1 00:00:15,449 --> 00:00:17,117 Because of the following special program, 2 00:00:17,251 --> 00:00:18,953 Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk 3 00:00:19,086 --> 00:00:20,755 will not be presented this evening. 4 00:00:27,361 --> 00:00:28,930 Let me ask you something. 5 00:00:29,062 --> 00:00:30,598 And this is a question I've wanted to ask you for a while, 6 00:00:30,732 --> 00:00:32,534 and I've always restrained myself. 7 00:00:32,667 --> 00:00:34,903 A Christmas special came out that was produced 8 00:00:35,035 --> 00:00:40,340 by George Lucas in which all of the participants in Star Wars 9 00:00:40,474 --> 00:00:40,942 were-- 10 00:00:42,644 --> 00:00:43,845 --came together. 11 00:00:43,978 --> 00:00:45,445 And they made this Star Wars Christmas Special, 12 00:00:45,580 --> 00:00:47,347 and the tape's been passed around for years. 13 00:00:47,481 --> 00:00:49,984 And the rumor is that Lucas is trying to suppress it. 14 00:00:50,117 --> 00:00:53,888 It all started in 1978 when I let people make a Star Wars TV 15 00:00:54,022 --> 00:00:54,856 special without me. 16 00:00:54,989 --> 00:00:56,056 The Holiday Special. 17 00:00:56,189 --> 00:00:56,991 I remember. 18 00:00:57,124 --> 00:00:58,993 It came out so bad. 19 00:00:59,126 --> 00:00:59,761 I hate it. 20 00:00:59,894 --> 00:01:00,728 I hate it. 21 00:01:00,862 --> 00:01:01,596 I hate it! I hate it! 22 00:01:01,729 --> 00:01:02,296 George, George. 23 00:01:07,835 --> 00:01:10,705 Do you remember making this Christmas special? 24 00:01:10,838 --> 00:01:12,205 No, you don't remember it? 25 00:01:15,175 --> 00:01:17,244 I-- nobody is allowed to mention this. 26 00:01:17,377 --> 00:01:18,713 It is so bad. 27 00:01:18,846 --> 00:01:19,814 It's not good. 28 00:01:21,683 --> 00:01:25,085 You are about to see the worst half hour of television ever. 29 00:01:28,355 --> 00:01:29,356 Star Wars. 30 00:01:29,489 --> 00:01:31,191 Star Wars is going to be on TV? 31 00:01:31,325 --> 00:01:32,660 And it's a new thing? 32 00:01:32,794 --> 00:01:33,995 Oh, I see. 33 00:01:34,127 --> 00:01:35,930 It's the Star Wars holiday special. 34 00:01:36,064 --> 00:01:39,601 We popped it in, and my life was never the same. 35 00:01:39,734 --> 00:01:40,367 Come on, Malla. 36 00:01:40,501 --> 00:01:41,669 Let's see a little smile. 37 00:01:41,803 --> 00:01:43,605 It will provide many years of fun. 38 00:01:43,738 --> 00:01:45,506 I felt a great disturbance in the force. 39 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:47,575 We rolled a doob and sat back and watched it. 40 00:01:47,709 --> 00:01:49,677 And we thought it was fabulous. 41 00:01:49,811 --> 00:01:51,378 I feel something terrible has happened. 42 00:01:51,512 --> 00:01:53,313 To explain the Star wars Holiday Special is 43 00:01:53,447 --> 00:01:55,583 like trying to explain to someone how the pyramids were 44 00:01:55,717 --> 00:01:57,250 built. It's kind of impossible. 45 00:01:57,384 --> 00:01:59,453 All you have to know is it was the '70s. 46 00:01:59,587 --> 00:02:01,723 There might have been some cocaine. 47 00:02:01,856 --> 00:02:02,657 Happy Life Day. 48 00:02:02,790 --> 00:02:03,758 I saw it as a kid. 49 00:02:03,891 --> 00:02:05,325 I thought it was great. 50 00:02:05,459 --> 00:02:07,294 They didn't tell the people this was not Star Wars 51 00:02:07,427 --> 00:02:08,295 the movie two. 52 00:02:08,428 --> 00:02:09,998 You can say that again. 53 00:02:10,130 --> 00:02:13,534 It seems we've landed on some sort of comedy variety show 54 00:02:13,668 --> 00:02:15,103 planet. 55 00:02:15,235 --> 00:02:17,204 The Star Wars holiday special is sort of like the holy grail. 56 00:02:17,337 --> 00:02:18,606 It's completely mental. 57 00:02:18,740 --> 00:02:21,274 It's so funny, and it's so stupid. 58 00:02:21,408 --> 00:02:22,677 I love the holiday special. 59 00:02:22,810 --> 00:02:24,478 The holiday special is definitely canon. 60 00:02:24,612 --> 00:02:26,346 You probably wouldn't think that Maude would 61 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:27,782 be one of the guest stars. 62 00:02:27,915 --> 00:02:29,984 And I was never into the whole Star Wars thing. 63 00:02:30,118 --> 00:02:31,986 I love all of the awkwardness. 64 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,888 I am your fantasy. 65 00:02:34,022 --> 00:02:35,322 So experience me. 66 00:02:35,455 --> 00:02:38,158 The whole production was fraught with problems. 67 00:02:38,291 --> 00:02:39,093 Oh, no. 68 00:02:39,226 --> 00:02:39,994 --the ship you seek. 69 00:02:40,128 --> 00:02:41,095 Follow me, friend. 70 00:02:41,228 --> 00:02:42,630 That Boba Fett cartoon rules. 71 00:02:42,764 --> 00:02:43,765 Settle down! 72 00:02:43,898 --> 00:02:48,569 The Star Wars special sucked so bad, 73 00:02:48,703 --> 00:02:51,005 I was amazed that I wasn't in it. 74 00:02:51,139 --> 00:02:54,042 I would really like to know what CBS was thinking 75 00:02:54,174 --> 00:02:55,375 when they greenlit this thing. 76 00:02:55,510 --> 00:02:57,444 But now, let's get started, shall we. 77 00:03:04,786 --> 00:03:08,355 There are always better stories about failure than success. 78 00:03:08,488 --> 00:03:10,091 It's much more interesting. 79 00:03:10,223 --> 00:03:13,961 It's much more compelling, and it's much more human. 80 00:03:14,095 --> 00:03:19,100 Supposedly a TV movie existed, and no one 81 00:03:19,232 --> 00:03:20,768 knew where they could get it. 82 00:03:20,902 --> 00:03:21,936 I had never seen it. 83 00:03:22,070 --> 00:03:24,072 You couldn't convince me it was true. 84 00:03:24,204 --> 00:03:25,673 To me, it was all urban legend. 85 00:03:25,807 --> 00:03:27,441 Now that I was a ninth grade man, 86 00:03:27,575 --> 00:03:29,744 I wanted something you couldn't find in any store. 87 00:03:29,877 --> 00:03:30,477 Psst. 88 00:03:30,611 --> 00:03:32,714 Yo, Goldnerd, come here. 89 00:03:32,847 --> 00:03:36,117 It was like finding this artifact of something 90 00:03:36,249 --> 00:03:40,955 that I was such a fan of but I had no conception ever existed. 91 00:03:41,089 --> 00:03:42,623 Yeah. 92 00:03:42,757 --> 00:03:45,093 And for a while I believed that it was impossible to get. 93 00:03:45,225 --> 00:03:49,530 It became a currency of sorts in geek culture. 94 00:03:49,664 --> 00:03:55,169 You know, talking about it, dropping references to it, 95 00:03:55,302 --> 00:03:56,971 producing a copy to watch. 96 00:03:57,105 --> 00:03:58,606 Christmas came early. 97 00:03:58,740 --> 00:04:01,042 He had a bootleg copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special. 98 00:04:01,175 --> 00:04:02,242 Holy Kenobi! 99 00:04:02,375 --> 00:04:03,644 The legend is true! 100 00:04:03,778 --> 00:04:06,114 I had to get like a tape of a tape of a tape. 101 00:04:06,246 --> 00:04:07,414 You know. 102 00:04:07,548 --> 00:04:09,851 The Zapruder film was easier to watch 103 00:04:09,984 --> 00:04:13,054 than the copy of the holiday special that I got. 104 00:04:13,187 --> 00:04:16,157 On the back cover, it said, if I had a hammer in time, 105 00:04:16,289 --> 00:04:20,194 "I would destroy every copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special," 106 00:04:20,327 --> 00:04:21,261 George Lucas. 107 00:04:21,394 --> 00:04:23,931 And I was like, sold. 108 00:04:24,065 --> 00:04:26,266 That was so cool. 109 00:04:26,399 --> 00:04:27,935 Were we watching two different things? 110 00:04:28,069 --> 00:04:29,336 You don't know Star Wars. 111 00:04:29,469 --> 00:04:31,105 This special is really for the true fans. 112 00:04:31,239 --> 00:04:35,275 So the true fan wants to watch Dorothy from The Golden Girls 113 00:04:35,408 --> 00:04:36,944 flirt with an alien? 114 00:04:37,078 --> 00:04:38,646 We have seen something that we weren't supposed to see. 115 00:04:38,780 --> 00:04:41,314 Clearly, something had gone wrong. 116 00:04:41,448 --> 00:04:42,784 You were in the area because you were 117 00:04:42,917 --> 00:04:45,452 in Hollywood making a Star Wars special that'll 118 00:04:45,586 --> 00:04:46,788 played around Thanksgiving. 119 00:04:46,921 --> 00:04:48,421 Got all the characters from Star Wars 120 00:04:48,556 --> 00:04:50,591 and it's got quite a few extra people as well. 121 00:04:50,725 --> 00:04:52,660 For one thing, you meet the whole Wookiee family. 122 00:04:52,794 --> 00:04:54,695 And the Wookiees lived up in the tree house. 123 00:04:54,829 --> 00:04:56,697 And that's where we met Chewbacca's family-- 124 00:04:56,831 --> 00:04:59,967 Itchy, the little kid, and-- 125 00:05:00,101 --> 00:05:00,802 what was her name-- 126 00:05:00,935 --> 00:05:01,969 Jawa? 127 00:05:02,103 --> 00:05:03,104 Itchy is the grandfather. 128 00:05:03,237 --> 00:05:04,337 Itchy is the grandfather. 129 00:05:04,471 --> 00:05:05,940 Who's the-- oh, Lumpy is the kid. 130 00:05:06,073 --> 00:05:06,874 I'm so sorry. 131 00:05:07,008 --> 00:05:08,109 It's only been 40 years. 132 00:05:08,242 --> 00:05:09,944 Chewie's family had to be name something. 133 00:05:10,077 --> 00:05:11,579 Lumpy and Itchy? 134 00:05:11,712 --> 00:05:13,548 Couldn't they have spent 15 more seconds on the names? 135 00:05:13,681 --> 00:05:15,750 And we meet Chewie's family, and we 136 00:05:15,883 --> 00:05:19,921 realize that, oh, they're just going to all chew it and not 137 00:05:20,054 --> 00:05:20,922 talk. 138 00:05:22,557 --> 00:05:25,860 And so, you're literally watching a bunch of mimes. 139 00:05:25,993 --> 00:05:29,597 But you just have zero dialogue. 140 00:05:29,730 --> 00:05:32,533 Zero dialogue up until this point for 15 minutes. 141 00:05:32,667 --> 00:05:33,668 Like, have you timed it? 142 00:05:33,801 --> 00:05:35,069 I would love to know that stat. 143 00:05:35,203 --> 00:05:37,672 How much of the Star Wars Holiday Special 144 00:05:37,805 --> 00:05:40,575 has absolutely no discernible dialogue? 145 00:05:47,815 --> 00:05:49,183 R2, look. 146 00:05:49,317 --> 00:05:51,285 It's Chewbacca's family. 147 00:05:51,451 --> 00:05:52,620 Let's never speak of this again. 148 00:05:52,753 --> 00:05:53,754 So you didn't love it. 149 00:05:53,888 --> 00:05:54,322 Who cares? 150 00:05:54,454 --> 00:05:55,355 I care! 151 00:05:55,488 --> 00:05:56,991 I love Star Wars! 152 00:05:57,124 --> 00:05:58,491 It's my life. 153 00:05:58,626 --> 00:06:00,695 It makes no sense why I didn't love this too. 154 00:06:00,828 --> 00:06:03,231 You know, we spent years of two weeks 155 00:06:03,363 --> 00:06:06,734 at a time working directly with George developing what 156 00:06:06,868 --> 00:06:08,603 would become this animated series, 157 00:06:08,736 --> 00:06:12,439 and we had access to the theater downstairs. 158 00:06:12,573 --> 00:06:15,408 And we made a date-- 159 00:06:15,543 --> 00:06:16,844 all the writers. 160 00:06:16,978 --> 00:06:18,880 Hey, we're going to watch the holiday special. 161 00:06:19,013 --> 00:06:20,748 And you tap out any time you want. 162 00:06:20,882 --> 00:06:25,452 Like, we're going to see who can make it all the way through. 163 00:06:25,586 --> 00:06:26,954 And that's what we did. 164 00:06:27,088 --> 00:06:29,857 And like, one by one, like flies, people were like, 165 00:06:29,991 --> 00:06:31,391 "I'm out." 166 00:06:31,525 --> 00:06:34,427 I like to watch bad stuff, but that's a hard watch making it 167 00:06:34,562 --> 00:06:35,930 through the holiday special. 168 00:06:37,131 --> 00:06:39,200 The cockpit of the Millennium Falcon 169 00:06:39,333 --> 00:06:41,468 is clearly just a cardboard cutout. 170 00:06:41,602 --> 00:06:43,504 Everything just-- it takes you a while 171 00:06:43,638 --> 00:06:45,072 to realize that everything's wrong. 172 00:06:45,206 --> 00:06:47,308 When you first see the Star Wars Holiday Special 173 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:50,077 in its entirety, you're like, how did this happen? 174 00:06:50,211 --> 00:06:55,149 Who decided to create one of the most confounding pieces of Star 175 00:06:55,283 --> 00:06:58,052 Wars entertainment in the history of its existence? 176 00:06:58,185 --> 00:07:00,521 In order to understand how the holiday special happened, 177 00:07:00,655 --> 00:07:02,223 you have to put it in context. 178 00:07:02,356 --> 00:07:05,226 Star Wars pioneered a whole different kind 179 00:07:05,359 --> 00:07:08,162 of almost grassroots attention. 180 00:07:08,296 --> 00:07:10,131 The real secret to the success of Star Wars 181 00:07:10,264 --> 00:07:11,899 was a guy named Charlie Lippincott, 182 00:07:12,033 --> 00:07:15,468 who pioneered an entirely new way of marketing movies. 183 00:07:15,603 --> 00:07:16,871 Oh, Charlie was a good guy. 184 00:07:17,004 --> 00:07:19,874 He had kind of an oddball sense of humor. 185 00:07:20,007 --> 00:07:23,611 He went to Film School at USC. 186 00:07:23,744 --> 00:07:26,113 I don't remember Charlie ever making any movies, 187 00:07:26,247 --> 00:07:29,250 but Charlie was involved with all of the filmmakers 188 00:07:29,383 --> 00:07:31,652 and keeping track of everyone. 189 00:07:31,786 --> 00:07:33,020 He was like a den mother. 190 00:07:33,154 --> 00:07:35,022 But when I learned, shortly thereafter, 191 00:07:35,156 --> 00:07:37,457 that Charlie was becoming a publicist, 192 00:07:37,591 --> 00:07:39,160 it made perfect sense to me. 193 00:07:39,293 --> 00:07:41,295 I'm talking with Charlie Lippincott, who is 194 00:07:41,429 --> 00:07:42,997 associated with the production. 195 00:07:43,130 --> 00:07:46,233 Charlie, could you tell us exactly how are you associated? 196 00:07:46,367 --> 00:07:48,970 I'm the executive in charge of advertising, publicity, 197 00:07:49,103 --> 00:07:51,672 promotion, and merchandising for Star Wars corporation. 198 00:07:51,806 --> 00:07:53,074 Charlie had come up with the idea 199 00:07:53,207 --> 00:07:57,011 of marketing Star Wars directly to fans 200 00:07:57,144 --> 00:08:01,349 because there really wasn't a good hook for marketing Star 201 00:08:01,481 --> 00:08:02,482 Wars. 202 00:08:02,616 --> 00:08:03,884 Science fiction wasn't popular. 203 00:08:04,018 --> 00:08:06,287 None of the actors were big names 204 00:08:06,420 --> 00:08:09,090 that you could get booked on The Tonight Show. 205 00:08:09,223 --> 00:08:11,292 A year before Star Wars came out, 206 00:08:11,425 --> 00:08:14,762 Charlie went and showed slides about this movie 207 00:08:14,895 --> 00:08:17,932 and got this amazing groundswell. 208 00:08:18,065 --> 00:08:21,002 Fandom was never really a part of the marketing plan 209 00:08:21,135 --> 00:08:24,038 until Charlie Lippincott made it so. 210 00:08:24,171 --> 00:08:27,375 Even though he didn't have footage to show them, 211 00:08:27,508 --> 00:08:30,911 he would show them like Ralph McQuarrie's artwork. 212 00:08:31,045 --> 00:08:35,950 He would tell them the story of what the film was about. 213 00:08:36,083 --> 00:08:38,552 He went to the Star Trek conventions 214 00:08:38,686 --> 00:08:40,254 and got the Trekkies interested in it. 215 00:08:40,388 --> 00:08:43,157 And this is something right up their alley. 216 00:08:43,290 --> 00:08:45,326 The idea is if you can get the enthusiasm 217 00:08:45,459 --> 00:08:46,694 with them, that will spread. 218 00:08:46,827 --> 00:08:48,129 These are the kind of people that 219 00:08:48,262 --> 00:08:50,464 will see a movie 10 times if they like it. 220 00:08:50,598 --> 00:08:54,101 I'd like to introduce you now to producer Gary Kurtz. 221 00:08:58,105 --> 00:09:00,107 And the star of the film, Mark Hamill, 222 00:09:00,241 --> 00:09:02,877 who plays Luke Skywalker. 223 00:09:03,010 --> 00:09:05,179 He knew how to get people excited 224 00:09:05,312 --> 00:09:08,949 and how to stir up interest and word of mouth. 225 00:09:09,083 --> 00:09:12,553 And from these science fiction conventions, 226 00:09:12,686 --> 00:09:15,756 people left being interested to see what 227 00:09:15,890 --> 00:09:17,224 this film was going to be like. 228 00:09:17,358 --> 00:09:19,727 And then they would tell their friends about it. 229 00:09:19,860 --> 00:09:23,397 Ballantine Books was one of the major houses 230 00:09:23,532 --> 00:09:27,268 in paperbacks-- major publisher in science fiction. 231 00:09:27,401 --> 00:09:30,505 Charlie went to them and made a deal 232 00:09:30,638 --> 00:09:33,441 to do a novelization of Star Wars 233 00:09:33,574 --> 00:09:36,010 and have it come out like nine months 234 00:09:36,143 --> 00:09:39,380 before the movie came out to get it out there. 235 00:09:39,514 --> 00:09:42,783 And then Charlie made a deal with Marvel Comics 236 00:09:42,917 --> 00:09:47,388 to do the comic bookization of Star Wars. 237 00:09:47,522 --> 00:09:51,526 And the real problem, I think, in some ways, 238 00:09:51,659 --> 00:09:55,663 was I didn't want one comic book, 239 00:09:55,796 --> 00:09:57,364 and I didn't want two comic books. 240 00:09:57,498 --> 00:10:01,969 I wanted five to six comic books telling the story of the film. 241 00:10:02,103 --> 00:10:06,040 So that was a bit of a hard sell at first. 242 00:10:06,173 --> 00:10:08,609 And I wanted at least three issues out 243 00:10:08,742 --> 00:10:10,044 before the film came out. 244 00:10:10,177 --> 00:10:13,114 And nobody had done that up to that time. 245 00:10:13,247 --> 00:10:16,016 Basically, everything with Star Wars 246 00:10:16,150 --> 00:10:20,020 that wasn't making the movie was Charlie. 247 00:10:20,154 --> 00:10:23,691 He taught Hollywood a very important lesson 248 00:10:23,824 --> 00:10:26,327 that they are still learning from today. 249 00:10:26,460 --> 00:10:31,665 Nine months after Charlie started these fan promotions, 250 00:10:31,799 --> 00:10:33,467 the movie comes out. 251 00:10:34,935 --> 00:10:36,538 To the world famous Chinese Theater 252 00:10:36,670 --> 00:10:39,940 come the stars of the biggest box office success 253 00:10:40,074 --> 00:10:42,343 in motion picture history. 254 00:10:42,476 --> 00:10:43,744 Star Wars. 255 00:10:43,878 --> 00:10:45,379 It is more than just a successful movie, 256 00:10:45,514 --> 00:10:47,148 it is a box office phenomenon. 257 00:10:47,281 --> 00:10:50,251 The film is breaking attendance records all over the country. 258 00:10:50,384 --> 00:10:52,786 Not since Jaws have so many people 259 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:54,488 stood in line to see a movie. 260 00:10:54,623 --> 00:10:57,491 It was kind of like a nuclear explosion had gone off 261 00:10:57,626 --> 00:10:58,492 in pop culture. 262 00:10:58,627 --> 00:10:59,994 It blew people's minds. 263 00:11:00,127 --> 00:11:02,663 I mean, I remember people waiting in line all day 264 00:11:02,796 --> 00:11:04,131 to see this movie. 265 00:11:04,265 --> 00:11:06,000 Star Wars became the new box office champion 266 00:11:06,133 --> 00:11:08,736 by providing pure, 100% escapist entertainment. 267 00:11:08,869 --> 00:11:11,939 And it appears this is what just about everybody in the country 268 00:11:12,072 --> 00:11:13,274 is in the mood for. 269 00:11:13,407 --> 00:11:14,708 This was world-changing. 270 00:11:14,842 --> 00:11:16,477 It's like the Beatles. 271 00:11:16,611 --> 00:11:20,047 We'd all seen science fiction movies before, but not 272 00:11:20,181 --> 00:11:21,248 like this. 273 00:11:21,382 --> 00:11:23,150 It only opened in America at the end of May, 274 00:11:23,284 --> 00:11:25,286 but already it's the biggest box office hit in cinema history. 275 00:11:25,419 --> 00:11:28,088 The overwhelming success of the picture surprised everybody. 276 00:11:28,222 --> 00:11:30,592 As one Fox executive put it, it's not so much a film, 277 00:11:30,724 --> 00:11:32,259 it's more an industry. 278 00:11:32,393 --> 00:11:36,565 I love that the world between Star Wars and Empire-- 279 00:11:36,697 --> 00:11:40,635 the world between Star Wars and Empire to me is this bizarre-- 280 00:11:40,768 --> 00:11:42,770 it's not completely thought out. 281 00:11:42,903 --> 00:11:44,305 There's no mythology built up. 282 00:11:44,438 --> 00:11:46,508 For the fans, it's interesting in many ways. 283 00:11:46,641 --> 00:11:48,275 One of the ways, it gives them an insight 284 00:11:48,409 --> 00:11:50,144 into this very brief period where 285 00:11:50,277 --> 00:11:52,012 things were not set up yet. 286 00:11:52,146 --> 00:11:54,748 And it was kind of like Lucasfilm 1.5. 287 00:11:54,882 --> 00:11:58,118 1.0 is over, but 2.0 wasn't there yet. 288 00:11:58,252 --> 00:12:00,888 And it wasn't until Empire forward that everything 289 00:12:01,021 --> 00:12:02,223 became more fully formed. 290 00:12:02,356 --> 00:12:05,059 So I have a real affection for that time 291 00:12:05,192 --> 00:12:08,663 where it was this wild thing that nobody could figure out. 292 00:12:08,796 --> 00:12:12,766 So somewhere in the summer after Star Wars has come out, 293 00:12:12,900 --> 00:12:17,204 George takes a meeting with Frank Wells of Warner Brothers 294 00:12:17,338 --> 00:12:20,374 with Gary Kurtz and Charlie Lippincott. 295 00:12:20,508 --> 00:12:24,411 The goal of that meeting was to re-release to try and piggyback 296 00:12:24,546 --> 00:12:26,180 on the success of Star Wars. 297 00:12:26,313 --> 00:12:30,284 Somewhere along the line in that meeting, 298 00:12:30,417 --> 00:12:34,121 Frank said something to George to the effect of, 299 00:12:34,255 --> 00:12:36,924 come September you guys will be nothing. 300 00:12:37,057 --> 00:12:41,095 And George left really angry. 301 00:12:41,228 --> 00:12:44,999 And so, it kind of redoubled George's interest 302 00:12:45,132 --> 00:12:48,202 in making sure Star Wars succeeded 303 00:12:48,335 --> 00:12:50,672 and continued to be in theaters. 304 00:12:50,804 --> 00:12:54,208 To promote Star Wars, getting the stars of Star Wars 305 00:12:54,341 --> 00:12:56,944 to appear on all of these talk and variety shows-- 306 00:12:57,077 --> 00:13:00,014 Donny and Marie or any of these other places. 307 00:13:00,147 --> 00:13:01,949 The Star Wars Holiday Special may well 308 00:13:02,082 --> 00:13:04,318 have been created out of spite. 309 00:13:06,220 --> 00:13:08,055 We're Darth Vader's raiders, 310 00:13:08,188 --> 00:13:10,692 and we can't believe the things that you do. 311 00:13:10,824 --> 00:13:12,326 You're all right. 312 00:13:12,459 --> 00:13:14,629 We never met a trooper played hide and-- 313 00:13:14,763 --> 00:13:18,065 My brothers were dressed as the storm troopers dancing. 314 00:13:18,198 --> 00:13:22,704 I'm Luke, and Marie's Leah with the bagels 315 00:13:22,836 --> 00:13:24,204 on the side of her head. 316 00:13:24,338 --> 00:13:26,407 Han solo, played by Kris Christofferson. 317 00:13:26,541 --> 00:13:31,045 And I'm dancing around R2-D2, and there's C-3PO, 318 00:13:31,178 --> 00:13:33,715 and we're talking, and Chewbacca is there. 319 00:13:33,847 --> 00:13:35,082 And I'm thinking, this is probably 320 00:13:35,215 --> 00:13:37,251 one of the coolest finales we've ever done. 321 00:13:37,384 --> 00:13:40,921 His transistors are in trouble and his tubes are weak. 322 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:47,428 And if we stay, our chances for survival are bleak. 323 00:13:47,562 --> 00:13:52,099 So show us the way to get out of this world for that's 324 00:13:52,232 --> 00:13:56,270 where everything is. 325 00:13:59,541 --> 00:14:03,578 I'm thinking, how in the world is George Lucas allowing 326 00:14:03,712 --> 00:14:05,012 this to happen? 327 00:14:05,145 --> 00:14:09,517 Because that's just so far from the movie. 328 00:14:09,651 --> 00:14:11,885 But it sure was funny at the time, 329 00:14:12,019 --> 00:14:13,921 and it's funny to look back right now. 330 00:14:14,054 --> 00:14:15,489 Push the fuel button. 331 00:14:15,623 --> 00:14:17,559 Light the fire. 332 00:14:17,692 --> 00:14:18,593 Fire. 333 00:14:18,727 --> 00:14:19,960 Going to take you higher. 334 00:14:22,162 --> 00:14:24,498 We broke a lot of rules when we had the Star Wars 335 00:14:24,632 --> 00:14:26,934 characters on the Donny and Marie show for that finale. 336 00:14:27,067 --> 00:14:28,803 There was a shot with Chewbacca with his arm 337 00:14:28,936 --> 00:14:29,838 around Darth Vader. 338 00:14:29,970 --> 00:14:30,871 Oof. 339 00:14:31,004 --> 00:14:32,439 How does that happen? 340 00:14:32,574 --> 00:14:34,676 But on Donny and Marie, I guess everybody was friends. 341 00:14:36,377 --> 00:14:39,581 Come back to me. 342 00:14:39,714 --> 00:14:42,282 Come back to me. 343 00:14:42,416 --> 00:14:45,419 Come back to me! 344 00:14:45,553 --> 00:14:49,957 The Star Wars Holiday Special is Citizen Kane compared 345 00:14:50,090 --> 00:14:51,492 to that Donny and Marie thing. 346 00:14:51,626 --> 00:14:55,963 I mean, that's truly train wreck sort of television. 347 00:14:56,096 --> 00:14:58,298 You-- you intergalactic fool. 348 00:14:58,432 --> 00:15:00,467 You'll never get them back that way. 349 00:15:00,602 --> 00:15:02,169 I suppose you have a better plan. 350 00:15:02,302 --> 00:15:05,540 No plan at all, just a little "force." 351 00:15:05,673 --> 00:15:08,208 You can't imagine that happening in 1981. 352 00:15:08,342 --> 00:15:10,244 Like, that Star Wars couldn't have gone 353 00:15:10,377 --> 00:15:12,547 near a show like that in '81. 354 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:15,683 But in '77, everyone's going, I don't know what this is 355 00:15:15,817 --> 00:15:17,852 or how big it's going to be, but yeah, take it. 356 00:15:17,985 --> 00:15:18,952 Go. 357 00:15:19,086 --> 00:15:19,854 Put it on a t-shirt or whatever. 358 00:15:19,987 --> 00:15:21,155 Put it in your show. 359 00:15:21,288 --> 00:15:22,122 Do a dance with the stormtroopers. 360 00:15:23,924 --> 00:15:28,563 But fee-fi-fo-fum, look out people, cause here we come. 361 00:15:28,696 --> 00:15:30,297 I think that's one of the coolest moments 362 00:15:30,431 --> 00:15:32,132 my brothers ever had in show business 363 00:15:32,266 --> 00:15:36,771 was transforming stormtroopers to vaudevillian dancers. 364 00:15:36,905 --> 00:15:40,307 That's so funny. 365 00:15:40,441 --> 00:15:42,610 So get ready. 366 00:15:42,744 --> 00:15:43,678 Get ready. 367 00:15:43,812 --> 00:15:45,179 Here we come. 368 00:15:45,312 --> 00:15:48,750 So the public appearances helped the ticket sales 369 00:15:48,883 --> 00:15:50,384 in the theaters. 370 00:15:50,518 --> 00:15:53,020 They had the entire family watching the Donny and Marie 371 00:15:53,153 --> 00:15:54,288 Show. 372 00:15:54,421 --> 00:15:57,090 George wanted to tap into that magic. 373 00:15:57,224 --> 00:15:59,894 We had the demographics that he wanted. 374 00:16:00,027 --> 00:16:03,832 And through research, he was right. 375 00:16:03,964 --> 00:16:05,800 And that Donny and Marie Show aired, 376 00:16:05,934 --> 00:16:09,002 and everybody saw Star Wars characters on Donny and Marie. 377 00:16:09,136 --> 00:16:10,672 They went back to the theater. 378 00:16:10,805 --> 00:16:12,841 It's almost as if at that time in the entertainment world 379 00:16:12,973 --> 00:16:14,374 there were like two tracks. 380 00:16:14,509 --> 00:16:16,477 It was, like, for entertainment. 381 00:16:16,611 --> 00:16:18,513 And it had been going on since the silent movies, 382 00:16:18,646 --> 00:16:23,283 where you did your kind of high art form, which was the movie, 383 00:16:23,417 --> 00:16:25,486 and then you did a lot of stuff to support it, 384 00:16:25,620 --> 00:16:26,921 whatever it took. 385 00:16:27,054 --> 00:16:28,756 If you had to put on the disguise in front of a shopping 386 00:16:28,890 --> 00:16:30,057 mall, you did it. 387 00:16:30,190 --> 00:16:31,626 And they did it for Star Wars. 388 00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:33,761 George was about to start shooting The Empire Strikes 389 00:16:33,895 --> 00:16:38,733 Back, and he was concerned that there be momentum, 390 00:16:38,867 --> 00:16:42,336 that there would be a stirring the pot to make sure people 391 00:16:42,469 --> 00:16:44,071 were aware of the franchise. 392 00:16:44,204 --> 00:16:46,240 And you saw the proliferation of Star Wars 393 00:16:46,373 --> 00:16:49,911 on television in the late 1970s, in 1977 specifically, 394 00:16:50,043 --> 00:16:54,949 on these variety shows, as a way to keep Star Wars cemented 395 00:16:55,082 --> 00:16:56,416 in the zeitgeist. 396 00:16:56,551 --> 00:16:58,085 Prior to that, the big movie was Jaws, right? 397 00:16:58,218 --> 00:17:00,220 But you couldn't just throw Jaws onto a thing. 398 00:17:00,354 --> 00:17:02,289 Like, ladies and gentlemen, Jaws is here to sing. 399 00:17:02,422 --> 00:17:04,993 In retrospect, I think it's exceptionally foolish, 400 00:17:05,125 --> 00:17:06,694 because the brand was not going to die. 401 00:17:06,828 --> 00:17:08,563 It was very, very popular. 402 00:17:08,696 --> 00:17:13,100 Somebody, somewhere, said, if we don't give them something, 403 00:17:13,233 --> 00:17:14,602 they're going to forget about us. 404 00:17:14,736 --> 00:17:17,572 And suddenly, it's everywhere on TV after that. 405 00:17:17,705 --> 00:17:21,041 Like, just the promotion was everywhere you looked. 406 00:17:21,174 --> 00:17:23,443 Let's crank out as much stuff as we can. 407 00:17:23,578 --> 00:17:26,915 Let's let Richard Pryor have all the alien makeup for a cantina 408 00:17:27,047 --> 00:17:28,048 sketch on his show. 409 00:17:33,220 --> 00:17:34,421 That sketch actually kind of works. 410 00:17:34,556 --> 00:17:36,791 It's Richard Pryor in that world, 411 00:17:36,925 --> 00:17:41,094 and he's using it to ding riffs on race, and social class, 412 00:17:41,228 --> 00:17:41,996 and stuff like that. 413 00:17:42,129 --> 00:17:42,664 Hey, Hey. 414 00:17:42,797 --> 00:17:44,064 Hey! 415 00:17:44,197 --> 00:17:45,432 Why don't you watch where you're going? 416 00:17:45,567 --> 00:17:46,199 You got the biggest eyes in the place. 417 00:17:48,101 --> 00:17:49,436 Also, these characters weren't embedded 418 00:17:49,571 --> 00:17:51,238 in our consciousness the way they are now. 419 00:17:51,371 --> 00:17:53,041 We'd met them once in one film. 420 00:17:53,173 --> 00:17:56,578 It's not like we'd gone on a nine-film adventure with R2-D2, 421 00:17:56,711 --> 00:17:58,278 and we know the parameters of R2-D2 422 00:17:58,412 --> 00:17:59,881 or how he would speak-- or C-3PO. 423 00:18:00,014 --> 00:18:01,148 Hello, welcome to Burger Chef. 424 00:18:01,281 --> 00:18:02,750 We'd like a Star Wars poster, please. 425 00:18:02,884 --> 00:18:04,117 Or even Darth Vader. 426 00:18:04,251 --> 00:18:06,186 With guest appearances by Darth Vader! 427 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:07,087 Humongous. 428 00:18:16,263 --> 00:18:17,397 We'd seen them once in that film, 429 00:18:17,532 --> 00:18:18,933 and that was the only voice we knew. 430 00:18:19,067 --> 00:18:21,669 So the fact that Darth Vader was being lampooned, 431 00:18:21,803 --> 00:18:24,338 or that the droids were doing things out of context, or even 432 00:18:24,471 --> 00:18:26,708 Mark Hamill was doing something in a different way-- 433 00:18:26,841 --> 00:18:28,977 Bob Hope's All-Star Christmas Comedy 434 00:18:29,109 --> 00:18:33,081 Special, starring special guest star Mark Hamill. 435 00:18:51,231 --> 00:18:54,535 It's more egregious now looking back than it was, I think, 436 00:18:54,669 --> 00:18:55,737 at the time. 437 00:18:55,870 --> 00:18:58,405 It was a very normal way of getting it out there, 438 00:18:58,539 --> 00:19:00,808 and Star Wars embraced that opportunity. 439 00:19:00,942 --> 00:19:02,409 Its Luke Skywalker! 440 00:19:02,543 --> 00:19:03,911 Did you bring the force? 441 00:19:04,045 --> 00:19:05,079 You better believe it. 442 00:19:05,212 --> 00:19:07,015 The Los Angeles Police Force. 443 00:19:08,116 --> 00:19:09,282 How did you find them? 444 00:19:10,952 --> 00:19:13,054 Now, you're all under arrest for malicious mutilation 445 00:19:13,220 --> 00:19:14,622 of a marvelous movie. 446 00:19:16,323 --> 00:19:19,694 I should have stuck to looking for Mr. Goodbar. 447 00:19:19,827 --> 00:19:22,063 Any kind of artwork out of context 448 00:19:22,195 --> 00:19:23,196 is going to look funny-- 449 00:19:23,330 --> 00:19:24,799 any kind of artwork. 450 00:19:24,932 --> 00:19:26,634 Any kind, period. 451 00:19:26,768 --> 00:19:30,470 If you don't know the history and the context, 452 00:19:30,605 --> 00:19:32,339 you cannot appreciate it fully. 453 00:19:32,472 --> 00:19:34,842 This was in the days of crazy specials-- you know, 454 00:19:34,976 --> 00:19:37,310 Wayne Newton at SeaWorld. 455 00:19:37,444 --> 00:19:39,514 Wayne, meet Shamu. 456 00:19:39,647 --> 00:19:41,649 Kids, let's do a show. 457 00:19:41,783 --> 00:19:46,286 From Orlando, Florida, it's Wayne Newton at SeaWorld. 458 00:19:48,056 --> 00:19:50,091 And special guest appearance by Shamu, the killer whale! 459 00:19:51,726 --> 00:19:54,095 --old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog. 460 00:19:54,227 --> 00:20:00,233 When '70s TV was bad, there was no description for it. 461 00:20:00,367 --> 00:20:02,369 I mean, it's corny, and it's stupid. 462 00:20:02,503 --> 00:20:03,571 That's kind of what it was. 463 00:20:03,705 --> 00:20:05,506 Everybody had a variety show. 464 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:08,710 Howard Cosell had a variety show. 465 00:20:08,843 --> 00:20:10,912 You know what's going to make this show work? 466 00:20:11,045 --> 00:20:13,781 Yours truly, the born superstar. 467 00:20:13,915 --> 00:20:16,184 Didn't Shields and Yarnell have a show? 468 00:20:16,316 --> 00:20:20,822 They were mimes, and they did something on Donny and Marie, 469 00:20:20,955 --> 00:20:22,123 and it was popular. 470 00:20:22,255 --> 00:20:23,223 So they went, well, give them a show. 471 00:20:23,356 --> 00:20:24,659 Let's see if it works. 472 00:20:24,792 --> 00:20:26,594 At least '70s television was way more in touch 473 00:20:26,728 --> 00:20:28,930 with, hey, no one knows anything. 474 00:20:29,063 --> 00:20:29,864 Oh, didn't work. 475 00:20:29,997 --> 00:20:30,832 Well, we tried. 476 00:20:30,965 --> 00:20:31,632 Like, they don't know. 477 00:20:31,766 --> 00:20:32,834 They don't know! 478 00:20:32,967 --> 00:20:36,204 It became a way to bring the family together 479 00:20:36,336 --> 00:20:40,174 in front of the television set without fully satisfying 480 00:20:40,307 --> 00:20:42,342 any one member of that family. 481 00:20:42,476 --> 00:20:44,078 It was disposable television. 482 00:20:44,212 --> 00:20:47,782 People are going to see this once, and that's it. 483 00:20:47,915 --> 00:20:49,984 Variety shows did not repeat well. 484 00:20:50,118 --> 00:20:52,086 They look arcane today. 485 00:20:52,220 --> 00:20:54,956 The funny thing is, if you think the Star Wars Holiday 486 00:20:55,089 --> 00:21:00,161 Special is bad or the "worst thing" that ever aired on TV, 487 00:21:00,293 --> 00:21:02,697 you never saw The Lawrence Welk Show. 488 00:21:02,830 --> 00:21:06,134 And that calls for a little soul music. 489 00:21:14,509 --> 00:21:19,180 You never saw the Paul Lynde Halloween special. 490 00:21:19,312 --> 00:21:21,381 Move it in, move it out. 491 00:21:21,516 --> 00:21:23,251 Move it in and about. 492 00:21:23,383 --> 00:21:24,384 Disco baby. 493 00:21:26,754 --> 00:21:30,290 You never saw The Brady Bunch Variety Show. 494 00:21:33,528 --> 00:21:36,664 There's a new kind of dancing. 495 00:21:36,798 --> 00:21:39,600 It's going to be the rage. 496 00:21:39,734 --> 00:21:45,305 Just move yourself behind like an actor on a stage. 497 00:21:45,438 --> 00:21:48,509 The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and the Paul Lynde Halloween 498 00:21:48,643 --> 00:21:52,180 Special, those stand out because they are so bad. 499 00:21:52,312 --> 00:21:55,482 But there are other ones that are forgotten just because they 500 00:21:55,616 --> 00:21:58,186 weren't even memorably bad. 501 00:21:58,318 --> 00:22:02,223 There are astronomically worse shows 502 00:22:02,355 --> 00:22:05,693 that aired around this time, they just didn't carry the name 503 00:22:05,827 --> 00:22:07,094 Star Wars. 504 00:22:07,228 --> 00:22:10,363 The Star Wars Holiday Special happened, again, 505 00:22:10,497 --> 00:22:11,933 for multiple reasons. 506 00:22:12,066 --> 00:22:16,070 CBS approached Lucasfilm wanting to do it. 507 00:22:16,204 --> 00:22:19,574 We talked to George at one point about how this happened. 508 00:22:19,707 --> 00:22:21,275 You don't like this piece of content. 509 00:22:21,408 --> 00:22:24,245 How does anything that you don't like or you didn't approve of 510 00:22:24,377 --> 00:22:25,713 get through? 511 00:22:25,847 --> 00:22:27,447 It's like, it's not that I didn't approve of it. 512 00:22:27,582 --> 00:22:29,717 There was so much pressure in between Star Wars and Empire. 513 00:22:29,851 --> 00:22:32,220 The way that executives thought about the audience 514 00:22:32,352 --> 00:22:35,156 is that everyone would just forget Star Wars was a thing. 515 00:22:35,289 --> 00:22:37,124 The audience, they just can't be depended upon. 516 00:22:37,258 --> 00:22:40,862 So you got to make some other kind of short-term Star Wars 517 00:22:40,995 --> 00:22:41,896 content. 518 00:22:42,029 --> 00:22:43,496 What kind of TV show can you make 519 00:22:43,631 --> 00:22:45,166 on the kind of budget it takes to make Star Wars? 520 00:22:45,299 --> 00:22:47,635 And they're like, holiday special. 521 00:22:47,768 --> 00:22:49,704 And this was a way, a TV special, 522 00:22:49,837 --> 00:22:52,773 to get mass exposure, to get more excitement until Empire 523 00:22:52,907 --> 00:22:55,877 comes back and certainly it would help the toys. 524 00:22:56,010 --> 00:22:59,379 Star Wars, the toys came later on. 525 00:22:59,513 --> 00:23:01,649 They were ill-prepared for how successful 526 00:23:01,782 --> 00:23:03,383 the movie was going to be. 527 00:23:03,517 --> 00:23:05,286 Because there was no such thing as merchandising on movies. 528 00:23:05,418 --> 00:23:07,387 Some TV stuff, but not movies. 529 00:23:07,521 --> 00:23:09,123 Their lifespan is just too short. 530 00:23:09,257 --> 00:23:11,759 Back then, by the time you would get a toy line out, 531 00:23:11,893 --> 00:23:14,061 it would be 12 months to 18 months 532 00:23:14,195 --> 00:23:16,330 after the movie already left theaters, 533 00:23:16,463 --> 00:23:17,765 and nobody would remember the movie. 534 00:23:17,899 --> 00:23:19,901 So nobody was willing to take that risk. 535 00:23:20,034 --> 00:23:21,836 The official Kenner Star Wars models 536 00:23:21,969 --> 00:23:23,604 are still in production in the orient 537 00:23:23,738 --> 00:23:25,740 and won't be ready for several months. 538 00:23:25,873 --> 00:23:29,810 First Christmas, every kid in America wants a Star Wars toy, 539 00:23:29,944 --> 00:23:32,146 but they had nothing to sell for Christmas. 540 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,983 And so, what they did was they sold you a coupon that you 541 00:23:36,117 --> 00:23:40,521 would send in, and once the toys had been made, 542 00:23:40,655 --> 00:23:42,523 they would ship you a set. 543 00:23:42,657 --> 00:23:46,459 But in 1978, the toys were everywhere. 544 00:23:46,594 --> 00:23:50,164 And this was the first Christmas where you could get Star Wars 545 00:23:50,298 --> 00:23:51,866 toys, Star Wars everything. 546 00:23:51,999 --> 00:23:55,169 And a key component of marketing that was the Star Wars Holiday 547 00:23:55,303 --> 00:23:56,637 Special. 548 00:23:56,771 --> 00:23:58,272 May the force be with you and your children. 549 00:24:02,944 --> 00:24:05,713 Our agent called and said that there's a Star Wars Holiday 550 00:24:05,846 --> 00:24:06,781 Special. 551 00:24:06,914 --> 00:24:09,016 And we got really excited because we 552 00:24:09,150 --> 00:24:12,887 thought this was going to be our annuity, that this holiday 553 00:24:13,020 --> 00:24:16,891 show would run every year for an eternity. 554 00:24:17,024 --> 00:24:19,961 The Charlie Brown Christmas, the Grinch That 555 00:24:20,094 --> 00:24:22,363 Stole Christmas I mean, all of these things that'll 556 00:24:22,495 --> 00:24:23,798 be one forever. 557 00:24:23,931 --> 00:24:26,400 As it turned out, it was only one viewing. 558 00:24:26,534 --> 00:24:28,569 So the people who wrote the special-- 559 00:24:28,703 --> 00:24:30,338 and there were a bunch of them-- 560 00:24:30,470 --> 00:24:32,306 were not science fiction people. 561 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:34,575 They weren't Star Wars fans. 562 00:24:34,709 --> 00:24:37,545 I don't know if they all had even seen Star Wars. 563 00:24:37,678 --> 00:24:39,747 They were people who wrote variety, 564 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:41,582 and that's what this show was. 565 00:24:41,716 --> 00:24:45,186 It just happened to be themed to Star Wars. 566 00:24:45,319 --> 00:24:47,922 I mean, you have to remember, we were comedy writers. 567 00:24:48,055 --> 00:24:53,461 And to get into something like this was really thrilling. 568 00:24:53,594 --> 00:24:55,029 And I said, where do I sign? 569 00:24:55,162 --> 00:24:58,733 And it was fun from the beginning. 570 00:24:58,866 --> 00:25:02,303 And the first day it was the staff-- 571 00:25:02,436 --> 00:25:03,938 Lenny Ripps and Pat Proft. 572 00:25:04,071 --> 00:25:05,172 They were there. 573 00:25:05,306 --> 00:25:08,042 And Ken and Mitzie Welch, who were writers 574 00:25:08,175 --> 00:25:11,645 from The Carol Burnett Show, who did all the big musical things, 575 00:25:11,779 --> 00:25:12,480 and George-- 576 00:25:12,613 --> 00:25:13,748 George Lucas. 577 00:25:13,881 --> 00:25:15,149 And Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, 578 00:25:15,282 --> 00:25:18,152 who were actually allegedly producing it, 579 00:25:18,285 --> 00:25:20,855 but they didn't really produce it in the end. 580 00:25:20,988 --> 00:25:23,190 When I was looking at the credits on the show and I saw 581 00:25:23,324 --> 00:25:24,959 that they had-- it was a Smith-Hemion-- 582 00:25:25,092 --> 00:25:27,028 I said, it was a Smith-Hemion production? 583 00:25:27,161 --> 00:25:28,129 That's so stupid. 584 00:25:28,262 --> 00:25:29,897 Because I don't remember them being there. 585 00:25:30,031 --> 00:25:31,999 But they were at the beginning when I thought about it. 586 00:25:32,133 --> 00:25:33,667 And the other thing was we worked 587 00:25:33,801 --> 00:25:37,171 with his director, a guy named David Acomba, who 588 00:25:37,304 --> 00:25:42,243 was a director of rock and roll videos. 589 00:25:42,376 --> 00:25:47,481 He made a successful rock and roll documentary there. 590 00:25:47,615 --> 00:25:49,650 And there was that USC connection. 591 00:25:49,784 --> 00:25:51,452 David was the voice of George. 592 00:25:51,585 --> 00:25:54,922 If David had an idea, or we wanted to run something by him, 593 00:25:55,056 --> 00:25:57,758 or there were questions, our assumption 594 00:25:57,892 --> 00:26:01,862 was that it's also what George wanted. 595 00:26:01,996 --> 00:26:04,432 My intent was to see what George wanted 596 00:26:04,565 --> 00:26:05,666 and try and make it happen. 597 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:07,468 But quickly there were-- 598 00:26:07,601 --> 00:26:10,404 Ken and Mitzie were assigned to the show, whom I didn't know. 599 00:26:10,539 --> 00:26:13,074 And then, when I found out what they did, I mean, 600 00:26:13,207 --> 00:26:16,744 they wrote the music for the singing numbers and that. 601 00:26:16,877 --> 00:26:18,279 I just thought that was one of the worst 602 00:26:18,412 --> 00:26:20,214 parts of the show when she started singing 603 00:26:20,347 --> 00:26:23,918 and all those kinds of fake, Broadway, forgettable show 604 00:26:24,051 --> 00:26:25,486 tunes. 605 00:26:25,619 --> 00:26:27,421 The wrong people to be assigned to work with me or vice versa. 606 00:26:27,556 --> 00:26:30,958 The film industry and the variety television industry 607 00:26:31,092 --> 00:26:33,828 are completely two separate animals. 608 00:26:33,961 --> 00:26:36,630 I hear that David did not get along with the Welches. 609 00:26:36,764 --> 00:26:38,299 And I didn't realize that because I 610 00:26:38,432 --> 00:26:40,801 wasn't in the room with them when that was happening. 611 00:26:40,935 --> 00:26:44,271 But that was the team. 612 00:26:44,405 --> 00:26:47,441 What's so unique about the Star Wars Holiday Special is not 613 00:26:47,576 --> 00:26:50,845 just that they have the costumes and the permission 614 00:26:50,978 --> 00:26:52,713 to use everything that we know of Star Wars, 615 00:26:52,847 --> 00:26:55,449 but they actually got the cast-- 616 00:26:55,584 --> 00:26:56,851 the cast of Star Wars. 617 00:26:56,984 --> 00:26:58,752 When I read it, I said this is awful. 618 00:27:03,757 --> 00:27:05,693 I was-- it was in my contract. 619 00:27:06,861 --> 00:27:07,828 There was no way-- 620 00:27:07,962 --> 00:27:09,763 no known way-- to get out of it. 621 00:27:09,897 --> 00:27:11,932 Oh, all right, but I'm not singing! 622 00:27:12,066 --> 00:27:15,202 They all slum it for a TV special. 623 00:27:15,336 --> 00:27:19,006 Again, I have to imagine the paychecks made it worth it. 624 00:27:19,140 --> 00:27:23,512 The talent was supposed to be the caliber of Cher, 625 00:27:23,644 --> 00:27:26,380 Baryshnikov, and Ann-Margaret. 626 00:27:26,515 --> 00:27:28,782 That was the people that they had hoped 627 00:27:28,916 --> 00:27:30,885 would be on the variety show. 628 00:27:31,018 --> 00:27:32,853 I didn't think it was going to be 629 00:27:32,987 --> 00:27:35,122 so much of a traditional variety show. 630 00:27:35,256 --> 00:27:39,293 It never occurred to me that Harvey Korman, and Bea Arthur, 631 00:27:39,426 --> 00:27:41,328 and Art Carney were going to be in it. 632 00:27:41,462 --> 00:27:45,933 Yes, they were TV stars, but they were the elderly audience, 633 00:27:46,066 --> 00:27:48,269 CBS audience TV stars. 634 00:27:48,402 --> 00:27:50,070 It always occurred to me as something that 635 00:27:50,204 --> 00:27:53,474 was put together by old TV. 636 00:27:53,608 --> 00:27:54,643 You know, what is this? 637 00:27:54,775 --> 00:27:55,544 Star what? 638 00:27:55,676 --> 00:27:56,677 Whatever. 639 00:27:56,810 --> 00:27:57,845 You know, where's Captain Kirk? 640 00:27:57,978 --> 00:27:59,380 Bring in-- you know who we need? 641 00:27:59,514 --> 00:28:00,214 Art Carney. 642 00:28:00,347 --> 00:28:01,482 He's a TV legend. 643 00:28:01,616 --> 00:28:05,686 You felt like they could have had cooler, hipper 644 00:28:05,819 --> 00:28:07,721 people that they would have brought in 645 00:28:07,855 --> 00:28:09,223 to do these various parts. 646 00:28:09,356 --> 00:28:11,125 Ken and Mitzie were old school, and they were 647 00:28:11,258 --> 00:28:13,027 used to doing it a certain way. 648 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,731 And David wasn't crazy about that. 649 00:28:17,865 --> 00:28:21,302 So there's an interesting rumor about the Star Wars Holiday 650 00:28:21,435 --> 00:28:24,104 Special, which I've always found fascinating, 651 00:28:24,238 --> 00:28:28,309 which is that David Acomba was scouring improv clubs looking 652 00:28:28,442 --> 00:28:31,712 for great acts that could appear in the special 653 00:28:31,845 --> 00:28:33,981 and came across Robin Williams. 654 00:28:34,114 --> 00:28:37,552 This was after he'd already been Mork on Happy Days 655 00:28:37,686 --> 00:28:42,089 but before he had gotten Mork and Mindy on the air. 656 00:28:42,223 --> 00:28:47,094 And he brought Robin to the Welches, who 657 00:28:47,228 --> 00:28:49,029 immediately turned him away and said, 658 00:28:49,163 --> 00:28:50,864 we're only looking for name talent. 659 00:28:50,998 --> 00:28:53,434 About a month later Mork and Mindy airs, 660 00:28:53,568 --> 00:28:56,971 and Robin Williams explodes and could 661 00:28:57,104 --> 00:29:00,874 have been a part of what made the Star Wars Holiday 662 00:29:01,008 --> 00:29:03,043 Special fantastic. 663 00:29:03,177 --> 00:29:05,212 They weren't on-- just weren't on the same wavelength. 664 00:29:05,346 --> 00:29:08,415 And David felt that he was on George's wavelength and that 665 00:29:08,550 --> 00:29:09,718 they weren't. 666 00:29:09,850 --> 00:29:14,088 And they were there because there 667 00:29:14,221 --> 00:29:16,390 had to be professionals who had done this kind of thing 668 00:29:16,524 --> 00:29:18,526 before who knew what the requirements were. 669 00:29:18,660 --> 00:29:20,995 And George came up with the original story. 670 00:29:21,128 --> 00:29:22,863 It was going to be a one-hour special. 671 00:29:22,997 --> 00:29:25,099 Now, the Star Wars holiday special that we know 672 00:29:25,232 --> 00:29:28,402 didn't start off the way that we experienced it. 673 00:29:28,536 --> 00:29:31,305 It actually started off I think from a much purer place, which 674 00:29:31,438 --> 00:29:36,010 is George Lucas trying to write a variety holiday 675 00:29:36,143 --> 00:29:38,245 special, or at least just a holiday special. 676 00:29:38,379 --> 00:29:41,181 So after Ralph McQuarrie passed in 2012, 677 00:29:41,315 --> 00:29:45,919 they discovered, in his archive, a five-page treatment 678 00:29:46,053 --> 00:29:47,589 for the Star Wars Holiday Special. 679 00:29:47,722 --> 00:29:49,691 And it's debated as to who actually wrote this treatment. 680 00:29:49,823 --> 00:29:54,428 And when reading it, it does feel decidedly Lucas. 681 00:29:54,562 --> 00:29:58,132 And when you look at those old Ralph McQuarrie concept pieces, 682 00:29:58,265 --> 00:29:59,734 it makes sense that George would have 683 00:29:59,867 --> 00:30:02,970 floated this five-page treatment to his key collaborator 684 00:30:03,103 --> 00:30:04,305 on A New Hope. 685 00:30:04,438 --> 00:30:07,074 When you read through the treatment, 686 00:30:07,207 --> 00:30:09,977 George Lucas has a Jules Verne quality. 687 00:30:10,110 --> 00:30:11,412 He sees the future. 688 00:30:11,546 --> 00:30:14,114 Whether it is an iPad or virtual reality, 689 00:30:14,248 --> 00:30:18,852 this idea of this kind of walking through a teleporter 690 00:30:18,986 --> 00:30:20,555 and being able to be in a different spot. 691 00:30:20,689 --> 00:30:23,625 But then there are other things that are so decidedly 692 00:30:23,758 --> 00:30:26,927 weird like Raquel Welch. 693 00:30:27,061 --> 00:30:29,096 "Guest star-- Raquel Welch-- 694 00:30:29,229 --> 00:30:31,198 volunteers for the job and leaves 695 00:30:31,332 --> 00:30:32,600 to intercept the starship." 696 00:30:32,734 --> 00:30:36,437 So Raquel is playing a starship officer, 697 00:30:36,571 --> 00:30:39,406 which is already odd because most imperial officers are 698 00:30:39,541 --> 00:30:40,908 British. 699 00:30:41,041 --> 00:30:43,745 And she's going to infiltrate the Starship Musica to stop 700 00:30:43,877 --> 00:30:45,112 the Life Day celebration. 701 00:30:45,245 --> 00:30:46,914 Raquel, under the guise of telling Lumpy 702 00:30:47,047 --> 00:30:49,751 a story with dance and gestures about what drives a spaceship, 703 00:30:49,883 --> 00:30:53,454 dances her way into the power supply room and screws 704 00:30:53,588 --> 00:30:55,022 everything up. 705 00:30:55,155 --> 00:30:59,561 This idea that Raquel Welch is doing some performance 706 00:30:59,694 --> 00:31:02,597 art, Alvin Ailey kind of-- 707 00:31:02,731 --> 00:31:06,333 she's describing how a spaceship works through dance? 708 00:31:06,467 --> 00:31:08,402 There's a lot of questions to be had here. 709 00:31:08,536 --> 00:31:09,604 Look, who am I to judge? 710 00:31:09,738 --> 00:31:11,438 But in reading this, it feels like, hey, 711 00:31:11,573 --> 00:31:14,274 a nerdy guy who has maybe a crush on Raquel Welch. 712 00:31:14,408 --> 00:31:15,844 He's like, maybe I get to meet her. 713 00:31:15,976 --> 00:31:17,077 Maybe she'll be impressed by me. 714 00:31:17,211 --> 00:31:18,011 Maybe we'll hit it off. 715 00:31:18,145 --> 00:31:18,847 We'll go get a sandwich. 716 00:31:18,979 --> 00:31:20,515 Nothing weird. 717 00:31:20,648 --> 00:31:25,052 We spent one full 12-hour day working with George Lucas, 718 00:31:25,185 --> 00:31:27,187 and that was worth everything. 719 00:31:27,321 --> 00:31:30,924 I mean, he was the most-intense, most-focused person 720 00:31:31,058 --> 00:31:32,527 I had ever met. 721 00:31:32,660 --> 00:31:35,630 I mean, we were so into it that I forgot about lunch. 722 00:31:35,764 --> 00:31:38,132 And that's infrequent for me. 723 00:31:38,265 --> 00:31:42,704 Then he told us the mythology of the story. 724 00:31:42,837 --> 00:31:48,041 There was this Life Day. 725 00:31:49,511 --> 00:31:51,078 I know your family's waiting. 726 00:31:52,514 --> 00:31:54,415 I know it's an important day. 727 00:31:57,251 --> 00:31:58,820 All right, we'll give it a try. 728 00:31:58,952 --> 00:32:03,190 The story was Luke and Leia were-- 729 00:32:03,323 --> 00:32:07,629 and Han Solo were-- accompanying Chewbacca home 730 00:32:07,762 --> 00:32:10,230 to his home planet for Life Day. 731 00:32:10,364 --> 00:32:12,299 Which was a holiday George invented, 732 00:32:12,433 --> 00:32:14,602 and he thought it would be like later 733 00:32:14,736 --> 00:32:17,505 "Festivus for the rest of us" from Seinfeld would be. 734 00:32:17,639 --> 00:32:18,972 But not so much. 735 00:32:19,106 --> 00:32:20,274 Never happened. 736 00:32:20,407 --> 00:32:21,643 It was kind of a Wookiee Rosh Hashanah. 737 00:32:21,776 --> 00:32:23,010 You know? 738 00:32:23,143 --> 00:32:25,412 I mean, it was the biggest day of the year. 739 00:32:25,547 --> 00:32:27,816 The whole Life Day with the Wookiees 740 00:32:27,948 --> 00:32:31,218 was something that George took very seriously at the time 741 00:32:31,351 --> 00:32:33,621 and that also sort of expanded the Star Wars 742 00:32:33,755 --> 00:32:36,724 universe in his first major visual expansion. 743 00:32:36,858 --> 00:32:39,059 George didn't choose the storyline lightly. 744 00:32:39,193 --> 00:32:41,763 They wanted Chewbacca's family have 745 00:32:41,896 --> 00:32:47,134 exposure to show them as a loving family of creatures. 746 00:32:47,267 --> 00:32:49,403 And to George Lucas, this was real. 747 00:32:49,537 --> 00:32:51,606 I mean, you have to remember, he had come up 748 00:32:51,739 --> 00:32:56,678 with at least a dozen stories, so he knew what this was about. 749 00:32:56,811 --> 00:32:59,647 George met with the writers on the special 750 00:32:59,781 --> 00:33:02,282 and actually showed them a large binder-- 751 00:33:02,416 --> 00:33:06,019 a Bible of sorts-- for the universe, where 752 00:33:06,153 --> 00:33:08,388 we got to know a lot more about the characters 753 00:33:08,523 --> 00:33:10,324 that we didn't know at the time. 754 00:33:10,457 --> 00:33:13,928 He was kind of like a reporter sharing with us 755 00:33:14,061 --> 00:33:15,730 a world that we didn't know. 756 00:33:15,864 --> 00:33:19,032 Obviously, we were going to get to know a lot about Chewbacca's 757 00:33:19,166 --> 00:33:21,235 home life on Kashyyyk. 758 00:33:21,368 --> 00:33:24,939 But there's rumor that we were even potentially going 759 00:33:25,072 --> 00:33:28,208 to learn more about Han Solo. 760 00:33:28,342 --> 00:33:31,178 You're like family to me. 761 00:33:36,818 --> 00:33:39,721 He said that Han Solo was married to a Wookiee, 762 00:33:39,854 --> 00:33:42,724 but we can't say that because people wouldn't accept it. 763 00:33:42,857 --> 00:33:45,325 Family to me. 764 00:33:45,459 --> 00:33:47,562 That Wookiee looked at you with-- with lust. 765 00:33:47,695 --> 00:33:48,161 That was-- 766 00:33:49,764 --> 00:33:50,765 Real affection. 767 00:33:52,266 --> 00:33:54,669 No, Han was never married to-- 768 00:33:54,802 --> 00:33:58,105 that's-- that's not true-- 769 00:33:58,238 --> 00:33:59,507 That's impossible! 770 00:33:59,641 --> 00:34:01,743 Uh, OK. 771 00:34:01,876 --> 00:34:05,947 Most of our work was with the Chewbacca stuff, not 772 00:34:06,079 --> 00:34:07,015 the variety stuff. 773 00:34:07,147 --> 00:34:10,083 The variety parts we left blank. 774 00:34:10,217 --> 00:34:12,654 And originally the special was going 775 00:34:12,787 --> 00:34:16,891 to be a one-hour special, which was typical for those variety 776 00:34:17,025 --> 00:34:19,293 specials that the networks did. 777 00:34:19,426 --> 00:34:22,062 But as Star Wars was more and more successful, 778 00:34:22,195 --> 00:34:26,333 CBS got more and more excited and came back and said, 779 00:34:26,466 --> 00:34:27,936 can we do a 90-minute special? 780 00:34:28,068 --> 00:34:30,004 Can we do a two-hour special? 781 00:34:30,137 --> 00:34:31,438 Then I found out what it actually 782 00:34:31,573 --> 00:34:34,976 was going to be once we went to work. 783 00:34:35,108 --> 00:34:36,109 And so did George. 784 00:34:36,243 --> 00:34:38,145 And I think he was stunned. 785 00:34:38,278 --> 00:34:39,479 You know? 786 00:34:39,614 --> 00:34:41,181 I mean, we were pretty clear that it 787 00:34:41,315 --> 00:34:43,651 was wonderful to spend a day with Lucas, 788 00:34:43,785 --> 00:34:46,086 but we knew that we were not going to spend any more 789 00:34:46,219 --> 00:34:47,120 time with him. 790 00:34:47,254 --> 00:34:48,556 You know? 791 00:34:48,690 --> 00:34:50,390 I mean, he had much bigger fish to fry. 792 00:34:50,525 --> 00:34:52,594 George had detached himself. 793 00:34:52,727 --> 00:34:55,930 I don't think he ever envisioned a show with guest stars 794 00:34:56,064 --> 00:34:57,397 and numbers. 795 00:34:57,532 --> 00:35:00,467 Once again, we weren't creating the material. 796 00:35:00,602 --> 00:35:01,335 They were. 797 00:35:01,468 --> 00:35:03,203 We just sort of approved it. 798 00:35:03,337 --> 00:35:06,574 And then George got busy with pre-production 799 00:35:06,708 --> 00:35:11,178 on The Empire Strikes Back, so he got less and less involved 800 00:35:11,311 --> 00:35:12,647 with the holiday special. 801 00:35:17,585 --> 00:35:19,453 Smith-Hemion were the top. 802 00:35:19,587 --> 00:35:21,756 I mean, they had 92 Emmys, and they 803 00:35:21,889 --> 00:35:24,391 were famous for doing really classy shows. 804 00:35:24,525 --> 00:35:27,629 And Smith-Hemion, who the previous year had just done 805 00:35:27,762 --> 00:35:31,866 the iconic David Bowie Bing Crosby Christmas special, 806 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:33,768 which endures to this day-- 807 00:35:35,168 --> 00:35:37,639 Peace on Earth, can it be? 808 00:35:37,772 --> 00:35:39,807 --was put in charge of the Star Wars Holiday Special. 809 00:35:39,941 --> 00:35:42,242 This was not really in their wheelhouse. 810 00:35:42,376 --> 00:35:46,413 The first day I went to the set, and nobody was paying attention 811 00:35:46,547 --> 00:35:48,750 to David Acomba because he was kind of bouncing off 812 00:35:48,883 --> 00:35:50,283 the walls a little bit. 813 00:35:50,417 --> 00:35:51,986 It was a mixture of worlds, and David's approach 814 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,323 was to try to do it documentary, kind of one camera, even 815 00:35:56,456 --> 00:35:57,725 shaky camera kind of thing. 816 00:35:57,859 --> 00:35:59,493 And the production company really 817 00:35:59,627 --> 00:36:02,162 wanted it to be multiple camera more often because you 818 00:36:02,295 --> 00:36:03,564 could just get more done. 819 00:36:03,698 --> 00:36:05,566 This is not-- everything was taking forever. 820 00:36:05,700 --> 00:36:08,201 And I remember the beginning of the Star Wars show 821 00:36:08,335 --> 00:36:10,938 was just absolutely brutal. 822 00:36:11,072 --> 00:36:13,473 The hours were ridiculous. 823 00:36:13,608 --> 00:36:16,811 But now, let's get started, shall we? 824 00:36:16,944 --> 00:36:19,514 And Harvey Korman is working his butt off, 825 00:36:19,647 --> 00:36:23,851 but ooh, boy, does he know what he's doing is not good. 826 00:36:23,985 --> 00:36:26,319 And Harvey would wear anything I'd put on him. 827 00:36:26,453 --> 00:36:29,824 And he did like to get into drag. 828 00:36:29,957 --> 00:36:36,430 He also dressed up as Julia Child and did a bit as her. 829 00:36:36,564 --> 00:36:39,567 A bit of the chloranthum root. 830 00:36:39,701 --> 00:36:40,635 Wonderful. 831 00:36:40,768 --> 00:36:42,202 Just adds that touch of piquancy. 832 00:36:42,335 --> 00:36:43,771 I mean, Harvey has a character called 833 00:36:43,905 --> 00:36:45,973 Mother Marcus on The Carol Burnett Show, 834 00:36:46,107 --> 00:36:50,645 a big Jewish mama with big boobs and really funny. 835 00:36:50,778 --> 00:36:53,447 And this is not that far from that character. 836 00:36:53,581 --> 00:36:55,049 Consistency, don't we? 837 00:36:55,183 --> 00:36:58,920 And on the count of 1, stir, whip, stir, whip. 838 00:36:59,053 --> 00:37:00,253 Whip, whip, stir. 839 00:37:00,387 --> 00:37:02,222 Stir, whip, stir, whip. 840 00:37:02,355 --> 00:37:03,825 Whip, whip, stir. 841 00:37:03,958 --> 00:37:07,528 Sometimes when I'm cooking, that does come to mind. 842 00:37:07,662 --> 00:37:09,429 Stir, whip, stir, whip. 843 00:37:09,564 --> 00:37:12,166 Ooh, coming along. 844 00:37:12,299 --> 00:37:13,768 Very nice. 845 00:37:13,901 --> 00:37:17,471 OK, Harvey Korman is in a purple dress with silver hair 846 00:37:17,605 --> 00:37:20,541 and forearms, and that's still not the most weird thing 847 00:37:20,675 --> 00:37:22,442 that's happening in this film. 848 00:37:22,577 --> 00:37:27,247 Harvey Korman is trying to pick up Bea Arthur, uh, 849 00:37:27,380 --> 00:37:30,718 which is very disturbing. 850 00:37:30,852 --> 00:37:32,019 What'll it be? 851 00:37:32,153 --> 00:37:32,954 Hello, Ackmena. 852 00:37:35,455 --> 00:37:36,891 Come back soon. 853 00:37:37,024 --> 00:37:38,926 I'll be waiting. 854 00:37:39,060 --> 00:37:42,163 And to somehow make the scene weirder, 855 00:37:42,295 --> 00:37:50,505 he has, like, a hole in his head that he pours the drinks into. 856 00:37:50,638 --> 00:37:52,372 I don't remember it. 857 00:37:52,507 --> 00:37:56,110 I just absolutely eliminated it from my mind. 858 00:37:56,244 --> 00:37:57,812 It was too bizarre. 859 00:37:57,945 --> 00:37:59,981 It was too otherworldly. 860 00:38:00,114 --> 00:38:01,314 I couldn't remember it. 861 00:38:01,448 --> 00:38:02,382 I didn't know what it was. 862 00:38:02,517 --> 00:38:04,417 I couldn't recognize myself. 863 00:38:04,552 --> 00:38:05,787 The only thing I remember out of it 864 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:08,756 was the fun of working with Bea Arthur. 865 00:38:08,890 --> 00:38:11,324 I mean, we had fun, but I don't know what the hell 866 00:38:11,458 --> 00:38:12,960 that thing was about. 867 00:38:13,094 --> 00:38:17,098 Some things are so contradictory to the film that just came 868 00:38:17,231 --> 00:38:18,232 out and established it. 869 00:38:18,365 --> 00:38:20,535 Like, so, is this that cantina? 870 00:38:20,668 --> 00:38:23,604 Because it's all the same costumes and characters, 871 00:38:23,738 --> 00:38:25,907 but it's not at all dangerous. 872 00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:27,374 Right? 873 00:38:27,508 --> 00:38:29,043 Like, that is the purpose it serves in the film. 874 00:38:29,177 --> 00:38:32,379 This is the most dangerous place, where arms are cut off, 875 00:38:32,513 --> 00:38:34,982 people are shot under tables, and occasionally 876 00:38:35,116 --> 00:38:36,951 Beatrice Arthur will break out into song. 877 00:38:37,084 --> 00:38:40,021 Bea wanted to sing the "Alabama Song." 878 00:38:40,154 --> 00:38:41,388 She wanted to do a number. 879 00:38:41,522 --> 00:38:42,824 That was her proviso. 880 00:38:42,957 --> 00:38:45,159 They finally, I think, went to the Brecht 881 00:38:45,293 --> 00:38:48,696 estate, which was not interested in having the song done 882 00:38:48,830 --> 00:38:50,665 on the Star Wars Holiday Special. 883 00:38:50,798 --> 00:38:52,066 Oh, and you know who was in it? 884 00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:59,006 Harvey Korman and I were in a bar with aliens 885 00:38:59,140 --> 00:39:00,775 and strange-looking people. 886 00:39:00,908 --> 00:39:06,346 And it's a lovely piece written by Mitzie and Ken Welch. 887 00:39:06,479 --> 00:39:10,852 So Ken and Mitzie wrote a song for Bea that was a lot like-- 888 00:39:10,985 --> 00:39:12,987 those were the days, my friend. 889 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:14,222 We thought they'd never-- 890 00:39:14,354 --> 00:39:17,725 --which was like an up version of-- 891 00:39:17,859 --> 00:39:20,294 show me the way to the next whiskey bar. 892 00:39:20,427 --> 00:39:24,098 --and that's what Bea winds up singing on the show. 893 00:39:24,232 --> 00:39:27,668 Then homeward bound, friend, 894 00:39:27,802 --> 00:39:30,571 don't forget me in your dreams. 895 00:39:33,541 --> 00:39:36,177 It's the cantina music slowed down. 896 00:39:36,310 --> 00:39:40,314 But it's so funny, because none of us had lyrics to that. 897 00:39:40,447 --> 00:39:42,049 And then this happens, and then kids 898 00:39:42,183 --> 00:39:45,186 are starting to sing it on the playground and stuff. 899 00:39:45,319 --> 00:39:48,890 I was hired as a Wookiee. 900 00:39:49,023 --> 00:39:51,025 But I remember, when I showed up, 901 00:39:51,158 --> 00:39:54,595 they had plenty of Wookiees, and they were looking 902 00:39:54,729 --> 00:39:56,297 for someone that could dance. 903 00:39:56,429 --> 00:39:58,666 So the choreographer said, we're just going to pop you in here. 904 00:39:58,799 --> 00:40:00,835 You're going to be walrus man from now on. 905 00:40:00,968 --> 00:40:04,805 And I became walrus man, and I got to dance with Bea Arthur. 906 00:40:04,939 --> 00:40:07,842 I think part of the issue for that day 907 00:40:07,975 --> 00:40:10,144 was the fact that there were so many people 908 00:40:10,278 --> 00:40:11,946 being fitted into costumes. 909 00:40:12,079 --> 00:40:13,814 That took hours. 910 00:40:13,948 --> 00:40:17,484 I mean, the Bea Arthur thing took forever too. 911 00:40:17,618 --> 00:40:21,188 But that was because the aliens kept fainting. 912 00:40:21,322 --> 00:40:24,825 Those costumes were pretty hot, pretty unbearable. 913 00:40:24,959 --> 00:40:26,928 There is no oxygen in these costumes. 914 00:40:27,061 --> 00:40:28,696 You could not breathe in these costumes. 915 00:40:28,829 --> 00:40:30,698 And this went on for hours, and hours, and hours. 916 00:40:30,831 --> 00:40:34,669 Because it was like 103 degrees on the set, and you put 917 00:40:34,802 --> 00:40:38,139 those heads on, and it's kind of like waterboarding. 918 00:40:38,272 --> 00:40:41,309 I think had we not stepped in, the actors-- 919 00:40:41,441 --> 00:40:42,343 We would have killed them. 920 00:40:42,475 --> 00:40:44,512 David had no sense of-- 921 00:40:44,645 --> 00:40:45,913 The fact that they were suffocating. 922 00:40:46,047 --> 00:40:47,548 --their needs as human beings. 923 00:40:48,950 --> 00:40:50,184 My eyes were supposed to be here, 924 00:40:50,318 --> 00:40:52,553 but I'm looking through two little holes. 925 00:40:52,687 --> 00:40:54,622 I can't see out of the holes. 926 00:40:54,755 --> 00:40:55,756 It's like, OK? 927 00:40:55,890 --> 00:40:57,158 And then, I have to-- 928 00:40:57,291 --> 00:40:58,159 and I don't have hands. 929 00:40:58,292 --> 00:40:59,727 I have hooves. 930 00:40:59,860 --> 00:41:03,297 So it was just kind of like, here, you go grab her. 931 00:41:03,431 --> 00:41:08,636 I felt my way down, and I just kind of grabbed her wrists 932 00:41:08,769 --> 00:41:10,071 as best I could. 933 00:41:10,204 --> 00:41:12,440 And I just started doing this with her. 934 00:41:12,573 --> 00:41:16,177 -- one more dance, friend. 935 00:41:16,310 --> 00:41:17,912 Just one more-- 936 00:41:18,045 --> 00:41:21,015 Kind of like L'chaim to life, like from Fiddler on the Roof. 937 00:41:21,148 --> 00:41:23,117 That's kind of that two-step dance. 938 00:41:23,250 --> 00:41:28,456 So going, swaying back and forth to the music with Bea Arthur. 939 00:41:28,622 --> 00:41:31,592 If you're a friend, friend. 940 00:41:31,726 --> 00:41:37,698 One part, it looks like Bea Arthur is having 941 00:41:37,832 --> 00:41:40,434 an affair with a giant rat. 942 00:41:40,568 --> 00:41:46,841 Just one more drop, friend, before we stop friends. 943 00:41:46,974 --> 00:41:50,978 And interestingly enough, the gigantic rat 944 00:41:51,112 --> 00:41:55,216 was saying, oh my god, get Bea Arthur off me. 945 00:41:55,349 --> 00:41:58,686 And there's that scene where Bea Arthur is like nuzzling a rat. 946 00:41:58,819 --> 00:42:01,789 Rick Baker actually used that on another project. 947 00:42:01,922 --> 00:42:04,392 And it was from a film he'd done two years ago, Food 948 00:42:04,525 --> 00:42:05,860 of the Gods-- 949 00:42:11,399 --> 00:42:13,467 which is insane. 950 00:42:13,601 --> 00:42:15,369 So we got a lot of remainder aliens 951 00:42:15,504 --> 00:42:20,641 that kind of had mill flaws, so they looked fairly cheesy. 952 00:42:20,775 --> 00:42:23,077 So the idea was, don't go too close on any of them. 953 00:42:23,210 --> 00:42:26,881 I never gave it much thought once we finished with it. 954 00:42:27,014 --> 00:42:31,018 But even to this day, I get pictures 955 00:42:31,152 --> 00:42:34,789 that fans send of me in the costume and everything. 956 00:42:34,922 --> 00:42:36,390 And please autograph it. 957 00:42:36,525 --> 00:42:38,527 I don't remember how long we went. 958 00:42:38,659 --> 00:42:42,363 I just remember doing another take, and then another take, 959 00:42:42,496 --> 00:42:43,864 and another take. 960 00:42:43,998 --> 00:42:47,101 I'm not surprised if I was there for 24 hours. 961 00:42:47,234 --> 00:42:53,508 Is that a tear, friend, in your eye? 962 00:42:53,641 --> 00:42:55,109 And it wasn't even that good. 963 00:42:55,242 --> 00:42:59,213 Like once you saw it, you went, wow. 964 00:42:59,346 --> 00:43:00,648 You know? 965 00:43:00,781 --> 00:43:03,951 They could have done that in an hour or two hours. 966 00:43:04,085 --> 00:43:06,555 Now, it's good night, friend. 967 00:43:06,687 --> 00:43:07,755 What? 968 00:43:12,426 --> 00:43:13,360 I'm Bob Mackie. 969 00:43:13,494 --> 00:43:14,595 Welcome aboard, Mr. Mackie. 970 00:43:14,728 --> 00:43:15,696 I'm Captain Stubing. 971 00:43:15,830 --> 00:43:16,797 It's an honor to meet you. 972 00:43:16,931 --> 00:43:18,365 Thank you, captain. 973 00:43:18,499 --> 00:43:21,235 Mr. Mackie designs the gowns for all the big TV stars. 974 00:43:21,368 --> 00:43:23,437 Carol Burnett, Ann-Margaret, Cher. 975 00:43:23,572 --> 00:43:24,939 That's right. 976 00:43:25,072 --> 00:43:26,340 You've heard them say, "clothes make the man?" 977 00:43:26,474 --> 00:43:27,608 Well, I'm the man that makes the clothes. 978 00:43:29,477 --> 00:43:32,547 Well, I had heard enough people enthusiastic about the Star 979 00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:34,381 Wars Christmas Special. 980 00:43:34,516 --> 00:43:37,586 And someone said-- and they were talking about it, 981 00:43:37,718 --> 00:43:39,453 and I said, oh, I designed that. 982 00:43:39,588 --> 00:43:40,788 You did? 983 00:43:40,921 --> 00:43:42,423 really? 984 00:43:42,557 --> 00:43:43,657 It was like that. 985 00:43:43,791 --> 00:43:45,726 And I just went, oh, OK. 986 00:43:45,860 --> 00:43:47,294 Well, I guess it was more important 987 00:43:47,428 --> 00:43:49,063 than I thought it was. 988 00:43:49,196 --> 00:43:52,133 And when we walked in, they had big drawings of the costumes. 989 00:43:52,266 --> 00:43:54,168 And we saw the ones that we would be wearing. 990 00:43:54,301 --> 00:43:57,004 It was fantastic, and Bob Mackie was there, 991 00:43:57,138 --> 00:43:59,406 and we had to do fittings. 992 00:43:59,541 --> 00:44:01,775 And Bob Mackie was there. 993 00:44:01,909 --> 00:44:04,311 It was-- I was thrilled. 994 00:44:04,445 --> 00:44:07,915 We had the acrobats, and the gymnasts, 995 00:44:08,048 --> 00:44:10,851 and all that whole group of circus people, which 996 00:44:10,985 --> 00:44:12,219 I loved doing. 997 00:44:12,353 --> 00:44:13,988 So that was our going to be our role. 998 00:44:14,121 --> 00:44:17,458 We would be tumbling inside this little music box 999 00:44:17,592 --> 00:44:23,097 to entertain the baby Chewbacca, Junior. I 1000 00:44:23,230 --> 00:44:25,432 don't know what his name is. 1001 00:44:25,567 --> 00:44:27,001 Sorry. 1002 00:44:27,134 --> 00:44:30,704 It is very similar to a scene my father did in a movie 1003 00:44:30,838 --> 00:44:33,542 many years prior to that, Thief of Bagdad. 1004 00:44:33,674 --> 00:44:37,044 So in that one, pop was inside. 1005 00:44:37,178 --> 00:44:39,346 He was miniature, inside a little music box. 1006 00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,249 And then I have to have their heads cut off. 1007 00:44:42,383 --> 00:44:43,817 Oh! 1008 00:44:43,951 --> 00:44:47,221 And in this particular movie, we were going to be on a table, 1009 00:44:47,354 --> 00:44:48,956 like a flat surface. 1010 00:44:49,089 --> 00:44:53,194 And we were more like holograms. 1011 00:44:53,327 --> 00:44:55,129 I wanted to do them in bright colors 1012 00:44:55,262 --> 00:44:59,800 because everything in that film was like a neutral color. 1013 00:44:59,934 --> 00:45:04,338 You know, it's all grays, and taupes, and browns, and beiges, 1014 00:45:04,471 --> 00:45:06,840 and a little black, and a little. 1015 00:45:06,974 --> 00:45:10,110 But basically no color really. 1016 00:45:10,244 --> 00:45:12,514 I guess in space they don't have color. 1017 00:45:12,647 --> 00:45:13,714 This is the girl-- 1018 00:45:13,847 --> 00:45:15,082 the gymnast girl. 1019 00:45:15,216 --> 00:45:17,686 And it's a whole body suit. 1020 00:45:17,818 --> 00:45:20,154 So anything-- any time they moved, 1021 00:45:20,287 --> 00:45:22,022 the elastic would move with them, 1022 00:45:22,156 --> 00:45:24,425 and it would stay in place. 1023 00:45:24,559 --> 00:45:29,296 And then the five of us were in hot pink and Black. 1024 00:45:33,434 --> 00:45:36,904 That took a little getting used to for tumbling in and doing 1025 00:45:37,037 --> 00:45:37,972 pyramids, climbing up. 1026 00:45:38,105 --> 00:45:40,341 Because I was the top man-- 1027 00:45:40,474 --> 00:45:41,909 person. 1028 00:45:42,042 --> 00:45:44,044 So climbing up, and so they wouldn't get in your way. 1029 00:45:44,178 --> 00:45:49,517 So we had two jugglers, and they were in the Spandex as well. 1030 00:45:49,651 --> 00:45:52,987 What better testament to the mastery of John Williams 1031 00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:55,690 than whoever scored this entire holiday special? 1032 00:45:55,856 --> 00:45:59,226 Because somebody came in with a new Casio, like, synth sound. 1033 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:02,062 And they're like, you got to let me flex this out, you guys. 1034 00:46:02,196 --> 00:46:04,865 I'm telling you, it's going to be timeless! 1035 00:46:04,999 --> 00:46:06,601 This is the first sketch I did. 1036 00:46:06,735 --> 00:46:12,273 And I wanted to have this kind of Asian, half man, half bird 1037 00:46:12,406 --> 00:46:14,008 kind of situation. 1038 00:46:14,141 --> 00:46:15,409 And he's still a warrior. 1039 00:46:15,543 --> 00:46:18,178 They're all like warriors of a certain kind. 1040 00:46:18,312 --> 00:46:21,716 He had this big tail that he could whip around like a whip, 1041 00:46:21,849 --> 00:46:23,150 but it was attached. 1042 00:46:23,284 --> 00:46:25,452 And he had all these pheasant feathers that 1043 00:46:25,587 --> 00:46:28,523 were dyed this green color. 1044 00:46:33,662 --> 00:46:34,629 Dance, slave. 1045 00:46:34,763 --> 00:46:35,996 Dance. 1046 00:46:36,130 --> 00:46:37,231 It was comfortable. 1047 00:46:37,364 --> 00:46:43,370 But only problem was then bathroom. 1048 00:46:45,774 --> 00:46:48,042 Yeah, every once in a while, someone will pop up 1049 00:46:48,175 --> 00:46:51,045 and they'll want us to-- oh, I bought all the costumes. 1050 00:46:51,178 --> 00:46:53,213 One of things I love to collect are 1051 00:46:53,347 --> 00:46:55,849 when I have costume sketches of an actual costume I own. 1052 00:46:55,983 --> 00:46:57,985 So this is the only costume I own from the holiday special. 1053 00:46:58,118 --> 00:46:59,887 And this was very exciting too, that, like, 1054 00:47:00,020 --> 00:47:01,656 when I saw the things in the Julien's auction, 1055 00:47:01,790 --> 00:47:04,458 I was like, that is one I definitely have to win. 1056 00:47:04,592 --> 00:47:06,126 It's been over 40 years. 1057 00:47:06,260 --> 00:47:08,596 There's people are still watching it online. 1058 00:47:08,730 --> 00:47:12,499 Like, it just-- yeah, it's-- people still talk about it. 1059 00:47:12,634 --> 00:47:17,237 Jefferson Starship had this song that was a deep cut. 1060 00:47:17,371 --> 00:47:19,406 It was the last song of one of their albums 1061 00:47:19,541 --> 00:47:20,809 called "Hyperdrive." 1062 00:47:20,941 --> 00:47:24,144 Almost as if a producer looked at a list of artists 1063 00:47:24,278 --> 00:47:28,616 that were popular and then called someone and said, 1064 00:47:28,750 --> 00:47:29,551 "Hyperdrive." 1065 00:47:29,684 --> 00:47:32,219 We have hyperdrive. 1066 00:47:32,353 --> 00:47:33,822 Call up this Jefferson Star-- 1067 00:47:33,954 --> 00:47:34,855 Starship? 1068 00:47:34,988 --> 00:47:36,591 We have starships! 1069 00:47:36,725 --> 00:47:38,359 It's as if it wrote itself. 1070 00:47:38,492 --> 00:47:39,627 Yeah. 1071 00:47:39,761 --> 00:47:41,563 So we recorded this song "Light the Sky on Fire" 1072 00:47:41,696 --> 00:47:43,197 with Marty Bannon singing. 1073 00:47:43,330 --> 00:47:47,401 And he was the main singer because Grace was in rehab. 1074 00:47:47,535 --> 00:47:51,905 So we went ahead and ended up-- somehow we ended up on the Star 1075 00:47:52,039 --> 00:47:53,474 Wars Christmas-- 1076 00:47:53,608 --> 00:47:54,975 Holiday Special-- it was Christmas special we called it 1077 00:47:55,109 --> 00:47:56,477 at the time. 1078 00:47:56,611 --> 00:47:58,847 And none of us really knew what was going on, 1079 00:47:58,979 --> 00:48:00,582 but we ended up playing there. 1080 00:48:00,715 --> 00:48:03,450 So when I found out that Jefferson Starship was going 1081 00:48:03,585 --> 00:48:05,252 to be part of the shoot-- we were actually 1082 00:48:05,386 --> 00:48:06,688 going to shoot a number with them. 1083 00:48:06,821 --> 00:48:08,956 So I thought, oh, this is going to be really cool. 1084 00:48:09,089 --> 00:48:10,525 We had a connection-- not really. 1085 00:48:10,658 --> 00:48:13,828 I mean, I didn't know a lot about what was going on. 1086 00:48:13,961 --> 00:48:16,930 I remember we were rehearsing at Paul's-- it was Grace's house 1087 00:48:17,064 --> 00:48:19,900 over in San Francisco overlooking the Bay. 1088 00:48:20,033 --> 00:48:21,603 It's a beautiful house. 1089 00:48:21,736 --> 00:48:25,139 And Darth Vader came by, and it was like a publicity thing. 1090 00:48:25,272 --> 00:48:26,574 Came by and took some photographs, 1091 00:48:26,708 --> 00:48:28,643 and we got some photographs of us hanging out 1092 00:48:28,777 --> 00:48:29,977 with Darth Vader. 1093 00:48:30,110 --> 00:48:32,614 So we had some relationship already. 1094 00:48:32,747 --> 00:48:34,948 Of course, I didn't really know what to expect. 1095 00:48:35,082 --> 00:48:38,853 I mean, I figured they had their stuff together, you know? 1096 00:48:40,855 --> 00:48:41,989 It's really bizarre. 1097 00:48:42,122 --> 00:48:45,125 It's really bad, bad special effects. 1098 00:48:45,259 --> 00:48:46,528 But you know what? 1099 00:48:46,661 --> 00:48:49,496 A lot of reviewers in 1978 praised this. 1100 00:48:49,631 --> 00:48:51,932 They thought the special effects in this thing 1101 00:48:52,065 --> 00:48:53,535 were the highlight of the show. 1102 00:48:53,668 --> 00:48:58,372 Looking back on it now, this can't be a highlight. 1103 00:48:58,506 --> 00:48:59,473 It was a trip. 1104 00:48:59,607 --> 00:49:01,408 I remember a little bit about it. 1105 00:49:01,543 --> 00:49:05,580 I mean, I remember they let us loose in a room full of props, 1106 00:49:05,713 --> 00:49:08,081 like a costume room kind of thing. 1107 00:49:08,215 --> 00:49:10,284 They said, just try and make up an outfit. 1108 00:49:10,417 --> 00:49:12,319 No direction really, just individually 1109 00:49:12,453 --> 00:49:13,922 make up anything you want. 1110 00:49:14,054 --> 00:49:15,623 And it just-- as long as it looks 1111 00:49:15,757 --> 00:49:18,425 like it's from another galaxy or something or from the future. 1112 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:20,394 I think the finished product didn't really 1113 00:49:20,528 --> 00:49:22,996 come out as if it was a music video as much 1114 00:49:23,130 --> 00:49:24,364 as they thought it might. 1115 00:49:24,498 --> 00:49:27,100 I guess-- yeah, I guess Art Carney-- 1116 00:49:27,234 --> 00:49:28,402 it's sort of they're interacting, 1117 00:49:28,536 --> 00:49:32,272 and it's with his wry humor with one 1118 00:49:32,406 --> 00:49:35,209 of the stormtrooper guys sitting there in front 1119 00:49:35,342 --> 00:49:38,145 of this futuristic device. 1120 00:49:38,278 --> 00:49:39,881 Will you get on with it? 1121 00:49:40,013 --> 00:49:41,381 OK, OK. 1122 00:49:41,516 --> 00:49:43,183 And they press the button, and then we start-- 1123 00:49:43,317 --> 00:49:45,219 we're suddenly, there we are, playing 1124 00:49:45,352 --> 00:49:47,454 our song "Light the Sky on Fire" with all 1125 00:49:47,589 --> 00:49:50,792 these weird, cheesy effects all around. 1126 00:49:50,925 --> 00:49:55,830 And we're all sort looking like we're from another galaxy 1127 00:49:55,964 --> 00:49:56,931 supposedly. 1128 00:49:57,064 --> 00:49:58,900 But we really probably didn't. 1129 00:49:59,032 --> 00:50:00,400 We looked pretty silly. 1130 00:50:01,970 --> 00:50:03,470 Will you light the sky on fire. 1131 00:50:05,907 --> 00:50:11,880 Will you light the sky on fire every night? 1132 00:50:12,012 --> 00:50:16,518 You can take me higher than the diamonds in the sky. 1133 00:50:18,720 --> 00:50:21,723 We didn't really know how they were going to use it. 1134 00:50:21,856 --> 00:50:24,559 I'm not even certain they knew how they were going to use it. 1135 00:50:24,692 --> 00:50:26,995 So eventually we started just running behind 1136 00:50:27,127 --> 00:50:28,530 on that schedule. 1137 00:50:28,663 --> 00:50:31,331 And the more we ran behind, the more the people 1138 00:50:31,465 --> 00:50:33,868 who are in the production side of things with the money 1139 00:50:34,002 --> 00:50:35,302 got a little bit nervous. 1140 00:50:35,435 --> 00:50:37,805 And I remember that we shot considerable amount 1141 00:50:37,939 --> 00:50:40,440 of the entire show budget the first three 1142 00:50:40,575 --> 00:50:44,444 days of the production because we were over into overtime 1143 00:50:44,579 --> 00:50:45,312 so much. 1144 00:50:45,445 --> 00:50:46,948 And the network freaked out. 1145 00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:49,017 Because they said, this guy is going 1146 00:50:49,149 --> 00:50:50,752 to go over schedule, over budget, 1147 00:50:50,885 --> 00:50:52,787 and then we're going to have to edit this thing, 1148 00:50:52,921 --> 00:50:55,088 and we won't have what we need, and all that. 1149 00:50:55,222 --> 00:50:57,090 And it went on to the point where they 1150 00:50:57,224 --> 00:50:58,325 said we have to get rid of him. 1151 00:50:58,458 --> 00:50:59,994 We have to lose him. 1152 00:51:04,666 --> 00:51:06,868 One of the reasons why I left was 1153 00:51:07,001 --> 00:51:09,537 that it just was not working. 1154 00:51:09,671 --> 00:51:10,805 You know? 1155 00:51:10,939 --> 00:51:14,341 And it was very confusing because so many people 1156 00:51:14,474 --> 00:51:16,076 had their fingers in the pie. 1157 00:51:16,209 --> 00:51:18,613 And I'm not sure if George understood 1158 00:51:18,746 --> 00:51:21,983 just what the difference was between film 1159 00:51:22,115 --> 00:51:23,818 and television in the US. 1160 00:51:23,952 --> 00:51:26,086 Because I don't think he ever worked in television. 1161 00:51:26,219 --> 00:51:30,290 I don't think George realized that he picked the wrong format 1162 00:51:30,424 --> 00:51:32,192 in which to do these stories. 1163 00:51:32,326 --> 00:51:33,761 That wouldn't happen today. 1164 00:51:33,895 --> 00:51:38,298 But then, 40 years ago, this was the style. 1165 00:51:38,432 --> 00:51:40,233 And so, it was executed by people who 1166 00:51:40,367 --> 00:51:42,904 did these things all the time. 1167 00:51:43,037 --> 00:51:44,404 But I felt sorry for David. 1168 00:51:44,539 --> 00:51:46,841 Because he kind of went back with his-- 1169 00:51:46,975 --> 00:51:49,242 partially with his tail tucked between his legs, 1170 00:51:49,376 --> 00:51:52,212 but partially with the time-honored-- 1171 00:51:52,346 --> 00:51:53,548 "it's Hollywood. 1172 00:51:53,681 --> 00:51:55,083 They don't know what they're doing. 1173 00:51:55,215 --> 00:51:56,383 No wonder everything is such crap 1174 00:51:56,517 --> 00:51:57,852 when it comes out of Hollywood. 1175 00:51:57,986 --> 00:52:00,220 I'm going back to Toronto." 1176 00:52:00,354 --> 00:52:02,557 And he went back and did some beautiful stuff. 1177 00:52:02,690 --> 00:52:07,461 I don't want to answer any more questions about the show. 1178 00:52:07,595 --> 00:52:08,428 OK? 1179 00:52:08,563 --> 00:52:10,698 It's just-- it's just that simple. 1180 00:52:10,832 --> 00:52:11,966 You know? 1181 00:52:12,100 --> 00:52:13,868 You guys go ahead and do whatever you want. 1182 00:52:14,002 --> 00:52:16,436 You do whatever you want to do with all the people you get 1183 00:52:16,571 --> 00:52:19,907 and all that, but I'm not interested in contributing 1184 00:52:20,041 --> 00:52:22,710 to the story at all. 1185 00:52:25,647 --> 00:52:28,382 At that point, given the amount of overtime 1186 00:52:28,516 --> 00:52:30,818 that they were creating and how expensive that was all 1187 00:52:30,952 --> 00:52:34,922 becoming for the production company, something very unusual 1188 00:52:35,056 --> 00:52:37,625 happened is that we just hit the brakes 1189 00:52:37,759 --> 00:52:39,794 and we came to a complete stop. 1190 00:52:39,927 --> 00:52:43,831 When David left, there were problems. 1191 00:52:43,965 --> 00:52:47,101 Because directors don't leave when things are going well. 1192 00:52:47,234 --> 00:52:51,506 So they were scrambling. 1193 00:52:51,639 --> 00:52:54,341 But we were out of it at that point. 1194 00:52:54,474 --> 00:52:57,411 I mean Ken and Mitzie apparently were on the set 1195 00:52:57,545 --> 00:53:00,848 every day working with the show all day. 1196 00:53:00,982 --> 00:53:03,584 They put in an emergency call into Steve Binder, 1197 00:53:03,718 --> 00:53:07,522 who was a terrific variety show director who had done the Elvis 1198 00:53:07,655 --> 00:53:10,223 Comeback specials and a lot of other stuff 1199 00:53:10,357 --> 00:53:13,127 and who knew how to direct a variety 1200 00:53:13,260 --> 00:53:14,962 show in the conventional way. 1201 00:53:15,096 --> 00:53:18,766 So when Gary phoned me at home, and I said, what's going on? 1202 00:53:18,900 --> 00:53:20,902 And he said, well, the truth of the matter 1203 00:53:21,035 --> 00:53:27,875 is we started a two-hour prime time special for CBS. 1204 00:53:28,009 --> 00:53:31,512 We're way over budget, and there's 1205 00:53:31,646 --> 00:53:34,448 a decision being made right now whether to continue 1206 00:53:34,582 --> 00:53:38,251 making the special or shutting it down permanently. 1207 00:53:38,385 --> 00:53:40,922 He was replaced by Steve Binder, who 1208 00:53:41,055 --> 00:53:44,659 was really a top-notch guy who knew what he was doing. 1209 00:53:44,792 --> 00:53:48,428 He brought a sense of control that 1210 00:53:48,563 --> 00:53:50,598 was missing from the production, I think, 1211 00:53:50,732 --> 00:53:53,167 which helped get things back on track. 1212 00:53:53,300 --> 00:53:55,036 The budget was $1 million. 1213 00:53:55,169 --> 00:54:00,208 I don't think that Steve had the opportunity to really make 1214 00:54:00,340 --> 00:54:01,809 very many changes. 1215 00:54:01,943 --> 00:54:04,846 The way I saw it, for him, it was pretty much triage. 1216 00:54:06,748 --> 00:54:08,683 It's long been said that George had always 1217 00:54:08,816 --> 00:54:13,320 wanted to do a story that focused specifically 1218 00:54:13,453 --> 00:54:16,858 on the Wookiee home planet. 1219 00:54:16,991 --> 00:54:18,258 I can't tell you why. 1220 00:54:18,391 --> 00:54:21,763 That's something that he wanted to see on screen. 1221 00:54:21,896 --> 00:54:24,999 The origins of this concept of a Wookiee family 1222 00:54:25,133 --> 00:54:26,534 can be traced back to Lucas. 1223 00:54:26,667 --> 00:54:29,704 I know there's audio, 1976, and a brainstorming 1224 00:54:29,837 --> 00:54:31,506 session between Alan Dean Foster, 1225 00:54:31,639 --> 00:54:34,909 George Lucas, and Charlie Lippincott which was recorded. 1226 00:55:01,202 --> 00:55:04,572 Obviously, he didn't go and do that as a sequel concept. 1227 00:55:04,705 --> 00:55:07,374 But that idea remained in his head. 1228 00:55:07,508 --> 00:55:09,777 And it seems like it was the seed for the holiday 1229 00:55:09,911 --> 00:55:12,345 special, which he then revisited several years later. 1230 00:55:12,479 --> 00:55:14,182 There was no way it could be done. 1231 00:55:14,314 --> 00:55:15,983 It featured the Wookiees. 1232 00:55:16,117 --> 00:55:17,685 They were the stars of the story. 1233 00:55:17,819 --> 00:55:20,121 And the Wookiees speak no known language. 1234 00:55:31,599 --> 00:55:34,702 This was in the era when they wouldn't put subtitles 1235 00:55:34,836 --> 00:55:37,939 on television because they figured most of America 1236 00:55:38,072 --> 00:55:39,640 would not read them. 1237 00:55:39,774 --> 00:55:42,375 There's a terrific YouTube thing where someone has gone in 1238 00:55:42,510 --> 00:55:45,313 and added their own subtitles. 1239 00:55:58,659 --> 00:56:00,127 Had we been able to use subtitles, 1240 00:56:00,261 --> 00:56:01,796 it would have been a lot easier. 1241 00:56:01,929 --> 00:56:05,199 Because we could have had the Wookiees interacting more. 1242 00:56:05,333 --> 00:56:06,901 But we didn't. 1243 00:56:07,034 --> 00:56:09,971 Instead we had to have people translating from the Wookiee 1244 00:56:10,104 --> 00:56:13,507 to English, which was an opening for a lot of guest stars. 1245 00:56:13,641 --> 00:56:15,243 CBS liked that. 1246 00:56:15,375 --> 00:56:19,547 I suspect Art Carney didn't really know what Star Wars was. 1247 00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:21,515 And how are my favorite Wookiees today? 1248 00:56:24,352 --> 00:56:25,786 Why are the long, hairy faces? 1249 00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,223 Art Carney understood the Wookiee language, 1250 00:56:29,357 --> 00:56:33,661 and he could translate so the audience would understand 1251 00:56:33,794 --> 00:56:35,462 what they were talking about. 1252 00:56:38,099 --> 00:56:40,568 Officer, maybe I could be of some help here. 1253 00:56:40,701 --> 00:56:42,469 I found, in Art Carney's trailer, 1254 00:56:42,603 --> 00:56:45,472 he filled the shower with ice, and then he 1255 00:56:45,606 --> 00:56:48,709 had bottles of different kinds of alcohol 1256 00:56:48,843 --> 00:56:51,212 in the bottom of the trailer. 1257 00:56:51,345 --> 00:56:57,084 So when I met Art, he was pleasant enough. 1258 00:56:57,218 --> 00:57:01,488 But I learned soon that I had to shoot all of his scenes 1259 00:57:01,622 --> 00:57:02,723 early in the day. 1260 00:57:02,857 --> 00:57:05,526 That wherever he went to eat lunch, 1261 00:57:05,660 --> 00:57:09,363 he may have had a little bit too much to drink at the time. 1262 00:57:09,496 --> 00:57:11,065 It's me, Saun Dann. 1263 00:57:16,771 --> 00:57:19,106 God bless, Art Carney and his character 1264 00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:24,312 of Saun Dann, where Saun Dann brings gifts to the family, 1265 00:57:24,444 --> 00:57:30,851 hands Itchy a mind evaporator, which tells you 1266 00:57:30,985 --> 00:57:32,687 everything you need to know about what they 1267 00:57:32,820 --> 00:57:36,057 thought VR would be for people. 1268 00:57:36,190 --> 00:57:39,393 Now then, Itchy, I thought you might like this. 1269 00:57:39,527 --> 00:57:40,861 It's one of those-- 1270 00:57:40,995 --> 00:57:43,331 well, it's a real-- it's kind of hard to explain. 1271 00:57:43,463 --> 00:57:46,634 It's a wow! 1272 00:57:46,767 --> 00:57:47,969 If you know what I mean. 1273 00:57:48,102 --> 00:57:51,105 When you put this helmet on, it attached 1274 00:57:51,238 --> 00:57:55,977 to a port that had been put under your skin in your brain, 1275 00:57:56,110 --> 00:57:59,613 and it would realize your fantasies. 1276 00:57:59,747 --> 00:58:01,916 So you could sit at home in your chair, 1277 00:58:02,049 --> 00:58:05,152 and your fantasies would play out in front of you. 1278 00:58:05,286 --> 00:58:06,087 Happy Life Day. 1279 00:58:09,657 --> 00:58:11,759 I do mean Happy Life Day. 1280 00:58:11,892 --> 00:58:14,729 So we were going to see all the Wookiee's dreams. 1281 00:58:14,862 --> 00:58:18,666 So itchy, the silverback Wookiee, had a fantasy. 1282 00:58:18,799 --> 00:58:20,668 It was supposed to be about Cher, 1283 00:58:20,801 --> 00:58:23,771 but Cher suddenly couldn't do it. 1284 00:58:23,904 --> 00:58:25,740 And so, Diane Carroll stepped in. 1285 00:58:25,873 --> 00:58:28,576 And Diane fit into the Bob Mackie costume. 1286 00:58:28,709 --> 00:58:30,945 I exist for you. 1287 00:58:31,078 --> 00:58:35,416 I am in your mind as you create me. 1288 00:58:35,549 --> 00:58:38,285 Oh, yes. 1289 00:58:38,419 --> 00:58:40,221 I can feel my creation. 1290 00:58:40,354 --> 00:58:44,458 I'm getting your message. 1291 00:58:44,625 --> 00:58:45,626 Are you getting mine? 1292 00:58:47,194 --> 00:58:51,899 In what world, planet, galaxy, in any time, 1293 00:58:52,033 --> 00:58:54,235 has anybody ever wanted their grandpa 1294 00:58:54,368 --> 00:58:57,238 to enjoy porn in the middle of the living room? 1295 00:58:57,371 --> 00:59:03,944 That's the least believable thing in a holiday special. 1296 00:59:04,078 --> 00:59:04,812 Oh. 1297 00:59:04,945 --> 00:59:05,646 Oh. 1298 00:59:05,780 --> 00:59:09,316 We are excited, aren't we? 1299 00:59:09,450 --> 00:59:10,551 Well, just relax. 1300 00:59:10,684 --> 00:59:11,585 Just relax. 1301 00:59:11,719 --> 00:59:13,287 Yes. 1302 00:59:15,756 --> 00:59:20,261 It's him watching humans or aliens that are not Wookiees. 1303 00:59:20,394 --> 00:59:22,029 And we had to be careful-- 1304 00:59:22,163 --> 00:59:25,332 I remember this-- not to make it too racy for the grandfather 1305 00:59:25,466 --> 00:59:26,200 with Diane. 1306 00:59:26,333 --> 00:59:27,701 Yes. 1307 00:59:27,835 --> 00:59:30,704 You know, I didn't have approval of anything, 1308 00:59:30,838 --> 00:59:34,075 but that just seemed wrong. 1309 00:59:34,208 --> 00:59:36,177 But I didn't see that when I was a kid. 1310 00:59:36,310 --> 00:59:40,881 All I saw was, why isn't Han Solo on the screen? 1311 00:59:41,015 --> 00:59:43,184 Why can't we see the real Chewie? 1312 00:59:43,317 --> 00:59:45,319 Chewie's family sucks! 1313 00:59:45,453 --> 00:59:49,423 Now, we can have a good time. 1314 00:59:49,558 --> 00:59:51,826 Can't we? 1315 00:59:51,959 --> 00:59:53,260 And it's cringe-worthy. 1316 00:59:53,394 --> 00:59:58,499 Because as he sits there and rewinds, and replays, 1317 00:59:58,632 --> 01:00:00,901 and rewinds, and replays. 1318 01:00:01,035 --> 01:00:03,737 I find you adorable. 1319 01:00:03,871 --> 01:00:05,840 I find you adorable. 1320 01:00:05,973 --> 01:00:09,076 I find you adorable. 1321 01:00:09,210 --> 01:00:13,247 And then goes into a song that Itchy enjoys thoroughly. 1322 01:00:13,380 --> 01:00:15,649 This minute now. 1323 01:00:15,783 --> 01:00:16,784 This minute now. 1324 01:00:16,917 --> 01:00:18,452 This minute now. 1325 01:00:18,587 --> 01:00:19,720 This minute now. 1326 01:00:19,854 --> 01:00:21,689 This minute now. 1327 01:00:21,822 --> 01:00:23,257 This minute now. 1328 01:00:23,390 --> 01:00:25,259 This minute now. 1329 01:00:25,392 --> 01:00:28,729 This minute now. 1330 01:00:35,503 --> 01:00:37,138 This was not made for children. 1331 01:00:37,271 --> 01:00:40,274 Whoever the creative team was in charge of the Star Wars Holiday 1332 01:00:40,407 --> 01:00:43,878 Special has zero time for children's entertainment. 1333 01:00:44,011 --> 01:00:46,981 They're like, uh, uh, uh, I saw that Star Wars movie, 1334 01:00:47,114 --> 01:00:50,451 and there wasn't enough VR Wookiee porn for me. 1335 01:00:52,720 --> 01:00:53,654 Where's Chewbacca? 1336 01:00:55,189 --> 01:00:58,058 When you were on the Wookiee home planet, 1337 01:00:58,192 --> 01:01:01,128 how did you even understand what they were saying? 1338 01:01:01,262 --> 01:01:04,231 I don't remember ever being on a Wookiee home planet. 1339 01:01:05,733 --> 01:01:08,702 Actually, Luke was on the Wookiee home planet Kashyyyk 1340 01:01:08,836 --> 01:01:10,704 in the Holiday Special when he helped 1341 01:01:10,838 --> 01:01:12,273 Chewie get home to his wife. 1342 01:01:14,742 --> 01:01:17,478 Chewie had a wife? 1343 01:01:17,612 --> 01:01:18,846 Her name is Malla. 1344 01:01:18,979 --> 01:01:19,813 Come on, Malla. 1345 01:01:19,947 --> 01:01:21,315 Let's see a little smile. 1346 01:01:21,448 --> 01:01:23,751 Come on. 1347 01:01:23,884 --> 01:01:26,253 Mark Hamill's makeup in the holiday special 1348 01:01:26,387 --> 01:01:29,990 rivals Huey Lewis's makeup in the "Do You Believe in Love" 1349 01:01:30,124 --> 01:01:31,458 video. 1350 01:01:31,593 --> 01:01:34,094 We always thought it was because Mark Hamill was covering up 1351 01:01:34,228 --> 01:01:36,330 a scar, like the plastic surgery didn't heal. 1352 01:01:36,463 --> 01:01:40,167 And that's why they added that wampa capture scene, 1353 01:01:40,301 --> 01:01:43,704 because they needed to show why Luke Skywalker had 1354 01:01:43,837 --> 01:01:44,972 a scar on his face. 1355 01:01:45,105 --> 01:01:46,707 Now, decades pass. 1356 01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:48,709 We find out that that's not true at all. 1357 01:01:48,842 --> 01:01:50,444 But that really wasn't the main emphasis 1358 01:01:50,579 --> 01:01:52,980 of why we wrote the monster in the beginning. 1359 01:01:53,113 --> 01:01:56,183 It was just we needed something to kind of keep the film 1360 01:01:56,317 --> 01:01:59,688 suspenseful at the beginning while the empire is 1361 01:01:59,820 --> 01:02:01,021 finding them. 1362 01:02:01,155 --> 01:02:03,157 But the truth is, it's just bad makeup. 1363 01:02:03,290 --> 01:02:06,561 These are Tony producers making this special. 1364 01:02:06,695 --> 01:02:10,464 They are used to caking on the makeup for musicals, 1365 01:02:10,599 --> 01:02:11,966 for stage performances. 1366 01:02:12,099 --> 01:02:14,001 Also, you have to remember the degradation 1367 01:02:14,134 --> 01:02:16,538 of each copy of the holiday special gets worse and worse 1368 01:02:16,671 --> 01:02:18,640 and worse, which means the coloring is not 1369 01:02:18,772 --> 01:02:20,007 going to be corrected. 1370 01:02:20,140 --> 01:02:23,143 Over the period of years, it's built up 1371 01:02:23,277 --> 01:02:25,312 into having my face reconstructed 1372 01:02:25,446 --> 01:02:27,649 with plastic surgery. 1373 01:02:27,781 --> 01:02:31,653 George told us that he had 10 stories 1374 01:02:31,785 --> 01:02:33,053 that he had come up with, and he was 1375 01:02:33,187 --> 01:02:34,922 planning on making six movies. 1376 01:02:35,055 --> 01:02:38,092 And he had four other stories that he was 1377 01:02:38,225 --> 01:02:39,927 putting in different places. 1378 01:02:40,060 --> 01:02:43,264 And one of them was Boba Fett, but he hadn't quite 1379 01:02:43,397 --> 01:02:45,799 figured out what Boba Fett's story was going to be. 1380 01:02:45,933 --> 01:02:49,136 So he took his pilot version of it 1381 01:02:49,270 --> 01:02:52,273 and made it an animated thing and was going to inserted it 1382 01:02:52,406 --> 01:02:53,340 into this special. 1383 01:02:53,474 --> 01:02:57,077 They were doing this holiday special, 1384 01:02:57,211 --> 01:03:00,749 and there wasn't much of our involvement, 1385 01:03:00,881 --> 01:03:03,851 but I came up with the idea, why don't we take the Boba Fett 1386 01:03:03,984 --> 01:03:05,587 character and put him in that. 1387 01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:06,954 Make a little movie out of it. 1388 01:03:07,087 --> 01:03:08,489 I am Boba Fett. 1389 01:03:08,623 --> 01:03:09,923 Follow me, friend. 1390 01:03:10,057 --> 01:03:12,159 After Return of the Jedi, all the Tim Zahn novels, 1391 01:03:12,293 --> 01:03:14,328 all the Dark Horse comics, like all of this content 1392 01:03:14,461 --> 01:03:16,997 came out about how awesome Boba Fett was. 1393 01:03:17,131 --> 01:03:19,900 But it all starts with that animation 1394 01:03:20,034 --> 01:03:21,969 in the holiday special. 1395 01:03:22,102 --> 01:03:23,937 The animated bit, which I think was 1396 01:03:24,071 --> 01:03:25,973 done by Nelvana, which is a Canadian company that 1397 01:03:26,106 --> 01:03:29,910 eventually did the Droids and Ewoks TV series. 1398 01:03:30,044 --> 01:03:35,650 George had seen a special that we did called Cosmic Christmas 1399 01:03:35,784 --> 01:03:38,485 and really liked it. 1400 01:03:38,620 --> 01:03:42,890 And so, when he was working with David Acomba, who 1401 01:03:43,023 --> 01:03:45,627 was a mutual friend, you know, David 1402 01:03:45,760 --> 01:03:48,862 had suggested that we might be good for the Star Wars special. 1403 01:03:48,996 --> 01:03:51,766 That was how the relationship all started. 1404 01:03:51,899 --> 01:03:55,169 So the cartoon that's contained within the holiday special 1405 01:03:55,302 --> 01:03:58,372 is this kind of short, 10 or 11-minute cartoon, 1406 01:03:58,506 --> 01:04:00,341 subtitled "The Faithful Wookiee." 1407 01:04:00,474 --> 01:04:03,344 And it's the story about how the rebels are 1408 01:04:03,477 --> 01:04:06,280 looking for Han Solo and Chewbacca who have disappeared. 1409 01:04:06,413 --> 01:04:10,217 They find them, and they've been affected by this sleeping 1410 01:04:10,351 --> 01:04:11,820 virus that only affects humans. 1411 01:04:11,952 --> 01:04:15,122 And as soon as they discover it, Luke gets infected. 1412 01:04:15,255 --> 01:04:18,225 And then it's up to Chewbacca and the droids 1413 01:04:18,359 --> 01:04:20,294 to try and rescue them. 1414 01:04:20,427 --> 01:04:22,062 And it was written by George. 1415 01:04:22,196 --> 01:04:24,865 And I loved the roughness of Star Wars. 1416 01:04:24,998 --> 01:04:29,169 I loved the fact that everything was beaten up and lived in. 1417 01:04:29,303 --> 01:04:31,740 We wanted to get that kind of real world quality 1418 01:04:31,872 --> 01:04:34,908 into the animation too and not make it too pristine. 1419 01:04:35,042 --> 01:04:39,848 It was a little bit loosely based on Moebius. 1420 01:04:39,980 --> 01:04:41,649 George wanted the style of Moebius, 1421 01:04:41,783 --> 01:04:44,952 who was a famous science fiction Illustrator. 1422 01:04:45,085 --> 01:04:48,489 And so, that was the inspiration for the style 1423 01:04:48,623 --> 01:04:50,023 of the characters. 1424 01:04:50,157 --> 01:04:52,761 That style of animation, that like nearly rotoscoped, 1425 01:04:52,893 --> 01:04:55,396 everything that was vogue in animation in that era, 1426 01:04:55,530 --> 01:04:58,332 it was that applied to Star Wars. 1427 01:04:58,465 --> 01:04:59,701 But it was crazy. 1428 01:04:59,834 --> 01:05:02,403 Like, this was-- there's nothing like it, that animated 1429 01:05:02,537 --> 01:05:03,505 sequence. 1430 01:05:03,638 --> 01:05:05,973 To me, to this day, even if I don't-- 1431 01:05:06,106 --> 01:05:07,509 I know what the holiday special is. 1432 01:05:07,642 --> 01:05:10,512 I know it's crazy and kind of a mess. 1433 01:05:10,645 --> 01:05:13,681 But I still point to that animated bit and go, 1434 01:05:13,815 --> 01:05:15,048 this is crazy. 1435 01:05:15,182 --> 01:05:16,785 Like, this is just vibrant. 1436 01:05:16,917 --> 01:05:19,754 But I love the introduction of Boba Fett and that rifle 1437 01:05:19,888 --> 01:05:21,088 that he had. 1438 01:05:21,221 --> 01:05:22,590 That animated piece still holds up. 1439 01:05:22,724 --> 01:05:23,858 It's pretty cool. 1440 01:05:23,991 --> 01:05:25,593 And I draw inspiration from that. 1441 01:05:25,727 --> 01:05:29,496 Jon Favreau has declared himself a fan of the Star Wars Holiday 1442 01:05:29,631 --> 01:05:31,866 Special and he made a concerted effort 1443 01:05:31,999 --> 01:05:35,369 to put lots of little Easter eggs and little references 1444 01:05:35,502 --> 01:05:37,605 to the holiday special throughout The Mandalorian. 1445 01:05:37,739 --> 01:05:40,174 Because we all ordered the Boba Fett figure 1446 01:05:40,307 --> 01:05:41,776 by sending in our proofs of purchase 1447 01:05:41,910 --> 01:05:44,945 from the back of the package, and we got this figure 1448 01:05:45,078 --> 01:05:46,815 before he ever appeared on screen. 1449 01:05:46,947 --> 01:05:50,317 You could get Boba Fett in the mail before the movie came out. 1450 01:05:50,451 --> 01:05:52,319 So at the time, the action figure 1451 01:05:52,453 --> 01:05:55,055 Boba Fett was supposed to have a little rocket that fired out 1452 01:05:55,189 --> 01:05:56,323 of the jetpack. 1453 01:05:56,457 --> 01:05:58,058 But there were a lot of safety issues 1454 01:05:58,192 --> 01:06:00,027 at the time with a lot of toys that came out then that had 1455 01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:01,830 that rocket-firing feature. 1456 01:06:01,962 --> 01:06:04,031 And so, they never made it that way. 1457 01:06:04,164 --> 01:06:07,267 His toy is so badass, it might kill me. 1458 01:06:07,401 --> 01:06:09,537 They had to include the rocket in. 1459 01:06:09,671 --> 01:06:12,674 And so, a generation of kids were like, whoa, 1460 01:06:12,807 --> 01:06:13,875 who is this guy? 1461 01:06:14,007 --> 01:06:15,342 And the only time we'd seen him was 1462 01:06:15,476 --> 01:06:16,977 in the holiday special, which you know well 1463 01:06:17,110 --> 01:06:18,445 because you put the gun in. 1464 01:06:18,580 --> 01:06:21,850 So the forked rifle that the Mandalorian carries 1465 01:06:21,982 --> 01:06:23,918 is a direct reference to the holiday special, 1466 01:06:24,051 --> 01:06:28,188 because Boba Fett does not have that weapon when he appears 1467 01:06:28,322 --> 01:06:29,456 in The Empire Strikes Back. 1468 01:06:29,591 --> 01:06:31,124 So it's not in any of the movies. 1469 01:06:31,258 --> 01:06:33,962 It's only in the Star Wars Holiday Special. 1470 01:06:34,094 --> 01:06:37,097 I remember when you were all proud when George came to set. 1471 01:06:37,231 --> 01:06:38,465 Did you see the gun we have? 1472 01:06:38,600 --> 01:06:39,433 Yeah. 1473 01:06:39,567 --> 01:06:41,836 Do you know that was a homage too. 1474 01:06:41,970 --> 01:06:43,270 That cannon, right? 1475 01:06:43,403 --> 01:06:44,438 Because you wrote it. 1476 01:06:44,572 --> 01:06:45,940 Not really. 1477 01:06:46,073 --> 01:06:47,575 You said, hey, we put that gun in from the holiday special. 1478 01:06:47,709 --> 01:06:49,711 And he goes, oh, I had nothing to do with that. 1479 01:06:51,746 --> 01:06:56,350 One thing people love to talk about in terms of Chewbacca's 1480 01:06:56,483 --> 01:06:59,219 role and how important he was at the end of Star Wars, 1481 01:06:59,353 --> 01:07:00,755 and how important he may have even 1482 01:07:00,889 --> 01:07:04,091 been seen by the filmmakers at the end of Star Wars, 1483 01:07:04,224 --> 01:07:06,426 is that you give Han Solo a medal, 1484 01:07:06,561 --> 01:07:08,362 and you give Luke Skywalker a medal, 1485 01:07:08,495 --> 01:07:10,765 but Chewbacca only gets a chance to stand up 1486 01:07:10,899 --> 01:07:13,635 on the platform and roar at the end of Star Wars. 1487 01:07:13,768 --> 01:07:16,938 There was a question-- why didn't Chewbacca 1488 01:07:17,070 --> 01:07:20,340 get a medal at the end of Star Wars? 1489 01:07:20,474 --> 01:07:25,345 And George's answer to that was Wookiees 1490 01:07:25,479 --> 01:07:27,615 don't want-- he didn't want a medal. 1491 01:07:27,749 --> 01:07:31,485 But his reward was that Han would take them 1492 01:07:31,619 --> 01:07:35,823 back to his home planet for Life Day celebration. 1493 01:07:35,957 --> 01:07:39,126 So on the very last day of shooting, from day one 1494 01:07:39,259 --> 01:07:40,528 when I arrived at Warner Brothers, 1495 01:07:40,662 --> 01:07:42,362 I was curious how we were going to approach 1496 01:07:42,496 --> 01:07:45,633 shooting the finale, which has not only the original 1497 01:07:45,767 --> 01:07:50,437 cast from Star Wars I the movie, but also about 100 extras. 1498 01:07:50,572 --> 01:07:52,272 They saved all this money by not having 1499 01:07:52,406 --> 01:07:55,543 to suit them by just dressing them in these robes-- 1500 01:07:55,677 --> 01:07:57,745 these honorary Life Day robes. 1501 01:07:57,879 --> 01:08:02,382 And they're all parading through while Carrie sings her song. 1502 01:08:02,517 --> 01:08:04,719 And that song that I sing-- 1503 01:08:04,852 --> 01:08:11,491 We celebrate a day of peace. 1504 01:08:11,626 --> 01:08:13,595 --a day of harmony. 1505 01:08:16,430 --> 01:08:19,299 She wasn't-- she wasn't a great singer. 1506 01:08:19,433 --> 01:08:24,038 But the song was apparently the deciding factor 1507 01:08:24,171 --> 01:08:27,240 in getting her onto the show. 1508 01:08:27,374 --> 01:08:30,078 Just the set itself looked so fake. 1509 01:08:30,210 --> 01:08:31,378 You know? 1510 01:08:31,512 --> 01:08:33,413 Film is very forgiving, especially 1511 01:08:33,548 --> 01:08:35,016 if it's lit properly. 1512 01:08:35,148 --> 01:08:38,820 But this just looked so cheesy. 1513 01:08:38,953 --> 01:08:40,722 I called my art director in. 1514 01:08:40,855 --> 01:08:43,858 What's the set for the big finale? 1515 01:08:43,992 --> 01:08:46,561 And he looked at me straight in the eye, and he said, 1516 01:08:46,694 --> 01:08:50,163 Steve, I hate to break it to you, but we're out of money. 1517 01:08:50,297 --> 01:08:52,567 We have no set for the finale. 1518 01:08:52,700 --> 01:08:55,435 I want you to go into Hollywood, go to every candle 1519 01:08:55,570 --> 01:08:57,872 store you can find, and buy every candle 1520 01:08:58,006 --> 01:08:59,339 they have in their shop. 1521 01:08:59,473 --> 01:09:02,810 So the night before we actually shot the finale, 1522 01:09:02,944 --> 01:09:07,481 we placed fat candles, thin candles, tall candles, 1523 01:09:07,615 --> 01:09:11,485 short candles all over the floor of the stage. 1524 01:09:11,619 --> 01:09:15,890 And we spent the morning of the actual shoot lighting 1525 01:09:16,024 --> 01:09:17,558 all of these candles. 1526 01:09:17,692 --> 01:09:19,493 The end of this movie is basically 1527 01:09:19,627 --> 01:09:22,462 like the Heaven's Gate cult occurs to the Wookiee family. 1528 01:09:22,597 --> 01:09:24,498 Like, they all-- 1529 01:09:24,632 --> 01:09:26,000 right? 1530 01:09:26,134 --> 01:09:28,736 Like, they start singing a song, they hold up their light orbs, 1531 01:09:28,870 --> 01:09:32,040 and clearly they die and ascend to a new realm 1532 01:09:32,172 --> 01:09:34,842 where they enter the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet. 1533 01:09:34,976 --> 01:09:36,176 I think that's what it-- 1534 01:09:36,309 --> 01:09:37,645 I think that's what's happening. 1535 01:09:37,779 --> 01:09:41,281 The line producers of the Star Wars Holiday Special 1536 01:09:41,415 --> 01:09:42,850 were Ken and Mitzie Welch. 1537 01:09:42,984 --> 01:09:45,385 They admittedly came to me and said, hey, 1538 01:09:45,520 --> 01:09:47,822 we've never produced anything like this. 1539 01:09:47,955 --> 01:09:51,726 Miki was the point person between Lucasfilm, and CBS, 1540 01:09:51,859 --> 01:09:54,394 and the production company, Smith-Hemion, 1541 01:09:54,529 --> 01:09:57,397 that was actually making the special. 1542 01:09:57,532 --> 01:10:00,267 We couldn't tell them what to do. 1543 01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:03,638 I mean, that was their project, their show, and they didn't-- 1544 01:10:03,771 --> 01:10:05,973 it was, like, out of control. 1545 01:10:06,107 --> 01:10:10,377 I told Gary if I came in to direct and help put 1546 01:10:10,511 --> 01:10:14,816 the fire out, the one thing I would not be available 1547 01:10:14,949 --> 01:10:18,052 was I had a show to go to, I was already committed to. 1548 01:10:18,186 --> 01:10:21,956 I would not be able to participate in one day or one 1549 01:10:22,090 --> 01:10:23,423 second of editing. 1550 01:10:23,558 --> 01:10:25,358 But we weren't in-- you have to understand, 1551 01:10:25,492 --> 01:10:27,227 we weren't in the loop at that point. 1552 01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:31,032 I mean, at that point, it was Ken and Mitzie Welch's show. 1553 01:10:31,165 --> 01:10:35,069 Ken and Mitzie were variety show producers, 1554 01:10:35,203 --> 01:10:38,072 but they didn't know anything about science fiction, 1555 01:10:38,206 --> 01:10:41,743 and they didn't know how to edit. 1556 01:10:41,876 --> 01:10:45,646 I had never edited anything in my life. 1557 01:10:45,780 --> 01:10:46,180 You know? 1558 01:10:46,313 --> 01:10:47,280 I write. 1559 01:10:47,414 --> 01:10:49,083 I'll never forget this-- 1560 01:10:49,217 --> 01:10:53,788 I saw all of those tapes, and I thought, what am I going to do? 1561 01:10:53,921 --> 01:10:56,858 And I do remember, I burst into tears. 1562 01:10:56,991 --> 01:11:01,229 I have never ever not edited any of my shows other than the Star 1563 01:11:01,361 --> 01:11:03,164 Wars Holiday Special. 1564 01:11:03,296 --> 01:11:04,932 And to this day, I regret it. 1565 01:11:05,066 --> 01:11:06,466 I'm sorry I wasn't there. 1566 01:11:06,601 --> 01:11:09,170 Because I knew it would fall on Mitzie and Ken, 1567 01:11:09,302 --> 01:11:11,639 and I knew they had zero experience. 1568 01:11:11,773 --> 01:11:13,975 They were there to get the show done. 1569 01:11:14,108 --> 01:11:16,511 It would never have gotten done otherwise. 1570 01:11:16,644 --> 01:11:18,478 But we were in contact with George Lucas, 1571 01:11:18,613 --> 01:11:20,681 and he knew what he wanted in terms 1572 01:11:20,815 --> 01:11:22,884 of the look and everything. 1573 01:11:23,017 --> 01:11:23,918 Yeah, Miki Herman. 1574 01:11:24,051 --> 01:11:25,352 She was our liaison with-- 1575 01:11:25,485 --> 01:11:26,053 That's right. 1576 01:11:26,187 --> 01:11:27,354 --George. 1577 01:11:27,487 --> 01:11:29,223 She was there all the time, every day. 1578 01:11:29,356 --> 01:11:30,591 And there in editing too. 1579 01:11:30,725 --> 01:11:32,193 And in editing, yeah. 1580 01:11:32,359 --> 01:11:36,463 They just left it up to the variety show producers. 1581 01:11:36,597 --> 01:11:41,334 And, you know, they regretted it. 1582 01:11:43,403 --> 01:11:46,406 On Friday night, blast off to a galaxy far, far away. 1583 01:11:46,541 --> 01:11:49,076 It's the Star Wars Holiday Special. 1584 01:11:49,210 --> 01:11:50,511 You're on. 1585 01:11:50,645 --> 01:11:52,412 So we would throw a Thanksgiving for the lost 1586 01:11:52,547 --> 01:11:55,082 boys-- for all the people who couldn't go home. 1587 01:11:55,216 --> 01:11:56,617 So that was the night before. 1588 01:11:56,751 --> 01:11:59,520 So the next night we all went back and had leftovers 1589 01:11:59,654 --> 01:12:01,055 and watched the Star Wars special, 1590 01:12:01,189 --> 01:12:02,924 which was on Friday night of that weekend. 1591 01:12:03,057 --> 01:12:06,093 This is the days before the VCR, so we couldn't tape it. 1592 01:12:06,227 --> 01:12:10,330 If you did not see it when it aired, that was it. 1593 01:12:10,463 --> 01:12:13,234 So I had a party at my house that night 1594 01:12:13,366 --> 01:12:14,969 for when the show was there. 1595 01:12:15,102 --> 01:12:17,705 It was catered, and it had all of my friends, 1596 01:12:17,839 --> 01:12:20,107 and there were people with trays. 1597 01:12:20,241 --> 01:12:23,778 I wanted to see this more than I wanted to live. 1598 01:12:23,911 --> 01:12:25,713 You know, I was a young Catholic kid, 1599 01:12:25,847 --> 01:12:27,782 and I was always afraid God was going to kill me and stuff. 1600 01:12:27,915 --> 01:12:29,684 And I was like, oh lord, please. 1601 01:12:29,817 --> 01:12:32,320 Please, just don't kill me until I see the Star Wars Christmas 1602 01:12:32,452 --> 01:12:33,855 special. 1603 01:12:33,988 --> 01:12:35,422 And after that first commercial, I turned it off, 1604 01:12:35,556 --> 01:12:36,958 and I said, OK, everybody, let's eat. 1605 01:12:37,091 --> 01:12:38,226 You know? 1606 01:12:38,358 --> 01:12:41,162 I had no idea what it had become. 1607 01:12:41,295 --> 01:12:42,697 And it was great. 1608 01:12:42,830 --> 01:12:44,364 I mean, they loved me Bea, and they loved Harvey, 1609 01:12:44,497 --> 01:12:45,600 and they loved all of that. 1610 01:12:45,733 --> 01:12:47,500 They loved all the crap, of course. 1611 01:12:47,635 --> 01:12:50,304 All the camp stuff they loved. 1612 01:12:50,437 --> 01:12:52,372 But what wasn't camp in that show? 1613 01:12:52,506 --> 01:12:55,610 It just seemed so weird even at the time. 1614 01:12:55,743 --> 01:13:00,480 And when it came out, it was like, oh my god, this 1615 01:13:00,615 --> 01:13:02,750 is what they did for the holiday special? 1616 01:13:02,884 --> 01:13:05,686 They made the mistake of farming it out I think was the problem. 1617 01:13:05,820 --> 01:13:07,221 They farmed it out to people that 1618 01:13:07,355 --> 01:13:10,024 were used to doing Perry Como and Bob Hope specials. 1619 01:13:10,157 --> 01:13:11,759 And it shows. 1620 01:13:11,893 --> 01:13:15,830 I noticed that a lot of people who write me and make comments 1621 01:13:15,963 --> 01:13:18,966 about the Star Wars Holiday Special say, 1622 01:13:19,100 --> 01:13:21,002 I was five years old when I watched it. 1623 01:13:21,135 --> 01:13:23,604 I was 10 years old when I watched it. 1624 01:13:23,738 --> 01:13:25,539 They have a whole different perspective of it. 1625 01:13:25,673 --> 01:13:28,175 Because they usually add, "And I loved it." 1626 01:13:28,309 --> 01:13:32,580 From what I remember as a kid, the Star Wars Holiday Special 1627 01:13:32,713 --> 01:13:34,715 was tremendous. 1628 01:13:34,849 --> 01:13:36,918 I was super excited. 1629 01:13:37,051 --> 01:13:40,321 I was over anxious, simply because something 1630 01:13:40,453 --> 01:13:44,091 from the Star Wars world was going to be on television. 1631 01:13:44,225 --> 01:13:47,828 We're starving, as fans, for anything Star Wars. 1632 01:13:47,962 --> 01:13:50,898 Other than the movie, that's the only other thing 1633 01:13:51,032 --> 01:13:54,635 that I saw that had Harrison Ford in it or on it at all. 1634 01:13:54,769 --> 01:13:56,270 I'll take anything. 1635 01:13:56,404 --> 01:13:58,072 I don't care if they're going to juggle, sing, dance. 1636 01:13:58,205 --> 01:14:00,541 And all the kids talked about it at school 1637 01:14:00,675 --> 01:14:02,310 the next day and so forth. 1638 01:14:02,442 --> 01:14:05,746 And then everybody promptly forgot about it after that. 1639 01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:09,150 A sinking feeling came in, where I was like, 1640 01:14:09,283 --> 01:14:11,986 oh, this isn't going to be as good as I'd hoped it. 1641 01:14:12,119 --> 01:14:14,889 In a weird way, it was a prep for what 1642 01:14:15,022 --> 01:14:18,092 I would experience decades later with the prequels, 1643 01:14:18,225 --> 01:14:20,861 where I sat down, could not have been more excited, 1644 01:14:20,995 --> 01:14:22,863 could not have been more jazzed, and then 1645 01:14:22,997 --> 01:14:26,801 it took time, as I was watching it, to realize like something's 1646 01:14:26,934 --> 01:14:28,269 wrong. 1647 01:14:28,402 --> 01:14:32,173 I think with probably like the plague in the Middle Ages, 1648 01:14:32,306 --> 01:14:36,811 after everybody died, they decided to change the subject. 1649 01:14:36,944 --> 01:14:40,381 So I don't remember people talking about it much. 1650 01:14:43,284 --> 01:14:45,086 It's like one of those Mandela effect things, 1651 01:14:45,219 --> 01:14:47,021 where for a long time a bunch of people 1652 01:14:47,154 --> 01:14:50,057 didn't even know the Star Wars Christmas special existed. 1653 01:14:50,191 --> 01:14:52,360 As the internet grew, it became this sort 1654 01:14:52,526 --> 01:14:53,427 of like talking point. 1655 01:14:53,561 --> 01:14:54,428 Are you a Star Wars fan? 1656 01:14:54,562 --> 01:14:55,730 Yeah. 1657 01:14:55,863 --> 01:14:56,964 Do you know about the holiday special? 1658 01:14:57,098 --> 01:14:58,733 Now, I know you're a Star Wars fan. 1659 01:14:58,866 --> 01:15:00,034 But this really showed a different level of commitment. 1660 01:15:00,167 --> 01:15:02,903 Like, most casual Star Wars fans don't 1661 01:15:03,037 --> 01:15:04,705 know about the holiday special. 1662 01:15:04,839 --> 01:15:07,208 And so, all of a sudden, it kind of surfaced. 1663 01:15:07,341 --> 01:15:09,944 And that was when he tried to really bury it. 1664 01:15:10,077 --> 01:15:12,346 You tell somebody you can't have something, 1665 01:15:12,480 --> 01:15:14,081 they want it even more. 1666 01:15:14,215 --> 01:15:18,119 So I got the Star Wars Holiday Special on a VHS tape, 1667 01:15:18,252 --> 01:15:19,687 sixth-generation copy. 1668 01:15:19,820 --> 01:15:21,989 That would have been valuable currency 1669 01:15:22,123 --> 01:15:24,091 to a prototypical nerd, Star Wars fan. 1670 01:15:24,225 --> 01:15:26,594 Years later, when I first interviewed George Lucas, 1671 01:15:26,727 --> 01:15:29,530 and we finished the main part of the interview, and I said, 1672 01:15:29,663 --> 01:15:31,332 I've got another question for you. 1673 01:15:31,465 --> 01:15:32,833 What about the holiday special? 1674 01:15:32,967 --> 01:15:35,369 And he said, "Oh, that damn thing." 1675 01:15:35,503 --> 01:15:39,974 He said, "If I could personally go out and find 1676 01:15:40,107 --> 01:15:43,911 all of the bootleg VHS tapes, I would smash them all." 1677 01:15:44,045 --> 01:15:47,815 And I told that anecdote at a convention in Australia. 1678 01:15:47,948 --> 01:15:49,984 That sort of went around the world. 1679 01:15:50,117 --> 01:15:53,587 George Lucas wishes there were never a holiday special, 1680 01:15:53,721 --> 01:15:55,890 and he would smash all the tapes. 1681 01:15:56,023 --> 01:15:58,759 I take some pride in having started that anecdote, 1682 01:15:58,893 --> 01:16:01,128 and I got it right from the horse's mouth. 1683 01:16:01,262 --> 01:16:03,597 In a way, the fact that Lucas has 1684 01:16:03,731 --> 01:16:08,002 spent so much time denying it makes it 1685 01:16:08,135 --> 01:16:09,603 more popular for some people. 1686 01:16:09,737 --> 01:16:11,005 Because it seems like it's something 1687 01:16:11,138 --> 01:16:13,574 they shouldn't see or can't see. 1688 01:16:19,413 --> 01:16:22,616 George didn't say anything during production. 1689 01:16:22,750 --> 01:16:26,555 Because, again he had moved away to work on other things. 1690 01:16:26,687 --> 01:16:28,289 I blame-- not blame. 1691 01:16:28,422 --> 01:16:30,057 That's the wrong word. 1692 01:16:30,191 --> 01:16:33,427 Lucas-- when Lucas walked away, he said, do whatever you want. 1693 01:16:33,562 --> 01:16:36,163 And then he got upset because we did whatever we wanted. 1694 01:16:36,297 --> 01:16:38,567 He knew it wasn't going to be wonderful. 1695 01:16:38,699 --> 01:16:40,601 And really, I don't think he saw it 1696 01:16:40,734 --> 01:16:42,937 until about the same time we all did. 1697 01:16:43,070 --> 01:16:45,239 And he immediately hated it. 1698 01:16:45,372 --> 01:16:47,408 Because I'm bold with George when we're having 1699 01:16:47,542 --> 01:16:50,744 conversations, and I asked him. 1700 01:16:50,878 --> 01:16:54,081 And I was like, "Oh, man, what did you-- 1701 01:16:54,215 --> 01:16:56,217 how did you feel when you saw the first cut?" 1702 01:16:56,350 --> 01:17:00,321 And he was like, "Well, I did ask if there was 1703 01:17:00,454 --> 01:17:02,756 a way that we couldn't air it. 1704 01:17:02,890 --> 01:17:05,192 Did it have to air?" 1705 01:17:05,326 --> 01:17:08,629 But it was a lot of money, and it had to air. 1706 01:17:08,762 --> 01:17:10,698 To this day, I've never met George Lucas. 1707 01:17:10,831 --> 01:17:13,167 All I heard was he tried to buy the negatives 1708 01:17:13,300 --> 01:17:16,538 and never ever showed this again after it aired. 1709 01:17:16,670 --> 01:17:20,741 I don't blame anybody, but he is the only person who really 1710 01:17:20,875 --> 01:17:21,976 could have controlled it. 1711 01:17:22,109 --> 01:17:24,245 You know, all the Star Wars actors 1712 01:17:24,378 --> 01:17:27,348 were in this thing playing the roles that they made famous 1713 01:17:27,481 --> 01:17:28,749 a year earlier. 1714 01:17:28,883 --> 01:17:30,818 And now, the guy who created those roles 1715 01:17:30,951 --> 01:17:33,821 for them, George Lucas, says, eh, I'm not 1716 01:17:33,954 --> 01:17:36,357 really associated with this. 1717 01:17:42,296 --> 01:17:45,733 I have my name on all the good things I've done 1718 01:17:45,866 --> 01:17:47,368 and all the bad things I've done. 1719 01:17:49,870 --> 01:17:52,574 But maybe if I could have taken my name off of the bad things 1720 01:17:52,706 --> 01:17:54,475 I would have. 1721 01:17:54,609 --> 01:17:56,744 George, to be fair, hasn't been out there 1722 01:17:56,877 --> 01:17:58,712 going, like, I hate the Christmas special. 1723 01:17:58,846 --> 01:18:01,849 It's not like he's lamenting it loudly. 1724 01:18:01,982 --> 01:18:03,918 But it's very-- he's made it clear over the years 1725 01:18:04,051 --> 01:18:05,654 that he ain't into this. 1726 01:18:05,786 --> 01:18:08,055 I think, at the time, when the holiday special was broadcast, 1727 01:18:08,189 --> 01:18:11,825 it was not considered to be a big failure or giant 1728 01:18:11,959 --> 01:18:14,395 anomaly that it is considered to be today. 1729 01:18:14,529 --> 01:18:16,030 I don't know for sure, but I certainly 1730 01:18:16,163 --> 01:18:17,599 didn't hear from anybody that there 1731 01:18:17,731 --> 01:18:21,235 was any fallout from the show, that anybody was fired. 1732 01:18:21,368 --> 01:18:23,938 I think life just went on at Lucasfilm. 1733 01:18:24,071 --> 01:18:26,740 The whole purpose of this show was to sell toys to kids. 1734 01:18:26,874 --> 01:18:30,211 There were also going to be action figures of the Wookiee 1735 01:18:30,344 --> 01:18:31,646 family. 1736 01:18:31,779 --> 01:18:34,181 We only know of one set of the prototype Wookiee action 1737 01:18:34,315 --> 01:18:37,418 figures that Kenner was maybe going to make. 1738 01:18:37,552 --> 01:18:39,220 But there were the four action figures-- 1739 01:18:39,353 --> 01:18:43,257 Itchy, Chewbacca, Mallatobuck, and Lumpy. 1740 01:18:43,390 --> 01:18:45,426 So clearly, somebody thought that there 1741 01:18:45,560 --> 01:18:49,330 was money to be made in doing merchandise based on the Star 1742 01:18:49,463 --> 01:18:50,798 Wars Holiday Special. 1743 01:18:50,931 --> 01:18:52,667 But that never happened. 1744 01:18:52,800 --> 01:18:56,370 When something is that huge, people 1745 01:18:56,503 --> 01:19:00,642 can't control, as hard as they do, the way it's 1746 01:19:00,774 --> 01:19:02,142 going to be marketed. 1747 01:19:02,276 --> 01:19:04,579 An advertising series in Japan for Panasonic, 1748 01:19:04,713 --> 01:19:10,150 between 1989 and 1993, and they used George Lucas and all 1749 01:19:10,284 --> 01:19:11,653 of the characters in Star Wars. 1750 01:19:11,785 --> 01:19:13,387 And I saw the contract. 1751 01:19:13,521 --> 01:19:17,391 There was a series of penalties if any of these commercials 1752 01:19:17,525 --> 01:19:18,859 showed in the US. 1753 01:19:18,993 --> 01:19:21,529 And in terms of embarrassment to the franchise, 1754 01:19:21,663 --> 01:19:24,465 I remember a commercial where Darth Vader was fighting 1755 01:19:24,599 --> 01:19:26,668 with a lightsaber, and then it shorted out, 1756 01:19:26,800 --> 01:19:29,303 and he opened up the hilt and the batteries were dead. 1757 01:19:29,436 --> 01:19:33,173 Energizer bunny, like, goes cymballing through the frame. 1758 01:19:33,307 --> 01:19:37,444 And I was like, there goes the dignity of the great Sith Lord. 1759 01:19:37,579 --> 01:19:40,948 You can see the awful George Lucas Super Live 1760 01:19:41,081 --> 01:19:42,950 Adventure in seven parts from Japan 1761 01:19:43,083 --> 01:19:45,019 from 1993 on the internet. 1762 01:19:45,152 --> 01:19:46,688 And it's like a stage show. 1763 01:19:46,820 --> 01:19:49,390 And it covered not only like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. 1764 01:19:49,524 --> 01:19:51,325 I mean, I think it was covering Tucker, 1765 01:19:51,458 --> 01:19:54,028 and it's covering everything that Lucas has done. 1766 01:19:54,161 --> 01:19:56,797 That was all singing, all dancing stormtroopers. 1767 01:19:56,930 --> 01:19:59,400 I mean, you know, give me a break. 1768 01:19:59,534 --> 01:20:03,538 It's just the machine is just going to take over. 1769 01:20:03,672 --> 01:20:07,808 And it's like, why not make a holiday special? 1770 01:20:17,752 --> 01:20:20,487 And at that time, I have a feeling that George just 1771 01:20:20,622 --> 01:20:22,089 wasn't-- 1772 01:20:22,222 --> 01:20:25,492 either he was too busy, or he didn't fully understand 1773 01:20:25,627 --> 01:20:29,029 the changes that were happening, or maybe just figured this is 1774 01:20:29,163 --> 01:20:31,566 a variety show, who cares. You know? 1775 01:20:31,700 --> 01:20:35,369 A lot of people came into watching it thinking, oh, 1776 01:20:35,502 --> 01:20:38,740 we're going to get a TV sequel to Star Wars. 1777 01:20:38,872 --> 01:20:41,810 It's going to be a science fiction adventure show 1778 01:20:41,942 --> 01:20:42,943 and stuff like that? 1779 01:20:43,077 --> 01:20:44,746 And that's never what it was. 1780 01:20:44,878 --> 01:20:46,880 It was a variety show. 1781 01:20:47,014 --> 01:20:48,683 It's easy to poke fun at stuff after the fact, 1782 01:20:48,817 --> 01:20:51,753 and question how it happened, and sort of make fun of it. 1783 01:20:51,885 --> 01:20:55,523 It's cliche, at this point, to crap on the Star Wars Holiday 1784 01:20:55,657 --> 01:20:56,357 Special. 1785 01:20:56,490 --> 01:20:57,891 It really is. 1786 01:20:58,025 --> 01:21:01,295 Everybody, without even having sat through the entire thing, 1787 01:21:01,428 --> 01:21:03,163 just instantly it's a punch line. 1788 01:21:03,297 --> 01:21:05,866 The legacy of the Star Wars Holiday Special 1789 01:21:05,999 --> 01:21:09,370 is in how it impacted all of us fans. 1790 01:21:09,503 --> 01:21:12,206 And as people continue to create for Star Wars, 1791 01:21:12,339 --> 01:21:14,441 they'll keep on adding these Easter eggs in. 1792 01:21:14,576 --> 01:21:16,443 You'll keep on seeing things in the background-- 1793 01:21:16,578 --> 01:21:21,181 these callbacks, these little things that tip the hat to you, 1794 01:21:21,315 --> 01:21:24,885 the viewer, that this is made by someone 1795 01:21:25,018 --> 01:21:26,153 who truly loves Star Wars. 1796 01:21:26,286 --> 01:21:29,323 Together we will rule the galaxy-- 1797 01:21:29,456 --> 01:21:30,825 Cut, cut, cut. 1798 01:21:30,958 --> 01:21:32,292 I quit. 1799 01:21:32,426 --> 01:21:33,762 This is the holiday special all over again. 1800 01:21:35,996 --> 01:21:39,166 The Glee Holiday Spectacular. 1801 01:21:42,236 --> 01:21:44,972 Our first ever, live-action holiday special. 1802 01:21:45,105 --> 01:21:46,841 What is it, Star Wars Christmas? 1803 01:21:48,275 --> 01:21:50,010 No, don't be ridiculous. 1804 01:21:50,144 --> 01:21:51,646 That's Wookiee Life Day. 1805 01:21:53,882 --> 01:21:55,482 I've got you now. 1806 01:21:57,384 --> 01:21:58,520 Sorry. 1807 01:21:58,653 --> 01:22:03,691 Yeah, I was hoping to be free for Life Day. 1808 01:22:03,825 --> 01:22:05,225 I love these connective tissues. 1809 01:22:05,359 --> 01:22:08,262 I love the fact that we've taken Life Day, 1810 01:22:08,395 --> 01:22:10,899 and we said, no, November 17, the day the special was 1811 01:22:11,031 --> 01:22:12,399 released, is now Life Day. 1812 01:22:12,534 --> 01:22:15,502 So on Earth, in the Disney Parks, in the world, 1813 01:22:15,637 --> 01:22:16,937 we celebrate it. 1814 01:22:17,070 --> 01:22:19,641 As much as Lucasfilm might not want to acknowledge its 1815 01:22:19,774 --> 01:22:23,778 existence, we've seen it infiltrate Disney+. 1816 01:22:23,912 --> 01:22:28,415 We've seen merchandise all over the theme parks themed 1817 01:22:28,550 --> 01:22:29,751 around Life Day. 1818 01:22:29,884 --> 01:22:31,485 No one's talking about the holiday special directly, 1819 01:22:31,619 --> 01:22:35,757 but we are, as a fandom, embracing Life Day. 1820 01:22:35,890 --> 01:22:38,292 Maybe this could mean, down the road, at some point, 1821 01:22:38,425 --> 01:22:40,494 they might release the entire holiday special. 1822 01:22:40,628 --> 01:22:41,962 Who knows? 1823 01:22:53,307 --> 01:22:54,676 I think he should embrace it. 1824 01:22:54,809 --> 01:22:57,978 I mean, like, it's not his fault. He didn't do it-- 1825 01:22:58,111 --> 01:22:59,246 I don't think. 1826 01:22:59,379 --> 01:23:02,249 And am I going to stand on a soapbox 1827 01:23:02,382 --> 01:23:03,918 and proclaim that this is canon? 1828 01:23:04,051 --> 01:23:05,452 No. 1829 01:23:05,587 --> 01:23:08,388 But it's really interesting, and it's really fun. 1830 01:23:08,523 --> 01:23:11,325 The Star Wars special is kind of an anomaly for fans, 1831 01:23:11,458 --> 01:23:14,461 because it was kind of the one big thing 1832 01:23:14,596 --> 01:23:18,566 that Lucasfilm did before it got its act together and got 1833 01:23:18,700 --> 01:23:21,201 its system together to make sure that things like this 1834 01:23:21,335 --> 01:23:22,804 never happened again. 1835 01:23:22,937 --> 01:23:24,706 It's just a curiosity. 1836 01:23:24,839 --> 01:23:28,810 I mean, the Star Wars universe is so different now. 1837 01:23:28,943 --> 01:23:30,578 As much as I, as a fan, would love 1838 01:23:30,712 --> 01:23:34,582 to have a nice, pristine copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special, 1839 01:23:34,716 --> 01:23:36,918 I understand why he probably wouldn't want 1840 01:23:37,050 --> 01:23:38,653 to put that out in the world. 1841 01:23:38,786 --> 01:23:41,488 You know, it may not be, like, our favorite part of the Star 1842 01:23:41,623 --> 01:23:43,791 Wars mythos, but it has its place. 1843 01:23:43,925 --> 01:23:46,226 It's an important part of Star Wars history. 1844 01:23:46,360 --> 01:23:48,395 Star Wars fans are collectors, right? 1845 01:23:48,530 --> 01:23:53,500 So it does have, built into it, more than any film or TV 1846 01:23:53,635 --> 01:23:58,238 show made for Star Wars, this exclusive collectibility 1847 01:23:58,372 --> 01:23:59,641 element of it. 1848 01:23:59,774 --> 01:24:01,308 I don't think Disney+ should put it out. 1849 01:24:01,441 --> 01:24:04,244 Part of the thing that makes it so wonderful 1850 01:24:04,378 --> 01:24:06,681 is that it still has that bootleg feel to it. 1851 01:24:06,814 --> 01:24:10,384 I think it's actually surprising that Lucasfilm and Disney 1852 01:24:10,518 --> 01:24:13,120 haven't released the holiday special in some format. 1853 01:24:13,253 --> 01:24:14,656 Why let the bootlegs run the show? 1854 01:24:14,789 --> 01:24:16,791 They should actually have an official release of it. 1855 01:24:16,925 --> 01:24:18,191 Let the audience discover it. 1856 01:24:18,325 --> 01:24:20,662 And when they discover it, it means more. 1857 01:24:20,795 --> 01:24:22,496 Here's the one way they should release it. 1858 01:24:22,630 --> 01:24:26,300 They should let George Lucas have it and then put 1859 01:24:26,433 --> 01:24:27,735 all the crazy-- 1860 01:24:27,869 --> 01:24:29,904 just let him George Lucas the hell out of it. 1861 01:24:30,038 --> 01:24:31,606 I would love to do-- 1862 01:24:31,739 --> 01:24:33,908 someday, maybe on Disney+, we'll do a holiday special too. 1863 01:24:34,042 --> 01:24:36,778 Do you think we'll ever see another Star Wars holiday 1864 01:24:36,911 --> 01:24:38,078 special. 1865 01:24:38,211 --> 01:24:39,647 Not if I have anything to say about it. 1866 01:24:39,781 --> 01:24:41,348 Maybe there's a version that none of us 1867 01:24:41,481 --> 01:24:42,884 can imagine that would be genius. 1868 01:24:43,017 --> 01:24:43,952 Yeah. 1869 01:24:44,084 --> 01:24:44,919 Wouldn't that be wonderful? 1870 01:24:45,053 --> 01:24:46,286 Oh, that'd be insane. 1871 01:24:46,420 --> 01:24:47,922 I got to pitch that to them. We'll see. 1872 01:24:48,056 --> 01:24:49,222 If you want to see a holiday special, let Disney+ know. 1873 01:24:49,356 --> 01:24:50,792 Wow, you heard it here first. 1874 01:24:50,925 --> 01:24:54,394 I also believe that George Lucas is, at his heart, 1875 01:24:54,529 --> 01:24:56,330 an experimental filmmaker, and he 1876 01:24:56,463 --> 01:24:59,199 wants to make things that are weird and different. 1877 01:24:59,333 --> 01:25:01,903 And the holiday special is that. 1878 01:25:02,036 --> 01:25:05,405 The greatest crime of the Star Wars Christmas and/or Holiday 1879 01:25:05,540 --> 01:25:10,011 Special is that it ain't Star Wars. 1880 01:25:10,143 --> 01:25:11,779 But to be fair, what is? 1881 01:25:11,913 --> 01:25:14,682 At this point, George Lucas is probably 1882 01:25:14,816 --> 01:25:16,651 like, you know what, it's been out there. 1883 01:25:16,784 --> 01:25:17,284 Whatever. 1884 01:25:17,417 --> 01:25:18,352 I've moved on. 1885 01:25:18,485 --> 01:25:19,887 It's a thing that happened. 1886 01:25:20,021 --> 01:25:21,355 But if Star Wars Holiday Special kind of sneaks in there, 1887 01:25:21,488 --> 01:25:22,824 I don't think he cares anymore. 1888 01:25:22,957 --> 01:25:25,392 Though, I don't think he'd want another one. 1889 01:25:34,535 --> 01:25:37,404 George once asked us, please, never mention it again. 1890 01:25:37,538 --> 01:25:39,874 And I said, George, we should own that. 1891 01:25:40,008 --> 01:25:42,342 Because it shows that everybody's fallible. 1892 01:25:42,476 --> 01:25:43,878 Everybody makes mistakes. 1893 01:25:44,012 --> 01:25:46,914 When you work in any project, you fall in love. 1894 01:25:47,048 --> 01:25:48,650 What else are you going to do? 1895 01:25:48,783 --> 01:25:51,085 I have worked on shows that were really popular 1896 01:25:51,218 --> 01:25:54,421 and shows that were horrible, and I didn't work any more 1897 01:25:54,555 --> 01:25:56,858 or less hard on any of them. 1898 01:25:58,593 --> 01:26:01,729 Every filmmaker has to grapple with not everything is 1899 01:26:01,863 --> 01:26:02,997 going to be a hit. 1900 01:26:03,131 --> 01:26:04,866 There is no being an artist without failure. 1901 01:26:04,999 --> 01:26:06,801 There just-- there is no being an artist without failure. 1902 01:26:06,934 --> 01:26:12,840 Time has a real amazing way of allowing 1903 01:26:12,974 --> 01:26:14,241 you to embrace the past. 1904 01:26:14,374 --> 01:26:16,343 It's a very difficult place to be 1905 01:26:16,476 --> 01:26:19,379 an artist on the public stage making movies. 1906 01:26:19,514 --> 01:26:22,517 Because everybody is watching you, 1907 01:26:22,650 --> 01:26:24,619 and many people are rooting for you to fail. 1908 01:26:24,752 --> 01:26:28,355 All my life, since the Donny and Marie Show was created, 1909 01:26:28,488 --> 01:26:31,826 I've wanted nothing to do with it. 1910 01:26:31,959 --> 01:26:34,896 If you look at other franchises, they 1911 01:26:35,029 --> 01:26:37,865 would die to have the fan base of Star Wars. 1912 01:26:37,999 --> 01:26:39,499 It's crazy. 1913 01:26:39,634 --> 01:26:41,135 Like, Star Trek would love to have what Star Wars has. 1914 01:26:41,268 --> 01:26:42,637 They don't have anything like it. 1915 01:26:42,770 --> 01:26:43,938 Nobody does. 1916 01:26:44,072 --> 01:26:45,606 When you have a bunch of people that love something 1917 01:26:45,740 --> 01:26:49,644 and take it into their hearts, they claim it. 1918 01:26:49,777 --> 01:26:54,615 And when these things don't behave the way we want them to, 1919 01:26:54,749 --> 01:26:58,452 well, it seems like we've become a culture that doesn't 1920 01:26:58,586 --> 01:27:00,021 know how to handle that. 1921 01:27:00,154 --> 01:27:02,724 Watch the good stuff, and either ignore the bad stuff 1922 01:27:02,857 --> 01:27:05,526 or delight in the bad stuff ironically. 1923 01:27:05,660 --> 01:27:07,562 I have learned to embrace it. 1924 01:27:07,695 --> 01:27:10,932 I've learned to say, you know, I'm not embarrassed about it 1925 01:27:11,065 --> 01:27:12,967 as much. 1926 01:27:13,101 --> 01:27:15,837 You know, I did the best I could at the time. 1927 01:27:15,970 --> 01:27:17,304 That's what was popular. 1928 01:27:17,437 --> 01:27:20,474 That's what people were buying and watching, 1929 01:27:20,608 --> 01:27:25,278 and it was appropriate for the day. 1930 01:27:25,412 --> 01:27:29,650 I think failure defines people sometimes more than success. 1931 01:27:29,784 --> 01:27:33,888 I think failure is one of the great motivators. 1932 01:27:34,021 --> 01:27:39,560 The Star Wars Holiday Special led to stuff like Andor. 1933 01:27:39,694 --> 01:27:42,630 That all of that failure is part of that process. 1934 01:27:42,764 --> 01:27:45,600 Someway, somewhere, somehow, somebody 1935 01:27:45,733 --> 01:27:49,070 is going to make fun of you. 1936 01:27:49,203 --> 01:27:50,138 Don't let it bother you. 1937 01:27:50,270 --> 01:27:51,072 Move ahead. 1938 01:27:51,205 --> 01:27:52,607 Be an artist. 1939 01:27:52,740 --> 01:27:55,543 Sometimes the magic happens, and sometimes it's 1940 01:27:55,676 --> 01:27:57,745 the Star Wars Holiday Special. 1941 01:28:33,080 --> 01:28:36,250 There was a new flash in between the commercials, 1942 01:28:36,383 --> 01:28:39,887 and the bootleg had all the commercials from 1978. 1943 01:28:40,021 --> 01:28:41,622 And that was actually-- eventually, 1944 01:28:41,756 --> 01:28:42,924 that became part of the charm. 1945 01:28:43,057 --> 01:28:45,458 They've become part of this movie. 1946 01:28:45,593 --> 01:28:47,795 And the anchor is the funniest part is. 1947 01:28:47,929 --> 01:28:49,462 Because he's just there, and he's like 1948 01:28:49,597 --> 01:28:50,598 fighting the frizzies. 1949 01:28:50,731 --> 01:28:52,166 You know, tonight at 11:00. 1950 01:28:52,300 --> 01:28:54,535 Fighting the frizzies at 11:00. 1951 01:28:54,669 --> 01:29:00,007 I've been surreptitiously made a cult figure, 1952 01:29:00,141 --> 01:29:01,441 whether I wanted to or not. 1953 01:29:01,576 --> 01:29:03,177 And then they parodied that on South Park. 1954 01:29:03,311 --> 01:29:06,514 And now, fighting the frizzies. 1955 01:29:06,647 --> 01:29:08,549 Why are they doing this? 1956 01:29:08,683 --> 01:29:10,718 Why the parody? 1957 01:29:10,852 --> 01:29:15,455 Nobody remembers the serious things and the profound things 1958 01:29:15,590 --> 01:29:17,892 that I did in my career, but they all 1959 01:29:18,025 --> 01:29:21,262 remember fighting the frizzies at 11:00.