,725 like trying to explain to someone how the pyramids were 43 00:01:56,725 --> 00:01:58,100 built. It’s kind of impossible. 44 00:01:58,100 --> 00:02:00,498 All you have to know is it was the ’70s. 45 00:02:00,498 --> 00:02:03,138 There might have been some cocaine. 46 00:02:03,138 --> 00:02:04,040 Happy Life Day. 47 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:05,041 I saw it as a kid. 48 00:02:05,041 --> 00:02:06,042 I thought it was great. 49 00:02:06,042 --> 00:02:08,737 They didn’t tell the people this was not Star Wars 50 00:02:08,737 --> 00:02:09,573 the movie two. 51 00:02:09,573 --> 00:02:10,574 You can say that again. 52 00:02:10,574 --> 00:02:15,084 It seems we’ve landed on some sort of comedy variety show 53 00:02:15,084 --> 00:02:15,612 planet. 54 00:02:15,612 --> 00:02:18,483 The Star Wars holiday special is sort of like the holy grail. 55 00:02:18,483 --> 00:02:19,583 It’s completely mental. 56 00:02:19,583 --> 00:02:22,487 It’s so funny, and it’s so stupid. 57 00:02:22,487 --> 00:02:23,554 I love the holiday special. 58 00:02:23,554 --> 00:02:25,292 The holiday special is definitely canon. 59 00:02:25,292 --> 00:02:27,591 You probably wouldn’t think that Maude would 60 00:02:27,591 --> 00:02:28,625 be one of the guest stars. 61 00:02:28,625 --> 00:02:31,166 And I was never into the whole Star Wars thing. 62 00:02:31,166 --> 00:02:33,366 I love all of the awkwardness. 63 00:02:33,366 --> 00:02:35,335 I am your fantasy. 64 00:02:35,335 --> 00:02:36,171 So experience me. 65 00:02:36,171 --> 00:02:39,702 The whole production was fraught with problems. 66 00:02:39,702 --> 00:02:40,439 Oh, no. 67 00:02:40,439 --> 00:02:41,374 the ship you seek. 68 00:02:41,374 --> 00:02:42,276 Follow me, friend. 69 00:02:42,276 --> 00:02:44,113 That Boba Fett cartoon rules. 70 00:02:44,113 --> 00:02:44,707 Settle down! 71 00:02:44,707 --> 00:02:49,613 The Star Wars special sucked so bad, 72 00:02:49,613 --> 00:02:51,747 I was amazed that I wasn’t in it. 73 00:02:51,747 --> 00:02:55,223 I would really like to know what CBS was thinking 74 00:02:55,223 --> 00:02:56,323 when they greenlit this thing. 75 00:02:56,323 --> 00:02:58,820 But now, let’s get started, shall we. 76 00:03:05,167 --> 00:03:09,567 There are always better stories about failure than success. 77 00:03:09,567 --> 00:03:10,832 It’s much more interesting. 78 00:03:10,832 --> 00:03:14,803 It’s much more compelling, and it’s much more human. 79 00:03:14,803 --> 00:03:20,281 Supposedly a TV movie existed, and no one 80 00:03:20,281 --> 00:03:22,118 knew where they could get it. 81 00:03:22,118 --> 00:03:22,844 I had never seen it. 82 00:03:22,844 --> 00:03:25,220 You couldn’t convince me it was true. 83 00:03:25,220 --> 00:03:26,815 To me, it was all urban legend. 84 00:03:26,815 --> 00:03:28,157 Now that I was a ninth grade man, 85 00:03:28,157 --> 00:03:31,325 I wanted something you couldn’t find in any store. 86 00:03:31,325 --> 00:03:31,820 Psst. 87 00:03:31,820 --> 00:03:33,558 Yo, Goldnerd, come here. 88 00:03:33,558 --> 00:03:36,627 It was like finding this artifact of something 89 00:03:36,627 --> 00:03:42,534 that I was such a fan of but I had no conception ever existed. 90 00:03:42,534 --> 00:03:43,238 Yeah. 91 00:03:43,238 --> 00:03:45,867 And for a while I believed that it was impossible to get. 92 00:03:45,867 --> 00:03:50,179 It became a currency of sorts in geek culture. 93 00:03:50,179 --> 00:03:56,416 You know, talking about it, dropping references to it, 94 00:03:56,416 --> 00:03:58,286 producing a copy to watch. 95 00:03:58,286 --> 00:03:59,254 Christmas came early. 96 00:03:59,254 --> 00:04:02,521 He had a bootleg copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special. 97 00:04:02,521 --> 00:04:03,588 Holy Kenobi! 98 00:04:03,588 --> 00:04:04,523 The legend is true! 99 00:04:04,523 --> 00:04:07,691 I had to get like a tape of a tape of a tape. 100 00:04:07,691 --> 00:04:08,395 You know. 101 00:04:08,395 --> 00:04:10,595 The Zapruder film was easier to watch 102 00:04:10,595 --> 00:04:13,697 than the copy of the holiday special that I got. 103 00:04:13,697 --> 00:04:16,667 On the back cover, it said, if I had a hammer in time, 104 00:04:16,667 --> 00:04:21,639 "I would destroy every copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special," 105 00:04:21,639 --> 00:04:22,574 George Lucas. 106 00:04:22,574 --> 00:04:25,379 And I was like, sold. 107 00:04:25,379 --> 00:04:27,249 That was so cool. 108 00:04:27,249 --> 00:04:29,251 Were we watching two different things? 109 00:04:29,251 --> 00:04:30,219 You don’t know Star Wars. 110 00:04:30,219 --> 00:04:31,649 This special is really for the true fans. 111 00:04:31,649 --> 00:04:36,621 So the true fan wants to watch Dorothy from The Golden Girls 112 00:04:36,621 --> 00:04:37,556 flirt with an alien? 113 00:04:37,556 --> 00:04:39,624 We have seen something that we weren’t supposed to see. 114 00:04:39,624 --> 00:04:42,330 Clearly, something had gone wrong. 115 00:04:42,330 --> 00:04:43,595 You were in the area because you were 116 00:04:43,595 --> 00:04:46,664 in Hollywood making a Star Wars special that’ll 117 00:04:46,664 --> 00:04:47,731 played around Thanksgiving. 118 00:04:47,731 --> 00:04:49,271 Got all the characters from Star Wars 119 00:04:49,271 --> 00:04:51,372 and it’s got quite a few extra people as well. 120 00:04:51,372 --> 00:04:53,473 For one thing, you meet the whole Wookiee family. 121 00:04:53,473 --> 00:04:55,508 And the Wookiees lived up in the tree house. 122 00:04:55,508 --> 00:04:57,906 And that’s where we met Chewbacca’s family-- 123 00:04:57,906 --> 00:05:01,316 Itchy, the little kid, and-- 124 00:05:01,316 --> 00:05:02,383 what was her name-- 125 00:05:02,383 --> 00:05:03,285 Jawa? 126 00:05:03,285 --> 00:05:05,386 Itchy is the grandfather. 127 00:05:05,386 --> 00:05:07,388 Who’s the-- oh, Lumpy is the kid. 128 00:05:07,388 --> 00:05:08,224 I’m so sorry. 129 00:05:08,224 --> 00:05:08,950 It’s only been 40 years. 130 00:05:08,950 --> 00:05:11,425 Chewie’s family had to be name something. 131 00:05:11,425 --> 00:05:12,228 Lumpy and Itchy? 132 00:05:12,228 --> 00:05:14,527 Couldn’t they have spent 15 more seconds on the names? 133 00:05:14,527 --> 00:05:16,331 And we meet Chewie’s family, and we 134 00:05:16,331 --> 00:05:21,501 realize that, oh, they’re just going to all chew it and not 135 00:05:21,501 --> 00:05:22,205 talk. 136 00:05:23,206 --> 00:05:26,671 And so, you’re literally watching a bunch of mimes. 137 00:05:26,671 --> 00:05:30,345 But you just have zero dialogue. 138 00:05:30,345 --> 00:05:33,876 Zero dialogue up until this point for 15 minutes. 139 00:05:33,876 --> 00:05:34,811 Like, have you timed it? 140 00:05:34,811 --> 00:05:35,944 I would love to know that stat. 141 00:05:35,944 --> 00:05:38,617 How much of the Star Wars Holiday Special 142 00:05:38,617 --> 00:05:41,983 has absolutely no discernible dialogue? 143 00:05:49,265 --> 00:05:50,530 R2, look. 144 00:05:50,530 --> 00:05:52,499 It’s Chewbacca’s family. 145 00:05:52,499 --> 00:05:53,929 Let’s never speak of this again. 146 00:05:53,929 --> 00:05:55,271 So you didn’t love it. 147 00:05:55,271 --> 00:05:55,865 Who cares? 148 00:05:55,865 --> 00:05:56,800 I care! 149 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:58,439 I love Star Wars! 150 00:05:58,439 --> 00:05:59,275 It’s my life. 151 00:05:59,275 --> 00:06:01,640 It makes no sense why I didn’t love this too. 152 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:03,873 You know, we spent years of two weeks 153 00:06:03,873 --> 00:06:07,844 at a time working directly with George developing what 154 00:06:07,844 --> 00:06:09,417 would become this animated series, 155 00:06:09,417 --> 00:06:13,784 and we had access to the theater downstairs. 156 00:06:13,784 --> 00:06:16,886 And we made a date-- 157 00:06:16,886 --> 00:06:17,689 all the writers. 158 00:06:17,689 --> 00:06:19,856 Hey, we’re going to watch the holiday special. 159 00:06:19,856 --> 00:06:21,363 And you tap out any time you want. 160 00:06:21,363 --> 00:06:26,731 Like, we’re going to see who can make it all the way through. 161 00:06:26,731 --> 00:06:27,732 And that’s what we did. 162 00:06:27,732 --> 00:06:31,373 And like, one by one, like flies, people were like, 163 00:06:31,373 --> 00:06:31,934 "I’m out." 164 00:06:31,934 --> 00:06:35,641 I like to watch bad stuff, but that’s a hard watch making it 165 00:06:35,641 --> 00:06:37,544 through the holiday special. 166 00:06:38,006 --> 00:06:40,283 The cockpit of the Millennium Falcon 167 00:06:40,283 --> 00:06:42,450 is clearly just a cardboard cutout. 168 00:06:42,450 --> 00:06:44,452 Everything just-- it takes you a while 169 00:06:44,452 --> 00:06:45,882 to realize that everything’s wrong. 170 00:06:45,882 --> 00:06:48,016 When you first see the Star Wars Holiday Special 171 00:06:48,016 --> 00:06:50,623 in its entirety, you’re like, how did this happen? 172 00:06:50,623 --> 00:06:55,958 Who decided to create one of the most confounding pieces of Star 173 00:06:55,958 --> 00:06:58,664 Wars entertainment in the history of its existence? 174 00:06:58,664 --> 00:07:01,700 In order to understand how the holiday special happened, 175 00:07:01,700 --> 00:07:03,064 you have to put it in context. 176 00:07:03,064 --> 00:07:06,375 Star Wars pioneered a whole different kind 177 00:07:06,375 --> 00:07:09,004 of almost grassroots attention. 178 00:07:09,004 --> 00:07:11,072 The real secret to the success of Star Wars 179 00:07:11,072 --> 00:07:12,612 was a guy named Charlie Lippincott, 180 00:07:12,612 --> 00:07:16,682 who pioneered an entirely new way of marketing movies. 181 00:07:16,682 --> 00:07:17,782 Oh, Charlie was a good guy. 182 00:07:17,782 --> 00:07:21,049 He had kind of an oddball sense of humor. 183 00:07:21,049 --> 00:07:24,426 He went to Film School at USC. 184 00:07:24,426 --> 00:07:26,890 I don’t remember Charlie ever making any movies, 185 00:07:26,890 --> 00:07:30,432 but Charlie was involved with all of the filmmakers 186 00:07:30,432 --> 00:07:32,929 and keeping track of everyone. 187 00:07:32,929 --> 00:07:33,897 He was like a den mother. 188 00:07:33,897 --> 00:07:35,998 But when I learned, shortly thereafter, 189 00:07:35,998 --> 00:07:38,671 that Charlie was becoming a publicist, 190 00:07:38,671 --> 00:07:40,068 it made perfect sense to me. 191 00:07:40,068 --> 00:07:42,444 I’m talking with Charlie Lippincott, who is 192 00:07:42,444 --> 00:07:43,577 associated with the production. 193 00:07:43,577 --> 00:07:46,877 Charlie, could you tell us exactly how are you associated? 194 00:07:46,877 --> 00:07:49,616 I’m the executive in charge of advertising, publicity, 195 00:07:49,616 --> 00:07:52,817 promotion, and merchandising for Star Wars corporation. 196 00:07:52,817 --> 00:07:54,016 Charlie had come up with the idea 197 00:07:54,016 --> 00:07:57,591 of marketing Star Wars directly to fans 198 00:07:57,591 --> 00:08:02,926 because there really wasn’t a good hook for marketing Star 199 00:08:02,926 --> 00:08:03,630 Wars. 200 00:08:03,630 --> 00:08:04,895 Science fiction wasn’t popular. 201 00:08:04,895 --> 00:08:07,128 None of the actors were big names 202 00:08:07,128 --> 00:08:10,098 that you could get booked on The Tonight Show. 203 00:08:10,098 --> 00:08:12,034 A year before Star Wars came out, 204 00:08:12,034 --> 00:08:15,774 Charlie went and showed slides about this movie 205 00:08:15,774 --> 00:08:18,678 and got this amazing groundswell. 206 00:08:18,678 --> 00:08:21,945 Fandom was never really a part of the marketing plan 207 00:08:21,945 --> 00:08:24,783 until Charlie Lippincott made it so. 208 00:08:24,783 --> 00:08:28,083 Even though he didn’t have footage to show them, 209 00:08:28,083 --> 00:08:31,526 he would show them like Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork. 210 00:08:31,526 --> 00:08:36,960 He would tell them the story of what the film was about. 211 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,501 He went to the Star Trek conventions 212 00:08:39,501 --> 00:08:41,063 and got the Trekkies interested in it. 213 00:08:41,063 --> 00:08:44,033 And this is something right up their alley. 214 00:08:44,033 --> 00:08:46,541 The idea is if you can get the enthusiasm 215 00:08:46,541 --> 00:08:47,707 with them, that will spread. 216 00:08:47,707 --> 00:08:48,972 These are the kind of people that 217 00:08:48,972 --> 00:08:51,172 will see a movie 10 times if they like it. 218 00:08:51,172 --> 00:08:55,616 I’d like to introduce you now to producer Gary Kurtz. 219 00:08:58,883 --> 00:09:01,424 And the star of the film, Mark Hamill, 220 00:09:01,424 --> 00:09:03,888 who plays Luke Skywalker. 221 00:09:03,888 --> 00:09:05,956 He knew how to get people excited 222 00:09:05,956 --> 00:09:09,795 and how to stir up interest and word of mouth. 223 00:09:09,795 --> 00:09:13,502 And from these science fiction conventions, 224 00:09:13,502 --> 00:09:16,901 people left being interested to see what 225 00:09:16,901 --> 00:09:18,034 this film was going to be like. 226 00:09:18,034 --> 00:09:20,542 And then they would tell their friends about it. 227 00:09:20,542 --> 00:09:24,073 Ballantine Books was one of the major houses 228 00:09:24,073 --> 00:09:28,209 in paperbacks-- major publisher in science fiction. 229 00:09:28,209 --> 00:09:31,520 Charlie went to them and made a deal 230 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:34,457 to do a novelization of Star Wars 231 00:09:34,457 --> 00:09:36,855 and have it come out like nine months 232 00:09:36,855 --> 00:09:40,122 before the movie came out to get it out there. 233 00:09:40,122 --> 00:09:43,697 And then Charlie made a deal with Marvel Comics 234 00:09:43,697 --> 00:09:48,196 to do the comic bookization of Star Wars. 235 00:09:48,196 --> 00:09:52,574 And the real problem, I think, in some ways, 236 00:09:52,574 --> 00:09:56,776 was I didn’t want one comic book, 237 00:09:56,776 --> 00:09:57,942 and I didn’t want two comic books. 238 00:09:57,942 --> 00:10:02,815 I wanted five to six comic books telling the story of the film. 239 00:10:02,815 --> 00:10:07,017 So that was a bit of a hard sell at first. 240 00:10:07,017 --> 00:10:09,921 And I wanted at least three issues out 241 00:10:09,921 --> 00:10:10,889 before the film came out. 242 00:10:10,889 --> 00:10:14,057 And nobody had done that up to that time. 243 00:10:14,057 --> 00:10:16,895 Basically, everything with Star Wars 244 00:10:16,895 --> 00:10:20,833 that wasn’t making the movie was Charlie. 245 00:10:20,833 --> 00:10:24,573 He taught Hollywood a very important lesson 246 00:10:24,573 --> 00:10:27,004 that they are still learning from today. 247 00:10:27,004 --> 00:10:33,010 Nine months after Charlie started these fan promotions, 248 00:10:33,010 --> 00:10:34,649 the movie comes out. 249 00:10:35,749 --> 00:10:37,278 To the world famous Chinese Theater 250 00:10:37,278 --> 00:10:41,183 come the stars of the biggest box office success 251 00:10:41,183 --> 00:10:43,856 in motion picture history. 252 00:10:43,856 --> 00:10:44,626 Star Wars. 253 00:10:44,626 --> 00:10:46,562 It is more than just a successful movie, 254 00:10:46,562 --> 00:10:47,662 it is a box office phenomenon. 255 00:10:47,662 --> 00:10:51,226 The film is breaking attendance records all over the country. 256 00:10:51,226 --> 00:10:53,965 Not since Jaws have so many people 257 00:10:53,965 --> 00:10:55,164 stood in line to see a movie. 258 00:10:55,164 --> 00:10:58,904 It was kind of like a nuclear explosion had gone off 259 00:10:58,904 --> 00:10:59,773 in pop culture. 260 00:10:59,773 --> 00:11:00,774 It blew people’s minds. 261 00:11:00,774 --> 00:11:04,041 I mean, I remember people waiting in line all day 262 00:11:04,041 --> 00:11:04,943 to see this movie. 263 00:11:04,943 --> 00:11:06,747 Star Wars became the new box office champion 264 00:11:06,747 --> 00:11:09,310 by providing pure, 100% escapist entertainment. 265 00:11:09,310 --> 00:11:13,281 And it appears this is what just about everybody in the country 266 00:11:13,281 --> 00:11:14,623 is in the mood for. 267 00:11:14,623 --> 00:11:16,020 This was world-changing. 268 00:11:16,020 --> 00:11:17,153 It’s like the Beatles. 269 00:11:17,153 --> 00:11:21,564 We’d all seen science fiction movies before, but not 270 00:11:21,564 --> 00:11:22,125 like this. 271 00:11:22,125 --> 00:11:23,731 It only opened in America at the end of May, 272 00:11:23,731 --> 00:11:25,832 but already it’s the biggest box office hit in cinema history. 273 00:11:25,832 --> 00:11:28,835 The overwhelming success of the picture surprised everybody. 274 00:11:28,835 --> 00:11:31,904 As one Fox executive put it, it’s not so much a film, 275 00:11:31,904 --> 00:11:32,938 it’s more an industry. 276 00:11:32,938 --> 00:11:37,074 I love that the world between Star Wars and Empire-- 277 00:11:37,074 --> 00:11:41,848 the world between Star Wars and Empire to me is this bizarre-- 278 00:11:41,848 --> 00:11:43,949 it’s not completely thought out. 279 00:11:43,949 --> 00:11:45,181 There’s no mythology built up. 280 00:11:45,181 --> 00:11:47,348 For the fans, it’s interesting in many ways. 281 00:11:47,348 --> 00:11:49,284 One of the ways, it gives them an insight 282 00:11:49,284 --> 00:11:51,352 into this very brief period where 283 00:11:51,352 --> 00:11:52,925 things were not set up yet. 284 00:11:52,925 --> 00:11:55,730 And it was kind of like Lucasfilm 1.5. 285 00:11:55,730 --> 00:11:58,832 1.0 is over, but 2.0 wasn’t there yet. 286 00:11:58,832 --> 00:12:02,198 And it wasn’t until Empire forward that everything 287 00:12:02,198 --> 00:12:03,166 became more fully formed. 288 00:12:03,166 --> 00:12:05,641 So I have a real affection for that time 289 00:12:05,641 --> 00:12:09,271 where it was this wild thing that nobody could figure out. 290 00:12:09,271 --> 00:12:13,341 So somewhere in the summer after Star Wars has come out, 291 00:12:13,341 --> 00:12:18,082 George takes a meeting with Frank Wells of Warner Brothers 292 00:12:18,082 --> 00:12:20,854 with Gary Kurtz and Charlie Lippincott. 293 00:12:20,854 --> 00:12:25,628 The goal of that meeting was to re-release to try and piggyback 294 00:12:25,628 --> 00:12:27,025 on the success of Star Wars. 295 00:12:27,025 --> 00:12:31,095 Somewhere along the line in that meeting, 296 00:12:31,095 --> 00:12:35,000 Frank said something to George to the effect of, 297 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,102 come September you guys will be nothing. 298 00:12:38,102 --> 00:12:41,875 And George left really angry. 299 00:12:41,875 --> 00:12:45,978 And so, it kind of redoubled George’s interest 300 00:12:45,978 --> 00:12:49,410 in making sure Star Wars succeeded 301 00:12:49,410 --> 00:12:51,346 and continued to be in theaters. 302 00:12:51,346 --> 00:12:55,053 To promote Star Wars, getting the stars of Star Wars 303 00:12:55,053 --> 00:12:57,759 to appear on all of these talk and variety shows-- 304 00:12:57,759 --> 00:13:00,993 Donny and Marie or any of these other places. 305 00:13:00,993 --> 00:13:03,094 The Star Wars Holiday Special may well 306 00:13:03,094 --> 00:13:05,767 have been created out of spite. 307 00:13:07,032 --> 00:13:08,869 We’re Darth Vader’s raiders, 308 00:13:08,869 --> 00:13:12,136 and we can’t believe the things that you do. 309 00:13:12,136 --> 00:13:13,269 You’re all right. 310 00:13:13,269 --> 00:13:15,238 We never met a trooper played hide and-- 311 00:13:15,238 --> 00:13:18,912 My brothers were dressed as the storm troopers dancing. 312 00:13:18,912 --> 00:13:24,049 I’m Luke, and Marie’s Leah with the bagels 313 00:13:24,049 --> 00:13:25,083 on the side of her head. 314 00:13:25,083 --> 00:13:27,217 Han solo, played by Kris Christofferson. 315 00:13:27,217 --> 00:13:31,892 And I’m dancing around R2-D2, and there’s C-3PO, 316 00:13:31,892 --> 00:13:34,829 and we’re talking, and Chewbacca is there. 317 00:13:34,829 --> 00:13:35,995 And I’m thinking, this is probably 318 00:13:35,995 --> 00:13:37,799 one of the coolest finales we’ve ever done. 319 00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:42,804 His transistors are in trouble and his tubes are weak. 320 00:13:45,103 --> 00:13:48,139 And if we stay, our chances for survival are bleak. 321 00:13:48,139 --> 00:13:53,441 So show us the way to get out of this world for that’s 322 00:13:53,441 --> 00:13:57,819 where everything is. 323 00:14:00,118 --> 00:14:04,991 I’m thinking, how in the world is George Lucas allowing 324 00:14:04,991 --> 00:14:05,860 this to happen? 325 00:14:05,860 --> 00:14:10,491 Because that’s just so far from the movie. 326 00:14:10,491 --> 00:14:12,834 But it sure was funny at the time, 327 00:14:12,834 --> 00:14:15,067 and it’s funny to look back right now. 328 00:14:15,067 --> 00:14:16,904 Push the fuel button. 329 00:14:16,904 --> 00:14:19,137 Light the fire. 330 00:14:19,137 --> 00:14:19,907 Fire. 331 00:14:19,907 --> 00:14:21,843 Going to take you higher. 332 00:14:22,811 --> 00:14:25,110 We broke a lot of rules when we had the Star Wars 333 00:14:25,110 --> 00:14:27,750 characters on the Donny and Marie show for that finale. 334 00:14:27,750 --> 00:14:30,148 There was a shot with Chewbacca with his arm 335 00:14:30,148 --> 00:14:31,446 around Darth Vader. 336 00:14:31,446 --> 00:14:32,183 Oof. 337 00:14:32,183 --> 00:14:33,151 How does that happen? 338 00:14:33,151 --> 00:14:36,286 But on Donny and Marie, I guess everybody was friends. 339 00:14:37,485 --> 00:14:41,060 Come back to me. 340 00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:43,766 Come back to me. 341 00:14:43,766 --> 00:14:46,131 Come back to me! 342 00:14:46,131 --> 00:14:51,136 The Star Wars Holiday Special is Citizen Kane compared 343 00:14:51,136 --> 00:14:52,236 to that Donny and Marie thing. 344 00:14:52,236 --> 00:14:57,142 I mean, that’s truly train wreck sort of television. 345 00:14:57,142 --> 00:14:59,309 You-- you intergalactic fool. 346 00:14:59,309 --> 00:15:01,476 You’ll never get them back that way. 347 00:15:01,476 --> 00:15:03,148 I suppose you have a better plan. 348 00:15:03,148 --> 00:15:06,415 No plan at all, just a little "force." 349 00:15:06,415 --> 00:15:09,121 You can’t imagine that happening in 1981. 350 00:15:09,121 --> 00:15:11,420 Like, that Star Wars couldn’t have gone 351 00:15:11,420 --> 00:15:13,224 near a show like that in ’81. 352 00:15:13,224 --> 00:15:16,524 But in ’77, everyone’s going, I don’t know what this is 353 00:15:16,524 --> 00:15:19,461 or how big it’s going to be, but yeah, take it. 354 00:15:19,461 --> 00:15:20,132 Go. 355 00:15:20,132 --> 00:15:21,199 Put it on a t-shirt or whatever. 356 00:15:21,199 --> 00:15:22,134 Put it in your show. 357 00:15:22,134 --> 00:15:23,564 Do a dance with the stormtroopers. 358 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:29,405 But fee-fi-fo-fum, look out people, cause here we come. 359 00:15:29,405 --> 00:15:31,308 I think that’s one of the coolest moments 360 00:15:31,308 --> 00:15:32,848 my brothers ever had in show business 361 00:15:32,848 --> 00:15:38,084 was transforming stormtroopers to vaudevillian dancers. 362 00:15:38,084 --> 00:15:41,582 That’s so funny. 363 00:15:41,582 --> 00:15:44,123 So get ready. 364 00:15:44,123 --> 00:15:45,124 Get ready. 365 00:15:45,124 --> 00:15:45,960 Here we come. 366 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:50,228 So the public appearances helped the ticket sales 367 00:15:50,228 --> 00:15:51,031 in the theaters. 368 00:15:51,031 --> 00:15:54,595 They had the entire family watching the Donny and Marie 369 00:15:54,595 --> 00:15:55,299 Show. 370 00:15:55,299 --> 00:15:57,972 George wanted to tap into that magic. 371 00:15:57,972 --> 00:16:00,843 We had the demographics that he wanted. 372 00:16:00,843 --> 00:16:04,847 And through research, he was right. 373 00:16:04,847 --> 00:16:06,376 And that Donny and Marie Show aired, 374 00:16:06,376 --> 00:16:10,182 and everybody saw Star Wars characters on Donny and Marie. 375 00:16:10,182 --> 00:16:11,282 They went back to the theater. 376 00:16:11,282 --> 00:16:14,054 It’s almost as if at that time in the entertainment world 377 00:16:14,054 --> 00:16:15,583 there were like two tracks. 378 00:16:15,583 --> 00:16:17,354 It was, like, for entertainment. 379 00:16:17,354 --> 00:16:19,026 And it had been going on since the silent movies, 380 00:16:19,026 --> 00:16:24,064 where you did your kind of high art form, which was the movie, 381 00:16:24,064 --> 00:16:26,935 and then you did a lot of stuff to support it, 382 00:16:26,935 --> 00:16:27,562 whatever it took. 383 00:16:27,562 --> 00:16:30,202 If you had to put on the disguise in front of a shopping 384 00:16:30,202 --> 00:16:31,236 mall, you did it. 385 00:16:31,236 --> 00:16:32,336 And they did it for Star Wars. 386 00:16:32,336 --> 00:16:34,470 George was about to start shooting The Empire Strikes 387 00:16:34,470 --> 00:16:39,310 Back, and he was concerned that there be momentum, 388 00:16:39,310 --> 00:16:43,545 that there would be a stirring the pot to make sure people 389 00:16:43,545 --> 00:16:44,920 were aware of the franchise. 390 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:46,955 And you saw the proliferation of Star Wars 391 00:16:46,955 --> 00:16:50,486 on television in the late 1970s, in 1977 specifically, 392 00:16:50,486 --> 00:16:56,393 on these variety shows, as a way to keep Star Wars cemented 393 00:16:56,393 --> 00:16:57,229 in the zeitgeist. 394 00:16:57,229 --> 00:16:58,934 Prior to that, the big movie was Jaws, right? 395 00:16:58,934 --> 00:17:00,936 But you couldn’t just throw Jaws onto a thing. 396 00:17:00,936 --> 00:17:03,004 Like, ladies and gentlemen, Jaws is here to sing. 397 00:17:03,004 --> 00:17:05,941 In retrospect, I think it’s exceptionally foolish, 398 00:17:05,941 --> 00:17:07,943 because the brand was not going to die. 399 00:17:07,943 --> 00:17:09,109 It was very, very popular. 400 00:17:09,109 --> 00:17:14,246 Somebody, somewhere, said, if we don’t give them something, 401 00:17:14,246 --> 00:17:15,379 they’re going to forget about us. 402 00:17:15,379 --> 00:17:18,349 And suddenly, it’s everywhere on TV after that. 403 00:17:18,349 --> 00:17:21,924 Like, just the promotion was everywhere you looked. 404 00:17:21,924 --> 00:17:24,025 Let’s crank out as much stuff as we can. 405 00:17:24,025 --> 00:17:28,260 Let’s let Richard Pryor have all the alien makeup for a cantina 406 00:17:28,260 --> 00:17:29,294 sketch on his show. 407 00:17:34,035 --> 00:17:35,432 That sketch actually kind of works. 408 00:17:35,432 --> 00:17:37,368 It’s Richard Pryor in that world, 409 00:17:37,368 --> 00:17:42,439 and he’s using it to ding riffs on race, and social class, 410 00:17:42,439 --> 00:17:43,572 and stuff like that. 411 00:17:43,572 --> 00:17:44,276 Hey, Hey. 412 00:17:44,276 --> 00:17:44,947 Hey! 413 00:17:44,947 --> 00:17:46,344 Why don’t you watch where you’re going? 414 00:17:46,344 --> 00:17:47,708 You got the biggest eyes in the place. 415 00:17:48,951 --> 00:17:50,282 Also, these characters weren’t embedded 416 00:17:50,282 --> 00:17:52,383 in our consciousness the way they are now. 417 00:17:52,383 --> 00:17:53,582 We’d met them once in one film. 418 00:17:53,582 --> 00:17:57,520 It’s not like we’d gone on a nine-film adventure with R2-D2, 419 00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:59,324 and we know the parameters of R2-D2 420 00:17:59,324 --> 00:18:01,062 or how he would speak-- or C-3PO. 421 00:18:01,062 --> 00:18:02,162 Hello, welcome to Burger Chef. 422 00:18:02,162 --> 00:18:04,098 We’d like a Star Wars poster, please. 423 00:18:04,098 --> 00:18:05,033 Or even Darth Vader. 424 00:18:05,033 --> 00:18:07,662 With guest appearances by Darth Vader! 425 00:18:07,662 --> 00:18:08,465 Humongous. 426 00:18:17,144 --> 00:18:18,409 We’d seen them once in that film, 427 00:18:18,409 --> 00:18:19,674 and that was the only voice we knew. 428 00:18:19,674 --> 00:18:22,215 So the fact that Darth Vader was being lampooned, 429 00:18:22,215 --> 00:18:25,020 or that the droids were doing things out of context, or even 430 00:18:25,020 --> 00:18:27,715 Mark Hamill was doing something in a different way-- 431 00:18:27,715 --> 00:18:29,750 Bob Hope’s All-Star Christmas Comedy 432 00:18:29,750 --> 00:18:34,557 Special, starring special guest star Mark Hamill. 433 00:18:51,673 --> 00:18:56,018 It’s more egregious now looking back than it was, I think, 434 00:18:56,018 --> 00:18:56,612 at the time. 435 00:18:56,612 --> 00:18:59,351 It was a very normal way of getting it out there, 436 00:18:59,351 --> 00:19:02,156 and Star Wars embraced that opportunity. 437 00:19:02,156 --> 00:19:03,751 Its Luke Skywalker! 438 00:19:03,751 --> 00:19:05,225 Did you bring the force? 439 00:19:05,225 --> 00:19:06,259 You better believe it. 440 00:19:06,259 --> 00:19:08,525 The Los Angeles Police Force. 441 00:19:09,295 --> 00:19:10,791 How did you find them? 442 00:19:11,561 --> 00:19:14,366 Now, you’re all under arrest for malicious mutilation 443 00:19:14,366 --> 00:19:16,137 of a marvelous movie. 444 00:19:17,039 --> 00:19:20,669 I should have stuck to looking for Mr. Goodbar. 445 00:19:20,669 --> 00:19:23,408 Any kind of artwork out of context 446 00:19:23,408 --> 00:19:24,541 is going to look funny-- 447 00:19:24,541 --> 00:19:26,246 any kind of artwork. 448 00:19:26,246 --> 00:19:27,478 Any kind, period. 449 00:19:27,478 --> 00:19:31,614 If you don’t know the history and the context, 450 00:19:31,614 --> 00:19:33,055 you cannot appreciate it fully. 451 00:19:33,055 --> 00:19:36,157 This was in the days of crazy specials-- you know, 452 00:19:36,157 --> 00:19:38,687 Wayne Newton at SeaWorld. 453 00:19:38,687 --> 00:19:40,821 Wayne, meet Shamu. 454 00:19:40,821 --> 00:19:42,361 Kids, let’s do a show. 455 00:19:42,361 --> 00:19:47,762 From Orlando, Florida, it’s Wayne Newton at SeaWorld. 456 00:19:48,532 --> 00:19:51,073 And special guest appearance by Shamu, the killer whale! 457 00:19:52,404 --> 00:19:54,736 old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog. 458 00:19:54,736 --> 00:20:01,248 When ’70s TV was bad, there was no description for it. 459 00:20:01,248 --> 00:20:03,580 I mean, it’s corny, and it’s stupid. 460 00:20:03,580 --> 00:20:04,746 That’s kind of what it was. 461 00:20:04,746 --> 00:20:06,550 Everybody had a variety show. 462 00:20:06,550 --> 00:20:09,487 Howard Cosell had a variety show. 463 00:20:09,487 --> 00:20:12,127 You know what’s going to make this show work? 464 00:20:12,127 --> 00:20:14,690 Yours truly, the born superstar. 465 00:20:14,690 --> 00:20:16,725 Didn’t Shields and Yarnell have a show? 466 00:20:16,725 --> 00:20:22,170 They were mimes, and they did something on Donny and Marie, 467 00:20:22,170 --> 00:20:23,105 and it was popular. 468 00:20:23,105 --> 00:20:24,535 So they went, well, give them a show. 469 00:20:24,535 --> 00:20:25,503 Let’s see if it works. 470 00:20:25,503 --> 00:20:27,637 At least ’70s television was way more in touch 471 00:20:27,637 --> 00:20:30,409 with, hey, no one knows anything. 472 00:20:30,409 --> 00:20:31,278 Oh, didn’t work. 473 00:20:31,278 --> 00:20:32,147 Well, we tried. 474 00:20:32,147 --> 00:20:33,115 Like, they don’t know. 475 00:20:33,115 --> 00:20:33,709 They don’t know! 476 00:20:33,709 --> 00:20:36,844 It became a way to bring the family together 477 00:20:36,844 --> 00:20:41,354 in front of the television set without fully satisfying 478 00:20:41,354 --> 00:20:43,521 any one member of that family. 479 00:20:43,521 --> 00:20:44,852 It was disposable television. 480 00:20:44,852 --> 00:20:48,889 People are going to see this once, and that’s it. 481 00:20:48,889 --> 00:20:51,265 Variety shows did not repeat well. 482 00:20:51,265 --> 00:20:52,728 They look arcane today. 483 00:20:52,728 --> 00:20:55,533 The funny thing is, if you think the Star Wars Holiday 484 00:20:55,533 --> 00:21:01,143 Special is bad or the "worst thing" that ever aired on TV, 485 00:21:01,143 --> 00:21:03,607 you never saw The Lawrence Welk Show. 486 00:21:03,607 --> 00:21:07,545 And that calls for a little soul music. 487 00:21:15,223 --> 00:21:20,294 You never saw the Paul Lynde Halloween special. 488 00:21:20,294 --> 00:21:22,692 Move it in, move it out. 489 00:21:22,692 --> 00:21:24,727 Move it in and about. 490 00:21:24,727 --> 00:21:26,267 Disco baby. 491 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:32,174 You never saw The Brady Bunch Variety Show. 492 00:21:34,275 --> 00:21:37,905 There’s a new kind of dancing. 493 00:21:37,905 --> 00:21:40,413 It’s going to be the rage. 494 00:21:40,413 --> 00:21:45,913 Just move yourself behind like an actor on a stage. 495 00:21:45,913 --> 00:21:49,389 The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and the Paul Lynde Halloween 496 00:21:49,389 --> 00:21:52,689 Special, those stand out because they are so bad. 497 00:21:52,689 --> 00:21:56,693 But there are other ones that are forgotten just because they 498 00:21:56,693 --> 00:21:59,201 weren’t even memorably bad. 499 00:21:59,201 --> 00:22:02,765 There are astronomically worse shows 500 00:22:02,765 --> 00:22:07,209 that aired around this time, they just didn’t carry the name 501 00:22:07,209 --> 00:22:07,935 Star Wars. 502 00:22:07,935 --> 00:22:11,675 The Star Wars Holiday Special happened, again, 503 00:22:11,675 --> 00:22:12,907 for multiple reasons. 504 00:22:12,907 --> 00:22:16,680 CBS approached Lucasfilm wanting to do it. 505 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:20,552 We talked to George at one point about how this happened. 506 00:22:20,552 --> 00:22:21,850 You don’t like this piece of content. 507 00:22:21,850 --> 00:22:25,722 How does anything that you don’t like or you didn’t approve of 508 00:22:25,722 --> 00:22:26,525 get through? 509 00:22:26,525 --> 00:22:27,988 It’s like, it’s not that I didn’t approve of it. 510 00:22:27,988 --> 00:22:30,430 There was so much pressure in between Star Wars and Empire. 511 00:22:30,430 --> 00:22:32,795 The way that executives thought about the audience 512 00:22:32,795 --> 00:22:35,897 is that everyone would just forget Star Wars was a thing. 513 00:22:35,897 --> 00:22:37,701 The audience, they just can’t be depended upon. 514 00:22:37,701 --> 00:22:42,475 So you got to make some other kind of short-term Star Wars 515 00:22:42,475 --> 00:22:42,937 content. 516 00:22:42,937 --> 00:22:44,378 What kind of TV show can you make 517 00:22:44,378 --> 00:22:46,281 on the kind of budget it takes to make Star Wars? 518 00:22:46,281 --> 00:22:48,646 And they’re like, holiday special. 519 00:22:48,646 --> 00:22:50,318 And this was a way, a TV special, 520 00:22:50,318 --> 00:22:53,585 to get mass exposure, to get more excitement until Empire 521 00:22:53,585 --> 00:22:56,852 comes back and certainly it would help the toys. 522 00:22:56,852 --> 00:23:00,262 Star Wars, the toys came later on. 523 00:23:00,262 --> 00:23:02,891 They were ill-prepared for how successful 524 00:23:02,891 --> 00:23:03,925 the movie was going to be. 525 00:23:03,925 --> 00:23:06,466 Because there was no such thing as merchandising on movies. 526 00:23:06,466 --> 00:23:08,435 Some TV stuff, but not movies. 527 00:23:08,435 --> 00:23:09,865 Their lifespan is just too short. 528 00:23:09,865 --> 00:23:12,736 Back then, by the time you would get a toy line out, 529 00:23:12,736 --> 00:23:14,969 it would be 12 months to 18 months 530 00:23:14,969 --> 00:23:17,345 after the movie already left theaters, 531 00:23:17,345 --> 00:23:18,643 and nobody would remember the movie. 532 00:23:18,643 --> 00:23:20,909 So nobody was willing to take that risk. 533 00:23:20,909 --> 00:23:22,746 The official Kenner Star Wars models 534 00:23:22,746 --> 00:23:24,517 are still in production in the orient 535 00:23:24,517 --> 00:23:26,288 and won’t be ready for several months. 536 00:23:26,288 --> 00:23:30,655 First Christmas, every kid in America wants a Star Wars toy, 537 00:23:30,655 --> 00:23:32,756 but they had nothing to sell for Christmas. 538 00:23:32,756 --> 00:23:36,727 And so, what they did was they sold you a coupon that you 539 00:23:36,727 --> 00:23:41,732 would send in, and once the toys had been made, 540 00:23:41,732 --> 00:23:43,503 they would ship you a set. 541 00:23:43,503 --> 00:23:47,034 But in 1978, the toys were everywhere. 542 00:23:47,034 --> 00:23:51,379 And this was the first Christmas where you could get Star Wars 543 00:23:51,379 --> 00:23:52,446 toys, Star Wars everything. 544 00:23:52,446 --> 00:23:56,780 And a key component of marketing that was the Star Wars Holiday 545 00:23:56,780 --> 00:23:57,451 Special. 546 00:23:57,451 --> 00:23:59,783 May the force be with you and your children. 547 00:24:03,391 --> 00:24:07,329 Our agent called and said that there’s a Star Wars Holiday 548 00:24:07,329 --> 00:24:07,791 Special. 549 00:24:07,791 --> 00:24:09,595 And we got really excited because we 550 00:24:09,595 --> 00:24:13,731 thought this was going to be our annuity, that this holiday 551 00:24:13,731 --> 00:24:17,768 show would run every year for an eternity. 552 00:24:17,768 --> 00:24:20,639 The Charlie Brown Christmas, the Grinch That 553 00:24:20,639 --> 00:24:23,774 Stole Christmas I mean, all of these things that’ll 554 00:24:23,774 --> 00:24:24,643 be one forever. 555 00:24:24,643 --> 00:24:27,382 As it turned out, it was only one viewing. 556 00:24:27,382 --> 00:24:29,780 So the people who wrote the special-- 557 00:24:29,780 --> 00:24:31,551 and there were a bunch of them-- 558 00:24:31,551 --> 00:24:33,520 were not science fiction people. 559 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:35,456 They weren’t Star Wars fans. 560 00:24:35,456 --> 00:24:38,591 I don’t know if they all had even seen Star Wars. 561 00:24:38,591 --> 00:24:40,923 They were people who wrote variety, 562 00:24:40,923 --> 00:24:42,430 and that’s what this show was. 563 00:24:42,430 --> 00:24:45,829 It just happened to be themed to Star Wars. 564 00:24:45,829 --> 00:24:48,535 I mean, you have to remember, we were comedy writers. 565 00:24:48,535 --> 00:24:54,673 And to get into something like this was really thrilling. 566 00:24:54,673 --> 00:24:56,004 And I said, where do I sign? 567 00:24:56,004 --> 00:24:59,744 And it was fun from the beginning. 568 00:24:59,744 --> 00:25:03,550 And the first day it was the staff-- 569 00:25:03,550 --> 00:25:05,420 Lenny Ripps and Pat Proft. 570 00:25:05,420 --> 00:25:06,014 They were there. 571 00:25:06,014 --> 00:25:08,588 And Ken and Mitzie Welch, who were writers 572 00:25:08,588 --> 00:25:13,120 from The Carol Burnett Show, who did all the big musical things, 573 00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:13,923 and George-- 574 00:25:13,923 --> 00:25:14,759 George Lucas. 575 00:25:14,759 --> 00:25:16,057 And Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, 576 00:25:16,057 --> 00:25:18,961 who were actually allegedly producing it, 577 00:25:18,961 --> 00:25:21,502 but they didn’t really produce it in the end. 578 00:25:21,502 --> 00:25:24,098 When I was looking at the credits on the show and I saw 579 00:25:24,098 --> 00:25:25,968 that they had-- it was a Smith-Hemion-- 580 00:25:25,968 --> 00:25:28,476 I said, it was a Smith-Hemion production? 581 00:25:28,476 --> 00:25:29,103 That’s so stupid. 582 00:25:29,103 --> 00:25:30,610 Because I don’t remember them being there. 583 00:25:30,610 --> 00:25:32,975 But they were at the beginning when I thought about it. 584 00:25:32,975 --> 00:25:34,482 And the other thing was we worked 585 00:25:34,482 --> 00:25:38,112 with his director, a guy named David Acomba, who 586 00:25:38,112 --> 00:25:42,952 was a director of rock and roll videos. 587 00:25:42,952 --> 00:25:48,463 He made a successful rock and roll documentary there. 588 00:25:48,463 --> 00:25:50,828 And there was that USC connection. 589 00:25:50,828 --> 00:25:51,994 David was the voice of George. 590 00:25:51,994 --> 00:25:55,899 If David had an idea, or we wanted to run something by him, 591 00:25:55,899 --> 00:25:58,671 or there were questions, our assumption 592 00:25:58,671 --> 00:26:02,774 was that it’s also what George wanted. 593 00:26:02,774 --> 00:26:05,645 My intent was to see what George wanted 594 00:26:05,645 --> 00:26:07,009 and try and make it happen. 595 00:26:07,009 --> 00:26:07,977 But quickly there were-- 596 00:26:07,977 --> 00:26:11,145 Ken and Mitzie were assigned to the show, whom I didn’t know. 597 00:26:11,145 --> 00:26:13,785 And then, when I found out what they did, I mean, 598 00:26:13,785 --> 00:26:17,624 they wrote the music for the singing numbers and that. 599 00:26:17,624 --> 00:26:19,120 I just thought that was one of the worst 600 00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:20,858 parts of the show when she started singing 601 00:26:20,858 --> 00:26:25,500 and all those kinds of fake, Broadway, forgettable show 602 00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:25,995 tunes. 603 00:26:25,995 --> 00:26:28,096 The wrong people to be assigned to work with me or vice versa. 604 00:26:28,096 --> 00:26:31,968 The film industry and the variety television industry 605 00:26:31,968 --> 00:26:34,542 are completely two separate animals. 606 00:26:34,542 --> 00:26:37,611 I hear that David did not get along with the Welches. 607 00:26:37,611 --> 00:26:39,041 And I didn’t realize that because I 608 00:26:39,041 --> 00:26:42,110 wasn’t in the room with them when that was happening. 609 00:26:42,110 --> 00:26:44,816 But that was the team. 610 00:26:44,816 --> 00:26:48,116 What’s so unique about the Star Wars Holiday Special is not 611 00:26:48,116 --> 00:26:51,658 just that they have the costumes and the permission 612 00:26:51,658 --> 00:26:53,924 to use everything that we know of Star Wars, 613 00:26:53,924 --> 00:26:56,762 but they actually got the cast-- 614 00:26:56,762 --> 00:26:57,829 the cast of Star Wars. 615 00:26:57,829 --> 00:27:00,260 When I read it, I said this is awful. 616 00:27:04,803 --> 00:27:07,201 I was-- it was in my contract. 617 00:27:08,103 --> 00:27:09,038 There was no way-- 618 00:27:09,038 --> 00:27:10,809 no known way-- to get out of it. 619 00:27:10,809 --> 00:27:13,042 Oh, all right, but I’m not singing! 620 00:27:13,042 --> 00:27:15,814 They all slum it for a TV special. 621 00:27:15,814 --> 00:27:19,719 Again, I have to imagine the paychecks made it worth it. 622 00:27:19,719 --> 00:27:24,691 The talent was supposed to be the caliber of Cher, 623 00:27:24,691 --> 00:27:27,254 Baryshnikov, and Ann-Margaret. 624 00:27:27,254 --> 00:27:29,960 That was the people that they had hoped 625 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:31,929 would be on the variety show. 626 00:27:31,929 --> 00:27:33,832 I didn’t think it was going to be 627 00:27:33,832 --> 00:27:35,702 so much of a traditional variety show. 628 00:27:35,702 --> 00:27:40,201 It never occurred to me that Harvey Korman, and Bea Arthur, 629 00:27:40,201 --> 00:27:41,873 and Art Carney were going to be in it. 630 00:27:41,873 --> 00:27:47,241 Yes, they were TV stars, but they were the elderly audience, 631 00:27:47,241 --> 00:27:49,111 CBS audience TV stars. 632 00:27:49,111 --> 00:27:51,278 It always occurred to me as something that 633 00:27:51,278 --> 00:27:54,754 was put together by old TV. 634 00:27:54,754 --> 00:27:56,151 You know, what is this? 635 00:27:56,151 --> 00:27:57,119 Star what? 636 00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:57,823 Whatever. 637 00:27:57,823 --> 00:27:59,055 You know, where’s Captain Kirk? 638 00:27:59,055 --> 00:28:00,859 Bring in-- you know who we need? 639 00:28:00,859 --> 00:28:01,662 Art Carney. 640 00:28:01,662 --> 00:28:02,289 He’s a TV legend. 641 00:28:02,289 --> 00:28:06,667 You felt like they could have had cooler, hipper 642 00:28:06,667 --> 00:28:08,933 people that they would have brought in 643 00:28:08,933 --> 00:28:10,000 to do these various parts. 644 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,266 Ken and Mitzie were old school, and they were 645 00:28:12,266 --> 00:28:14,136 used to doing it a certain way. 646 00:28:14,136 --> 00:28:18,272 And David wasn’t crazy about that. 647 00:28:18,272 --> 00:28:22,144 So there’s an interesting rumor about the Star Wars Holiday 648 00:28:22,144 --> 00:28:24,652 Special, which I’ve always found fascinating, 649 00:28:24,652 --> 00:28:29,118 which is that David Acomba was scouring improv clubs looking 650 00:28:29,118 --> 00:28:32,858 for great acts that could appear in the special 651 00:28:32,858 --> 00:28:34,662 and came across Robin Williams. 652 00:28:34,662 --> 00:28:38,325 This was after he’d already been Mork on Happy Days 653 00:28:38,325 --> 00:28:42,967 but before he had gotten Mork and Mindy on the air. 654 00:28:42,967 --> 00:28:48,038 And he brought Robin to the Welches, who 655 00:28:48,038 --> 00:28:50,073 immediately turned him away and said, 656 00:28:50,073 --> 00:28:51,745 we’re only looking for name talent. 657 00:28:51,745 --> 00:28:54,374 About a month later Mork and Mindy airs, 658 00:28:54,374 --> 00:28:57,751 and Robin Williams explodes and could 659 00:28:57,751 --> 00:29:02,250 have been a part of what made the Star Wars Holiday 660 00:29:02,250 --> 00:29:03,691 Special fantastic. 661 00:29:03,691 --> 00:29:05,792 They weren’t on-- just weren’t on the same wavelength. 662 00:29:05,792 --> 00:29:09,862 And David felt that he was on George’s wavelength and that 663 00:29:09,862 --> 00:29:10,698 they weren’t. 664 00:29:10,698 --> 00:29:14,669 And they were there because there 665 00:29:14,669 --> 00:29:17,232 had to be professionals who had done this kind of thing 666 00:29:17,232 --> 00:29:19,333 before who knew what the requirements were. 667 00:29:19,333 --> 00:29:21,907 And George came up with the original story. 668 00:29:21,907 --> 00:29:23,645 It was going to be a one-hour special. 669 00:29:23,645 --> 00:29:25,911 Now, the Star Wars holiday special that we know 670 00:29:25,911 --> 00:29:28,914 didn’t start off the way that we experienced it. 671 00:29:28,914 --> 00:29:32,082 It actually started off I think from a much purer place, which 672 00:29:32,082 --> 00:29:36,823 is George Lucas trying to write a variety holiday 673 00:29:36,823 --> 00:29:39,188 special, or at least just a holiday special. 674 00:29:39,188 --> 00:29:41,828 So after Ralph McQuarrie passed in 2012, 675 00:29:41,828 --> 00:29:47,031 they discovered, in his archive, a five-page treatment 676 00:29:47,031 --> 00:29:48,197 for the Star Wars Holiday Special. 677 00:29:48,197 --> 00:29:50,397 And it’s debated as to who actually wrote this treatment. 678 00:29:50,397 --> 00:29:54,940 And when reading it, it does feel decidedly Lucas. 679 00:29:54,940 --> 00:29:59,109 And when you look at those old Ralph McQuarrie concept pieces, 680 00:29:59,109 --> 00:30:00,407 it makes sense that George would have 681 00:30:00,407 --> 00:30:04,411 floated this five-page treatment to his key collaborator 682 00:30:04,411 --> 00:30:05,247 on A New Hope. 683 00:30:05,247 --> 00:30:07,986 When you read through the treatment, 684 00:30:07,986 --> 00:30:11,319 George Lucas has a Jules Verne quality. 685 00:30:11,319 --> 00:30:12,254 He sees the future. 686 00:30:12,254 --> 00:30:14,828 Whether it is an iPad or virtual reality, 687 00:30:14,828 --> 00:30:19,734 this idea of this kind of walking through a teleporter 688 00:30:19,734 --> 00:30:21,296 and being able to be in a different spot. 689 00:30:21,296 --> 00:30:24,970 But then there are other things that are so decidedly 690 00:30:24,970 --> 00:30:28,138 weird like Raquel Welch. 691 00:30:28,138 --> 00:30:30,107 "Guest star-- Raquel Welch-- 692 00:30:30,107 --> 00:30:32,406 volunteers for the job and leaves 693 00:30:32,406 --> 00:30:33,473 to intercept the starship." 694 00:30:33,473 --> 00:30:37,081 So Raquel is playing a starship officer, 695 00:30:37,081 --> 00:30:41,019 which is already odd because most imperial officers are 696 00:30:41,019 --> 00:30:41,481 British. 697 00:30:41,481 --> 00:30:45,056 And she’s going to infiltrate the Starship Musica to stop 698 00:30:45,056 --> 00:30:46,057 the Life Day celebration. 699 00:30:46,057 --> 00:30:47,421 Raquel, under the guise of telling Lumpy 700 00:30:47,421 --> 00:30:50,424 a story with dance and gestures about what drives a spaceship, 701 00:30:50,424 --> 00:30:54,901 dances her way into the power supply room and screws 702 00:30:54,901 --> 00:30:55,737 everything up. 703 00:30:55,737 --> 00:31:00,808 This idea that Raquel Welch is doing some performance 704 00:31:00,808 --> 00:31:03,272 art, Alvin Ailey kind of-- 705 00:31:03,272 --> 00:31:07,309 she’s describing how a spaceship works through dance? 706 00:31:07,309 --> 00:31:09,751 There’s a lot of questions to be had here. 707 00:31:09,751 --> 00:31:10,477 Look, who am I to judge? 708 00:31:10,477 --> 00:31:12,281 But in reading this, it feels like, hey, 709 00:31:12,281 --> 00:31:15,317 a nerdy guy who has maybe a crush on Raquel Welch. 710 00:31:15,317 --> 00:31:17,055 He’s like, maybe I get to meet her. 711 00:31:17,055 --> 00:31:18,353 Maybe she’ll be impressed by me. 712 00:31:18,353 --> 00:31:19,354 Maybe we’ll hit it off. 713 00:31:19,354 --> 00:31:20,289 We’ll go get a sandwich. 714 00:31:20,289 --> 00:31:21,125 Nothing weird. 715 00:31:21,125 --> 00:31:26,229 We spent one full 12-hour day working with George Lucas, 716 00:31:26,229 --> 00:31:27,934 and that was worth everything. 717 00:31:27,934 --> 00:31:32,334 I mean, he was the most-intense, most-focused person 718 00:31:32,334 --> 00:31:33,203 I had ever met. 719 00:31:33,203 --> 00:31:36,811 I mean, we were so into it that I forgot about lunch. 720 00:31:36,811 --> 00:31:38,945 And that’s infrequent for me. 721 00:31:38,945 --> 00:31:44,049 Then he told us the mythology of the story. 722 00:31:44,049 --> 00:31:49,483 There was this Life Day. 723 00:31:50,550 --> 00:31:52,519 I know your family’s waiting. 724 00:31:53,553 --> 00:31:55,863 I know it’s an important day. 725 00:31:58,261 --> 00:31:59,801 All right, we’ll give it a try. 726 00:31:59,801 --> 00:32:03,937 The story was Luke and Leia were-- 727 00:32:03,937 --> 00:32:08,843 and Han Solo were-- accompanying Chewbacca home 728 00:32:08,843 --> 00:32:11,241 to his home planet for Life Day. 729 00:32:11,241 --> 00:32:13,276 Which was a holiday George invented, 730 00:32:13,276 --> 00:32:15,311 and he thought it would be like later 731 00:32:15,311 --> 00:32:18,985 "Festivus for the rest of us" from Seinfeld would be. 732 00:32:18,985 --> 00:32:20,382 But not so much. 733 00:32:20,382 --> 00:32:21,251 Never happened. 734 00:32:21,251 --> 00:32:23,220 It was kind of a Wookiee Rosh Hashanah. 735 00:32:23,220 --> 00:32:23,924 You know? 736 00:32:23,924 --> 00:32:26,421 I mean, it was the biggest day of the year. 737 00:32:26,421 --> 00:32:28,423 The whole Life Day with the Wookiees 738 00:32:28,423 --> 00:32:32,031 was something that George took very seriously at the time 739 00:32:32,031 --> 00:32:34,396 and that also sort of expanded the Star Wars 740 00:32:34,396 --> 00:32:37,564 universe in his first major visual expansion. 741 00:32:37,564 --> 00:32:40,006 George didn’t choose the storyline lightly. 742 00:32:40,006 --> 00:32:42,404 They wanted Chewbacca’s family have 743 00:32:42,404 --> 00:32:48,113 exposure to show them as a loving family of creatures. 744 00:32:48,113 --> 00:32:50,280 And to George Lucas, this was real. 745 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,117 I mean, you have to remember, he had come up 746 00:32:52,117 --> 00:32:57,518 with at least a dozen stories, so he knew what this was about. 747 00:32:57,518 --> 00:33:00,488 George met with the writers on the special 748 00:33:00,488 --> 00:33:03,128 and actually showed them a large binder-- 749 00:33:03,128 --> 00:33:06,868 a Bible of sorts-- for the universe, where 750 00:33:06,868 --> 00:33:09,563 we got to know a lot more about the characters 751 00:33:09,563 --> 00:33:11,169 that we didn’t know at the time. 752 00:33:11,169 --> 00:33:15,140 He was kind of like a reporter sharing with us 753 00:33:15,140 --> 00:33:16,207 a world that we didn’t know. 754 00:33:16,207 --> 00:33:20,343 Obviously, we were going to get to know a lot about Chewbacca’s 755 00:33:20,343 --> 00:33:21,949 home life on Kashyyyk. 756 00:33:21,949 --> 00:33:26,118 But there’s rumor that we were even potentially going 757 00:33:26,118 --> 00:33:29,517 to learn more about Han Solo. 758 00:33:29,517 --> 00:33:33,059 You’re like family to me. 759 00:33:37,492 --> 00:33:40,330 He said that Han Solo was married to a Wookiee, 760 00:33:40,330 --> 00:33:44,169 but we can’t say that because people wouldn’t accept it. 761 00:33:44,169 --> 00:33:46,138 Family to me. 762 00:33:46,138 --> 00:33:49,075 That Wookiee looked at you with-- with lust. 763 00:33:49,075 --> 00:33:49,669 That was-- 764 00:33:51,044 --> 00:33:52,276 Real affection. 765 00:33:53,310 --> 00:33:55,917 No, Han was never married to-- 766 00:33:55,917 --> 00:33:59,481 that’s-- that’s not true-- 767 00:33:59,481 --> 00:34:01,054 That’s impossible! 768 00:34:01,054 --> 00:34:02,583 Uh, OK. 769 00:34:02,583 --> 00:34:07,324 Most of our work was with the Chewbacca stuff, not 770 00:34:07,324 --> 00:34:08,226 the variety stuff. 771 00:34:08,226 --> 00:34:11,097 The variety parts we left blank. 772 00:34:11,097 --> 00:34:13,165 And originally the special was going 773 00:34:13,165 --> 00:34:18,038 to be a one-hour special, which was typical for those variety 774 00:34:18,038 --> 00:34:20,139 specials that the networks did. 775 00:34:20,139 --> 00:34:22,702 But as Star Wars was more and more successful, 776 00:34:22,702 --> 00:34:27,509 CBS got more and more excited and came back and said, 777 00:34:27,509 --> 00:34:29,115 can we do a 90-minute special? 778 00:34:29,115 --> 00:34:31,150 Can we do a two-hour special? 779 00:34:31,150 --> 00:34:32,448 Then I found out what it actually 780 00:34:32,448 --> 00:34:36,353 was going to be once we went to work. 781 00:34:36,353 --> 00:34:37,321 And so did George. 782 00:34:37,321 --> 00:34:39,719 And I think he was stunned. 783 00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:40,423 You know? 784 00:34:40,423 --> 00:34:42,128 I mean, we were pretty clear that it 785 00:34:42,128 --> 00:34:44,394 was wonderful to spend a day with Lucas, 786 00:34:44,394 --> 00:34:47,529 but we knew that we were not going to spend any more 787 00:34:47,529 --> 00:34:48,695 time with him. 788 00:34:48,695 --> 00:34:49,399 You know? 789 00:34:49,399 --> 00:34:51,599 I mean, he had much bigger fish to fry. 790 00:34:51,599 --> 00:34:53,271 George had detached himself. 791 00:34:53,271 --> 00:34:57,407 I don’t think he ever envisioned a show with guest stars 792 00:34:57,407 --> 00:34:58,210 and numbers. 793 00:34:58,210 --> 00:35:01,983 Once again, we weren’t creating the material. 794 00:35:01,983 --> 00:35:02,544 They were. 795 00:35:02,544 --> 00:35:04,084 We just sort of approved it. 796 00:35:04,084 --> 00:35:07,120 And then George got busy with pre-production 797 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:12,488 on The Empire Strikes Back, so he got less and less involved 798 00:35:12,488 --> 00:35:14,523 with the holiday special. 799 00:35:18,692 --> 00:35:20,496 Smith-Hemion were the top. 800 00:35:20,496 --> 00:35:22,564 I mean, they had 92 Emmys, and they 801 00:35:22,564 --> 00:35:25,105 were famous for doing really classy shows. 802 00:35:25,105 --> 00:35:28,339 And Smith-Hemion, who the previous year had just done 803 00:35:28,339 --> 00:35:33,080 the iconic David Bowie Bing Crosby Christmas special, 804 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:34,147 which endures to this day-- 805 00:35:36,281 --> 00:35:38,316 Peace on Earth, can it be? 806 00:35:38,316 --> 00:35:40,681 was put in charge of the Star Wars Holiday Special. 807 00:35:40,681 --> 00:35:42,782 This was not really in their wheelhouse. 808 00:35:42,782 --> 00:35:47,193 The first day I went to the set, and nobody was paying attention 809 00:35:47,193 --> 00:35:50,031 to David Acomba because he was kind of bouncing off 810 00:35:50,031 --> 00:35:51,032 the walls a little bit. 811 00:35:51,032 --> 00:35:52,726 It was a mixture of worlds, and David’s approach 812 00:35:52,726 --> 00:35:57,533 was to try to do it documentary, kind of one camera, even 813 00:35:57,533 --> 00:35:58,732 shaky camera kind of thing. 814 00:35:58,732 --> 00:36:00,206 And the production company really 815 00:36:00,206 --> 00:36:03,473 wanted it to be multiple camera more often because you 816 00:36:03,473 --> 00:36:04,441 could just get more done. 817 00:36:04,441 --> 00:36:06,278 This is not-- everything was taking forever. 818 00:36:06,278 --> 00:36:09,413 And I remember the beginning of the Star Wars show 819 00:36:09,413 --> 00:36:12,185 was just absolutely brutal. 820 00:36:12,185 --> 00:36:14,418 The hours were ridiculous. 821 00:36:14,418 --> 00:36:17,652 But now, let’s get started, shall we? 822 00:36:17,652 --> 00:36:20,160 And Harvey Korman is working his butt off, 823 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:24,692 but ooh, boy, does he know what he’s doing is not good. 824 00:36:24,692 --> 00:36:27,365 And Harvey would wear anything I’d put on him. 825 00:36:27,365 --> 00:36:30,434 And he did like to get into drag. 826 00:36:30,434 --> 00:36:37,606 He also dressed up as Julia Child and did a bit as her. 827 00:36:37,606 --> 00:36:41,082 A bit of the chloranthum root. 828 00:36:41,082 --> 00:36:41,643 Wonderful. 829 00:36:41,643 --> 00:36:43,150 Just adds that touch of piquancy. 830 00:36:43,150 --> 00:36:44,646 I mean, Harvey has a character called 831 00:36:44,646 --> 00:36:46,681 Mother Marcus on The Carol Burnett Show, 832 00:36:46,681 --> 00:36:51,521 a big Jewish mama with big boobs and really funny. 833 00:36:51,521 --> 00:36:54,755 And this is not that far from that character. 834 00:36:54,755 --> 00:36:55,822 Consistency, don’t we? 835 00:36:55,822 --> 00:37:00,365 And on the count of 1, stir, whip, stir, whip. 836 00:37:00,365 --> 00:37:01,531 Whip, whip, stir. 837 00:37:01,531 --> 00:37:03,665 Stir, whip, stir, whip. 838 00:37:03,665 --> 00:37:04,501 Whip, whip, stir. 839 00:37:04,501 --> 00:37:08,802 Sometimes when I’m cooking, that does come to mind. 840 00:37:08,802 --> 00:37:10,804 Stir, whip, stir, whip. 841 00:37:10,804 --> 00:37:13,675 Ooh, coming along. 842 00:37:13,675 --> 00:37:14,445 Very nice. 843 00:37:14,445 --> 00:37:18,185 OK, Harvey Korman is in a purple dress with silver hair 844 00:37:18,185 --> 00:37:21,716 and forearms, and that’s still not the most weird thing 845 00:37:21,716 --> 00:37:23,157 that’s happening in this film. 846 00:37:23,157 --> 00:37:28,558 Harvey Korman is trying to pick up Bea Arthur, uh, 847 00:37:28,558 --> 00:37:32,166 which is very disturbing. 848 00:37:32,166 --> 00:37:33,431 What’ll it be? 849 00:37:33,431 --> 00:37:34,828 Hello, Ackmena. 850 00:37:36,698 --> 00:37:38,370 Come back soon. 851 00:37:38,370 --> 00:37:39,833 I’ll be waiting. 852 00:37:39,833 --> 00:37:42,737 And to somehow make the scene weirder, 853 00:37:42,737 --> 00:37:51,845 he has, like, a hole in his head that he pours the drinks into. 854 00:37:51,845 --> 00:37:53,220 I don’t remember it. 855 00:37:53,220 --> 00:37:57,455 I just absolutely eliminated it from my mind. 856 00:37:57,455 --> 00:37:59,160 It was too bizarre. 857 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,261 It was too otherworldly. 858 00:38:01,261 --> 00:38:02,559 I couldn’t remember it. 859 00:38:02,559 --> 00:38:03,593 I didn’t know what it was. 860 00:38:03,593 --> 00:38:05,463 I couldn’t recognize myself. 861 00:38:05,463 --> 00:38:06,761 The only thing I remember out of it 862 00:38:06,761 --> 00:38:09,566 was the fun of working with Bea Arthur. 863 00:38:09,566 --> 00:38:12,635 I mean, we had fun, but I don’t know what the hell 864 00:38:12,635 --> 00:38:13,603 that thing was about. 865 00:38:13,603 --> 00:38:18,377 Some things are so contradictory to the film that just came 866 00:38:18,377 --> 00:38:19,378 out and established it. 867 00:38:19,378 --> 00:38:21,380 Like, so, is this that cantina? 868 00:38:21,380 --> 00:38:24,779 Because it’s all the same costumes and characters, 869 00:38:24,779 --> 00:38:27,485 but it’s not at all dangerous. 870 00:38:27,485 --> 00:38:28,189 Right? 871 00:38:28,189 --> 00:38:29,652 Like, that is the purpose it serves in the film. 872 00:38:29,652 --> 00:38:33,227 This is the most dangerous place, where arms are cut off, 873 00:38:33,227 --> 00:38:35,856 people are shot under tables, and occasionally 874 00:38:35,856 --> 00:38:37,858 Beatrice Arthur will break out into song. 875 00:38:37,858 --> 00:38:41,268 Bea wanted to sing the "Alabama Song." 876 00:38:41,268 --> 00:38:42,665 She wanted to do a number. 877 00:38:42,665 --> 00:38:43,699 That was her proviso. 878 00:38:43,699 --> 00:38:45,833 They finally, I think, went to the Brecht 879 00:38:45,833 --> 00:38:49,837 estate, which was not interested in having the song done 880 00:38:49,837 --> 00:38:51,806 on the Star Wars Holiday Special. 881 00:38:51,806 --> 00:38:52,939 Oh, and you know who was in it? 882 00:38:52,939 --> 00:39:00,221 Harvey Korman and I were in a bar with aliens 883 00:39:00,221 --> 00:39:01,453 and strange-looking people. 884 00:39:01,453 --> 00:39:06,887 And it’s a lovely piece written by Mitzie and Ken Welch. 885 00:39:06,887 --> 00:39:11,727 So Ken and Mitzie wrote a song for Bea that was a lot like-- 886 00:39:11,727 --> 00:39:14,301 those were the days, my friend. 887 00:39:14,301 --> 00:39:15,269 We thought they’d never-- 888 00:39:15,269 --> 00:39:18,569 which was like an up version of-- 889 00:39:18,569 --> 00:39:20,967 show me the way to the next whiskey bar. 890 00:39:20,967 --> 00:39:25,004 and that’s what Bea winds up singing on the show. 891 00:39:25,004 --> 00:39:28,810 Then homeward bound, friend, 892 00:39:28,810 --> 00:39:32,451 don’t forget me in your dreams. 893 00:39:34,453 --> 00:39:36,785 It’s the cantina music slowed down. 894 00:39:36,785 --> 00:39:41,262 But it’s so funny, because none of us had lyrics to that. 895 00:39:41,262 --> 00:39:42,791 And then this happens, and then kids 896 00:39:42,791 --> 00:39:46,498 are starting to sing it on the playground and stuff. 897 00:39:46,498 --> 00:39:49,897 I was hired as a Wookiee. 898 00:39:49,897 --> 00:39:51,734 But I remember, when I showed up, 899 00:39:51,734 --> 00:39:55,771 they had plenty of Wookiees, and they were looking 900 00:39:55,771 --> 00:39:56,871 for someone that could dance. 901 00:39:56,871 --> 00:39:59,511 So the choreographer said, we’re just going to pop you in here. 902 00:39:59,511 --> 00:40:01,381 You’re going to be walrus man from now on. 903 00:40:01,381 --> 00:40:05,715 And I became walrus man, and I got to dance with Bea Arthur. 904 00:40:05,715 --> 00:40:08,652 I think part of the issue for that day 905 00:40:08,652 --> 00:40:11,358 was the fact that there were so many people 906 00:40:11,358 --> 00:40:13,426 being fitted into costumes. 907 00:40:13,426 --> 00:40:14,592 That took hours. 908 00:40:14,592 --> 00:40:18,332 I mean, the Bea Arthur thing took forever too. 909 00:40:18,332 --> 00:40:21,896 But that was because the aliens kept fainting. 910 00:40:21,896 --> 00:40:25,768 Those costumes were pretty hot, pretty unbearable. 911 00:40:25,768 --> 00:40:27,803 There is no oxygen in these costumes. 912 00:40:27,803 --> 00:40:29,409 You could not breathe in these costumes. 913 00:40:29,409 --> 00:40:31,312 And this went on for hours, and hours, and hours. 914 00:40:31,312 --> 00:40:35,415 Because it was like 103 degrees on the set, and you put 915 00:40:35,415 --> 00:40:39,045 those heads on, and it’s kind of like waterboarding. 916 00:40:39,045 --> 00:40:42,554 I think had we not stepped in, the actors-- 917 00:40:42,554 --> 00:40:43,621 We would have killed them. 918 00:40:43,621 --> 00:40:45,524 David had no sense of-- 919 00:40:45,524 --> 00:40:47,086 The fact that they were suffocating. 920 00:40:47,086 --> 00:40:49,055 their needs as human beings. 921 00:40:49,825 --> 00:40:51,090 My eyes were supposed to be here, 922 00:40:51,090 --> 00:40:53,730 but I’m looking through two little holes. 923 00:40:53,730 --> 00:40:56,062 I can’t see out of the holes. 924 00:40:56,062 --> 00:40:57,030 It’s like, OK? 925 00:40:57,030 --> 00:40:58,438 And then, I have to-- 926 00:40:58,438 --> 00:40:59,604 and I don’t have hands. 927 00:40:59,604 --> 00:41:00,440 I have hooves. 928 00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,905 So it was just kind of like, here, you go grab her. 929 00:41:03,905 --> 00:41:10,109 I felt my way down, and I just kind of grabbed her wrists 930 00:41:10,109 --> 00:41:10,978 as best I could. 931 00:41:10,978 --> 00:41:13,453 And I just started doing this with her. 932 00:41:13,453 --> 00:41:17,589 -- one more dance, friend. 933 00:41:17,589 --> 00:41:18,458 Just one more-- 934 00:41:18,458 --> 00:41:21,956 Kind of like L’chaim to life, like from Fiddler on the Roof. 935 00:41:21,956 --> 00:41:23,694 That’s kind of that two-step dance. 936 00:41:23,694 --> 00:41:29,436 So going, swaying back and forth to the music with Bea Arthur. 937 00:41:29,436 --> 00:41:32,406 If you’re a friend, friend. 938 00:41:32,406 --> 00:41:38,907 One part, it looks like Bea Arthur is having 939 00:41:38,907 --> 00:41:41,107 an affair with a giant rat. 940 00:41:41,107 --> 00:41:47,817 Just one more drop, friend, before we stop friends. 941 00:41:47,817 --> 00:41:51,788 And interestingly enough, the gigantic rat 942 00:41:51,788 --> 00:41:55,792 was saying, oh my god, get Bea Arthur off me. 943 00:41:55,792 --> 00:41:59,565 And there’s that scene where Bea Arthur is like nuzzling a rat. 944 00:41:59,565 --> 00:42:02,535 Rick Baker actually used that on another project. 945 00:42:02,535 --> 00:42:05,835 And it was from a film he’d done two years ago, Food 946 00:42:05,835 --> 00:42:07,738 of the Gods-- 947 00:42:12,743 --> 00:42:14,514 which is insane. 948 00:42:14,514 --> 00:42:15,944 So we got a lot of remainder aliens 949 00:42:15,944 --> 00:42:21,455 that kind of had mill flaws, so they looked fairly cheesy. 950 00:42:21,455 --> 00:42:23,787 So the idea was, don’t go too close on any of them. 951 00:42:23,787 --> 00:42:27,890 I never gave it much thought once we finished with it. 952 00:42:27,890 --> 00:42:31,696 But even to this day, I get pictures 953 00:42:31,696 --> 00:42:36,129 that fans send of me in the costume and everything. 954 00:42:36,129 --> 00:42:37,504 And please autograph it. 955 00:42:37,504 --> 00:42:39,099 I don’t remember how long we went. 956 00:42:39,099 --> 00:42:43,807 I just remember doing another take, and then another take, 957 00:42:43,807 --> 00:42:44,643 and another take. 958 00:42:44,643 --> 00:42:48,042 I’m not surprised if I was there for 24 hours. 959 00:42:48,042 --> 00:42:54,686 Is that a tear, friend, in your eye? 960 00:42:54,686 --> 00:42:56,116 And it wasn’t even that good. 961 00:42:56,116 --> 00:43:00,791 Like once you saw it, you went, wow. 962 00:43:00,791 --> 00:43:01,495 You know? 963 00:43:01,495 --> 00:43:05,125 They could have done that in an hour or two hours. 964 00:43:05,125 --> 00:43:08,128 Now, it’s good night, friend. 965 00:43:08,128 --> 00:43:09,635 What? 966 00:43:13,705 --> 00:43:14,574 I’m Bob Mackie. 967 00:43:14,574 --> 00:43:15,938 Welcome aboard, Mr. Mackie. 968 00:43:15,938 --> 00:43:16,939 I’m Captain Stubing. 969 00:43:16,939 --> 00:43:18,138 It’s an honor to meet you. 970 00:43:18,138 --> 00:43:19,073 Thank you, captain. 971 00:43:19,073 --> 00:43:22,208 Mr. Mackie designs the gowns for all the big TV stars. 972 00:43:22,208 --> 00:43:24,881 Carol Burnett, Ann-Margaret, Cher. 973 00:43:24,881 --> 00:43:25,717 That’s right. 974 00:43:25,717 --> 00:43:27,213 You’ve heard them say, "clothes make the man?" 975 00:43:27,213 --> 00:43:29,116 Well, I’m the man that makes the clothes. 976 00:43:29,886 --> 00:43:33,824 Well, I had heard enough people enthusiastic about the Star 977 00:43:33,824 --> 00:43:35,089 Wars Christmas Special. 978 00:43:35,089 --> 00:43:38,796 And someone said-- and they were talking about it, 979 00:43:38,796 --> 00:43:41,062 and I said, oh, I designed that. 980 00:43:41,062 --> 00:43:42,195 You did? 981 00:43:42,195 --> 00:43:43,867 really? 982 00:43:43,867 --> 00:43:45,000 It was like that. 983 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:46,771 And I just went, oh, OK. 984 00:43:46,771 --> 00:43:48,608 Well, I guess it was more important 985 00:43:48,608 --> 00:43:49,576 than I thought it was. 986 00:43:49,576 --> 00:43:53,008 And when we walked in, they had big drawings of the costumes. 987 00:43:53,008 --> 00:43:54,977 And we saw the ones that we would be wearing. 988 00:43:54,977 --> 00:43:58,244 It was fantastic, and Bob Mackie was there, 989 00:43:58,244 --> 00:44:00,719 and we had to do fittings. 990 00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:03,117 And Bob Mackie was there. 991 00:44:03,117 --> 00:44:05,284 It was-- I was thrilled. 992 00:44:05,284 --> 00:44:08,727 We had the acrobats, and the gymnasts, 993 00:44:08,727 --> 00:44:12,291 and all that whole group of circus people, which 994 00:44:12,291 --> 00:44:13,127 I loved doing. 995 00:44:13,127 --> 00:44:14,700 So that was our going to be our role. 996 00:44:14,700 --> 00:44:18,099 We would be tumbling inside this little music box 997 00:44:18,099 --> 00:44:24,303 to entertain the baby Chewbacca, Junior. I 998 00:44:24,303 --> 00:44:27,009 don’t know what his name is. 999 00:44:27,009 --> 00:44:27,713 Sorry. 1000 00:44:27,713 --> 00:44:31,552 It is very similar to a scene my father did in a movie 1001 00:44:31,552 --> 00:44:34,687 many years prior to that, Thief of Bagdad. 1002 00:44:34,687 --> 00:44:37,921 So in that one, pop was inside. 1003 00:44:37,921 --> 00:44:40,154 He was miniature, inside a little music box. 1004 00:44:40,154 --> 00:44:43,861 And then I have to have their heads cut off. 1005 00:44:43,861 --> 00:44:44,323 Oh! 1006 00:44:44,323 --> 00:44:48,569 And in this particular movie, we were going to be on a table, 1007 00:44:48,569 --> 00:44:50,164 like a flat surface. 1008 00:44:50,164 --> 00:44:54,201 And we were more like holograms. 1009 00:44:54,201 --> 00:44:55,741 I wanted to do them in bright colors 1010 00:44:55,741 --> 00:45:00,306 because everything in that film was like a neutral color. 1011 00:45:00,306 --> 00:45:05,311 You know, it’s all grays, and taupes, and browns, and beiges, 1012 00:45:05,311 --> 00:45:08,017 and a little black, and a little. 1013 00:45:08,017 --> 00:45:11,053 But basically no color really. 1014 00:45:11,053 --> 00:45:13,891 I guess in space they don’t have color. 1015 00:45:13,891 --> 00:45:15,156 This is the girl-- 1016 00:45:15,156 --> 00:45:16,289 the gymnast girl. 1017 00:45:16,289 --> 00:45:18,797 And it’s a whole body suit. 1018 00:45:18,797 --> 00:45:21,195 So anything-- any time they moved, 1019 00:45:21,195 --> 00:45:23,230 the elastic would move with them, 1020 00:45:23,230 --> 00:45:25,100 and it would stay in place. 1021 00:45:25,100 --> 00:45:31,172 And then the five of us were in hot pink and Black. 1022 00:45:33,845 --> 00:45:38,212 That took a little getting used to for tumbling in and doing 1023 00:45:38,212 --> 00:45:39,180 pyramids, climbing up. 1024 00:45:39,180 --> 00:45:41,886 Because I was the top man-- 1025 00:45:41,886 --> 00:45:42,623 person. 1026 00:45:42,623 --> 00:45:44,658 So climbing up, and so they wouldn’t get in your way. 1027 00:45:44,658 --> 00:45:50,257 So we had two jugglers, and they were in the Spandex as well. 1028 00:45:50,257 --> 00:45:53,799 What better testament to the mastery of John Williams 1029 00:45:53,799 --> 00:45:56,197 than whoever scored this entire holiday special? 1030 00:45:56,197 --> 00:45:59,772 Because somebody came in with a new Casio, like, synth sound. 1031 00:45:59,772 --> 00:46:02,874 And they’re like, you got to let me flex this out, you guys. 1032 00:46:02,874 --> 00:46:06,009 I’m telling you, it’s going to be timeless! 1033 00:46:06,009 --> 00:46:07,142 This is the first sketch I did. 1034 00:46:07,142 --> 00:46:13,654 And I wanted to have this kind of Asian, half man, half bird 1035 00:46:13,654 --> 00:46:15,315 kind of situation. 1036 00:46:15,315 --> 00:46:16,283 And he’s still a warrior. 1037 00:46:16,283 --> 00:46:18,758 They’re all like warriors of a certain kind. 1038 00:46:18,758 --> 00:46:23,059 He had this big tail that he could whip around like a whip, 1039 00:46:23,059 --> 00:46:23,994 but it was attached. 1040 00:46:23,994 --> 00:46:26,667 And he had all these pheasant feathers that 1041 00:46:26,667 --> 00:46:30,396 were dyed this green color. 1042 00:46:34,972 --> 00:46:36,204 Dance, slave. 1043 00:46:36,204 --> 00:46:37,337 Dance. 1044 00:46:37,337 --> 00:46:38,272 It was comfortable. 1045 00:46:38,272 --> 00:46:45,246 But only problem was then bathroom. 1046 00:46:46,379 --> 00:46:48,689 Yeah, every once in a while, someone will pop up 1047 00:46:48,689 --> 00:46:51,989 and they’ll want us to-- oh, I bought all the costumes. 1048 00:46:51,989 --> 00:46:53,826 One of things I love to collect are 1049 00:46:53,826 --> 00:46:56,389 when I have costume sketches of an actual costume I own. 1050 00:46:56,389 --> 00:46:58,930 So this is the only costume I own from the holiday special. 1051 00:46:58,930 --> 00:47:00,734 And this was very exciting too, that, like, 1052 00:47:00,734 --> 00:47:02,428 when I saw the things in the Julien’s auction, 1053 00:47:02,428 --> 00:47:05,805 I was like, that is one I definitely have to win. 1054 00:47:05,805 --> 00:47:07,004 It’s been over 40 years. 1055 00:47:07,004 --> 00:47:09,204 There’s people are still watching it online. 1056 00:47:09,204 --> 00:47:13,208 Like, it just-- yeah, it’s-- people still talk about it. 1057 00:47:13,208 --> 00:47:18,081 Jefferson Starship had this song that was a deep cut. 1058 00:47:18,081 --> 00:47:20,754 It was the last song of one of their albums 1059 00:47:20,754 --> 00:47:21,480 called "Hyperdrive." 1060 00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:24,923 Almost as if a producer looked at a list of artists 1061 00:47:24,923 --> 00:47:30,060 that were popular and then called someone and said, 1062 00:47:30,060 --> 00:47:30,896 "Hyperdrive." 1063 00:47:30,896 --> 00:47:33,393 We have hyperdrive. 1064 00:47:33,393 --> 00:47:35,395 Call up this Jefferson Star-- 1065 00:47:35,395 --> 00:47:36,231 Starship? 1066 00:47:36,231 --> 00:47:37,804 We have starships! 1067 00:47:37,804 --> 00:47:39,938 It’s as if it wrote itself. 1068 00:47:39,938 --> 00:47:40,433 Yeah. 1069 00:47:40,433 --> 00:47:42,809 So we recorded this song "Light the Sky on Fire" 1070 00:47:42,809 --> 00:47:43,843 with Marty Bannon singing. 1071 00:47:43,843 --> 00:47:47,880 And he was the main singer because Grace was in rehab. 1072 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:53,380 So we went ahead and ended up-- somehow we ended up on the Star 1073 00:47:53,380 --> 00:47:54,183 Wars Christmas-- 1074 00:47:54,183 --> 00:47:56,449 Holiday Special-- it was Christmas special we called it 1075 00:47:56,449 --> 00:47:57,252 at the time. 1076 00:47:57,252 --> 00:48:00,024 And none of us really knew what was going on, 1077 00:48:00,024 --> 00:48:01,322 but we ended up playing there. 1078 00:48:01,322 --> 00:48:04,424 So when I found out that Jefferson Starship was going 1079 00:48:04,424 --> 00:48:06,360 to be part of the shoot-- we were actually 1080 00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:07,526 going to shoot a number with them. 1081 00:48:07,526 --> 00:48:09,935 So I thought, oh, this is going to be really cool. 1082 00:48:09,935 --> 00:48:11,233 We had a connection-- not really. 1083 00:48:11,233 --> 00:48:14,401 I mean, I didn’t know a lot about what was going on. 1084 00:48:14,401 --> 00:48:17,778 I remember we were rehearsing at Paul’s-- it was Grace’s house 1085 00:48:17,778 --> 00:48:21,177 over in San Francisco overlooking the Bay. 1086 00:48:21,177 --> 00:48:22,178 It’s a beautiful house. 1087 00:48:22,178 --> 00:48:26,248 And Darth Vader came by, and it was like a publicity thing. 1088 00:48:26,248 --> 00:48:27,414 Came by and took some photographs, 1089 00:48:27,414 --> 00:48:30,087 and we got some photographs of us hanging out 1090 00:48:30,087 --> 00:48:30,923 with Darth Vader. 1091 00:48:30,923 --> 00:48:33,387 So we had some relationship already. 1092 00:48:33,387 --> 00:48:35,521 Of course, I didn’t really know what to expect. 1093 00:48:35,521 --> 00:48:40,460 I mean, I figured they had their stuff together, you know? 1094 00:48:42,066 --> 00:48:43,001 It’s really bizarre. 1095 00:48:43,001 --> 00:48:46,499 It’s really bad, bad special effects. 1096 00:48:46,499 --> 00:48:47,401 But you know what? 1097 00:48:47,401 --> 00:48:50,338 A lot of reviewers in 1978 praised this. 1098 00:48:50,338 --> 00:48:53,077 They thought the special effects in this thing 1099 00:48:53,077 --> 00:48:54,243 were the highlight of the show. 1100 00:48:54,243 --> 00:48:59,820 Looking back on it now, this can’t be a highlight. 1101 00:48:59,820 --> 00:49:00,447 It was a trip. 1102 00:49:00,447 --> 00:49:01,954 I remember a little bit about it. 1103 00:49:01,954 --> 00:49:06,552 I mean, I remember they let us loose in a room full of props, 1104 00:49:06,552 --> 00:49:08,928 like a costume room kind of thing. 1105 00:49:08,928 --> 00:49:11,260 They said, just try and make up an outfit. 1106 00:49:11,260 --> 00:49:13,559 No direction really, just individually 1107 00:49:13,559 --> 00:49:15,066 make up anything you want. 1108 00:49:15,066 --> 00:49:16,199 And it just-- as long as it looks 1109 00:49:16,199 --> 00:49:19,268 like it’s from another galaxy or something or from the future. 1110 00:49:19,268 --> 00:49:21,204 I think the finished product didn’t really 1111 00:49:21,204 --> 00:49:24,306 come out as if it was a music video as much 1112 00:49:24,306 --> 00:49:25,373 as they thought it might. 1113 00:49:25,373 --> 00:49:28,112 I guess-- yeah, I guess Art Carney-- 1114 00:49:28,112 --> 00:49:29,410 it’s sort of they’re interacting, 1115 00:49:29,410 --> 00:49:33,117 and it’s with his wry humor with one 1116 00:49:33,117 --> 00:49:36,450 of the stormtrooper guys sitting there in front 1117 00:49:36,450 --> 00:49:39,486 of this futuristic device. 1118 00:49:39,486 --> 00:49:41,422 Will you get on with it? 1119 00:49:41,422 --> 00:49:42,159 OK, OK. 1120 00:49:42,159 --> 00:49:44,095 And they press the button, and then we start-- 1121 00:49:44,095 --> 00:49:46,064 we’re suddenly, there we are, playing 1122 00:49:46,064 --> 00:49:48,330 our song "Light the Sky on Fire" with all 1123 00:49:48,330 --> 00:49:51,366 these weird, cheesy effects all around. 1124 00:49:51,366 --> 00:49:57,306 And we’re all sort looking like we’re from another galaxy 1125 00:49:57,306 --> 00:49:58,109 supposedly. 1126 00:49:58,109 --> 00:50:00,177 But we really probably didn’t. 1127 00:50:00,177 --> 00:50:01,178 We looked pretty silly. 1128 00:50:02,982 --> 00:50:05,347 Will you light the sky on fire. 1129 00:50:06,612 --> 00:50:12,618 Will you light the sky on fire every night? 1130 00:50:12,618 --> 00:50:18,393 You can take me higher than the diamonds in the sky. 1131 00:50:19,328 --> 00:50:22,265 We didn’t really know how they were going to use it. 1132 00:50:22,265 --> 00:50:25,433 I’m not even certain they knew how they were going to use it. 1133 00:50:25,433 --> 00:50:28,436 So eventually we started just running behind 1134 00:50:28,436 --> 00:50:29,272 on that schedule. 1135 00:50:29,272 --> 00:50:32,011 And the more we ran behind, the more the people 1136 00:50:32,011 --> 00:50:35,179 who are in the production side of things with the money 1137 00:50:35,179 --> 00:50:36,147 got a little bit nervous. 1138 00:50:36,147 --> 00:50:38,677 And I remember that we shot considerable amount 1139 00:50:38,677 --> 00:50:41,053 of the entire show budget the first three 1140 00:50:41,053 --> 00:50:46,058 days of the production because we were over into overtime 1141 00:50:46,058 --> 00:50:46,520 so much. 1142 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:47,961 And the network freaked out. 1143 00:50:47,961 --> 00:50:50,029 Because they said, this guy is going 1144 00:50:50,029 --> 00:50:51,558 to go over schedule, over budget, 1145 00:50:51,558 --> 00:50:53,593 and then we’re going to have to edit this thing, 1146 00:50:53,593 --> 00:50:56,068 and we won’t have what we need, and all that. 1147 00:50:56,068 --> 00:50:58,202 And it went on to the point where they 1148 00:50:58,202 --> 00:50:59,665 said we have to get rid of him. 1149 00:50:59,665 --> 00:51:01,469 We have to lose him. 1150 00:51:05,539 --> 00:51:08,047 One of the reasons why I left was 1151 00:51:08,047 --> 00:51:11,116 that it just was not working. 1152 00:51:11,116 --> 00:51:11,611 You know? 1153 00:51:11,611 --> 00:51:15,516 And it was very confusing because so many people 1154 00:51:15,516 --> 00:51:17,056 had their fingers in the pie. 1155 00:51:17,056 --> 00:51:19,619 And I’m not sure if George understood 1156 00:51:19,619 --> 00:51:23,293 just what the difference was between film 1157 00:51:23,293 --> 00:51:24,591 and television in the US. 1158 00:51:24,591 --> 00:51:26,593 Because I don’t think he ever worked in television. 1159 00:51:26,593 --> 00:51:31,433 I don’t think George realized that he picked the wrong format 1160 00:51:31,433 --> 00:51:33,402 in which to do these stories. 1161 00:51:33,402 --> 00:51:34,568 That wouldn’t happen today. 1162 00:51:34,568 --> 00:51:39,243 But then, 40 years ago, this was the style. 1163 00:51:39,243 --> 00:51:41,410 And so, it was executed by people who 1164 00:51:41,410 --> 00:51:44,116 did these things all the time. 1165 00:51:44,116 --> 00:51:45,315 But I felt sorry for David. 1166 00:51:45,315 --> 00:51:47,647 Because he kind of went back with his-- 1167 00:51:47,647 --> 00:51:50,188 partially with his tail tucked between his legs, 1168 00:51:50,188 --> 00:51:53,686 but partially with the time-honored-- 1169 00:51:53,686 --> 00:51:54,489 "it’s Hollywood. 1170 00:51:54,489 --> 00:51:56,095 They don’t know what they’re doing. 1171 00:51:56,095 --> 00:51:57,525 No wonder everything is such crap 1172 00:51:57,525 --> 00:51:59,065 when it comes out of Hollywood. 1173 00:51:59,065 --> 00:52:01,067 I’m going back to Toronto." 1174 00:52:01,067 --> 00:52:03,168 And he went back and did some beautiful stuff. 1175 00:52:03,168 --> 00:52:09,075 I don’t want to answer any more questions about the show. 1176 00:52:09,075 --> 00:52:09,537 OK? 1177 00:52:09,537 --> 00:52:12,276 It’s just-- it’s just that simple. 1178 00:52:12,276 --> 00:52:12,771 You know? 1179 00:52:12,771 --> 00:52:14,443 You guys go ahead and do whatever you want. 1180 00:52:14,443 --> 00:52:17,182 You do whatever you want to do with all the people you get 1181 00:52:17,182 --> 00:52:21,252 and all that, but I’m not interested in contributing 1182 00:52:21,252 --> 00:52:24,585 to the story at all. 1183 00:52:26,356 --> 00:52:29,029 At that point, given the amount of overtime 1184 00:52:29,029 --> 00:52:31,361 that they were creating and how expensive that was all 1185 00:52:31,361 --> 00:52:35,794 becoming for the production company, something very unusual 1186 00:52:35,794 --> 00:52:38,731 happened is that we just hit the brakes 1187 00:52:38,731 --> 00:52:40,799 and we came to a complete stop. 1188 00:52:40,799 --> 00:52:44,407 When David left, there were problems. 1189 00:52:44,407 --> 00:52:48,444 Because directors don’t leave when things are going well. 1190 00:52:48,444 --> 00:52:52,514 So they were scrambling. 1191 00:52:52,514 --> 00:52:55,088 But we were out of it at that point. 1192 00:52:55,088 --> 00:52:58,355 I mean Ken and Mitzie apparently were on the set 1193 00:52:58,355 --> 00:53:01,655 every day working with the show all day. 1194 00:53:01,655 --> 00:53:04,064 They put in an emergency call into Steve Binder, 1195 00:53:04,064 --> 00:53:08,365 who was a terrific variety show director who had done the Elvis 1196 00:53:08,365 --> 00:53:11,203 Comeback specials and a lot of other stuff 1197 00:53:11,203 --> 00:53:14,305 and who knew how to direct a variety 1198 00:53:14,305 --> 00:53:15,504 show in the conventional way. 1199 00:53:15,504 --> 00:53:19,607 So when Gary phoned me at home, and I said, what’s going on? 1200 00:53:19,607 --> 00:53:21,642 And he said, well, the truth of the matter 1201 00:53:21,642 --> 00:53:28,847 is we started a two-hour prime time special for CBS. 1202 00:53:28,847 --> 00:53:32,191 We’re way over budget, and there’s 1203 00:53:32,191 --> 00:53:35,128 a decision being made right now whether to continue 1204 00:53:35,128 --> 00:53:39,264 making the special or shutting it down permanently. 1205 00:53:39,264 --> 00:53:41,563 He was replaced by Steve Binder, who 1206 00:53:41,563 --> 00:53:45,633 was really a top-notch guy who knew what he was doing. 1207 00:53:45,633 --> 00:53:49,307 He brought a sense of control that 1208 00:53:49,307 --> 00:53:51,573 was missing from the production, I think, 1209 00:53:51,573 --> 00:53:54,411 which helped get things back on track. 1210 00:53:54,411 --> 00:53:55,610 The budget was $1 million. 1211 00:53:55,610 --> 00:54:01,583 I don’t think that Steve had the opportunity to really make 1212 00:54:01,583 --> 00:54:02,485 very many changes. 1213 00:54:02,485 --> 00:54:06,291 The way I saw it, for him, it was pretty much triage. 1214 00:54:07,457 --> 00:54:09,525 It’s long been said that George had always 1215 00:54:09,525 --> 00:54:14,530 wanted to do a story that focused specifically 1216 00:54:14,530 --> 00:54:18,171 on the Wookiee home planet. 1217 00:54:18,171 --> 00:54:19,139 I can’t tell you why. 1218 00:54:19,139 --> 00:54:22,505 That’s something that he wanted to see on screen. 1219 00:54:22,505 --> 00:54:26,212 The origins of this concept of a Wookiee family 1220 00:54:26,212 --> 00:54:27,345 can be traced back to Lucas. 1221 00:54:27,345 --> 00:54:30,744 I know there’s audio, 1976, and a brainstorming 1222 00:54:30,744 --> 00:54:32,185 session between Alan Dean Foster, 1223 00:54:32,185 --> 00:54:36,387 George Lucas, and Charlie Lippincott which was recorded. 1224 00:55:01,676 --> 00:55:05,515 Obviously, he didn’t go and do that as a sequel concept. 1225 00:55:05,515 --> 00:55:08,254 But that idea remained in his head. 1226 00:55:08,254 --> 00:55:10,454 And it seems like it was the seed for the holiday 1227 00:55:10,454 --> 00:55:13,457 special, which he then revisited several years later. 1228 00:55:13,457 --> 00:55:15,492 There was no way it could be done. 1229 00:55:15,492 --> 00:55:16,955 It featured the Wookiees. 1230 00:55:16,955 --> 00:55:18,561 They were the stars of the story. 1231 00:55:18,561 --> 00:55:21,564 And the Wookiees speak no known language. 1232 00:55:32,212 --> 00:55:35,413 This was in the era when they wouldn’t put subtitles 1233 00:55:35,413 --> 00:55:39,285 on television because they figured most of America 1234 00:55:39,285 --> 00:55:40,220 would not read them. 1235 00:55:40,220 --> 00:55:43,553 There’s a terrific YouTube thing where someone has gone in 1236 00:55:43,553 --> 00:55:46,754 and added their own subtitles. 1237 00:55:59,635 --> 00:56:01,340 Had we been able to use subtitles, 1238 00:56:01,340 --> 00:56:02,407 it would have been a lot easier. 1239 00:56:02,407 --> 00:56:06,642 Because we could have had the Wookiees interacting more. 1240 00:56:06,642 --> 00:56:07,478 But we didn’t. 1241 00:56:07,478 --> 00:56:10,679 Instead we had to have people translating from the Wookiee 1242 00:56:10,679 --> 00:56:14,914 to English, which was an opening for a lot of guest stars. 1243 00:56:14,914 --> 00:56:15,783 CBS liked that. 1244 00:56:15,783 --> 00:56:20,425 I suspect Art Carney didn’t really know what Star Wars was. 1245 00:56:20,425 --> 00:56:22,955 And how are my favorite Wookiees today? 1246 00:56:25,397 --> 00:56:26,596 Why are the long, hairy faces? 1247 00:56:26,596 --> 00:56:29,896 Art Carney understood the Wookiee language, 1248 00:56:29,896 --> 00:56:34,835 and he could translate so the audience would understand 1249 00:56:34,835 --> 00:56:36,903 what they were talking about. 1250 00:56:38,773 --> 00:56:41,611 Officer, maybe I could be of some help here. 1251 00:56:41,611 --> 00:56:43,316 I found, in Art Carney’s trailer, 1252 00:56:43,316 --> 00:56:46,484 he filled the shower with ice, and then he 1253 00:56:46,484 --> 00:56:49,883 had bottles of different kinds of alcohol 1254 00:56:49,883 --> 00:56:52,050 in the bottom of the trailer. 1255 00:56:52,050 --> 00:56:57,693 So when I met Art, he was pleasant enough. 1256 00:56:57,693 --> 00:57:02,929 But I learned soon that I had to shoot all of his scenes 1257 00:57:02,929 --> 00:57:03,765 early in the day. 1258 00:57:03,765 --> 00:57:06,064 That wherever he went to eat lunch, 1259 00:57:06,064 --> 00:57:10,706 he may have had a little bit too much to drink at the time. 1260 00:57:10,706 --> 00:57:12,510 It’s me, Saun Dann. 1261 00:57:17,581 --> 00:57:19,682 God bless, Art Carney and his character 1262 00:57:19,682 --> 00:57:25,083 of Saun Dann, where Saun Dann brings gifts to the family, 1263 00:57:25,083 --> 00:57:31,694 hands Itchy a mind evaporator, which tells you 1264 00:57:31,694 --> 00:57:33,828 everything you need to know about what they 1265 00:57:33,828 --> 00:57:36,831 thought VR would be for people. 1266 00:57:36,831 --> 00:57:40,736 Now then, Itchy, I thought you might like this. 1267 00:57:40,736 --> 00:57:41,737 It’s one of those-- 1268 00:57:41,737 --> 00:57:44,806 well, it’s a real-- it’s kind of hard to explain. 1269 00:57:44,806 --> 00:57:47,974 It’s a wow! 1270 00:57:47,974 --> 00:57:48,909 If you know what I mean. 1271 00:57:48,909 --> 00:57:51,681 When you put this helmet on, it attached 1272 00:57:51,681 --> 00:57:56,917 to a port that had been put under your skin in your brain, 1273 00:57:56,917 --> 00:58:00,492 and it would realize your fantasies. 1274 00:58:00,492 --> 00:58:02,758 So you could sit at home in your chair, 1275 00:58:02,758 --> 00:58:06,564 and your fantasies would play out in front of you. 1276 00:58:06,564 --> 00:58:07,961 Happy Life Day. 1277 00:58:10,832 --> 00:58:12,537 I do mean Happy Life Day. 1278 00:58:12,537 --> 00:58:15,540 So we were going to see all the Wookiee’s dreams. 1279 00:58:15,540 --> 00:58:19,709 So itchy, the silverback Wookiee, had a fantasy. 1280 00:58:19,709 --> 00:58:21,711 It was supposed to be about Cher, 1281 00:58:21,711 --> 00:58:24,747 but Cher suddenly couldn’t do it. 1282 00:58:24,747 --> 00:58:26,584 And so, Diane Carroll stepped in. 1283 00:58:26,584 --> 00:58:30,049 And Diane fit into the Bob Mackie costume. 1284 00:58:30,049 --> 00:58:32,018 I exist for you. 1285 00:58:32,018 --> 00:58:37,023 I am in your mind as you create me. 1286 00:58:37,023 --> 00:58:39,564 Oh, yes. 1287 00:58:39,564 --> 00:58:41,159 I can feel my creation. 1288 00:58:41,159 --> 00:58:45,768 I’m getting your message. 1289 00:58:45,768 --> 00:58:47,066 Are you getting mine? 1290 00:58:47,902 --> 00:58:52,907 In what world, planet, galaxy, in any time, 1291 00:58:52,907 --> 00:58:55,008 has anybody ever wanted their grandpa 1292 00:58:55,008 --> 00:58:57,846 to enjoy porn in the middle of the living room? 1293 00:58:57,846 --> 00:59:05,557 That’s the least believable thing in a holiday special. 1294 00:59:05,557 --> 00:59:06,888 Oh. 1295 00:59:06,888 --> 00:59:10,760 We are excited, aren’t we? 1296 00:59:10,760 --> 00:59:12,025 Well, just relax. 1297 00:59:12,025 --> 00:59:13,191 Just relax. 1298 00:59:13,191 --> 00:59:15,160 Yes. 1299 00:59:16,194 --> 00:59:21,507 It’s him watching humans or aliens that are not Wookiees. 1300 00:59:21,507 --> 00:59:22,541 And we had to be careful-- 1301 00:59:22,541 --> 00:59:26,809 I remember this-- not to make it too racy for the grandfather 1302 00:59:26,809 --> 00:59:27,612 with Diane. 1303 00:59:27,612 --> 00:59:28,481 Yes. 1304 00:59:28,481 --> 00:59:31,913 You know, I didn’t have approval of anything, 1305 00:59:31,913 --> 00:59:35,015 but that just seemed wrong. 1306 00:59:35,015 --> 00:59:36,984 But I didn’t see that when I was a kid. 1307 00:59:36,984 --> 00:59:42,022 All I saw was, why isn’t Han Solo on the screen? 1308 00:59:42,022 --> 00:59:44,497 Why can’t we see the real Chewie? 1309 00:59:44,497 --> 00:59:46,499 Chewie’s family sucks! 1310 00:59:46,499 --> 00:59:50,998 Now, we can have a good time. 1311 00:59:50,998 --> 00:59:53,099 Can’t we? 1312 00:59:53,099 --> 00:59:54,100 And it’s cringe-worthy. 1313 00:59:54,100 --> 00:59:59,809 Because as he sits there and rewinds, and replays, 1314 00:59:59,809 --> 01:00:02,240 and rewinds, and replays. 1315 01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:09,753 I find you adorable. 1316 01:00:09,753 --> 01:00:14,494 And then goes into a song that Itchy enjoys thoroughly. 1317 01:00:14,494 --> 01:00:17,123 This minute now. 1318 01:00:17,123 --> 01:00:27,123 This minute now. 1319 01:00:36,516 --> 01:00:37,682 This was not made for children. 1320 01:00:37,682 --> 01:00:41,081 Whoever the creative team was in charge of the Star Wars Holiday 1321 01:00:41,081 --> 01:00:44,590 Special has zero time for children’s entertainment. 1322 01:00:44,590 --> 01:00:47,725 They’re like, uh, uh, uh, I saw that Star Wars movie, 1323 01:00:47,725 --> 01:00:51,894 and there wasn’t enough VR Wookiee porn for me. 1324 01:00:53,962 --> 01:00:55,095 Where’s Chewbacca? 1325 01:00:55,931 --> 01:00:58,736 When you were on the Wookiee home planet, 1326 01:00:58,736 --> 01:01:01,838 how did you even understand what they were saying? 1327 01:01:01,838 --> 01:01:05,743 I don’t remember ever being on a Wookiee home planet. 1328 01:01:06,304 --> 01:01:09,648 Actually, Luke was on the Wookiee home planet Kashyyyk 1329 01:01:09,648 --> 01:01:11,914 in the Holiday Special when he helped 1330 01:01:11,914 --> 01:01:13,784 Chewie get home to his wife. 1331 01:01:15,984 --> 01:01:18,855 Chewie had a wife? 1332 01:01:18,855 --> 01:01:20,252 Her name is Malla. 1333 01:01:20,252 --> 01:01:21,121 Come on, Malla. 1334 01:01:21,121 --> 01:01:22,925 Let’s see a little smile. 1335 01:01:22,925 --> 01:01:24,597 Come on. 1336 01:01:24,597 --> 01:01:26,830 Mark Hamill’s makeup in the holiday special 1337 01:01:26,830 --> 01:01:31,571 rivals Huey Lewis’s makeup in the "Do You Believe in Love" 1338 01:01:31,571 --> 01:01:32,066 video. 1339 01:01:32,066 --> 01:01:34,970 We always thought it was because Mark Hamill was covering up 1340 01:01:34,970 --> 01:01:37,137 a scar, like the plastic surgery didn’t heal. 1341 01:01:37,137 --> 01:01:40,877 And that’s why they added that wampa capture scene, 1342 01:01:40,877 --> 01:01:45,046 because they needed to show why Luke Skywalker had 1343 01:01:45,046 --> 01:01:46,344 a scar on his face. 1344 01:01:46,344 --> 01:01:47,653 Now, decades pass. 1345 01:01:47,653 --> 01:01:49,655 We find out that that’s not true at all. 1346 01:01:49,655 --> 01:01:51,283 But that really wasn’t the main emphasis 1347 01:01:51,283 --> 01:01:53,659 of why we wrote the monster in the beginning. 1348 01:01:53,659 --> 01:01:56,926 It was just we needed something to kind of keep the film 1349 01:01:56,926 --> 01:02:01,128 suspenseful at the beginning while the empire is 1350 01:02:01,128 --> 01:02:01,964 finding them. 1351 01:02:01,964 --> 01:02:04,032 But the truth is, it’s just bad makeup. 1352 01:02:04,032 --> 01:02:07,332 These are Tony producers making this special. 1353 01:02:07,332 --> 01:02:11,743 They are used to caking on the makeup for musicals, 1354 01:02:11,743 --> 01:02:12,942 for stage performances. 1355 01:02:12,942 --> 01:02:14,614 Also, you have to remember the degradation 1356 01:02:14,614 --> 01:02:17,375 of each copy of the holiday special gets worse and worse 1357 01:02:17,375 --> 01:02:19,949 and worse, which means the coloring is not 1358 01:02:19,949 --> 01:02:20,917 going to be corrected. 1359 01:02:20,917 --> 01:02:24,151 Over the period of years, it’s built up 1360 01:02:24,151 --> 01:02:26,626 into having my face reconstructed 1361 01:02:26,626 --> 01:02:28,628 with plastic surgery. 1362 01:02:28,628 --> 01:02:32,665 George told us that he had 10 stories 1363 01:02:32,665 --> 01:02:34,227 that he had come up with, and he was 1364 01:02:34,227 --> 01:02:35,767 planning on making six movies. 1365 01:02:35,767 --> 01:02:39,265 And he had four other stories that he was 1366 01:02:39,265 --> 01:02:40,772 putting in different places. 1367 01:02:40,772 --> 01:02:43,973 And one of them was Boba Fett, but he hadn’t quite 1368 01:02:43,973 --> 01:02:46,778 figured out what Boba Fett’s story was going to be. 1369 01:02:46,778 --> 01:02:49,715 So he took his pilot version of it 1370 01:02:49,715 --> 01:02:53,653 and made it an animated thing and was going to inserted it 1371 01:02:53,653 --> 01:02:54,346 into this special. 1372 01:02:54,346 --> 01:02:57,921 They were doing this holiday special, 1373 01:02:57,921 --> 01:03:01,287 and there wasn’t much of our involvement, 1374 01:03:01,287 --> 01:03:05,027 but I came up with the idea, why don’t we take the Boba Fett 1375 01:03:05,027 --> 01:03:06,765 character and put him in that. 1376 01:03:06,765 --> 01:03:08,360 Make a little movie out of it. 1377 01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:09,867 I am Boba Fett. 1378 01:03:09,867 --> 01:03:10,769 Follow me, friend. 1379 01:03:10,769 --> 01:03:12,903 After Return of the Jedi, all the Tim Zahn novels, 1380 01:03:12,903 --> 01:03:15,202 all the Dark Horse comics, like all of this content 1381 01:03:15,202 --> 01:03:17,974 came out about how awesome Boba Fett was. 1382 01:03:17,974 --> 01:03:21,175 But it all starts with that animation 1383 01:03:21,175 --> 01:03:23,045 in the holiday special. 1384 01:03:23,045 --> 01:03:24,717 The animated bit, which I think was 1385 01:03:24,717 --> 01:03:26,818 done by Nelvana, which is a Canadian company that 1386 01:03:26,818 --> 01:03:30,448 eventually did the Droids and Ewoks TV series. 1387 01:03:30,448 --> 01:03:36,993 George had seen a special that we did called Cosmic Christmas 1388 01:03:36,993 --> 01:03:39,193 and really liked it. 1389 01:03:39,193 --> 01:03:43,835 And so, when he was working with David Acomba, who 1390 01:03:43,835 --> 01:03:46,101 was a mutual friend, you know, David 1391 01:03:46,101 --> 01:03:49,841 had suggested that we might be good for the Star Wars special. 1392 01:03:49,841 --> 01:03:52,338 That was how the relationship all started. 1393 01:03:52,338 --> 01:03:56,012 So the cartoon that’s contained within the holiday special 1394 01:03:56,012 --> 01:03:59,378 is this kind of short, 10 or 11-minute cartoon, 1395 01:03:59,378 --> 01:04:01,248 subtitled "The Faithful Wookiee." 1396 01:04:01,248 --> 01:04:04,020 And it’s the story about how the rebels are 1397 01:04:04,020 --> 01:04:06,858 looking for Han Solo and Chewbacca who have disappeared. 1398 01:04:06,858 --> 01:04:11,357 They find them, and they’ve been affected by this sleeping 1399 01:04:11,357 --> 01:04:12,490 virus that only affects humans. 1400 01:04:12,490 --> 01:04:15,999 And as soon as they discover it, Luke gets infected. 1401 01:04:15,999 --> 01:04:19,464 And then it’s up to Chewbacca and the droids 1402 01:04:19,464 --> 01:04:21,466 to try and rescue them. 1403 01:04:21,466 --> 01:04:22,940 And it was written by George. 1404 01:04:22,940 --> 01:04:25,470 And I loved the roughness of Star Wars. 1405 01:04:25,470 --> 01:04:29,914 I loved the fact that everything was beaten up and lived in. 1406 01:04:29,914 --> 01:04:32,477 We wanted to get that kind of real world quality 1407 01:04:32,477 --> 01:04:35,755 into the animation too and not make it too pristine. 1408 01:04:35,755 --> 01:04:40,925 It was a little bit loosely based on Moebius. 1409 01:04:40,925 --> 01:04:42,520 George wanted the style of Moebius, 1410 01:04:42,520 --> 01:04:45,798 who was a famous science fiction Illustrator. 1411 01:04:45,798 --> 01:04:49,868 And so, that was the inspiration for the style 1412 01:04:49,868 --> 01:04:50,770 of the characters. 1413 01:04:50,770 --> 01:04:53,531 That style of animation, that like nearly rotoscoped, 1414 01:04:53,531 --> 01:04:56,369 everything that was vogue in animation in that era, 1415 01:04:56,369 --> 01:04:59,779 it was that applied to Star Wars. 1416 01:04:59,779 --> 01:05:00,406 But it was crazy. 1417 01:05:00,406 --> 01:05:03,981 Like, this was-- there’s nothing like it, that animated 1418 01:05:03,981 --> 01:05:04,476 sequence. 1419 01:05:04,476 --> 01:05:06,918 To me, to this day, even if I don’t-- 1420 01:05:06,918 --> 01:05:08,480 I know what the holiday special is. 1421 01:05:08,480 --> 01:05:11,351 I know it’s crazy and kind of a mess. 1422 01:05:11,351 --> 01:05:15,124 But I still point to that animated bit and go, 1423 01:05:15,124 --> 01:05:16,257 this is crazy. 1424 01:05:16,257 --> 01:05:17,390 Like, this is just vibrant. 1425 01:05:17,390 --> 01:05:21,229 But I love the introduction of Boba Fett and that rifle 1426 01:05:21,229 --> 01:05:22,032 that he had. 1427 01:05:22,032 --> 01:05:24,034 That animated piece still holds up. 1428 01:05:24,034 --> 01:05:24,870 It’s pretty cool. 1429 01:05:24,870 --> 01:05:26,135 And I draw inspiration from that. 1430 01:05:26,135 --> 01:05:30,403 Jon Favreau has declared himself a fan of the Star Wars Holiday 1431 01:05:30,403 --> 01:05:32,504 Special and he made a concerted effort 1432 01:05:32,504 --> 01:05:36,079 to put lots of little Easter eggs and little references 1433 01:05:36,079 --> 01:05:38,444 to the holiday special throughout The Mandalorian. 1434 01:05:38,444 --> 01:05:41,183 Because we all ordered the Boba Fett figure 1435 01:05:41,183 --> 01:05:42,448 by sending in our proofs of purchase 1436 01:05:42,448 --> 01:05:45,924 from the back of the package, and we got this figure 1437 01:05:45,924 --> 01:05:47,321 before he ever appeared on screen. 1438 01:05:47,321 --> 01:05:51,358 You could get Boba Fett in the mail before the movie came out. 1439 01:05:51,358 --> 01:05:52,865 So at the time, the action figure 1440 01:05:52,865 --> 01:05:56,462 Boba Fett was supposed to have a little rocket that fired out 1441 01:05:56,462 --> 01:05:57,331 of the jetpack. 1442 01:05:57,331 --> 01:05:58,596 But there were a lot of safety issues 1443 01:05:58,596 --> 01:06:01,236 at the time with a lot of toys that came out then that had 1444 01:06:01,236 --> 01:06:02,842 that rocket-firing feature. 1445 01:06:02,842 --> 01:06:04,976 And so, they never made it that way. 1446 01:06:04,976 --> 01:06:08,243 His toy is so badass, it might kill me. 1447 01:06:08,243 --> 01:06:10,311 They had to include the rocket in. 1448 01:06:10,311 --> 01:06:14,150 And so, a generation of kids were like, whoa, 1449 01:06:14,150 --> 01:06:14,953 who is this guy? 1450 01:06:14,953 --> 01:06:16,152 And the only time we’d seen him was 1451 01:06:16,152 --> 01:06:18,187 in the holiday special, which you know well 1452 01:06:18,187 --> 01:06:19,254 because you put the gun in. 1453 01:06:19,254 --> 01:06:22,620 So the forked rifle that the Mandalorian carries 1454 01:06:22,620 --> 01:06:24,457 is a direct reference to the holiday special, 1455 01:06:24,457 --> 01:06:29,396 because Boba Fett does not have that weapon when he appears 1456 01:06:29,396 --> 01:06:30,463 in The Empire Strikes Back. 1457 01:06:30,463 --> 01:06:31,937 So it’s not in any of the movies. 1458 01:06:31,937 --> 01:06:34,533 It’s only in the Star Wars Holiday Special. 1459 01:06:34,533 --> 01:06:38,306 I remember when you were all proud when George came to set. 1460 01:06:38,306 --> 01:06:40,044 Did you see the gun we have? 1461 01:06:40,044 --> 01:06:40,539 Yeah. 1462 01:06:40,539 --> 01:06:43,179 Do you know that was a homage too. 1463 01:06:43,179 --> 01:06:44,576 That cannon, right? 1464 01:06:44,576 --> 01:06:45,918 Because you wrote it. 1465 01:06:45,918 --> 01:06:46,512 Not really. 1466 01:06:46,512 --> 01:06:48,415 You said, hey, we put that gun in from the holiday special. 1467 01:06:48,415 --> 01:06:51,220 And he goes, oh, I had nothing to do with that. 1468 01:06:52,155 --> 01:06:57,061 One thing people love to talk about in terms of Chewbacca’s 1469 01:06:57,061 --> 01:07:00,328 role and how important he was at the end of Star Wars, 1470 01:07:00,328 --> 01:07:01,494 and how important he may have even 1471 01:07:01,494 --> 01:07:05,201 been seen by the filmmakers at the end of Star Wars, 1472 01:07:05,201 --> 01:07:07,434 is that you give Han Solo a medal, 1473 01:07:07,434 --> 01:07:09,172 and you give Luke Skywalker a medal, 1474 01:07:09,172 --> 01:07:11,636 but Chewbacca only gets a chance to stand up 1475 01:07:11,636 --> 01:07:14,474 on the platform and roar at the end of Star Wars. 1476 01:07:14,474 --> 01:07:17,950 There was a question-- why didn’t Chewbacca 1477 01:07:17,950 --> 01:07:21,217 get a medal at the end of Star Wars? 1478 01:07:21,217 --> 01:07:26,288 And George’s answer to that was Wookiees 1479 01:07:26,288 --> 01:07:28,422 don’t want-- he didn’t want a medal. 1480 01:07:28,422 --> 01:07:32,261 But his reward was that Han would take them 1481 01:07:32,261 --> 01:07:36,595 back to his home planet for Life Day celebration. 1482 01:07:36,595 --> 01:07:40,203 So on the very last day of shooting, from day one 1483 01:07:40,203 --> 01:07:41,369 when I arrived at Warner Brothers, 1484 01:07:41,369 --> 01:07:43,107 I was curious how we were going to approach 1485 01:07:43,107 --> 01:07:46,275 shooting the finale, which has not only the original 1486 01:07:46,275 --> 01:07:51,313 cast from Star Wars I the movie, but also about 100 extras. 1487 01:07:51,313 --> 01:07:52,952 They saved all this money by not having 1488 01:07:52,952 --> 01:07:56,714 to suit them by just dressing them in these robes-- 1489 01:07:56,714 --> 01:07:58,353 these honorary Life Day robes. 1490 01:07:58,353 --> 01:08:03,589 And they’re all parading through while Carrie sings her song. 1491 01:08:03,589 --> 01:08:05,624 And that song that I sing-- 1492 01:08:05,624 --> 01:08:12,664 We celebrate a day of peace. 1493 01:08:12,664 --> 01:08:15,469 --a day of harmony. 1494 01:08:17,273 --> 01:08:20,045 She wasn’t-- she wasn’t a great singer. 1495 01:08:20,045 --> 01:08:25,215 But the song was apparently the deciding factor 1496 01:08:25,215 --> 01:08:28,185 in getting her onto the show. 1497 01:08:28,185 --> 01:08:31,650 Just the set itself looked so fake. 1498 01:08:31,650 --> 01:08:32,354 You know? 1499 01:08:32,354 --> 01:08:34,719 Film is very forgiving, especially 1500 01:08:34,719 --> 01:08:36,160 if it’s lit properly. 1501 01:08:36,160 --> 01:08:40,032 But this just looked so cheesy. 1502 01:08:40,032 --> 01:08:41,693 I called my art director in. 1503 01:08:41,693 --> 01:08:44,597 What’s the set for the big finale? 1504 01:08:44,597 --> 01:08:47,171 And he looked at me straight in the eye, and he said, 1505 01:08:47,171 --> 01:08:51,340 Steve, I hate to break it to you, but we’re out of money. 1506 01:08:51,340 --> 01:08:53,243 We have no set for the finale. 1507 01:08:53,243 --> 01:08:56,312 I want you to go into Hollywood, go to every candle 1508 01:08:56,312 --> 01:08:59,216 store you can find, and buy every candle 1509 01:08:59,216 --> 01:09:00,151 they have in their shop. 1510 01:09:00,151 --> 01:09:03,517 So the night before we actually shot the finale, 1511 01:09:03,517 --> 01:09:08,258 we placed fat candles, thin candles, tall candles, 1512 01:09:08,258 --> 01:09:12,196 short candles all over the floor of the stage. 1513 01:09:12,196 --> 01:09:17,201 And we spent the morning of the actual shoot lighting 1514 01:09:17,201 --> 01:09:18,532 all of these candles. 1515 01:09:18,532 --> 01:09:20,039 The end of this movie is basically 1516 01:09:20,039 --> 01:09:23,669 like the Heaven’s Gate cult occurs to the Wookiee family. 1517 01:09:23,669 --> 01:09:26,078 Like, they all-- 1518 01:09:26,078 --> 01:09:26,573 right? 1519 01:09:26,573 --> 01:09:29,576 Like, they start singing a song, they hold up their light orbs, 1520 01:09:29,576 --> 01:09:32,810 and clearly they die and ascend to a new realm 1521 01:09:32,810 --> 01:09:36,187 where they enter the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet. 1522 01:09:36,187 --> 01:09:37,386 I think that’s what it-- 1523 01:09:37,386 --> 01:09:38,453 I think that’s what’s happening. 1524 01:09:38,453 --> 01:09:42,523 The line producers of the Star Wars Holiday Special 1525 01:09:42,523 --> 01:09:43,722 were Ken and Mitzie Welch. 1526 01:09:43,722 --> 01:09:46,263 They admittedly came to me and said, hey, 1527 01:09:46,263 --> 01:09:48,529 we’ve never produced anything like this. 1528 01:09:48,529 --> 01:09:52,599 Miki was the point person between Lucasfilm, and CBS, 1529 01:09:52,599 --> 01:09:55,371 and the production company, Smith-Hemion, 1530 01:09:55,371 --> 01:09:58,539 that was actually making the special. 1531 01:09:58,539 --> 01:10:00,772 We couldn’t tell them what to do. 1532 01:10:00,772 --> 01:10:04,809 I mean, that was their project, their show, and they didn’t-- 1533 01:10:04,809 --> 01:10:06,811 it was, like, out of control. 1534 01:10:06,811 --> 01:10:11,123 I told Gary if I came in to direct and help put 1535 01:10:11,123 --> 01:10:15,457 the fire out, the one thing I would not be available 1536 01:10:15,457 --> 01:10:18,724 was I had a show to go to, I was already committed to. 1537 01:10:18,724 --> 01:10:23,333 I would not be able to participate in one day or one 1538 01:10:23,333 --> 01:10:24,235 second of editing. 1539 01:10:24,235 --> 01:10:26,303 But we weren’t in-- you have to understand, 1540 01:10:26,303 --> 01:10:27,799 we weren’t in the loop at that point. 1541 01:10:27,799 --> 01:10:31,836 I mean, at that point, it was Ken and Mitzie Welch’s show. 1542 01:10:31,836 --> 01:10:35,741 Ken and Mitzie were variety show producers, 1543 01:10:35,741 --> 01:10:39,118 but they didn’t know anything about science fiction, 1544 01:10:39,118 --> 01:10:42,649 and they didn’t know how to edit. 1545 01:10:42,649 --> 01:10:47,225 I had never edited anything in my life. 1546 01:10:47,225 --> 01:10:47,786 You know? 1547 01:10:47,786 --> 01:10:48,622 I write. 1548 01:10:48,622 --> 01:10:49,557 I’ll never forget this-- 1549 01:10:49,557 --> 01:10:54,694 I saw all of those tapes, and I thought, what am I going to do? 1550 01:10:54,694 --> 01:10:57,400 And I do remember, I burst into tears. 1551 01:10:57,400 --> 01:11:02,537 I have never ever not edited any of my shows other than the Star 1552 01:11:02,537 --> 01:11:04,341 Wars Holiday Special. 1553 01:11:04,341 --> 01:11:06,244 And to this day, I regret it. 1554 01:11:06,244 --> 01:11:07,212 I’m sorry I wasn’t there. 1555 01:11:07,212 --> 01:11:10,182 Because I knew it would fall on Mitzie and Ken, 1556 01:11:10,182 --> 01:11:12,580 and I knew they had zero experience. 1557 01:11:12,580 --> 01:11:14,813 They were there to get the show done. 1558 01:11:14,813 --> 01:11:17,387 It would never have gotten done otherwise. 1559 01:11:17,387 --> 01:11:19,521 But we were in contact with George Lucas, 1560 01:11:19,521 --> 01:11:21,886 and he knew what he wanted in terms 1561 01:11:21,886 --> 01:11:24,262 of the look and everything. 1562 01:11:24,262 --> 01:11:25,164 Yeah, Miki Herman. 1563 01:11:25,164 --> 01:11:26,792 She was our liaison with-- 1564 01:11:26,792 --> 01:11:27,628 That’s right. 1565 01:11:27,628 --> 01:11:28,332 George. 1566 01:11:28,332 --> 01:11:30,532 She was there all the time, every day. 1567 01:11:30,532 --> 01:11:31,896 And there in editing too. 1568 01:11:31,896 --> 01:11:32,864 And in editing, yeah. 1569 01:11:32,864 --> 01:11:37,473 They just left it up to the variety show producers. 1570 01:11:37,473 --> 01:11:42,808 And, you know, they regretted it. 1571 01:11:43,941 --> 01:11:47,450 On Friday night, blast off to a galaxy far, far away. 1572 01:11:47,450 --> 01:11:50,585 It’s the Star Wars Holiday Special. 1573 01:11:50,585 --> 01:11:51,355 You’re on. 1574 01:11:51,355 --> 01:11:53,225 So we would throw a Thanksgiving for the lost 1575 01:11:53,225 --> 01:11:56,261 boys-- for all the people who couldn’t go home. 1576 01:11:56,261 --> 01:11:57,361 So that was the night before. 1577 01:11:57,361 --> 01:12:00,496 So the next night we all went back and had leftovers 1578 01:12:00,496 --> 01:12:01,893 and watched the Star Wars special, 1579 01:12:01,893 --> 01:12:03,532 which was on Friday night of that weekend. 1580 01:12:03,532 --> 01:12:06,799 This is the days before the VCR, so we couldn’t tape it. 1581 01:12:06,799 --> 01:12:11,210 If you did not see it when it aired, that was it. 1582 01:12:11,210 --> 01:12:14,444 So I had a party at my house that night 1583 01:12:14,444 --> 01:12:15,775 for when the show was there. 1584 01:12:15,775 --> 01:12:18,712 It was catered, and it had all of my friends, 1585 01:12:18,712 --> 01:12:20,912 and there were people with trays. 1586 01:12:20,912 --> 01:12:24,751 I wanted to see this more than I wanted to live. 1587 01:12:24,751 --> 01:12:26,258 You know, I was a young Catholic kid, 1588 01:12:26,258 --> 01:12:28,986 and I was always afraid God was going to kill me and stuff. 1589 01:12:28,986 --> 01:12:30,262 And I was like, oh lord, please. 1590 01:12:30,262 --> 01:12:33,925 Please, just don’t kill me until I see the Star Wars Christmas 1591 01:12:33,925 --> 01:12:34,596 special. 1592 01:12:34,596 --> 01:12:36,334 And after that first commercial, I turned it off, 1593 01:12:36,334 --> 01:12:38,534 and I said, OK, everybody, let’s eat. 1594 01:12:38,534 --> 01:12:39,238 You know? 1595 01:12:39,238 --> 01:12:42,604 I had no idea what it had become. 1596 01:12:42,604 --> 01:12:43,440 And it was great. 1597 01:12:43,440 --> 01:12:45,574 I mean, they loved me Bea, and they loved Harvey, 1598 01:12:45,574 --> 01:12:46,641 and they loved all of that. 1599 01:12:46,641 --> 01:12:48,676 They loved all the crap, of course. 1600 01:12:48,676 --> 01:12:51,283 All the camp stuff they loved. 1601 01:12:51,283 --> 01:12:53,285 But what wasn’t camp in that show? 1602 01:12:53,285 --> 01:12:56,453 It just seemed so weird even at the time. 1603 01:12:56,453 --> 01:13:01,359 And when it came out, it was like, oh my god, this 1604 01:13:01,359 --> 01:13:03,295 is what they did for the holiday special? 1605 01:13:03,295 --> 01:13:06,694 They made the mistake of farming it out I think was the problem. 1606 01:13:06,694 --> 01:13:07,959 They farmed it out to people that 1607 01:13:07,959 --> 01:13:11,468 were used to doing Perry Como and Bob Hope specials. 1608 01:13:11,468 --> 01:13:12,304 And it shows. 1609 01:13:12,304 --> 01:13:16,704 I noticed that a lot of people who write me and make comments 1610 01:13:16,704 --> 01:13:19,872 about the Star Wars Holiday Special say, 1611 01:13:19,872 --> 01:13:21,940 I was five years old when I watched it. 1612 01:13:21,940 --> 01:13:24,382 I was 10 years old when I watched it. 1613 01:13:24,382 --> 01:13:26,384 They have a whole different perspective of it. 1614 01:13:26,384 --> 01:13:28,716 Because they usually add, "And I loved it." 1615 01:13:28,716 --> 01:13:33,985 From what I remember as a kid, the Star Wars Holiday Special 1616 01:13:33,985 --> 01:13:36,053 was tremendous. 1617 01:13:36,053 --> 01:13:37,791 I was super excited. 1618 01:13:37,791 --> 01:13:40,959 I was over anxious, simply because something 1619 01:13:40,959 --> 01:13:44,897 from the Star Wars world was going to be on television. 1620 01:13:44,897 --> 01:13:48,538 We’re starving, as fans, for anything Star Wars. 1621 01:13:48,538 --> 01:13:51,508 Other than the movie, that’s the only other thing 1622 01:13:51,508 --> 01:13:55,974 that I saw that had Harrison Ford in it or on it at all. 1623 01:13:55,974 --> 01:13:56,909 I’ll take anything. 1624 01:13:56,909 --> 01:13:58,911 I don’t care if they’re going to juggle, sing, dance. 1625 01:13:58,911 --> 01:14:01,782 And all the kids talked about it at school 1626 01:14:01,782 --> 01:14:02,915 the next day and so forth. 1627 01:14:02,915 --> 01:14:06,556 And then everybody promptly forgot about it after that. 1628 01:14:06,556 --> 01:14:09,922 A sinking feeling came in, where I was like, 1629 01:14:09,922 --> 01:14:12,892 oh, this isn’t going to be as good as I’d hoped it. 1630 01:14:12,892 --> 01:14:15,664 In a weird way, it was a prep for what 1631 01:14:15,664 --> 01:14:18,766 I would experience decades later with the prequels, 1632 01:14:18,766 --> 01:14:21,703 where I sat down, could not have been more excited, 1633 01:14:21,703 --> 01:14:23,342 could not have been more jazzed, and then 1634 01:14:23,342 --> 01:14:28,380 it took time, as I was watching it, to realize like something’s 1635 01:14:28,380 --> 01:14:28,875 wrong. 1636 01:14:28,875 --> 01:14:32,780 I think with probably like the plague in the Middle Ages, 1637 01:14:32,780 --> 01:14:37,554 after everybody died, they decided to change the subject. 1638 01:14:37,554 --> 01:14:41,756 So I don’t remember people talking about it much. 1639 01:14:43,956 --> 01:14:46,024 It’s like one of those Mandela effect things, 1640 01:14:46,024 --> 01:14:47,630 where for a long time a bunch of people 1641 01:14:47,630 --> 01:14:50,897 didn’t even know the Star Wars Christmas special existed. 1642 01:14:50,897 --> 01:14:53,669 As the internet grew, it became this sort 1643 01:14:53,669 --> 01:14:54,769 of like talking point. 1644 01:14:54,769 --> 01:14:56,001 Are you a Star Wars fan? 1645 01:14:56,001 --> 01:14:56,705 Yeah. 1646 01:14:56,705 --> 01:14:58,003 Do you know about the holiday special? 1647 01:14:58,003 --> 01:14:59,444 Now, I know you’re a Star Wars fan. 1648 01:14:59,444 --> 01:15:01,006 But this really showed a different level of commitment. 1649 01:15:01,006 --> 01:15:04,042 Like, most casual Star Wars fans don’t 1650 01:15:04,042 --> 01:15:05,582 know about the holiday special. 1651 01:15:05,582 --> 01:15:08,079 And so, all of a sudden, it kind of surfaced. 1652 01:15:08,079 --> 01:15:10,752 And that was when he tried to really bury it. 1653 01:15:10,752 --> 01:15:13,623 You tell somebody you can’t have something, 1654 01:15:13,623 --> 01:15:14,690 they want it even more. 1655 01:15:14,690 --> 01:15:19,431 So I got the Star Wars Holiday Special on a VHS tape, 1656 01:15:19,431 --> 01:15:20,663 sixth-generation copy. 1657 01:15:20,663 --> 01:15:22,962 That would have been valuable currency 1658 01:15:22,962 --> 01:15:24,898 to a prototypical nerd, Star Wars fan. 1659 01:15:24,898 --> 01:15:27,098 Years later, when I first interviewed George Lucas, 1660 01:15:27,098 --> 01:15:30,640 and we finished the main part of the interview, and I said, 1661 01:15:30,640 --> 01:15:32,477 I’ve got another question for you. 1662 01:15:32,477 --> 01:15:33,907 What about the holiday special? 1663 01:15:33,907 --> 01:15:36,140 And he said, "Oh, that damn thing." 1664 01:15:36,140 --> 01:15:40,683 He said, "If I could personally go out and find 1665 01:15:40,683 --> 01:15:44,555 all of the bootleg VHS tapes, I would smash them all." 1666 01:15:44,555 --> 01:15:48,889 And I told that anecdote at a convention in Australia. 1667 01:15:48,889 --> 01:15:50,660 That sort of went around the world. 1668 01:15:50,660 --> 01:15:54,598 George Lucas wishes there were never a holiday special, 1669 01:15:54,598 --> 01:15:56,600 and he would smash all the tapes. 1670 01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:59,603 I take some pride in having started that anecdote, 1671 01:15:59,603 --> 01:16:02,133 and I got it right from the horse’s mouth. 1672 01:16:02,133 --> 01:16:04,509 In a way, the fact that Lucas has 1673 01:16:04,509 --> 01:16:09,173 spent so much time denying it makes it 1674 01:16:09,173 --> 01:16:10,614 more popular for some people. 1675 01:16:10,614 --> 01:16:12,209 Because it seems like it’s something 1676 01:16:12,209 --> 01:16:15,047 they shouldn’t see or can’t see. 1677 01:16:20,085 --> 01:16:23,187 George didn’t say anything during production. 1678 01:16:23,187 --> 01:16:27,895 Because, again he had moved away to work on other things. 1679 01:16:27,895 --> 01:16:29,600 I blame-- not blame. 1680 01:16:29,600 --> 01:16:30,568 That’s the wrong word. 1681 01:16:30,568 --> 01:16:34,000 Lucas-- when Lucas walked away, he said, do whatever you want. 1682 01:16:34,000 --> 01:16:37,102 And then he got upset because we did whatever we wanted. 1683 01:16:37,102 --> 01:16:39,511 He knew it wasn’t going to be wonderful. 1684 01:16:39,511 --> 01:16:41,612 And really, I don’t think he saw it 1685 01:16:41,612 --> 01:16:44,142 until about the same time we all did. 1686 01:16:44,142 --> 01:16:46,078 And he immediately hated it. 1687 01:16:46,078 --> 01:16:48,553 Because I’m bold with George when we’re having 1688 01:16:48,553 --> 01:16:51,622 conversations, and I asked him. 1689 01:16:51,622 --> 01:16:54,856 And I was like, "Oh, man, what did you-- 1690 01:16:54,856 --> 01:16:56,990 how did you feel when you saw the first cut?" 1691 01:16:56,990 --> 01:17:01,500 And he was like, "Well, I did ask if there was 1692 01:17:01,500 --> 01:17:04,096 a way that we couldn’t air it. 1693 01:17:04,096 --> 01:17:06,032 Did it have to air?" 1694 01:17:06,032 --> 01:17:09,541 But it was a lot of money, and it had to air. 1695 01:17:09,541 --> 01:17:11,576 To this day, I’ve never met George Lucas. 1696 01:17:11,576 --> 01:17:13,908 All I heard was he tried to buy the negatives 1697 01:17:13,908 --> 01:17:17,076 and never ever showed this again after it aired. 1698 01:17:17,076 --> 01:17:22,048 I don’t blame anybody, but he is the only person who really 1699 01:17:22,048 --> 01:17:23,082 could have controlled it. 1700 01:17:23,082 --> 01:17:24,820 You know, all the Star Wars actors 1701 01:17:24,820 --> 01:17:28,758 were in this thing playing the roles that they made famous 1702 01:17:28,758 --> 01:17:29,627 a year earlier. 1703 01:17:29,627 --> 01:17:31,728 And now, the guy who created those roles 1704 01:17:31,728 --> 01:17:35,028 for them, George Lucas, says, eh, I’m not 1705 01:17:35,028 --> 01:17:38,229 really associated with this. 1706 01:17:42,970 --> 01:17:46,776 I have my name on all the good things I’ve done 1707 01:17:46,776 --> 01:17:49,240 and all the bad things I’ve done. 1708 01:17:50,241 --> 01:17:54,014 But maybe if I could have taken my name off of the bad things 1709 01:17:54,014 --> 01:17:55,312 I would have. 1710 01:17:55,312 --> 01:17:57,589 George, to be fair, hasn’t been out there 1711 01:17:57,589 --> 01:17:59,624 going, like, I hate the Christmas special. 1712 01:17:59,624 --> 01:18:02,627 It’s not like he’s lamenting it loudly. 1713 01:18:02,627 --> 01:18:05,256 But it’s very-- he’s made it clear over the years 1714 01:18:05,256 --> 01:18:06,191 that he ain’t into this. 1715 01:18:06,191 --> 01:18:08,897 I think, at the time, when the holiday special was broadcast, 1716 01:18:08,897 --> 01:18:12,670 it was not considered to be a big failure or giant 1717 01:18:12,670 --> 01:18:15,332 anomaly that it is considered to be today. 1718 01:18:15,332 --> 01:18:17,070 I don’t know for sure, but I certainly 1719 01:18:17,070 --> 01:18:18,302 didn’t hear from anybody that there 1720 01:18:18,302 --> 01:18:22,174 was any fallout from the show, that anybody was fired. 1721 01:18:22,174 --> 01:18:24,616 I think life just went on at Lucasfilm. 1722 01:18:24,616 --> 01:18:27,311 The whole purpose of this show was to sell toys to kids. 1723 01:18:27,311 --> 01:18:31,755 There were also going to be action figures of the Wookiee 1724 01:18:31,755 --> 01:18:32,283 family. 1725 01:18:32,283 --> 01:18:34,989 We only know of one set of the prototype Wookiee action 1726 01:18:34,989 --> 01:18:38,289 figures that Kenner was maybe going to make. 1727 01:18:38,289 --> 01:18:40,126 But there were the four action figures-- 1728 01:18:40,126 --> 01:18:44,163 Itchy, Chewbacca, Mallatobuck, and Lumpy. 1729 01:18:44,163 --> 01:18:45,967 So clearly, somebody thought that there 1730 01:18:45,967 --> 01:18:50,642 was money to be made in doing merchandise based on the Star 1731 01:18:50,642 --> 01:18:52,138 Wars Holiday Special. 1732 01:18:52,138 --> 01:18:53,744 But that never happened. 1733 01:18:53,744 --> 01:18:57,209 When something is that huge, people 1734 01:18:57,209 --> 01:19:01,950 can’t control, as hard as they do, the way it’s 1735 01:19:01,950 --> 01:19:02,918 going to be marketed. 1736 01:19:02,918 --> 01:19:05,184 An advertising series in Japan for Panasonic, 1737 01:19:05,184 --> 01:19:11,289 between 1989 and 1993, and they used George Lucas and all 1738 01:19:11,289 --> 01:19:12,928 of the characters in Star Wars. 1739 01:19:12,928 --> 01:19:13,929 And I saw the contract. 1740 01:19:13,929 --> 01:19:18,835 There was a series of penalties if any of these commercials 1741 01:19:18,835 --> 01:19:19,671 showed in the US. 1742 01:19:19,671 --> 01:19:22,234 And in terms of embarrassment to the franchise, 1743 01:19:22,234 --> 01:19:25,303 I remember a commercial where Darth Vader was fighting 1744 01:19:25,303 --> 01:19:27,371 with a lightsaber, and then it shorted out, 1745 01:19:27,371 --> 01:19:29,879 and he opened up the hilt and the batteries were dead. 1746 01:19:29,879 --> 01:19:33,685 Energizer bunny, like, goes cymballing through the frame. 1747 01:19:33,685 --> 01:19:38,217 And I was like, there goes the dignity of the great Sith Lord. 1748 01:19:38,217 --> 01:19:41,990 You can see the awful George Lucas Super Live 1749 01:19:41,990 --> 01:19:44,190 Adventure in seven parts from Japan 1750 01:19:44,190 --> 01:19:46,225 from 1993 on the internet. 1751 01:19:46,225 --> 01:19:47,292 And it’s like a stage show. 1752 01:19:47,292 --> 01:19:50,295 And it covered not only like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. 1753 01:19:50,295 --> 01:19:52,066 I mean, I think it was covering Tucker, 1754 01:19:52,066 --> 01:19:54,805 and it’s covering everything that Lucas has done. 1755 01:19:54,805 --> 01:19:57,907 That was all singing, all dancing stormtroopers. 1756 01:19:57,907 --> 01:20:00,008 I mean, you know, give me a break. 1757 01:20:00,008 --> 01:20:04,309 It’s just the machine is just going to take over. 1758 01:20:04,309 --> 01:20:09,688 And it’s like, why not make a holiday special? 1759 01:20:18,389 --> 01:20:22,096 And at that time, I have a feeling that George just 1760 01:20:22,096 --> 01:20:22,767 wasn’t-- 1761 01:20:22,767 --> 01:20:26,067 either he was too busy, or he didn’t fully understand 1762 01:20:26,067 --> 01:20:29,873 the changes that were happening, or maybe just figured this is 1763 01:20:29,873 --> 01:20:32,370 a variety show, who cares. You know? 1764 01:20:32,370 --> 01:20:36,176 A lot of people came into watching it thinking, oh, 1765 01:20:36,176 --> 01:20:39,476 we’re going to get a TV sequel to Star Wars. 1766 01:20:39,476 --> 01:20:43,150 It’s going to be a science fiction adventure show 1767 01:20:43,150 --> 01:20:44,118 and stuff like that? 1768 01:20:44,118 --> 01:20:46,054 And that’s never what it was. 1769 01:20:46,054 --> 01:20:47,726 It was a variety show. 1770 01:20:47,726 --> 01:20:49,255 It’s easy to poke fun at stuff after the fact, 1771 01:20:49,255 --> 01:20:52,291 and question how it happened, and sort of make fun of it. 1772 01:20:52,291 --> 01:20:57,131 It’s cliche, at this point, to crap on the Star Wars Holiday 1773 01:20:57,131 --> 01:20:57,802 Special. 1774 01:20:57,802 --> 01:20:58,429 It really is. 1775 01:20:58,429 --> 01:21:02,301 Everybody, without even having sat through the entire thing, 1776 01:21:02,301 --> 01:21:04,006 just instantly it’s a punch line. 1777 01:21:04,006 --> 01:21:06,778 The legacy of the Star Wars Holiday Special 1778 01:21:06,778 --> 01:21:10,210 is in how it impacted all of us fans. 1779 01:21:10,210 --> 01:21:13,015 And as people continue to create for Star Wars, 1780 01:21:13,015 --> 01:21:15,182 they’ll keep on adding these Easter eggs in. 1781 01:21:15,182 --> 01:21:16,953 You’ll keep on seeing things in the background-- 1782 01:21:16,953 --> 01:21:22,057 these callbacks, these little things that tip the hat to you, 1783 01:21:22,057 --> 01:21:26,127 the viewer, that this is made by someone 1784 01:21:26,127 --> 01:21:27,260 who truly loves Star Wars. 1785 01:21:27,260 --> 01:21:30,769 Together we will rule the galaxy-- 1786 01:21:30,769 --> 01:21:32,364 Cut, cut, cut. 1787 01:21:32,364 --> 01:21:33,101 I quit. 1788 01:21:33,101 --> 01:21:35,268 This is the holiday special all over again. 1789 01:21:37,039 --> 01:21:40,009 The Glee Holiday Spectacular. 1790 01:21:42,979 --> 01:21:46,180 Our first ever, live-action holiday special. 1791 01:21:46,180 --> 01:21:48,347 What is it, Star Wars Christmas? 1792 01:21:49,480 --> 01:21:51,350 No, don’t be ridiculous. 1793 01:21:51,350 --> 01:21:53,154 That’s Wookiee Life Day. 1794 01:21:55,189 --> 01:21:56,927 I’ve got you now. 1795 01:21:58,830 --> 01:21:59,325 Sorry. 1796 01:21:59,325 --> 01:22:04,902 Yeah, I was hoping to be free for Life Day. 1797 01:22:04,902 --> 01:22:06,068 I love these connective tissues. 1798 01:22:06,068 --> 01:22:08,972 I love the fact that we’ve taken Life Day, 1799 01:22:08,972 --> 01:22:12,140 and we said, no, November 17, the day the special was 1800 01:22:12,140 --> 01:22:13,174 released, is now Life Day. 1801 01:22:13,174 --> 01:22:16,980 So on Earth, in the Disney Parks, in the world, 1802 01:22:16,980 --> 01:22:17,574 we celebrate it. 1803 01:22:17,574 --> 01:22:20,445 As much as Lucasfilm might not want to acknowledge its 1804 01:22:20,445 --> 01:22:24,416 existence, we’ve seen it infiltrate Disney+. 1805 01:22:24,416 --> 01:22:29,894 We’ve seen merchandise all over the theme parks themed 1806 01:22:29,894 --> 01:22:30,488 around Life Day. 1807 01:22:30,488 --> 01:22:32,358 No one’s talking about the holiday special directly, 1808 01:22:32,358 --> 01:22:36,494 but we are, as a fandom, embracing Life Day. 1809 01:22:36,494 --> 01:22:39,068 Maybe this could mean, down the road, at some point, 1810 01:22:39,068 --> 01:22:42,005 they might release the entire holiday special. 1811 01:22:42,005 --> 01:22:43,842 Who knows? 1812 01:22:54,347 --> 01:22:55,447 I think he should embrace it. 1813 01:22:55,447 --> 01:22:59,418 I mean, like, it’s not his fault. He didn’t do it-- 1814 01:22:59,418 --> 01:23:00,254 I don’t think. 1815 01:23:00,254 --> 01:23:03,455 And am I going to stand on a soapbox 1816 01:23:03,455 --> 01:23:05,523 and proclaim that this is canon? 1817 01:23:05,523 --> 01:23:06,194 No. 1818 01:23:06,194 --> 01:23:09,131 But it’s really interesting, and it’s really fun. 1819 01:23:09,131 --> 01:23:12,200 The Star Wars special is kind of an anomaly for fans, 1820 01:23:12,200 --> 01:23:15,038 because it was kind of the one big thing 1821 01:23:15,038 --> 01:23:19,207 that Lucasfilm did before it got its act together and got 1822 01:23:19,207 --> 01:23:22,507 its system together to make sure that things like this 1823 01:23:22,507 --> 01:23:24,113 never happened again. 1824 01:23:24,113 --> 01:23:25,378 It’s just a curiosity. 1825 01:23:25,378 --> 01:23:29,921 I mean, the Star Wars universe is so different now. 1826 01:23:29,921 --> 01:23:31,153 As much as I, as a fan, would love 1827 01:23:31,153 --> 01:23:35,421 to have a nice, pristine copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special, 1828 01:23:35,421 --> 01:23:38,094 I understand why he probably wouldn’t want 1829 01:23:38,094 --> 01:23:39,194 to put that out in the world. 1830 01:23:39,194 --> 01:23:42,593 You know, it may not be, like, our favorite part of the Star 1831 01:23:42,593 --> 01:23:44,595 Wars mythos, but it has its place. 1832 01:23:44,595 --> 01:23:47,169 It’s an important part of Star Wars history. 1833 01:23:47,169 --> 01:23:49,006 Star Wars fans are collectors, right? 1834 01:23:49,006 --> 01:23:54,209 So it does have, built into it, more than any film or TV 1835 01:23:54,209 --> 01:23:59,676 show made for Star Wars, this exclusive collectibility 1836 01:23:59,676 --> 01:24:00,512 element of it. 1837 01:24:00,512 --> 01:24:02,118 I don’t think Disney+ should put it out. 1838 01:24:02,118 --> 01:24:05,121 Part of the thing that makes it so wonderful 1839 01:24:05,121 --> 01:24:07,387 is that it still has that bootleg feel to it. 1840 01:24:07,387 --> 01:24:11,061 I think it’s actually surprising that Lucasfilm and Disney 1841 01:24:11,061 --> 01:24:14,097 haven’t released the holiday special in some format. 1842 01:24:14,097 --> 01:24:15,395 Why let the bootlegs run the show? 1843 01:24:15,395 --> 01:24:17,969 They should actually have an official release of it. 1844 01:24:17,969 --> 01:24:19,069 Let the audience discover it. 1845 01:24:19,069 --> 01:24:21,500 And when they discover it, it means more. 1846 01:24:21,500 --> 01:24:23,238 Here’s the one way they should release it. 1847 01:24:23,238 --> 01:24:27,704 They should let George Lucas have it and then put 1848 01:24:27,704 --> 01:24:28,573 all the crazy-- 1849 01:24:28,573 --> 01:24:31,246 just let him George Lucas the hell out of it. 1850 01:24:31,246 --> 01:24:32,181 I would love to do-- 1851 01:24:32,181 --> 01:24:34,612 someday, maybe on Disney+, we’ll do a holiday special too. 1852 01:24:34,612 --> 01:24:38,385 Do you think we’ll ever see another Star Wars holiday 1853 01:24:38,385 --> 01:24:39,056 special. 1854 01:24:39,056 --> 01:24:40,519 Not if I have anything to say about it. 1855 01:24:40,519 --> 01:24:42,488 Maybe there’s a version that none of us 1856 01:24:42,488 --> 01:24:44,457 can imagine that would be genius. 1857 01:24:44,457 --> 01:24:45,161 Yeah. 1858 01:24:45,161 --> 01:24:46,228 Wouldn’t that be wonderful? 1859 01:24:46,228 --> 01:24:47,196 Oh, that’d be insane. 1860 01:24:47,196 --> 01:24:48,560 I got to pitch that to them. We’ll see. 1861 01:24:48,560 --> 01:24:50,397 If you want to see a holiday special, let Disney+ know. 1862 01:24:50,397 --> 01:24:51,497 Wow, you heard it here first. 1863 01:24:51,497 --> 01:24:55,402 I also believe that George Lucas is, at his heart, 1864 01:24:55,402 --> 01:24:57,173 an experimental filmmaker, and he 1865 01:24:57,173 --> 01:25:00,407 wants to make things that are weird and different. 1866 01:25:00,407 --> 01:25:02,442 And the holiday special is that. 1867 01:25:02,442 --> 01:25:06,446 The greatest crime of the Star Wars Christmas and/or Holiday 1868 01:25:06,446 --> 01:25:11,352 Special is that it ain’t Star Wars. 1869 01:25:11,352 --> 01:25:12,716 But to be fair, what is? 1870 01:25:12,716 --> 01:25:15,554 At this point, George Lucas is probably 1871 01:25:15,554 --> 01:25:18,227 like, you know what, it’s been out there. 1872 01:25:18,227 --> 01:25:18,722 Whatever. 1873 01:25:18,722 --> 01:25:19,558 I’ve moved on. 1874 01:25:19,558 --> 01:25:20,625 It’s a thing that happened. 1875 01:25:20,625 --> 01:25:22,495 But if Star Wars Holiday Special kind of sneaks in there, 1876 01:25:22,495 --> 01:25:23,628 I don’t think he cares anymore. 1877 01:25:23,628 --> 01:25:27,005 Though, I don’t think he’d want another one. 1878 01:25:35,046 --> 01:25:38,280 George once asked us, please, never mention it again. 1879 01:25:38,280 --> 01:25:40,678 And I said, George, we should own that. 1880 01:25:40,678 --> 01:25:43,648 Because it shows that everybody’s fallible. 1881 01:25:43,648 --> 01:25:44,649 Everybody makes mistakes. 1882 01:25:44,649 --> 01:25:48,092 When you work in any project, you fall in love. 1883 01:25:48,092 --> 01:25:49,489 What else are you going to do? 1884 01:25:49,489 --> 01:25:51,689 I have worked on shows that were really popular 1885 01:25:51,689 --> 01:25:55,627 and shows that were horrible, and I didn’t work any more 1886 01:25:55,627 --> 01:25:58,300 or less hard on any of them. 1887 01:25:59,136 --> 01:26:03,107 Every filmmaker has to grapple with not everything is 1888 01:26:03,107 --> 01:26:03,800 going to be a hit. 1889 01:26:03,800 --> 01:26:05,472 There is no being an artist without failure. 1890 01:26:05,472 --> 01:26:07,672 There just-- there is no being an artist without failure. 1891 01:26:07,672 --> 01:26:14,184 Time has a real amazing way of allowing 1892 01:26:14,184 --> 01:26:15,218 you to embrace the past. 1893 01:26:15,218 --> 01:26:17,154 It’s a very difficult place to be 1894 01:26:17,154 --> 01:26:20,487 an artist on the public stage making movies. 1895 01:26:20,487 --> 01:26:23,391 Because everybody is watching you, 1896 01:26:23,391 --> 01:26:25,228 and many people are rooting for you to fail. 1897 01:26:25,228 --> 01:26:29,331 All my life, since the Donny and Marie Show was created, 1898 01:26:29,331 --> 01:26:32,829 I’ve wanted nothing to do with it. 1899 01:26:32,829 --> 01:26:35,667 If you look at other franchises, they 1900 01:26:35,667 --> 01:26:39,341 would die to have the fan base of Star Wars. 1901 01:26:39,341 --> 01:26:40,144 It’s crazy. 1902 01:26:40,144 --> 01:26:42,179 Like, Star Trek would love to have what Star Wars has. 1903 01:26:42,179 --> 01:26:44,115 They don’t have anything like it. 1904 01:26:44,115 --> 01:26:44,709 Nobody does. 1905 01:26:44,709 --> 01:26:46,414 When you have a bunch of people that love something 1906 01:26:46,414 --> 01:26:50,187 and take it into their hearts, they claim it. 1907 01:26:50,187 --> 01:26:55,291 And when these things don’t behave the way we want them to, 1908 01:26:55,291 --> 01:26:59,790 well, it seems like we’ve become a culture that doesn’t 1909 01:26:59,790 --> 01:27:00,725 know how to handle that. 1910 01:27:00,725 --> 01:27:03,662 Watch the good stuff, and either ignore the bad stuff 1911 01:27:03,662 --> 01:27:06,698 or delight in the bad stuff ironically. 1912 01:27:06,698 --> 01:27:08,106 I have learned to embrace it. 1913 01:27:08,106 --> 01:27:12,539 I’ve learned to say, you know, I’m not embarrassed about it 1914 01:27:12,539 --> 01:27:13,837 as much. 1915 01:27:13,837 --> 01:27:17,181 You know, I did the best I could at the time. 1916 01:27:17,181 --> 01:27:18,116 That’s what was popular. 1917 01:27:18,116 --> 01:27:21,449 That’s what people were buying and watching, 1918 01:27:21,449 --> 01:27:25,849 and it was appropriate for the day. 1919 01:27:25,849 --> 01:27:30,491 I think failure defines people sometimes more than success. 1920 01:27:30,491 --> 01:27:34,594 I think failure is one of the great motivators. 1921 01:27:34,594 --> 01:27:40,435 The Star Wars Holiday Special led to stuff like Andor. 1922 01:27:40,435 --> 01:27:43,603 That all of that failure is part of that process. 1923 01:27:43,603 --> 01:27:46,804 Someway, somewhere, somehow, somebody 1924 01:27:46,804 --> 01:27:50,412 is going to make fun of you. 1925 01:27:50,412 --> 01:27:51,611 Don’t let it bother you. 1926 01:27:51,611 --> 01:27:52,513 Move ahead. 1927 01:27:52,513 --> 01:27:53,349 Be an artist. 1928 01:27:53,349 --> 01:27:56,715 Sometimes the magic happens, and sometimes it’s 1929 01:27:56,715 --> 01:27:59,190 the Star Wars Holiday Special. 1930 01:28:33,818 --> 01:28:36,953 There was a new flash in between the commercials, 1931 01:28:36,953 --> 01:28:40,858 and the bootleg had all the commercials from 1978. 1932 01:28:40,858 --> 01:28:42,794 And that was actually-- eventually, 1933 01:28:42,794 --> 01:28:43,894 that became part of the charm. 1934 01:28:43,894 --> 01:28:46,402 They’ve become part of this movie. 1935 01:28:46,402 --> 01:28:48,734 And the anchor is the funniest part is. 1936 01:28:48,734 --> 01:28:50,769 Because he’s just there, and he’s like 1937 01:28:50,769 --> 01:28:51,803 fighting the frizzies. 1938 01:28:51,803 --> 01:28:53,310 You know, tonight at 11:00. 1939 01:28:53,310 --> 01:28:55,378 Fighting the frizzies at 11:00. 1940 01:28:55,378 --> 01:29:01,219 I’ve been surreptitiously made a cult figure, 1941 01:29:01,219 --> 01:29:02,286 whether I wanted to or not. 1942 01:29:02,286 --> 01:29:04,321 And then they parodied that on South Park. 1943 01:29:04,321 --> 01:29:07,852 And now, fighting the frizzies. 1944 01:29:07,852 --> 01:29:09,953 Why are they doing this? 1945 01:29:09,953 --> 01:29:11,295 Why the parody? 1946 01:29:11,295 --> 01:29:16,465 Nobody remembers the serious things and the profound things 1947 01:29:16,465 --> 01:29:18,764 that I did in my career, but they all 1948 01:29:18,764 --> 01:29:22,702 remember fighting the frizzies at 11:00.