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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[logo music]

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Because of the following
special program,

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Wonder Woman and
the Incredible Hulk

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will not be presented
this evening.

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[star wars-like music]

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Let me ask you something.

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And this is a question I’ve
wanted to ask you for a while,

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and I’ve always
restrained myself.

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A Christmas special came
out that was produced

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by George Lucas in which all of
the participants in Star Wars

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were--

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[laughter]

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came together.

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And they made this Star
Wars Christmas Special,

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and the tape’s been
passed around for years.

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And the rumor is that Lucas
is trying to suppress it.

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It all started in 1978 when I
let people make a Star Wars TV

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special without me.

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The Holiday Special.

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I remember.

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It came out so bad.

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I hate it.

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I hate it! I hate it!

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George, George.

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Do you remember making
this Christmas special?

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No, you don’t remember it?

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[laughter and applause]

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I-- nobody is allowed
to mention this.

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It is so bad.

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It’s not good.

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[laughter]

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You are about to see the worst
half hour of television ever.

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[tie fighter lasers]

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Star Wars.

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Star Wars is going to be on TV?

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And it’s a new thing?

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Oh, I see.

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It’s the Star Wars
holiday special.

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We popped it in, and my
life was never the same.

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Come on, Malla.

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Let’s see a little smile.

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It will provide
many years of fun.

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I felt a great
disturbance in the force.

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We rolled a doob and
sat back and watched it.

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And we thought it was fabulous.

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I feel something
terrible has happened.

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To explain the Star
wars Holiday Special is

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like trying to explain to
someone how the pyramids were

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built. It’s kind of impossible.

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All you have to know
is it was the ’70s.

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There might have
been some cocaine.

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Happy Life Day.

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I saw it as a kid.

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I thought it was great.

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They didn’t tell the people
this was not Star Wars

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the movie two.

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You can say that again.

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It seems we’ve landed on some
sort of comedy variety show

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planet.

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The Star Wars holiday special
is sort of like the holy grail.

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It’s completely mental.

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It’s so funny, and
it’s so stupid.

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I love the holiday special.

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The holiday special
is definitely canon.

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You probably wouldn’t
think that Maude would

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be one of the guest stars.

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And I was never into the
whole Star Wars thing.

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I love all of the awkwardness.

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I am your fantasy.

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So experience me.

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The whole production was
fraught with problems.

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Oh, no.

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the ship you seek.

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Follow me, friend.

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That Boba Fett cartoon rules.

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Settle down!

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The Star Wars special
sucked so bad,

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I was amazed that
I wasn’t in it.

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I would really like to
know what CBS was thinking

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when they greenlit this thing.

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But now, let’s get
started, shall we.

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[triumphant music]

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There are always better stories
about failure than success.

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It’s much more interesting.

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It’s much more compelling,
and it’s much more human.

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Supposedly a TV movie
existed, and no one

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knew where they could get it.

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I had never seen it.

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You couldn’t convince
me it was true.

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To me, it was all urban legend.

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Now that I was a
ninth grade man,

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I wanted something you
couldn’t find in any store.

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Psst.

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Yo, Goldnerd, come here.

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It was like finding this
artifact of something

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that I was such a fan of but I
had no conception ever existed.

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Yeah.

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And for a while I believed
that it was impossible to get.

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It became a currency of
sorts in geek culture.

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You know, talking about it,
dropping references to it,

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producing a copy to watch.

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Christmas came early.

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He had a bootleg copy of the
Star Wars Holiday Special.

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Holy Kenobi!

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The legend is true!

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I had to get like a tape
of a tape of a tape.

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You know.

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The Zapruder film
was easier to watch

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than the copy of the
holiday special that I got.

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On the back cover, it said,
if I had a hammer in time,

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"I would destroy every copy of
the Star Wars Holiday Special,"

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George Lucas.

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And I was like, sold.

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That was so cool.

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Were we watching two
different things?

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You don’t know Star Wars.

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This special is really
for the true fans.

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So the true fan wants to watch
Dorothy from The Golden Girls

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flirt with an alien?

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We have seen something that
we weren’t supposed to see.

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Clearly, something
had gone wrong.

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You were in the area
because you were

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in Hollywood making a
Star Wars special that’ll

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played around Thanksgiving.

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Got all the characters
from Star Wars

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and it’s got quite a few
extra people as well.

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For one thing, you meet
the whole Wookiee family.

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And the Wookiees lived
up in the tree house.

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And that’s where we met
Chewbacca’s family--

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Itchy, the little kid, and--

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what was her name--

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Jawa?

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Itchy is the grandfather.

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Who’s the-- oh,
Lumpy is the kid.

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I’m so sorry.

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It’s only been 40 years.

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Chewie’s family had
to be name something.

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Lumpy and Itchy?

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Couldn’t they have spent 15
more seconds on the names?

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And we meet Chewie’s
family, and we

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realize that, oh, they’re just
going to all chew it and not

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talk.

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[mimics wookiee sounds]

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And so, you’re literally
watching a bunch of mimes.

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(LAUGHING) But you just
have zero dialogue.

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Zero dialogue up until
this point for 15 minutes.

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Like, have you timed it?

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I would love to know that stat.

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How much of the Star
Wars Holiday Special

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has absolutely no
discernible dialogue?

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[tape whirring]

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[r2 beeps]

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R2, look.

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It’s Chewbacca’s family.

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Let’s never speak of this again.

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So you didn’t love it.

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Who cares?

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I care!

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I love Star Wars!

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It’s my life.

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It makes no sense why
I didn’t love this too.

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You know, we spent
years of two weeks

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at a time working directly
with George developing what

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would become this
animated series,

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and we had access to
the theater downstairs.

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And we made a date--

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all the writers.

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Hey, we’re going to watch
the holiday special.

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And you tap out
any time you want.

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Like, we’re going to see who
can make it all the way through.

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And that’s what we did.

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And like, one by one, like
flies, people were like,

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"I’m out."

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I like to watch bad stuff, but
that’s a hard watch making it

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through the holiday special.

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[laughs]

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The cockpit of the
Millennium Falcon

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is clearly just a
cardboard cutout.

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Everything just--
it takes you a while

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to realize that
everything’s wrong.

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When you first see the
Star Wars Holiday Special

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in its entirety, you’re
like, how did this happen?

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Who decided to create one of the
most confounding pieces of Star

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Wars entertainment in the
history of its existence?

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In order to understand how
the holiday special happened,

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you have to put it in context.

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Star Wars pioneered a
whole different kind

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of almost grassroots attention.

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The real secret to the
success of Star Wars

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was a guy named
Charlie Lippincott,

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who pioneered an entirely
new way of marketing movies.

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Oh, Charlie was a good guy.

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He had kind of an
oddball sense of humor.

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He went to Film School at USC.

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I don’t remember Charlie
ever making any movies,

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but Charlie was involved
with all of the filmmakers

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and keeping track of everyone.

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He was like a den mother.

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But when I learned,
shortly thereafter,

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that Charlie was
becoming a publicist,

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it made perfect sense to me.

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I’m talking with Charlie
Lippincott, who is

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associated with the production.

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Charlie, could you tell us
exactly how are you associated?

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I’m the executive in charge
of advertising, publicity,

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promotion, and merchandising
for Star Wars corporation.

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Charlie had come
up with the idea

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of marketing Star
Wars directly to fans

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because there really wasn’t a
good hook for marketing Star

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Wars.

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00:08:03,587 --> 00:08:04,852
Science fiction wasn’t popular.

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00:08:04,852 --> 00:08:07,085
None of the actors
were big names

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00:08:07,085 --> 00:08:10,055
that you could get booked
on The Tonight Show.

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00:08:10,055 --> 00:08:11,991
A year before Star
Wars came out,

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Charlie went and showed
slides about this movie

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and got this
amazing groundswell.

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00:08:18,635 --> 00:08:21,902
Fandom was never really a
part of the marketing plan

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00:08:21,902 --> 00:08:24,740
until Charlie
Lippincott made it so.

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00:08:24,740 --> 00:08:28,040
Even though he didn’t
have footage to show them,

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he would show them like
Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork.

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He would tell them the story
of what the film was about.

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He went to the Star
Trek conventions

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and got the Trekkies
interested in it.

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And this is something
right up their alley.

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The idea is if you
can get the enthusiasm

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00:08:46,498 --> 00:08:47,664
with them, that will spread.

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These are the kind
of people that

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will see a movie 10
times if they like it.

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I’d like to introduce you
now to producer Gary Kurtz.

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00:08:55,573 --> 00:08:58,840
[applause]

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00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,381
And the star of the
film, Mark Hamill,

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00:09:01,381 --> 00:09:03,845
who plays Luke Skywalker.

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00:09:03,845 --> 00:09:05,913
He knew how to
get people excited

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00:09:05,913 --> 00:09:09,752
and how to stir up
interest and word of mouth.

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00:09:09,752 --> 00:09:13,459
And from these science
fiction conventions,

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people left being
interested to see what

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this film was going to be like.

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And then they would tell
their friends about it.

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00:09:20,499 --> 00:09:24,030
Ballantine Books was
one of the major houses

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00:09:24,030 --> 00:09:28,166
in paperbacks-- major
publisher in science fiction.

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00:09:28,166 --> 00:09:31,477
Charlie went to
them and made a deal

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00:09:31,477 --> 00:09:34,414
to do a novelization
of Star Wars

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00:09:34,414 --> 00:09:36,812
and have it come
out like nine months

246
00:09:36,812 --> 00:09:40,079
before the movie came
out to get it out there.

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00:09:40,079 --> 00:09:43,654
And then Charlie made a
deal with Marvel Comics

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00:09:43,654 --> 00:09:48,153
to do the comic
bookization of Star Wars.

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00:09:48,153 --> 00:09:52,531
And the real problem,
I think, in some ways,

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was I didn’t want
one comic book,

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00:09:56,733 --> 00:09:57,899
and I didn’t want
two comic books.

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00:09:57,899 --> 00:10:02,772
I wanted five to six comic books
telling the story of the film.

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00:10:02,772 --> 00:10:06,974
So that was a bit of
a hard sell at first.

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00:10:06,974 --> 00:10:09,878
And I wanted at least
three issues out

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00:10:09,878 --> 00:10:10,846
before the film came out.

256
00:10:10,846 --> 00:10:14,014
And nobody had done
that up to that time.

257
00:10:14,014 --> 00:10:16,852
Basically, everything
with Star Wars

258
00:10:16,852 --> 00:10:20,790
that wasn’t making
the movie was Charlie.

259
00:10:20,790 --> 00:10:24,530
He taught Hollywood a
very important lesson

260
00:10:24,530 --> 00:10:26,961
that they are still
learning from today.

261
00:10:26,961 --> 00:10:32,967
Nine months after Charlie
started these fan promotions,

262
00:10:32,967 --> 00:10:34,606
the movie comes out.

263
00:10:34,606 --> 00:10:35,706
[band playing star wars theme]

264
00:10:35,706 --> 00:10:37,235
To the world famous
Chinese Theater

265
00:10:37,235 --> 00:10:41,140
come the stars of the
biggest box office success

266
00:10:41,140 --> 00:10:43,813
in motion picture history.

267
00:10:43,813 --> 00:10:44,583
Star Wars.

268
00:10:44,583 --> 00:10:46,519
It is more than just
a successful movie,

269
00:10:46,519 --> 00:10:47,619
it is a box office phenomenon.

270
00:10:47,619 --> 00:10:51,183
The film is breaking attendance
records all over the country.

271
00:10:51,183 --> 00:10:53,922
Not since Jaws
have so many people

272
00:10:53,922 --> 00:10:55,121
stood in line to see a movie.

273
00:10:55,121 --> 00:10:58,861
It was kind of like a nuclear
explosion had gone off

274
00:10:58,861 --> 00:10:59,730
in pop culture.

275
00:10:59,730 --> 00:11:00,731
It blew people’s minds.

276
00:11:00,731 --> 00:11:03,998
I mean, I remember people
waiting in line all day

277
00:11:03,998 --> 00:11:04,900
to see this movie.

278
00:11:04,900 --> 00:11:06,704
Star Wars became the
new box office champion

279
00:11:06,704 --> 00:11:09,267
by providing pure, 100%
escapist entertainment.

280
00:11:09,267 --> 00:11:13,238
And it appears this is what just
about everybody in the country

281
00:11:13,238 --> 00:11:14,580
is in the mood for.

282
00:11:14,580 --> 00:11:15,977
This was world-changing.

283
00:11:15,977 --> 00:11:17,110
It’s like the Beatles.

284
00:11:17,110 --> 00:11:21,521
We’d all seen science fiction
movies before, but not

285
00:11:21,521 --> 00:11:22,082
like this.

286
00:11:22,082 --> 00:11:23,688
It only opened in America
at the end of May,

287
00:11:23,688 --> 00:11:25,789
but already it’s the biggest box
office hit in cinema history.

288
00:11:25,789 --> 00:11:28,792
The overwhelming success of the
picture surprised everybody.

289
00:11:28,792 --> 00:11:31,861
As one Fox executive put
it, it’s not so much a film,

290
00:11:31,861 --> 00:11:32,895
it’s more an industry.

291
00:11:32,895 --> 00:11:37,031
I love that the world between
Star Wars and Empire--

292
00:11:37,031 --> 00:11:41,805
the world between Star Wars and
Empire to me is this bizarre--

293
00:11:41,805 --> 00:11:43,906
it’s not completely thought out.

294
00:11:43,906 --> 00:11:45,138
There’s no mythology built up.

295
00:11:45,138 --> 00:11:47,305
For the fans, it’s
interesting in many ways.

296
00:11:47,305 --> 00:11:49,241
One of the ways, it
gives them an insight

297
00:11:49,241 --> 00:11:51,309
into this very
brief period where

298
00:11:51,309 --> 00:11:52,882
things were not set up yet.

299
00:11:52,882 --> 00:11:55,687
And it was kind of
like Lucasfilm 1.5.

300
00:11:55,687 --> 00:11:58,789
1.0 is over, but 2.0
wasn’t there yet.

301
00:11:58,789 --> 00:12:02,155
And it wasn’t until Empire
forward that everything

302
00:12:02,155 --> 00:12:03,123
became more fully formed.

303
00:12:03,123 --> 00:12:05,598
So I have a real
affection for that time

304
00:12:05,598 --> 00:12:09,228
where it was this wild thing
that nobody could figure out.

305
00:12:09,228 --> 00:12:13,298
So somewhere in the summer
after Star Wars has come out,

306
00:12:13,298 --> 00:12:18,039
George takes a meeting with
Frank Wells of Warner Brothers

307
00:12:18,039 --> 00:12:20,811
with Gary Kurtz and
Charlie Lippincott.

308
00:12:20,811 --> 00:12:25,585
The goal of that meeting was to
re-release to try and piggyback

309
00:12:25,585 --> 00:12:26,982
on the success of Star Wars.

310
00:12:26,982 --> 00:12:31,052
Somewhere along the
line in that meeting,

311
00:12:31,052 --> 00:12:34,957
Frank said something to
George to the effect of,

312
00:12:34,957 --> 00:12:38,059
come September you
guys will be nothing.

313
00:12:38,059 --> 00:12:41,832
And George left really angry.

314
00:12:41,832 --> 00:12:45,935
And so, it kind of
redoubled George’s interest

315
00:12:45,935 --> 00:12:49,367
in making sure
Star Wars succeeded

316
00:12:49,367 --> 00:12:51,303
and continued to be in theaters.

317
00:12:51,303 --> 00:12:55,010
To promote Star Wars, getting
the stars of Star Wars

318
00:12:55,010 --> 00:12:57,716
to appear on all of these
talk and variety shows--

319
00:12:57,716 --> 00:13:00,950
Donny and Marie or any
of these other places.

320
00:13:00,950 --> 00:13:03,051
The Star Wars Holiday
Special may well

321
00:13:03,051 --> 00:13:05,724
have been created out of spite.

322
00:13:05,724 --> 00:13:06,989
[jazzy music]

323
00:13:06,989 --> 00:13:08,826
(SINGING) We’re Darth
Vader’s raiders,

324
00:13:08,826 --> 00:13:12,093
and we can’t believe
the things that you do.

325
00:13:12,093 --> 00:13:13,226
You’re all right.

326
00:13:13,226 --> 00:13:15,195
We never met a trooper
played hide and--

327
00:13:15,195 --> 00:13:18,869
My brothers were dressed as
the storm troopers dancing.

328
00:13:18,869 --> 00:13:24,006
I’m Luke, and Marie’s
Leah with the bagels

329
00:13:24,006 --> 00:13:25,040
on the side of her head.

330
00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,174
Han solo, played by
Kris Christofferson.

331
00:13:27,174 --> 00:13:31,849
And I’m dancing around
R2-D2, and there’s C-3PO,

332
00:13:31,849 --> 00:13:34,786
and we’re talking, and
Chewbacca is there.

333
00:13:34,786 --> 00:13:35,952
And I’m thinking,
this is probably

334
00:13:35,952 --> 00:13:37,756
one of the coolest
finales we’ve ever done.

335
00:13:37,756 --> 00:13:42,761
(SINGING) His transistors are in
trouble and his tubes are weak.

336
00:13:45,060 --> 00:13:48,096
And if we stay, our chances
for survival are bleak.

337
00:13:48,096 --> 00:13:53,398
So show us the way to get
out of this world for that’s

338
00:13:53,398 --> 00:13:57,776
where everything is.

339
00:13:57,776 --> 00:14:00,075
[beeps]

340
00:14:00,075 --> 00:14:04,948
I’m thinking, how in the
world is George Lucas allowing

341
00:14:04,948 --> 00:14:05,817
this to happen?

342
00:14:05,817 --> 00:14:10,448
Because that’s just
so far from the movie.

343
00:14:10,448 --> 00:14:12,791
But it sure was
funny at the time,

344
00:14:12,791 --> 00:14:15,024
and it’s funny to
look back right now.

345
00:14:15,024 --> 00:14:16,861
(SINGING) Push the fuel button.

346
00:14:16,861 --> 00:14:19,094
Light the fire.

347
00:14:19,094 --> 00:14:19,864
Fire.

348
00:14:19,864 --> 00:14:21,800
Going to take you higher.

349
00:14:22,768 --> 00:14:25,067
We broke a lot of rules
when we had the Star Wars

350
00:14:25,067 --> 00:14:27,707
characters on the Donny and
Marie show for that finale.

351
00:14:27,707 --> 00:14:30,105
There was a shot with
Chewbacca with his arm

352
00:14:30,105 --> 00:14:31,403
around Darth Vader.

353
00:14:31,403 --> 00:14:32,140
Oof.

354
00:14:32,140 --> 00:14:33,108
How does that happen?

355
00:14:33,108 --> 00:14:36,243
But on Donny and Marie, I
guess everybody was friends.

356
00:14:36,243 --> 00:14:37,442
[laughs]

357
00:14:37,442 --> 00:14:41,017
(SINGING) Come back to me.

358
00:14:41,017 --> 00:14:43,723
Come back to me.

359
00:14:43,723 --> 00:14:46,088
Come back to me!

360
00:14:46,088 --> 00:14:51,093
The Star Wars Holiday Special
is Citizen Kane compared

361
00:14:51,093 --> 00:14:52,193
to that Donny and Marie thing.

362
00:14:52,193 --> 00:14:57,099
I mean, that’s truly train
wreck sort of television.

363
00:14:57,099 --> 00:14:59,266
You-- you intergalactic fool.

364
00:14:59,266 --> 00:15:01,433
You’ll never get
them back that way.

365
00:15:01,433 --> 00:15:03,105
I suppose you have
a better plan.

366
00:15:03,105 --> 00:15:06,372
No plan at all, just
a little "force."

367
00:15:06,372 --> 00:15:09,078
You can’t imagine that
happening in 1981.

368
00:15:09,078 --> 00:15:11,377
Like, that Star Wars
couldn’t have gone

369
00:15:11,377 --> 00:15:13,181
near a show like that in ’81.

370
00:15:13,181 --> 00:15:16,481
But in ’77, everyone’s going,
I don’t know what this is

371
00:15:16,481 --> 00:15:19,418
or how big it’s going to
be, but yeah, take it.

372
00:15:19,418 --> 00:15:20,089
Go.

373
00:15:20,089 --> 00:15:21,156
Put it on a t-shirt or whatever.

374
00:15:21,156 --> 00:15:22,091
Put it in your show.

375
00:15:22,091 --> 00:15:23,521
Do a dance with
the stormtroopers.

376
00:15:23,521 --> 00:15:24,357
["get ready"]

377
00:15:24,357 --> 00:15:29,362
But fee-fi-fo-fum, look out
people, cause here we come.

378
00:15:29,362 --> 00:15:31,265
I think that’s one of
the coolest moments

379
00:15:31,265 --> 00:15:32,805
my brothers ever
had in show business

380
00:15:32,805 --> 00:15:38,041
was transforming stormtroopers
to vaudevillian dancers.

381
00:15:38,041 --> 00:15:41,539
[laughs] That’s so funny.

382
00:15:41,539 --> 00:15:44,080
(SINGING) So get ready.

383
00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:45,081
Get ready.

384
00:15:45,081 --> 00:15:45,917
Here we come.

385
00:15:45,917 --> 00:15:50,185
So the public appearances
helped the ticket sales

386
00:15:50,185 --> 00:15:50,988
in the theaters.

387
00:15:50,988 --> 00:15:54,552
They had the entire family
watching the Donny and Marie

388
00:15:54,552 --> 00:15:55,256
Show.

389
00:15:55,256 --> 00:15:57,929
George wanted to
tap into that magic.

390
00:15:57,929 --> 00:16:00,800
We had the demographics
that he wanted.

391
00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,804
And through research,
he was right.

392
00:16:04,804 --> 00:16:06,333
And that Donny and
Marie Show aired,

393
00:16:06,333 --> 00:16:10,139
and everybody saw Star Wars
characters on Donny and Marie.

394
00:16:10,139 --> 00:16:11,239
They went back to the theater.

395
00:16:11,239 --> 00:16:14,011
It’s almost as if at that time
in the entertainment world

396
00:16:14,011 --> 00:16:15,540
there were like two tracks.

397
00:16:15,540 --> 00:16:17,311
It was, like, for entertainment.

398
00:16:17,311 --> 00:16:18,983
And it had been going on
since the silent movies,

399
00:16:18,983 --> 00:16:24,021
where you did your kind of high
art form, which was the movie,

400
00:16:24,021 --> 00:16:26,892
and then you did a lot
of stuff to support it,

401
00:16:26,892 --> 00:16:27,519
whatever it took.

402
00:16:27,519 --> 00:16:30,159
If you had to put on the
disguise in front of a shopping

403
00:16:30,159 --> 00:16:31,193
mall, you did it.

404
00:16:31,193 --> 00:16:32,293
And they did it for Star Wars.

405
00:16:32,293 --> 00:16:34,427
George was about to start
shooting The Empire Strikes

406
00:16:34,427 --> 00:16:39,267
Back, and he was concerned
that there be momentum,

407
00:16:39,267 --> 00:16:43,502
that there would be a stirring
the pot to make sure people

408
00:16:43,502 --> 00:16:44,877
were aware of the franchise.

409
00:16:44,877 --> 00:16:46,912
And you saw the
proliferation of Star Wars

410
00:16:46,912 --> 00:16:50,443
on television in the late
1970s, in 1977 specifically,

411
00:16:50,443 --> 00:16:56,350
on these variety shows, as a
way to keep Star Wars cemented

412
00:16:56,350 --> 00:16:57,186
in the zeitgeist.

413
00:16:57,186 --> 00:16:58,891
Prior to that, the big
movie was Jaws, right?

414
00:16:58,891 --> 00:17:00,893
But you couldn’t just
throw Jaws onto a thing.

415
00:17:00,893 --> 00:17:02,961
Like, ladies and gentlemen,
Jaws is here to sing.

416
00:17:02,961 --> 00:17:05,898
In retrospect, I think
it’s exceptionally foolish,

417
00:17:05,898 --> 00:17:07,900
because the brand
was not going to die.

418
00:17:07,900 --> 00:17:09,066
It was very, very popular.

419
00:17:09,066 --> 00:17:14,203
Somebody, somewhere, said, if
we don’t give them something,

420
00:17:14,203 --> 00:17:15,336
they’re going to
forget about us.

421
00:17:15,336 --> 00:17:18,306
And suddenly, it’s
everywhere on TV after that.

422
00:17:18,306 --> 00:17:21,881
Like, just the promotion
was everywhere you looked.

423
00:17:21,881 --> 00:17:23,982
Let’s crank out as
much stuff as we can.

424
00:17:23,982 --> 00:17:28,217
Let’s let Richard Pryor have all
the alien makeup for a cantina

425
00:17:28,217 --> 00:17:29,251
sketch on his show.

426
00:17:29,251 --> 00:17:33,024
[big band star wars theme]

427
00:17:33,992 --> 00:17:35,389
That sketch actually
kind of works.

428
00:17:35,389 --> 00:17:37,325
It’s Richard Pryor
in that world,

429
00:17:37,325 --> 00:17:42,396
and he’s using it to ding riffs
on race, and social class,

430
00:17:42,396 --> 00:17:43,529
and stuff like that.

431
00:17:43,529 --> 00:17:44,233
Hey, Hey.

432
00:17:44,233 --> 00:17:44,904
Hey!

433
00:17:44,904 --> 00:17:46,301
Why don’t you watch
where you’re going?

434
00:17:46,301 --> 00:17:47,665
You got the biggest
eyes in the place.

435
00:17:47,665 --> 00:17:48,908
[laughter]

436
00:17:48,908 --> 00:17:50,239
Also, these characters
weren’t embedded

437
00:17:50,239 --> 00:17:52,340
in our consciousness
the way they are now.

438
00:17:52,340 --> 00:17:53,539
We’d met them once in one film.

439
00:17:53,539 --> 00:17:57,477
It’s not like we’d gone on a
nine-film adventure with R2-D2,

440
00:17:57,477 --> 00:17:59,281
and we know the
parameters of R2-D2

441
00:17:59,281 --> 00:18:01,019
or how he would
speak-- or C-3PO.

442
00:18:01,019 --> 00:18:02,119
Hello, welcome to Burger Chef.

443
00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:04,055
We’d like a Star
Wars poster, please.

444
00:18:04,055 --> 00:18:04,990
Or even Darth Vader.

445
00:18:04,990 --> 00:18:07,619
With guest appearances
by Darth Vader!

446
00:18:07,619 --> 00:18:08,422
Humongous.

447
00:18:08,422 --> 00:18:11,062
[breathing sounds]

448
00:18:11,062 --> 00:18:13,031
[explosion]

449
00:18:13,031 --> 00:18:16,430
[applause]

450
00:18:16,430 --> 00:18:17,101
[groans]

451
00:18:17,101 --> 00:18:18,366
We’d seen them
once in that film,

452
00:18:18,366 --> 00:18:19,631
and that was the
only voice we knew.

453
00:18:19,631 --> 00:18:22,172
So the fact that Darth
Vader was being lampooned,

454
00:18:22,172 --> 00:18:24,977
or that the droids were doing
things out of context, or even

455
00:18:24,977 --> 00:18:27,672
Mark Hamill was doing
something in a different way--

456
00:18:27,672 --> 00:18:29,707
Bob Hope’s All-Star
Christmas Comedy

457
00:18:29,707 --> 00:18:34,514
Special, starring special
guest star Mark Hamill.

458
00:18:34,514 --> 00:18:38,617
[big band music]

459
00:18:50,970 --> 00:18:51,630
[applause]

460
00:18:51,630 --> 00:18:55,975
It’s more egregious now looking
back than it was, I think,

461
00:18:55,975 --> 00:18:56,569
at the time.

462
00:18:56,569 --> 00:18:59,308
It was a very normal way
of getting it out there,

463
00:18:59,308 --> 00:19:02,113
and Star Wars embraced
that opportunity.

464
00:19:02,113 --> 00:19:03,708
Its Luke Skywalker!

465
00:19:03,708 --> 00:19:05,182
Did you bring the force?

466
00:19:05,182 --> 00:19:06,216
You better believe it.

467
00:19:06,216 --> 00:19:08,482
The Los Angeles Police Force.

468
00:19:08,482 --> 00:19:09,252
[laughter]

469
00:19:09,252 --> 00:19:10,748
How did you find them?

470
00:19:10,748 --> 00:19:11,518
[laughter]

471
00:19:11,518 --> 00:19:14,323
Now, you’re all under arrest
for malicious mutilation

472
00:19:14,323 --> 00:19:16,094
of a marvelous movie.

473
00:19:16,094 --> 00:19:16,996
[laughter]

474
00:19:16,996 --> 00:19:20,626
I should have stuck to
looking for Mr. Goodbar.

475
00:19:20,626 --> 00:19:23,365
Any kind of artwork
out of context

476
00:19:23,365 --> 00:19:24,498
is going to look funny--

477
00:19:24,498 --> 00:19:26,203
any kind of artwork.

478
00:19:26,203 --> 00:19:27,435
Any kind, period.

479
00:19:27,435 --> 00:19:31,571
If you don’t know the
history and the context,

480
00:19:31,571 --> 00:19:33,012
you cannot appreciate it fully.

481
00:19:33,012 --> 00:19:36,114
This was in the days of
crazy specials-- you know,

482
00:19:36,114 --> 00:19:38,644
Wayne Newton at SeaWorld.

483
00:19:38,644 --> 00:19:40,778
Wayne, meet Shamu.

484
00:19:40,778 --> 00:19:42,318
Kids, let’s do a show.

485
00:19:42,318 --> 00:19:47,719
From Orlando, Florida, it’s
Wayne Newton at SeaWorld.

486
00:19:47,719 --> 00:19:48,489
[applause]

487
00:19:48,489 --> 00:19:51,030
And special guest appearance
by Shamu, the killer whale!

488
00:19:51,030 --> 00:19:52,361
[WAYNE NEWTON, "BAD, BAD LEROY
BROWN"]

489
00:19:52,361 --> 00:19:54,693
old King Kong, meaner
than a junkyard dog.

490
00:19:54,693 --> 00:20:01,205
When ’70s TV was bad, there
was no description for it.

491
00:20:01,205 --> 00:20:03,537
I mean, it’s corny,
and it’s stupid.

492
00:20:03,537 --> 00:20:04,703
That’s kind of what it was.

493
00:20:04,703 --> 00:20:06,507
Everybody had a variety show.

494
00:20:06,507 --> 00:20:09,444
Howard Cosell had
a variety show.

495
00:20:09,444 --> 00:20:12,084
You know what’s going
to make this show work?

496
00:20:12,084 --> 00:20:14,647
Yours truly, the born superstar.

497
00:20:14,647 --> 00:20:16,682
Didn’t Shields and
Yarnell have a show?

498
00:20:16,682 --> 00:20:22,127
They were mimes, and they did
something on Donny and Marie,

499
00:20:22,127 --> 00:20:23,062
and it was popular.

500
00:20:23,062 --> 00:20:24,492
So they went, well,
give them a show.

501
00:20:24,492 --> 00:20:25,460
Let’s see if it works.

502
00:20:25,460 --> 00:20:27,594
At least ’70s television
was way more in touch

503
00:20:27,594 --> 00:20:30,366
with, hey, no one
knows anything.

504
00:20:30,366 --> 00:20:31,235
Oh, didn’t work.

505
00:20:31,235 --> 00:20:32,104
Well, we tried.

506
00:20:32,104 --> 00:20:33,072
Like, they don’t know.

507
00:20:33,072 --> 00:20:33,666
They don’t know!

508
00:20:33,666 --> 00:20:36,801
It became a way to bring
the family together

509
00:20:36,801 --> 00:20:41,311
in front of the television
set without fully satisfying

510
00:20:41,311 --> 00:20:43,478
any one member of that family.

511
00:20:43,478 --> 00:20:44,809
It was disposable television.

512
00:20:44,809 --> 00:20:48,846
People are going to see
this once, and that’s it.

513
00:20:48,846 --> 00:20:51,222
Variety shows did
not repeat well.

514
00:20:51,222 --> 00:20:52,685
They look arcane today.

515
00:20:52,685 --> 00:20:55,490
The funny thing is, if you
think the Star Wars Holiday

516
00:20:55,490 --> 00:21:01,100
Special is bad or the "worst
thing" that ever aired on TV,

517
00:21:01,100 --> 00:21:03,564
you never saw The
Lawrence Welk Show.

518
00:21:03,564 --> 00:21:07,502
And that calls for
a little soul music.

519
00:21:07,502 --> 00:21:11,374
[variety music]

520
00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:20,251
You never saw the Paul
Lynde Halloween special.

521
00:21:20,251 --> 00:21:22,649
(SINGING) Move it
in, move it out.

522
00:21:22,649 --> 00:21:24,684
Move it in and about.

523
00:21:24,684 --> 00:21:26,224
Disco baby.

524
00:21:27,357 --> 00:21:32,131
You never saw The Brady
Bunch Variety Show.

525
00:21:34,232 --> 00:21:37,862
(SINGING) There’s a
new kind of dancing.

526
00:21:37,862 --> 00:21:40,370
It’s going to be the rage.

527
00:21:40,370 --> 00:21:45,870
Just move yourself behind
like an actor on a stage.

528
00:21:45,870 --> 00:21:49,346
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour
and the Paul Lynde Halloween

529
00:21:49,346 --> 00:21:52,646
Special, those stand out
because they are so bad.

530
00:21:52,646 --> 00:21:56,650
But there are other ones that
are forgotten just because they

531
00:21:56,650 --> 00:21:59,158
weren’t even memorably bad.

532
00:21:59,158 --> 00:22:02,722
There are astronomically
worse shows

533
00:22:02,722 --> 00:22:07,166
that aired around this time,
they just didn’t carry the name

534
00:22:07,166 --> 00:22:07,892
Star Wars.

535
00:22:07,892 --> 00:22:11,632
The Star Wars Holiday
Special happened, again,

536
00:22:11,632 --> 00:22:12,864
for multiple reasons.

537
00:22:12,864 --> 00:22:16,637
CBS approached Lucasfilm
wanting to do it.

538
00:22:16,637 --> 00:22:20,509
We talked to George at one
point about how this happened.

539
00:22:20,509 --> 00:22:21,807
You don’t like this
piece of content.

540
00:22:21,807 --> 00:22:25,679
How does anything that you don’t
like or you didn’t approve of

541
00:22:25,679 --> 00:22:26,482
get through?

542
00:22:26,482 --> 00:22:27,945
It’s like, it’s not that
I didn’t approve of it.

543
00:22:27,945 --> 00:22:30,387
There was so much pressure in
between Star Wars and Empire.

544
00:22:30,387 --> 00:22:32,752
The way that executives
thought about the audience

545
00:22:32,752 --> 00:22:35,854
is that everyone would just
forget Star Wars was a thing.

546
00:22:35,854 --> 00:22:37,658
The audience, they just
can’t be depended upon.

547
00:22:37,658 --> 00:22:42,432
So you got to make some other
kind of short-term Star Wars

548
00:22:42,432 --> 00:22:42,894
content.

549
00:22:42,894 --> 00:22:44,335
What kind of TV
show can you make

550
00:22:44,335 --> 00:22:46,238
on the kind of budget it
takes to make Star Wars?

551
00:22:46,238 --> 00:22:48,603
And they’re like,
holiday special.

552
00:22:48,603 --> 00:22:50,275
And this was a
way, a TV special,

553
00:22:50,275 --> 00:22:53,542
to get mass exposure, to get
more excitement until Empire

554
00:22:53,542 --> 00:22:56,809
comes back and certainly
it would help the toys.

555
00:22:56,809 --> 00:23:00,219
Star Wars, the
toys came later on.

556
00:23:00,219 --> 00:23:02,848
They were ill-prepared
for how successful

557
00:23:02,848 --> 00:23:03,882
the movie was going to be.

558
00:23:03,882 --> 00:23:06,423
Because there was no such thing
as merchandising on movies.

559
00:23:06,423 --> 00:23:08,392
Some TV stuff, but not movies.

560
00:23:08,392 --> 00:23:09,822
Their lifespan is
just too short.

561
00:23:09,822 --> 00:23:12,693
Back then, by the time you
would get a toy line out,

562
00:23:12,693 --> 00:23:14,926
it would be 12
months to 18 months

563
00:23:14,926 --> 00:23:17,302
after the movie
already left theaters,

564
00:23:17,302 --> 00:23:18,600
and nobody would
remember the movie.

565
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:20,866
So nobody was willing
to take that risk.

566
00:23:20,866 --> 00:23:22,703
The official Kenner
Star Wars models

567
00:23:22,703 --> 00:23:24,474
are still in production
in the orient

568
00:23:24,474 --> 00:23:26,245
and won’t be ready
for several months.

569
00:23:26,245 --> 00:23:30,612
First Christmas, every kid in
America wants a Star Wars toy,

570
00:23:30,612 --> 00:23:32,713
but they had nothing
to sell for Christmas.

571
00:23:32,713 --> 00:23:36,684
And so, what they did was they
sold you a coupon that you

572
00:23:36,684 --> 00:23:41,689
would send in, and once
the toys had been made,

573
00:23:41,689 --> 00:23:43,460
they would ship you a set.

574
00:23:43,460 --> 00:23:46,991
But in 1978, the
toys were everywhere.

575
00:23:46,991 --> 00:23:51,336
And this was the first Christmas
where you could get Star Wars

576
00:23:51,336 --> 00:23:52,403
toys, Star Wars everything.

577
00:23:52,403 --> 00:23:56,737
And a key component of marketing
that was the Star Wars Holiday

578
00:23:56,737 --> 00:23:57,408
Special.

579
00:23:57,408 --> 00:23:59,740
May the force be with
you and your children.

580
00:23:59,740 --> 00:24:03,348
[r2 beeps]

581
00:24:03,348 --> 00:24:07,286
Our agent called and said that
there’s a Star Wars Holiday

582
00:24:07,286 --> 00:24:07,748
Special.

583
00:24:07,748 --> 00:24:09,552
And we got really
excited because we

584
00:24:09,552 --> 00:24:13,688
thought this was going to be
our annuity, that this holiday

585
00:24:13,688 --> 00:24:17,725
show would run every
year for an eternity.

586
00:24:17,725 --> 00:24:20,596
The Charlie Brown
Christmas, the Grinch That

587
00:24:20,596 --> 00:24:23,731
Stole Christmas I mean,
all of these things that’ll

588
00:24:23,731 --> 00:24:24,600
be one forever.

589
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,339
As it turned out, it
was only one viewing.

590
00:24:27,339 --> 00:24:29,737
So the people who
wrote the special--

591
00:24:29,737 --> 00:24:31,508
and there were a bunch of them--

592
00:24:31,508 --> 00:24:33,477
were not science fiction people.

593
00:24:33,477 --> 00:24:35,413
They weren’t Star Wars fans.

594
00:24:35,413 --> 00:24:38,548
I don’t know if they all
had even seen Star Wars.

595
00:24:38,548 --> 00:24:40,880
They were people
who wrote variety,

596
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:42,387
and that’s what this show was.

597
00:24:42,387 --> 00:24:45,786
It just happened to be
themed to Star Wars.

598
00:24:45,786 --> 00:24:48,492
I mean, you have to remember,
we were comedy writers.

599
00:24:48,492 --> 00:24:54,630
And to get into something like
this was really thrilling.

600
00:24:54,630 --> 00:24:55,961
And I said, where do I sign?

601
00:24:55,961 --> 00:24:59,701
And it was fun
from the beginning.

602
00:24:59,701 --> 00:25:03,507
And the first day
it was the staff--

603
00:25:03,507 --> 00:25:05,377
Lenny Ripps and Pat Proft.

604
00:25:05,377 --> 00:25:05,971
They were there.

605
00:25:05,971 --> 00:25:08,545
And Ken and Mitzie
Welch, who were writers

606
00:25:08,545 --> 00:25:13,077
from The Carol Burnett Show, who
did all the big musical things,

607
00:25:13,077 --> 00:25:13,880
and George--

608
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:14,716
George Lucas.

609
00:25:14,716 --> 00:25:16,014
And Gary Smith
and Dwight Hemion,

610
00:25:16,014 --> 00:25:18,918
who were actually
allegedly producing it,

611
00:25:18,918 --> 00:25:21,459
but they didn’t really
produce it in the end.

612
00:25:21,459 --> 00:25:24,055
When I was looking at the
credits on the show and I saw

613
00:25:24,055 --> 00:25:25,925
that they had-- it
was a Smith-Hemion--

614
00:25:25,925 --> 00:25:28,433
I said, it was a
Smith-Hemion production?

615
00:25:28,433 --> 00:25:29,060
That’s so stupid.

616
00:25:29,060 --> 00:25:30,567
Because I don’t remember
them being there.

617
00:25:30,567 --> 00:25:32,932
But they were at the beginning
when I thought about it.

618
00:25:32,932 --> 00:25:34,439
And the other
thing was we worked

619
00:25:34,439 --> 00:25:38,069
with his director, a guy
named David Acomba, who

620
00:25:38,069 --> 00:25:42,909
was a director of
rock and roll videos.

621
00:25:42,909 --> 00:25:48,420
He made a successful rock
and roll documentary there.

622
00:25:48,420 --> 00:25:50,785
And there was that
USC connection.

623
00:25:50,785 --> 00:25:51,951
David was the voice of George.

624
00:25:51,951 --> 00:25:55,856
If David had an idea, or we
wanted to run something by him,

625
00:25:55,856 --> 00:25:58,628
or there were questions,
our assumption

626
00:25:58,628 --> 00:26:02,731
was that it’s also
what George wanted.

627
00:26:02,731 --> 00:26:05,602
My intent was to see
what George wanted

628
00:26:05,602 --> 00:26:06,966
and try and make it happen.

629
00:26:06,966 --> 00:26:07,934
But quickly there were--

630
00:26:07,934 --> 00:26:11,102
Ken and Mitzie were assigned to
the show, whom I didn’t know.

631
00:26:11,102 --> 00:26:13,742
And then, when I found
out what they did, I mean,

632
00:26:13,742 --> 00:26:17,581
they wrote the music for the
singing numbers and that.

633
00:26:17,581 --> 00:26:19,077
I just thought that
was one of the worst

634
00:26:19,077 --> 00:26:20,815
parts of the show when
she started singing

635
00:26:20,815 --> 00:26:25,457
and all those kinds of fake,
Broadway, forgettable show

636
00:26:25,457 --> 00:26:25,952
tunes.

637
00:26:25,952 --> 00:26:28,053
The wrong people to be assigned
to work with me or vice versa.

638
00:26:28,053 --> 00:26:31,925
The film industry and the
variety television industry

639
00:26:31,925 --> 00:26:34,499
are completely two
separate animals.

640
00:26:34,499 --> 00:26:37,568
I hear that David did not
get along with the Welches.

641
00:26:37,568 --> 00:26:38,998
And I didn’t realize
that because I

642
00:26:38,998 --> 00:26:42,067
wasn’t in the room with them
when that was happening.

643
00:26:42,067 --> 00:26:44,773
But that was the team.

644
00:26:44,773 --> 00:26:48,073
What’s so unique about the Star
Wars Holiday Special is not

645
00:26:48,073 --> 00:26:51,615
just that they have the
costumes and the permission

646
00:26:51,615 --> 00:26:53,881
to use everything that
we know of Star Wars,

647
00:26:53,881 --> 00:26:56,719
but they actually got the cast--

648
00:26:56,719 --> 00:26:57,786
the cast of Star Wars.

649
00:26:57,786 --> 00:27:00,217
When I read it, I
said this is awful.

650
00:27:00,217 --> 00:27:02,186
[laughter]

651
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,158
I was-- it was in my contract.

652
00:27:07,158 --> 00:27:08,060
[laughter]

653
00:27:08,060 --> 00:27:08,995
There was no way--

654
00:27:08,995 --> 00:27:10,766
no known way-- to get out of it.

655
00:27:10,766 --> 00:27:12,999
Oh, all right, but
I’m not singing!

656
00:27:12,999 --> 00:27:15,771
They all slum it
for a TV special.

657
00:27:15,771 --> 00:27:19,676
Again, I have to imagine the
paychecks made it worth it.

658
00:27:19,676 --> 00:27:24,648
The talent was supposed
to be the caliber of Cher,

659
00:27:24,648 --> 00:27:27,211
Baryshnikov, and Ann-Margaret.

660
00:27:27,211 --> 00:27:29,917
That was the people
that they had hoped

661
00:27:29,917 --> 00:27:31,886
would be on the variety show.

662
00:27:31,886 --> 00:27:33,789
I didn’t think it
was going to be

663
00:27:33,789 --> 00:27:35,659
so much of a traditional
variety show.

664
00:27:35,659 --> 00:27:40,158
It never occurred to me that
Harvey Korman, and Bea Arthur,

665
00:27:40,158 --> 00:27:41,830
and Art Carney were
going to be in it.

666
00:27:41,830 --> 00:27:47,198
Yes, they were TV stars, but
they were the elderly audience,

667
00:27:47,198 --> 00:27:49,068
CBS audience TV stars.

668
00:27:49,068 --> 00:27:51,235
It always occurred to
me as something that

669
00:27:51,235 --> 00:27:54,711
was put together by old TV.

670
00:27:54,711 --> 00:27:56,108
You know, what is this?

671
00:27:56,108 --> 00:27:57,076
Star what?

672
00:27:57,076 --> 00:27:57,780
Whatever.

673
00:27:57,780 --> 00:27:59,012
You know, where’s Captain Kirk?

674
00:27:59,012 --> 00:28:00,816
Bring in-- you know who we need?

675
00:28:00,816 --> 00:28:01,619
Art Carney.

676
00:28:01,619 --> 00:28:02,246
He’s a TV legend.

677
00:28:02,246 --> 00:28:06,624
You felt like they could
have had cooler, hipper

678
00:28:06,624 --> 00:28:08,890
people that they
would have brought in

679
00:28:08,890 --> 00:28:09,957
to do these various parts.

680
00:28:09,957 --> 00:28:12,223
Ken and Mitzie were old
school, and they were

681
00:28:12,223 --> 00:28:14,093
used to doing it a certain way.

682
00:28:14,093 --> 00:28:18,229
And David wasn’t
crazy about that.

683
00:28:18,229 --> 00:28:22,101
So there’s an interesting rumor
about the Star Wars Holiday

684
00:28:22,101 --> 00:28:24,609
Special, which I’ve
always found fascinating,

685
00:28:24,609 --> 00:28:29,075
which is that David Acomba was
scouring improv clubs looking

686
00:28:29,075 --> 00:28:32,815
for great acts that could
appear in the special

687
00:28:32,815 --> 00:28:34,619
and came across Robin Williams.

688
00:28:34,619 --> 00:28:38,282
This was after he’d already
been Mork on Happy Days

689
00:28:38,282 --> 00:28:42,924
but before he had gotten
Mork and Mindy on the air.

690
00:28:42,924 --> 00:28:47,995
And he brought Robin
to the Welches, who

691
00:28:47,995 --> 00:28:50,030
immediately turned
him away and said,

692
00:28:50,030 --> 00:28:51,702
we’re only looking
for name talent.

693
00:28:51,702 --> 00:28:54,331
About a month later
Mork and Mindy airs,

694
00:28:54,331 --> 00:28:57,708
and Robin Williams
explodes and could

695
00:28:57,708 --> 00:29:02,207
have been a part of what
made the Star Wars Holiday

696
00:29:02,207 --> 00:29:03,648
Special fantastic.

697
00:29:03,648 --> 00:29:05,749
They weren’t on-- just weren’t
on the same wavelength.

698
00:29:05,749 --> 00:29:09,819
And David felt that he was on
George’s wavelength and that

699
00:29:09,819 --> 00:29:10,655
they weren’t.

700
00:29:10,655 --> 00:29:14,626
And they were
there because there

701
00:29:14,626 --> 00:29:17,189
had to be professionals who
had done this kind of thing

702
00:29:17,189 --> 00:29:19,290
before who knew what
the requirements were.

703
00:29:19,290 --> 00:29:21,864
And George came up with
the original story.

704
00:29:21,864 --> 00:29:23,602
It was going to be
a one-hour special.

705
00:29:23,602 --> 00:29:25,868
Now, the Star Wars holiday
special that we know

706
00:29:25,868 --> 00:29:28,871
didn’t start off the way
that we experienced it.

707
00:29:28,871 --> 00:29:32,039
It actually started off I think
from a much purer place, which

708
00:29:32,039 --> 00:29:36,780
is George Lucas trying to
write a variety holiday

709
00:29:36,780 --> 00:29:39,145
special, or at least
just a holiday special.

710
00:29:39,145 --> 00:29:41,785
So after Ralph McQuarrie
passed in 2012,

711
00:29:41,785 --> 00:29:46,988
they discovered, in his
archive, a five-page treatment

712
00:29:46,988 --> 00:29:48,154
for the Star Wars
Holiday Special.

713
00:29:48,154 --> 00:29:50,354
And it’s debated as to who
actually wrote this treatment.

714
00:29:50,354 --> 00:29:54,897
And when reading it, it
does feel decidedly Lucas.

715
00:29:54,897 --> 00:29:59,066
And when you look at those old
Ralph McQuarrie concept pieces,

716
00:29:59,066 --> 00:30:00,364
it makes sense that
George would have

717
00:30:00,364 --> 00:30:04,368
floated this five-page treatment
to his key collaborator

718
00:30:04,368 --> 00:30:05,204
on A New Hope.

719
00:30:05,204 --> 00:30:07,943
When you read through
the treatment,

720
00:30:07,943 --> 00:30:11,276
George Lucas has a
Jules Verne quality.

721
00:30:11,276 --> 00:30:12,211
He sees the future.

722
00:30:12,211 --> 00:30:14,785
Whether it is an iPad
or virtual reality,

723
00:30:14,785 --> 00:30:19,691
this idea of this kind of
walking through a teleporter

724
00:30:19,691 --> 00:30:21,253
and being able to be
in a different spot.

725
00:30:21,253 --> 00:30:24,927
But then there are other
things that are so decidedly

726
00:30:24,927 --> 00:30:28,095
weird like Raquel Welch.

727
00:30:28,095 --> 00:30:30,064
"Guest star-- Raquel Welch--

728
00:30:30,064 --> 00:30:32,363
volunteers for
the job and leaves

729
00:30:32,363 --> 00:30:33,430
to intercept the starship."

730
00:30:33,430 --> 00:30:37,038
So Raquel is playing
a starship officer,

731
00:30:37,038 --> 00:30:40,976
which is already odd because
most imperial officers are

732
00:30:40,976 --> 00:30:41,438
British.

733
00:30:41,438 --> 00:30:45,013
And she’s going to infiltrate
the Starship Musica to stop

734
00:30:45,013 --> 00:30:46,014
the Life Day celebration.

735
00:30:46,014 --> 00:30:47,378
Raquel, under the
guise of telling Lumpy

736
00:30:47,378 --> 00:30:50,381
a story with dance and gestures
about what drives a spaceship,

737
00:30:50,381 --> 00:30:54,858
dances her way into the
power supply room and screws

738
00:30:54,858 --> 00:30:55,694
everything up.

739
00:30:55,694 --> 00:31:00,765
This idea that Raquel Welch
is doing some performance

740
00:31:00,765 --> 00:31:03,229
art, Alvin Ailey kind of--

741
00:31:03,229 --> 00:31:07,266
she’s describing how a
spaceship works through dance?

742
00:31:07,266 --> 00:31:09,708
There’s a lot of
questions to be had here.

743
00:31:09,708 --> 00:31:10,434
Look, who am I to judge?

744
00:31:10,434 --> 00:31:12,238
But in reading this,
it feels like, hey,

745
00:31:12,238 --> 00:31:15,274
a nerdy guy who has maybe
a crush on Raquel Welch.

746
00:31:15,274 --> 00:31:17,012
He’s like, maybe
I get to meet her.

747
00:31:17,012 --> 00:31:18,310
Maybe she’ll be impressed by me.

748
00:31:18,310 --> 00:31:19,311
Maybe we’ll hit it off.

749
00:31:19,311 --> 00:31:20,246
We’ll go get a sandwich.

750
00:31:20,246 --> 00:31:21,082
Nothing weird.

751
00:31:21,082 --> 00:31:26,186
We spent one full 12-hour day
working with George Lucas,

752
00:31:26,186 --> 00:31:27,891
and that was worth everything.

753
00:31:27,891 --> 00:31:32,291
I mean, he was the most-intense,
most-focused person

754
00:31:32,291 --> 00:31:33,160
I had ever met.

755
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,768
I mean, we were so into it
that I forgot about lunch.

756
00:31:36,768 --> 00:31:38,902
And that’s infrequent for me.

757
00:31:38,902 --> 00:31:44,006
Then he told us the
mythology of the story.

758
00:31:44,006 --> 00:31:49,440
There was this Life Day.

759
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:50,507
[wookiee talk]

760
00:31:50,507 --> 00:31:52,476
I know your family’s waiting.

761
00:31:52,476 --> 00:31:53,510
[wookiee talk]

762
00:31:53,510 --> 00:31:55,820
I know it’s an important day.

763
00:31:55,820 --> 00:31:58,218
[wookiee talk]

764
00:31:58,218 --> 00:31:59,758
All right, we’ll give it a try.

765
00:31:59,758 --> 00:32:03,894
The story was Luke
and Leia were--

766
00:32:03,894 --> 00:32:08,800
and Han Solo were--
accompanying Chewbacca home

767
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,198
to his home planet for Life Day.

768
00:32:11,198 --> 00:32:13,233
Which was a holiday
George invented,

769
00:32:13,233 --> 00:32:15,268
and he thought it
would be like later

770
00:32:15,268 --> 00:32:18,942
"Festivus for the rest of
us" from Seinfeld would be.

771
00:32:18,942 --> 00:32:20,339
But not so much.

772
00:32:20,339 --> 00:32:21,208
Never happened.

773
00:32:21,208 --> 00:32:23,177
It was kind of a
Wookiee Rosh Hashanah.

774
00:32:23,177 --> 00:32:23,881
You know?

775
00:32:23,881 --> 00:32:26,378
I mean, it was the
biggest day of the year.

776
00:32:26,378 --> 00:32:28,380
The whole Life Day
with the Wookiees

777
00:32:28,380 --> 00:32:31,988
was something that George took
very seriously at the time

778
00:32:31,988 --> 00:32:34,353
and that also sort of
expanded the Star Wars

779
00:32:34,353 --> 00:32:37,521
universe in his first
major visual expansion.

780
00:32:37,521 --> 00:32:39,963
George didn’t choose
the storyline lightly.

781
00:32:39,963 --> 00:32:42,361
They wanted
Chewbacca’s family have

782
00:32:42,361 --> 00:32:48,070
exposure to show them as a
loving family of creatures.

783
00:32:48,070 --> 00:32:50,237
And to George Lucas,
this was real.

784
00:32:50,237 --> 00:32:52,074
I mean, you have to
remember, he had come up

785
00:32:52,074 --> 00:32:57,475
with at least a dozen stories,
so he knew what this was about.

786
00:32:57,475 --> 00:33:00,445
George met with the
writers on the special

787
00:33:00,445 --> 00:33:03,085
and actually showed
them a large binder--

788
00:33:03,085 --> 00:33:06,825
a Bible of sorts-- for
the universe, where

789
00:33:06,825 --> 00:33:09,520
we got to know a lot
more about the characters

790
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:11,126
that we didn’t know at the time.

791
00:33:11,126 --> 00:33:15,097
He was kind of like a
reporter sharing with us

792
00:33:15,097 --> 00:33:16,164
a world that we didn’t know.

793
00:33:16,164 --> 00:33:20,300
Obviously, we were going to get
to know a lot about Chewbacca’s

794
00:33:20,300 --> 00:33:21,906
home life on Kashyyyk.

795
00:33:21,906 --> 00:33:26,075
But there’s rumor that we
were even potentially going

796
00:33:26,075 --> 00:33:29,474
to learn more about Han Solo.

797
00:33:29,474 --> 00:33:33,016
You’re like family to me.

798
00:33:36,481 --> 00:33:37,449
[wookiee talk]

799
00:33:37,449 --> 00:33:40,287
He said that Han Solo
was married to a Wookiee,

800
00:33:40,287 --> 00:33:44,126
but we can’t say that because
people wouldn’t accept it.

801
00:33:44,126 --> 00:33:46,095
Family to me.

802
00:33:46,095 --> 00:33:49,032
That Wookiee looked at
you with-- with lust.

803
00:33:49,032 --> 00:33:49,626
That was--

804
00:33:49,626 --> 00:33:51,001
[laughter]

805
00:33:51,001 --> 00:33:52,233
Real affection.

806
00:33:52,233 --> 00:33:53,267
[laughter]

807
00:33:53,267 --> 00:33:55,874
No, Han was never married to--

808
00:33:55,874 --> 00:33:59,438
that’s-- that’s not true--

809
00:33:59,438 --> 00:34:01,011
That’s impossible!

810
00:34:01,011 --> 00:34:02,540
Uh, OK.

811
00:34:02,540 --> 00:34:07,281
Most of our work was with
the Chewbacca stuff, not

812
00:34:07,281 --> 00:34:08,183
the variety stuff.

813
00:34:08,183 --> 00:34:11,054
The variety parts we left blank.

814
00:34:11,054 --> 00:34:13,122
And originally the
special was going

815
00:34:13,122 --> 00:34:17,995
to be a one-hour special, which
was typical for those variety

816
00:34:17,995 --> 00:34:20,096
specials that the networks did.

817
00:34:20,096 --> 00:34:22,659
But as Star Wars was
more and more successful,

818
00:34:22,659 --> 00:34:27,466
CBS got more and more excited
and came back and said,

819
00:34:27,466 --> 00:34:29,072
can we do a 90-minute special?

820
00:34:29,072 --> 00:34:31,107
Can we do a two-hour special?

821
00:34:31,107 --> 00:34:32,405
Then I found out
what it actually

822
00:34:32,405 --> 00:34:36,310
was going to be once
we went to work.

823
00:34:36,310 --> 00:34:37,278
And so did George.

824
00:34:37,278 --> 00:34:39,676
And I think he was stunned.

825
00:34:39,676 --> 00:34:40,380
You know?

826
00:34:40,380 --> 00:34:42,085
I mean, we were
pretty clear that it

827
00:34:42,085 --> 00:34:44,351
was wonderful to spend
a day with Lucas,

828
00:34:44,351 --> 00:34:47,486
but we knew that we were
not going to spend any more

829
00:34:47,486 --> 00:34:48,652
time with him.

830
00:34:48,652 --> 00:34:49,356
You know?

831
00:34:49,356 --> 00:34:51,556
I mean, he had much
bigger fish to fry.

832
00:34:51,556 --> 00:34:53,228
George had detached himself.

833
00:34:53,228 --> 00:34:57,364
I don’t think he ever envisioned
a show with guest stars

834
00:34:57,364 --> 00:34:58,167
and numbers.

835
00:34:58,167 --> 00:35:01,940
Once again, we weren’t
creating the material.

836
00:35:01,940 --> 00:35:02,501
They were.

837
00:35:02,501 --> 00:35:04,041
We just sort of approved it.

838
00:35:04,041 --> 00:35:07,077
And then George got
busy with pre-production

839
00:35:07,077 --> 00:35:12,445
on The Empire Strikes Back, so
he got less and less involved

840
00:35:12,445 --> 00:35:14,480
with the holiday special.

841
00:35:18,649 --> 00:35:20,453
Smith-Hemion were the top.

842
00:35:20,453 --> 00:35:22,521
I mean, they had
92 Emmys, and they

843
00:35:22,521 --> 00:35:25,062
were famous for doing
really classy shows.

844
00:35:25,062 --> 00:35:28,296
And Smith-Hemion, who the
previous year had just done

845
00:35:28,296 --> 00:35:33,037
the iconic David Bowie Bing
Crosby Christmas special,

846
00:35:33,037 --> 00:35:34,104
which endures to this day--

847
00:35:34,104 --> 00:35:36,238
[BING CROSBY AND DAVID
BOWIE, "PEACE ON EARTH -
LITTLE DRUMMER BOY"]

848
00:35:36,238 --> 00:35:38,273
Peace on Earth, can it be?

849
00:35:38,273 --> 00:35:40,638
was put in charge of the
Star Wars Holiday Special.

850
00:35:40,638 --> 00:35:42,739
This was not really
in their wheelhouse.

851
00:35:42,739 --> 00:35:47,150
The first day I went to the set,
and nobody was paying attention

852
00:35:47,150 --> 00:35:49,988
to David Acomba because he
was kind of bouncing off

853
00:35:49,988 --> 00:35:50,989
the walls a little bit.

854
00:35:50,989 --> 00:35:52,683
It was a mixture of worlds,
and David’s approach

855
00:35:52,683 --> 00:35:57,490
was to try to do it documentary,
kind of one camera, even

856
00:35:57,490 --> 00:35:58,689
shaky camera kind of thing.

857
00:35:58,689 --> 00:36:00,163
And the production
company really

858
00:36:00,163 --> 00:36:03,430
wanted it to be multiple
camera more often because you

859
00:36:03,430 --> 00:36:04,398
could just get more done.

860
00:36:04,398 --> 00:36:06,235
This is not-- everything
was taking forever.

861
00:36:06,235 --> 00:36:09,370
And I remember the beginning
of the Star Wars show

862
00:36:09,370 --> 00:36:12,142
was just absolutely brutal.

863
00:36:12,142 --> 00:36:14,375
The hours were ridiculous.

864
00:36:14,375 --> 00:36:17,609
But now, let’s get
started, shall we?

865
00:36:17,609 --> 00:36:20,117
And Harvey Korman is
working his butt off,

866
00:36:20,117 --> 00:36:24,649
but ooh, boy, does he know
what he’s doing is not good.

867
00:36:24,649 --> 00:36:27,322
And Harvey would wear
anything I’d put on him.

868
00:36:27,322 --> 00:36:30,391
And he did like
to get into drag.

869
00:36:30,391 --> 00:36:37,563
He also dressed up as Julia
Child and did a bit as her.

870
00:36:37,563 --> 00:36:41,039
A bit of the chloranthum root.

871
00:36:41,039 --> 00:36:41,600
Wonderful.

872
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,107
Just adds that
touch of piquancy.

873
00:36:43,107 --> 00:36:44,603
I mean, Harvey has
a character called

874
00:36:44,603 --> 00:36:46,638
Mother Marcus on The
Carol Burnett Show,

875
00:36:46,638 --> 00:36:51,478
a big Jewish mama with big
boobs and really funny.

876
00:36:51,478 --> 00:36:54,712
And this is not that
far from that character.

877
00:36:54,712 --> 00:36:55,779
Consistency, don’t we?

878
00:36:55,779 --> 00:37:00,322
And on the count of 1,
stir, whip, stir, whip.

879
00:37:00,322 --> 00:37:01,488
Whip, whip, stir.

880
00:37:01,488 --> 00:37:03,622
Stir, whip, stir, whip.

881
00:37:03,622 --> 00:37:04,458
Whip, whip, stir.

882
00:37:04,458 --> 00:37:08,759
Sometimes when I’m cooking,
that does come to mind.

883
00:37:08,759 --> 00:37:10,761
Stir, whip, stir, whip.

884
00:37:10,761 --> 00:37:13,632
Ooh, coming along.

885
00:37:13,632 --> 00:37:14,402
Very nice.

886
00:37:14,402 --> 00:37:18,142
OK, Harvey Korman is in a
purple dress with silver hair

887
00:37:18,142 --> 00:37:21,673
and forearms, and that’s
still not the most weird thing

888
00:37:21,673 --> 00:37:23,114
that’s happening in this film.

889
00:37:23,114 --> 00:37:28,515
Harvey Korman is trying
to pick up Bea Arthur, uh,

890
00:37:28,515 --> 00:37:32,123
which is very disturbing.

891
00:37:32,123 --> 00:37:33,388
What’ll it be?

892
00:37:33,388 --> 00:37:34,785
Hello, Ackmena.

893
00:37:36,655 --> 00:37:38,327
Come back soon.

894
00:37:38,327 --> 00:37:39,790
I’ll be waiting.

895
00:37:39,790 --> 00:37:42,694
And to somehow make
the scene weirder,

896
00:37:42,694 --> 00:37:51,802
he has, like, a hole in his head
that he pours the drinks into.

897
00:37:51,802 --> 00:37:53,177
I don’t remember it.

898
00:37:53,177 --> 00:37:57,412
I just absolutely
eliminated it from my mind.

899
00:37:57,412 --> 00:37:59,117
It was too bizarre.

900
00:37:59,117 --> 00:38:01,218
It was too otherworldly.

901
00:38:01,218 --> 00:38:02,516
I couldn’t remember it.

902
00:38:02,516 --> 00:38:03,550
I didn’t know what it was.

903
00:38:03,550 --> 00:38:05,420
I couldn’t recognize myself.

904
00:38:05,420 --> 00:38:06,718
The only thing I
remember out of it

905
00:38:06,718 --> 00:38:09,523
was the fun of working
with Bea Arthur.

906
00:38:09,523 --> 00:38:12,592
I mean, we had fun, but I
don’t know what the hell

907
00:38:12,592 --> 00:38:13,560
that thing was about.

908
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:18,334
Some things are so contradictory
to the film that just came

909
00:38:18,334 --> 00:38:19,335
out and established it.

910
00:38:19,335 --> 00:38:21,337
Like, so, is this that cantina?

911
00:38:21,337 --> 00:38:24,736
Because it’s all the same
costumes and characters,

912
00:38:24,736 --> 00:38:27,442
but it’s not at all dangerous.

913
00:38:27,442 --> 00:38:28,146
Right?

914
00:38:28,146 --> 00:38:29,609
Like, that is the purpose
it serves in the film.

915
00:38:29,609 --> 00:38:33,184
This is the most dangerous
place, where arms are cut off,

916
00:38:33,184 --> 00:38:35,813
people are shot under
tables, and occasionally

917
00:38:35,813 --> 00:38:37,815
Beatrice Arthur will
break out into song.

918
00:38:37,815 --> 00:38:41,225
Bea wanted to sing
the "Alabama Song."

919
00:38:41,225 --> 00:38:42,622
She wanted to do a number.

920
00:38:42,622 --> 00:38:43,656
That was her proviso.

921
00:38:43,656 --> 00:38:45,790
They finally, I think,
went to the Brecht

922
00:38:45,790 --> 00:38:49,794
estate, which was not interested
in having the song done

923
00:38:49,794 --> 00:38:51,763
on the Star Wars
Holiday Special.

924
00:38:51,763 --> 00:38:52,896
Oh, and you know who was in it?

925
00:38:52,896 --> 00:39:00,178
Harvey Korman and I were
in a bar with aliens

926
00:39:00,178 --> 00:39:01,410
and strange-looking people.

927
00:39:01,410 --> 00:39:06,844
And it’s a lovely piece written
by Mitzie and Ken Welch.

928
00:39:06,844 --> 00:39:11,684
So Ken and Mitzie wrote a song
for Bea that was a lot like--

929
00:39:11,684 --> 00:39:14,258
(SINGING) those were
the days, my friend.

930
00:39:14,258 --> 00:39:15,226
We thought they’d never--

931
00:39:15,226 --> 00:39:18,526
which was like
an up version of--

932
00:39:18,526 --> 00:39:20,924
(SINGING) show me the way
to the next whiskey bar.

933
00:39:20,924 --> 00:39:24,961
and that’s what Bea winds
up singing on the show.

934
00:39:24,961 --> 00:39:28,767
(SINGING) Then
homeward bound, friend,

935
00:39:28,767 --> 00:39:32,408
don’t forget me in your dreams.

936
00:39:34,410 --> 00:39:36,742
It’s the cantina
music slowed down.

937
00:39:36,742 --> 00:39:41,219
But it’s so funny, because
none of us had lyrics to that.

938
00:39:41,219 --> 00:39:42,748
And then this
happens, and then kids

939
00:39:42,748 --> 00:39:46,455
are starting to sing it on
the playground and stuff.

940
00:39:46,455 --> 00:39:49,854
I was hired as a Wookiee.

941
00:39:49,854 --> 00:39:51,691
But I remember,
when I showed up,

942
00:39:51,691 --> 00:39:55,728
they had plenty of Wookiees,
and they were looking

943
00:39:55,728 --> 00:39:56,828
for someone that could dance.

944
00:39:56,828 --> 00:39:59,468
So the choreographer said, we’re
just going to pop you in here.

945
00:39:59,468 --> 00:40:01,338
You’re going to be
walrus man from now on.

946
00:40:01,338 --> 00:40:05,672
And I became walrus man, and I
got to dance with Bea Arthur.

947
00:40:05,672 --> 00:40:08,609
I think part of the
issue for that day

948
00:40:08,609 --> 00:40:11,315
was the fact that there
were so many people

949
00:40:11,315 --> 00:40:13,383
being fitted into costumes.

950
00:40:13,383 --> 00:40:14,549
That took hours.

951
00:40:14,549 --> 00:40:18,289
I mean, the Bea Arthur
thing took forever too.

952
00:40:18,289 --> 00:40:21,853
But that was because the
aliens kept fainting.

953
00:40:21,853 --> 00:40:25,725
Those costumes were pretty
hot, pretty unbearable.

954
00:40:25,725 --> 00:40:27,760
There is no oxygen
in these costumes.

955
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:29,366
You could not breathe
in these costumes.

956
00:40:29,366 --> 00:40:31,269
And this went on for hours,
and hours, and hours.

957
00:40:31,269 --> 00:40:35,372
Because it was like 103
degrees on the set, and you put

958
00:40:35,372 --> 00:40:39,002
those heads on, and it’s
kind of like waterboarding.

959
00:40:39,002 --> 00:40:42,511
I think had we not
stepped in, the actors--

960
00:40:42,511 --> 00:40:43,578
We would have killed them.

961
00:40:43,578 --> 00:40:45,481
David had no sense of--

962
00:40:45,481 --> 00:40:47,043
The fact that they
were suffocating.

963
00:40:47,043 --> 00:40:49,012
their needs as human beings.

964
00:40:49,012 --> 00:40:49,782
[laughter]

965
00:40:49,782 --> 00:40:51,047
My eyes were
supposed to be here,

966
00:40:51,047 --> 00:40:53,687
but I’m looking through
two little holes.

967
00:40:53,687 --> 00:40:56,019
I can’t see out of the holes.

968
00:40:56,019 --> 00:40:56,987
It’s like, OK?

969
00:40:56,987 --> 00:40:58,395
And then, I have to--

970
00:40:58,395 --> 00:40:59,561
and I don’t have hands.

971
00:40:59,561 --> 00:41:00,397
I have hooves.

972
00:41:00,397 --> 00:41:03,862
So it was just kind of
like, here, you go grab her.

973
00:41:03,862 --> 00:41:10,066
I felt my way down, and I just
kind of grabbed her wrists

974
00:41:10,066 --> 00:41:10,935
as best I could.

975
00:41:10,935 --> 00:41:13,410
And I just started
doing this with her.

976
00:41:13,410 --> 00:41:17,546
(SINGING)-- one
more dance, friend.

977
00:41:17,546 --> 00:41:18,415
Just one more--

978
00:41:18,415 --> 00:41:21,913
Kind of like L’chaim to life,
like from Fiddler on the Roof.

979
00:41:21,913 --> 00:41:23,651
That’s kind of that
two-step dance.

980
00:41:23,651 --> 00:41:29,393
So going, swaying back and forth
to the music with Bea Arthur.

981
00:41:29,393 --> 00:41:32,363
(SINGING) If you’re
a friend, friend.

982
00:41:32,363 --> 00:41:38,864
One part, it looks like
Bea Arthur is having

983
00:41:38,864 --> 00:41:41,064
an affair with a giant rat.

984
00:41:41,064 --> 00:41:47,774
Just one more drop, friend,
before we stop friends.

985
00:41:47,774 --> 00:41:51,745
And interestingly
enough, the gigantic rat

986
00:41:51,745 --> 00:41:55,749
was saying, oh my god,
get Bea Arthur off me.

987
00:41:55,749 --> 00:41:59,522
And there’s that scene where Bea
Arthur is like nuzzling a rat.

988
00:41:59,522 --> 00:42:02,492
Rick Baker actually used
that on another project.

989
00:42:02,492 --> 00:42:05,792
And it was from a film he’d
done two years ago, Food

990
00:42:05,792 --> 00:42:07,695
of the Gods--

991
00:42:12,700 --> 00:42:14,471
which is insane.

992
00:42:14,471 --> 00:42:15,901
So we got a lot of
remainder aliens

993
00:42:15,901 --> 00:42:21,412
that kind of had mill flaws,
so they looked fairly cheesy.

994
00:42:21,412 --> 00:42:23,744
So the idea was, don’t go
too close on any of them.

995
00:42:23,744 --> 00:42:27,847
I never gave it much thought
once we finished with it.

996
00:42:27,847 --> 00:42:31,653
But even to this
day, I get pictures

997
00:42:31,653 --> 00:42:36,086
that fans send of me in
the costume and everything.

998
00:42:36,086 --> 00:42:37,461
And please autograph it.

999
00:42:37,461 --> 00:42:39,056
I don’t remember
how long we went.

1000
00:42:39,056 --> 00:42:43,764
I just remember doing another
take, and then another take,

1001
00:42:43,764 --> 00:42:44,600
and another take.

1002
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:47,999
I’m not surprised if I
was there for 24 hours.

1003
00:42:47,999 --> 00:42:54,643
Is that a tear,
friend, in your eye?

1004
00:42:54,643 --> 00:42:56,073
And it wasn’t even that good.

1005
00:42:56,073 --> 00:43:00,748
Like once you saw
it, you went, wow.

1006
00:43:00,748 --> 00:43:01,452
You know?

1007
00:43:01,452 --> 00:43:05,082
They could have done that
in an hour or two hours.

1008
00:43:05,082 --> 00:43:08,085
Now, it’s good night, friend.

1009
00:43:08,085 --> 00:43:09,592
What?

1010
00:43:13,662 --> 00:43:14,531
I’m Bob Mackie.

1011
00:43:14,531 --> 00:43:15,895
Welcome aboard, Mr. Mackie.

1012
00:43:15,895 --> 00:43:16,896
I’m Captain Stubing.

1013
00:43:16,896 --> 00:43:18,095
It’s an honor to meet you.

1014
00:43:18,095 --> 00:43:19,030
Thank you, captain.

1015
00:43:19,030 --> 00:43:22,165
Mr. Mackie designs the gowns
for all the big TV stars.

1016
00:43:22,165 --> 00:43:24,838
Carol Burnett,
Ann-Margaret, Cher.

1017
00:43:24,838 --> 00:43:25,674
That’s right.

1018
00:43:25,674 --> 00:43:27,170
You’ve heard them say,
"clothes make the man?"

1019
00:43:27,170 --> 00:43:29,073
Well, I’m the man that
makes the clothes.

1020
00:43:29,073 --> 00:43:29,843
[laughter]

1021
00:43:29,843 --> 00:43:33,781
Well, I had heard enough people
enthusiastic about the Star

1022
00:43:33,781 --> 00:43:35,046
Wars Christmas Special.

1023
00:43:35,046 --> 00:43:38,753
And someone said-- and
they were talking about it,

1024
00:43:38,753 --> 00:43:41,019
and I said, oh, I designed that.

1025
00:43:41,019 --> 00:43:42,152
You did?

1026
00:43:42,152 --> 00:43:43,824
[gasps] really?

1027
00:43:43,824 --> 00:43:44,957
It was like that.

1028
00:43:44,957 --> 00:43:46,728
And I just went, oh, OK.

1029
00:43:46,728 --> 00:43:48,565
Well, I guess it
was more important

1030
00:43:48,565 --> 00:43:49,533
than I thought it was.

1031
00:43:49,533 --> 00:43:52,965
And when we walked in, they had
big drawings of the costumes.

1032
00:43:52,965 --> 00:43:54,934
And we saw the ones that
we would be wearing.

1033
00:43:54,934 --> 00:43:58,201
It was fantastic, and
Bob Mackie was there,

1034
00:43:58,201 --> 00:44:00,676
and we had to do fittings.

1035
00:44:00,676 --> 00:44:03,074
And Bob Mackie was there.

1036
00:44:03,074 --> 00:44:05,241
It was-- I was thrilled.

1037
00:44:05,241 --> 00:44:08,684
We had the acrobats,
and the gymnasts,

1038
00:44:08,684 --> 00:44:12,248
and all that whole group
of circus people, which

1039
00:44:12,248 --> 00:44:13,084
I loved doing.

1040
00:44:13,084 --> 00:44:14,657
So that was our
going to be our role.

1041
00:44:14,657 --> 00:44:18,056
We would be tumbling inside
this little music box

1042
00:44:18,056 --> 00:44:24,260
to entertain the baby
Chewbacca, Junior. (LAUGHING) I

1043
00:44:24,260 --> 00:44:26,966
don’t know what his name is.

1044
00:44:26,966 --> 00:44:27,670
Sorry.

1045
00:44:27,670 --> 00:44:31,509
It is very similar to a scene
my father did in a movie

1046
00:44:31,509 --> 00:44:34,644
many years prior to
that, Thief of Bagdad.

1047
00:44:34,644 --> 00:44:37,878
So in that one, pop was inside.

1048
00:44:37,878 --> 00:44:40,111
He was miniature, inside
a little music box.

1049
00:44:40,111 --> 00:44:43,818
And then I have to have
their heads cut off.

1050
00:44:43,818 --> 00:44:44,280
Oh!

1051
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:48,526
And in this particular movie,
we were going to be on a table,

1052
00:44:48,526 --> 00:44:50,121
like a flat surface.

1053
00:44:50,121 --> 00:44:54,158
And we were more like holograms.

1054
00:44:54,158 --> 00:44:55,698
I wanted to do them
in bright colors

1055
00:44:55,698 --> 00:45:00,263
because everything in that
film was like a neutral color.

1056
00:45:00,263 --> 00:45:05,268
You know, it’s all grays, and
taupes, and browns, and beiges,

1057
00:45:05,268 --> 00:45:07,974
and a little black,
and a little.

1058
00:45:07,974 --> 00:45:11,010
But basically no color really.

1059
00:45:11,010 --> 00:45:13,848
I guess in space they
don’t have color.

1060
00:45:13,848 --> 00:45:15,113
This is the girl--

1061
00:45:15,113 --> 00:45:16,246
the gymnast girl.

1062
00:45:16,246 --> 00:45:18,754
And it’s a whole body suit.

1063
00:45:18,754 --> 00:45:21,152
So anything-- any
time they moved,

1064
00:45:21,152 --> 00:45:23,187
the elastic would
move with them,

1065
00:45:23,187 --> 00:45:25,057
and it would stay in place.

1066
00:45:25,057 --> 00:45:31,129
And then the five of us
were in hot pink and Black.

1067
00:45:33,802 --> 00:45:38,169
That took a little getting used
to for tumbling in and doing

1068
00:45:38,169 --> 00:45:39,137
pyramids, climbing up.

1069
00:45:39,137 --> 00:45:41,843
Because I was the top man--

1070
00:45:41,843 --> 00:45:42,580
person.

1071
00:45:42,580 --> 00:45:44,615
So climbing up, and so they
wouldn’t get in your way.

1072
00:45:44,615 --> 00:45:50,214
So we had two jugglers, and they
were in the Spandex as well.

1073
00:45:50,214 --> 00:45:53,756
What better testament to
the mastery of John Williams

1074
00:45:53,756 --> 00:45:56,154
than whoever scored this
entire holiday special?

1075
00:45:56,154 --> 00:45:59,729
Because somebody came in with
a new Casio, like, synth sound.

1076
00:45:59,729 --> 00:46:02,831
And they’re like, you got to
let me flex this out, you guys.

1077
00:46:02,831 --> 00:46:05,966
I’m telling you, it’s
going to be timeless!

1078
00:46:05,966 --> 00:46:07,099
This is the first sketch I did.

1079
00:46:07,099 --> 00:46:13,611
And I wanted to have this kind
of Asian, half man, half bird

1080
00:46:13,611 --> 00:46:15,272
kind of situation.

1081
00:46:15,272 --> 00:46:16,240
And he’s still a warrior.

1082
00:46:16,240 --> 00:46:18,715
They’re all like warriors
of a certain kind.

1083
00:46:18,715 --> 00:46:23,016
He had this big tail that he
could whip around like a whip,

1084
00:46:23,016 --> 00:46:23,951
but it was attached.

1085
00:46:23,951 --> 00:46:26,624
And he had all these
pheasant feathers that

1086
00:46:26,624 --> 00:46:30,353
were dyed this green color.

1087
00:46:34,929 --> 00:46:36,161
Dance, slave.

1088
00:46:36,161 --> 00:46:37,294
Dance.

1089
00:46:37,294 --> 00:46:38,229
It was comfortable.

1090
00:46:38,229 --> 00:46:45,203
But only problem
was then bathroom.

1091
00:46:46,336 --> 00:46:48,646
Yeah, every once in a
while, someone will pop up

1092
00:46:48,646 --> 00:46:51,946
and they’ll want us to-- oh,
I bought all the costumes.

1093
00:46:51,946 --> 00:46:53,783
One of things I
love to collect are

1094
00:46:53,783 --> 00:46:56,346
when I have costume sketches
of an actual costume I own.

1095
00:46:56,346 --> 00:46:58,887
So this is the only costume I
own from the holiday special.

1096
00:46:58,887 --> 00:47:00,691
And this was very
exciting too, that, like,

1097
00:47:00,691 --> 00:47:02,385
when I saw the things
in the Julien’s auction,

1098
00:47:02,385 --> 00:47:05,762
I was like, that is one
I definitely have to win.

1099
00:47:05,762 --> 00:47:06,961
It’s been over 40 years.

1100
00:47:06,961 --> 00:47:09,161
There’s people are still
watching it online.

1101
00:47:09,161 --> 00:47:13,165
Like, it just-- yeah, it’s--
people still talk about it.

1102
00:47:13,165 --> 00:47:18,038
Jefferson Starship had this
song that was a deep cut.

1103
00:47:18,038 --> 00:47:20,711
It was the last song
of one of their albums

1104
00:47:20,711 --> 00:47:21,437
called "Hyperdrive."

1105
00:47:21,437 --> 00:47:24,880
Almost as if a producer
looked at a list of artists

1106
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:30,017
that were popular and then
called someone and said,

1107
00:47:30,017 --> 00:47:30,853
"Hyperdrive."

1108
00:47:30,853 --> 00:47:33,350
We have hyperdrive.

1109
00:47:33,350 --> 00:47:35,352
Call up this Jefferson Star--

1110
00:47:35,352 --> 00:47:36,188
Starship?

1111
00:47:36,188 --> 00:47:37,761
We have starships!

1112
00:47:37,761 --> 00:47:39,895
It’s as if it wrote itself.

1113
00:47:39,895 --> 00:47:40,390
Yeah.

1114
00:47:40,390 --> 00:47:42,766
So we recorded this song
"Light the Sky on Fire"

1115
00:47:42,766 --> 00:47:43,800
with Marty Bannon singing.

1116
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:47,837
And he was the main singer
because Grace was in rehab.

1117
00:47:47,837 --> 00:47:53,337
So we went ahead and ended up--
somehow we ended up on the Star

1118
00:47:53,337 --> 00:47:54,140
Wars Christmas--

1119
00:47:54,140 --> 00:47:56,406
Holiday Special-- it was
Christmas special we called it

1120
00:47:56,406 --> 00:47:57,209
at the time.

1121
00:47:57,209 --> 00:47:59,981
And none of us really
knew what was going on,

1122
00:47:59,981 --> 00:48:01,279
but we ended up playing there.

1123
00:48:01,279 --> 00:48:04,381
So when I found out that
Jefferson Starship was going

1124
00:48:04,381 --> 00:48:06,317
to be part of the
shoot-- we were actually

1125
00:48:06,317 --> 00:48:07,483
going to shoot a
number with them.

1126
00:48:07,483 --> 00:48:09,892
So I thought, oh, this is
going to be really cool.

1127
00:48:09,892 --> 00:48:11,190
We had a connection--
not really.

1128
00:48:11,190 --> 00:48:14,358
I mean, I didn’t know a lot
about what was going on.

1129
00:48:14,358 --> 00:48:17,735
I remember we were rehearsing
at Paul’s-- it was Grace’s house

1130
00:48:17,735 --> 00:48:21,134
over in San Francisco
overlooking the Bay.

1131
00:48:21,134 --> 00:48:22,135
It’s a beautiful house.

1132
00:48:22,135 --> 00:48:26,205
And Darth Vader came by, and
it was like a publicity thing.

1133
00:48:26,205 --> 00:48:27,371
Came by and took
some photographs,

1134
00:48:27,371 --> 00:48:30,044
and we got some photographs
of us hanging out

1135
00:48:30,044 --> 00:48:30,880
with Darth Vader.

1136
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,344
So we had some
relationship already.

1137
00:48:33,344 --> 00:48:35,478
Of course, I didn’t really
know what to expect.

1138
00:48:35,478 --> 00:48:40,417
I mean, I figured they had
their stuff together, you know?

1139
00:48:40,417 --> 00:48:42,023
[laughs]

1140
00:48:42,023 --> 00:48:42,958
It’s really bizarre.

1141
00:48:42,958 --> 00:48:46,456
It’s really bad,
bad special effects.

1142
00:48:46,456 --> 00:48:47,358
But you know what?

1143
00:48:47,358 --> 00:48:50,295
A lot of reviewers
in 1978 praised this.

1144
00:48:50,295 --> 00:48:53,034
They thought the special
effects in this thing

1145
00:48:53,034 --> 00:48:54,200
were the highlight of the show.

1146
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:59,777
Looking back on it now,
this can’t be a highlight.

1147
00:48:59,777 --> 00:49:00,404
It was a trip.

1148
00:49:00,404 --> 00:49:01,911
I remember a little
bit about it.

1149
00:49:01,911 --> 00:49:06,509
I mean, I remember they let us
loose in a room full of props,

1150
00:49:06,509 --> 00:49:08,885
like a costume
room kind of thing.

1151
00:49:08,885 --> 00:49:11,217
They said, just try
and make up an outfit.

1152
00:49:11,217 --> 00:49:13,516
No direction really,
just individually

1153
00:49:13,516 --> 00:49:15,023
make up anything you want.

1154
00:49:15,023 --> 00:49:16,156
And it just-- as
long as it looks

1155
00:49:16,156 --> 00:49:19,225
like it’s from another galaxy
or something or from the future.

1156
00:49:19,225 --> 00:49:21,161
I think the finished
product didn’t really

1157
00:49:21,161 --> 00:49:24,263
come out as if it was
a music video as much

1158
00:49:24,263 --> 00:49:25,330
as they thought it might.

1159
00:49:25,330 --> 00:49:28,069
I guess-- yeah, I
guess Art Carney--

1160
00:49:28,069 --> 00:49:29,367
it’s sort of
they’re interacting,

1161
00:49:29,367 --> 00:49:33,074
and it’s with his
wry humor with one

1162
00:49:33,074 --> 00:49:36,407
of the stormtrooper guys
sitting there in front

1163
00:49:36,407 --> 00:49:39,443
of this futuristic device.

1164
00:49:39,443 --> 00:49:41,379
Will you get on with it?

1165
00:49:41,379 --> 00:49:42,116
OK, OK.

1166
00:49:42,116 --> 00:49:44,052
And they press the button,
and then we start--

1167
00:49:44,052 --> 00:49:46,021
we’re suddenly,
there we are, playing

1168
00:49:46,021 --> 00:49:48,287
our song "Light the
Sky on Fire" with all

1169
00:49:48,287 --> 00:49:51,323
these weird, cheesy
effects all around.

1170
00:49:51,323 --> 00:49:57,263
And we’re all sort looking
like we’re from another galaxy

1171
00:49:57,263 --> 00:49:58,066
supposedly.

1172
00:49:58,066 --> 00:50:00,134
But we really probably didn’t.

1173
00:50:00,134 --> 00:50:01,135
We looked pretty silly.

1174
00:50:01,135 --> 00:50:02,939
[JEFFERSON STARSHIP, "LIGHT THE
SKY ON FIRE"]

1175
00:50:02,939 --> 00:50:05,304
Will you light the sky on fire.

1176
00:50:06,569 --> 00:50:12,575
Will you light the sky
on fire every night?

1177
00:50:12,575 --> 00:50:18,350
You can take me higher than
the diamonds in the sky.

1178
00:50:19,285 --> 00:50:22,222
We didn’t really know how
they were going to use it.

1179
00:50:22,222 --> 00:50:25,390
I’m not even certain they knew
how they were going to use it.

1180
00:50:25,390 --> 00:50:28,393
So eventually we started
just running behind

1181
00:50:28,393 --> 00:50:29,229
on that schedule.

1182
00:50:29,229 --> 00:50:31,968
And the more we ran
behind, the more the people

1183
00:50:31,968 --> 00:50:35,136
who are in the production
side of things with the money

1184
00:50:35,136 --> 00:50:36,104
got a little bit nervous.

1185
00:50:36,104 --> 00:50:38,634
And I remember that we
shot considerable amount

1186
00:50:38,634 --> 00:50:41,010
of the entire show
budget the first three

1187
00:50:41,010 --> 00:50:46,015
days of the production because
we were over into overtime

1188
00:50:46,015 --> 00:50:46,477
so much.

1189
00:50:46,477 --> 00:50:47,918
And the network freaked out.

1190
00:50:47,918 --> 00:50:49,986
Because they said,
this guy is going

1191
00:50:49,986 --> 00:50:51,515
to go over schedule,
over budget,

1192
00:50:51,515 --> 00:50:53,550
and then we’re going to
have to edit this thing,

1193
00:50:53,550 --> 00:50:56,025
and we won’t have what
we need, and all that.

1194
00:50:56,025 --> 00:50:58,159
And it went on to
the point where they

1195
00:50:58,159 --> 00:50:59,622
said we have to get rid of him.

1196
00:50:59,622 --> 00:51:01,426
We have to lose him.

1197
00:51:01,426 --> 00:51:05,001
[dramatic music]

1198
00:51:05,496 --> 00:51:08,004
One of the reasons
why I left was

1199
00:51:08,004 --> 00:51:11,073
that it just was not working.

1200
00:51:11,073 --> 00:51:11,568
You know?

1201
00:51:11,568 --> 00:51:15,473
And it was very confusing
because so many people

1202
00:51:15,473 --> 00:51:17,013
had their fingers in the pie.

1203
00:51:17,013 --> 00:51:19,576
And I’m not sure if
George understood

1204
00:51:19,576 --> 00:51:23,250
just what the difference
was between film

1205
00:51:23,250 --> 00:51:24,548
and television in the US.

1206
00:51:24,548 --> 00:51:26,550
Because I don’t think he
ever worked in television.

1207
00:51:26,550 --> 00:51:31,390
I don’t think George realized
that he picked the wrong format

1208
00:51:31,390 --> 00:51:33,359
in which to do these stories.

1209
00:51:33,359 --> 00:51:34,525
That wouldn’t happen today.

1210
00:51:34,525 --> 00:51:39,200
But then, 40 years ago,
this was the style.

1211
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:41,367
And so, it was
executed by people who

1212
00:51:41,367 --> 00:51:44,073
did these things all the time.

1213
00:51:44,073 --> 00:51:45,272
But I felt sorry for David.

1214
00:51:45,272 --> 00:51:47,604
Because he kind of
went back with his--

1215
00:51:47,604 --> 00:51:50,145
partially with his tail
tucked between his legs,

1216
00:51:50,145 --> 00:51:53,643
but partially with
the time-honored--

1217
00:51:53,643 --> 00:51:54,446
"it’s Hollywood.

1218
00:51:54,446 --> 00:51:56,052
They don’t know
what they’re doing.

1219
00:51:56,052 --> 00:51:57,482
No wonder everything
is such crap

1220
00:51:57,482 --> 00:51:59,022
when it comes out of Hollywood.

1221
00:51:59,022 --> 00:52:01,024
I’m going back to Toronto."

1222
00:52:01,024 --> 00:52:03,125
And he went back and did
some beautiful stuff.

1223
00:52:03,125 --> 00:52:09,032
I don’t want to answer any
more questions about the show.

1224
00:52:09,032 --> 00:52:09,494
OK?

1225
00:52:09,494 --> 00:52:12,233
It’s just-- it’s
just that simple.

1226
00:52:12,233 --> 00:52:12,728
You know?

1227
00:52:12,728 --> 00:52:14,400
You guys go ahead and
do whatever you want.

1228
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:17,139
You do whatever you want to
do with all the people you get

1229
00:52:17,139 --> 00:52:21,209
and all that, but I’m not
interested in contributing

1230
00:52:21,209 --> 00:52:24,542
to the story at all.

1231
00:52:26,313 --> 00:52:28,986
At that point, given
the amount of overtime

1232
00:52:28,986 --> 00:52:31,318
that they were creating and
how expensive that was all

1233
00:52:31,318 --> 00:52:35,751
becoming for the production
company, something very unusual

1234
00:52:35,751 --> 00:52:38,688
happened is that we
just hit the brakes

1235
00:52:38,688 --> 00:52:40,756
and we came to a complete stop.

1236
00:52:40,756 --> 00:52:44,364
When David left,
there were problems.

1237
00:52:44,364 --> 00:52:48,401
Because directors don’t leave
when things are going well.

1238
00:52:48,401 --> 00:52:52,471
So they were scrambling.

1239
00:52:52,471 --> 00:52:55,045
But we were out of
it at that point.

1240
00:52:55,045 --> 00:52:58,312
I mean Ken and Mitzie
apparently were on the set

1241
00:52:58,312 --> 00:53:01,612
every day working
with the show all day.

1242
00:53:01,612 --> 00:53:04,021
They put in an emergency
call into Steve Binder,

1243
00:53:04,021 --> 00:53:08,322
who was a terrific variety show
director who had done the Elvis

1244
00:53:08,322 --> 00:53:11,160
Comeback specials and
a lot of other stuff

1245
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:14,262
and who knew how
to direct a variety

1246
00:53:14,262 --> 00:53:15,461
show in the conventional way.

1247
00:53:15,461 --> 00:53:19,564
So when Gary phoned me at home,
and I said, what’s going on?

1248
00:53:19,564 --> 00:53:21,599
And he said, well, the
truth of the matter

1249
00:53:21,599 --> 00:53:28,804
is we started a two-hour
prime time special for CBS.

1250
00:53:28,804 --> 00:53:32,148
We’re way over
budget, and there’s

1251
00:53:32,148 --> 00:53:35,085
a decision being made right
now whether to continue

1252
00:53:35,085 --> 00:53:39,221
making the special or
shutting it down permanently.

1253
00:53:39,221 --> 00:53:41,520
He was replaced by
Steve Binder, who

1254
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:45,590
was really a top-notch guy
who knew what he was doing.

1255
00:53:45,590 --> 00:53:49,264
He brought a sense
of control that

1256
00:53:49,264 --> 00:53:51,530
was missing from the
production, I think,

1257
00:53:51,530 --> 00:53:54,368
which helped get
things back on track.

1258
00:53:54,368 --> 00:53:55,567
The budget was $1 million.

1259
00:53:55,567 --> 00:54:01,540
I don’t think that Steve had
the opportunity to really make

1260
00:54:01,540 --> 00:54:02,442
very many changes.

1261
00:54:02,442 --> 00:54:06,248
The way I saw it, for him,
it was pretty much triage.

1262
00:54:06,248 --> 00:54:07,414
[wookiee talk]

1263
00:54:07,414 --> 00:54:09,482
It’s long been said
that George had always

1264
00:54:09,482 --> 00:54:14,487
wanted to do a story
that focused specifically

1265
00:54:14,487 --> 00:54:18,128
on the Wookiee home planet.

1266
00:54:18,128 --> 00:54:19,096
I can’t tell you why.

1267
00:54:19,096 --> 00:54:22,462
That’s something that he
wanted to see on screen.

1268
00:54:22,462 --> 00:54:26,169
The origins of this
concept of a Wookiee family

1269
00:54:26,169 --> 00:54:27,302
can be traced back to Lucas.

1270
00:54:27,302 --> 00:54:30,701
I know there’s audio,
1976, and a brainstorming

1271
00:54:30,701 --> 00:54:32,142
session between
Alan Dean Foster,

1272
00:54:32,142 --> 00:54:36,344
George Lucas, and Charlie
Lippincott which was recorded.

1273
00:54:36,344 --> 00:54:39,875
[dramatic music]

1274
00:55:01,633 --> 00:55:05,472
Obviously, he didn’t go and
do that as a sequel concept.

1275
00:55:05,472 --> 00:55:08,211
But that idea
remained in his head.

1276
00:55:08,211 --> 00:55:10,411
And it seems like it was
the seed for the holiday

1277
00:55:10,411 --> 00:55:13,414
special, which he then
revisited several years later.

1278
00:55:13,414 --> 00:55:15,449
There was no way
it could be done.

1279
00:55:15,449 --> 00:55:16,912
It featured the Wookiees.

1280
00:55:16,912 --> 00:55:18,518
They were the
stars of the story.

1281
00:55:18,518 --> 00:55:21,521
And the Wookiees speak
no known language.

1282
00:55:21,521 --> 00:55:24,524
[wookiee talk]

1283
00:55:32,169 --> 00:55:35,370
This was in the era when
they wouldn’t put subtitles

1284
00:55:35,370 --> 00:55:39,242
on television because they
figured most of America

1285
00:55:39,242 --> 00:55:40,177
would not read them.

1286
00:55:40,177 --> 00:55:43,510
There’s a terrific YouTube
thing where someone has gone in

1287
00:55:43,510 --> 00:55:46,711
and added their own subtitles.

1288
00:55:46,711 --> 00:55:50,385
[wookiee talk]

1289
00:55:59,592 --> 00:56:01,297
Had we been able
to use subtitles,

1290
00:56:01,297 --> 00:56:02,364
it would have been a lot easier.

1291
00:56:02,364 --> 00:56:06,599
Because we could have had the
Wookiees interacting more.

1292
00:56:06,599 --> 00:56:07,435
But we didn’t.

1293
00:56:07,435 --> 00:56:10,636
Instead we had to have people
translating from the Wookiee

1294
00:56:10,636 --> 00:56:14,871
to English, which was an opening
for a lot of guest stars.

1295
00:56:14,871 --> 00:56:15,740
CBS liked that.

1296
00:56:15,740 --> 00:56:20,382
I suspect Art Carney didn’t
really know what Star Wars was.

1297
00:56:20,382 --> 00:56:22,912
And how are my favorite
Wookiees today?

1298
00:56:22,912 --> 00:56:25,354
[wookiee talk]

1299
00:56:25,354 --> 00:56:26,553
Why are the long, hairy faces?

1300
00:56:26,553 --> 00:56:29,853
Art Carney understood
the Wookiee language,

1301
00:56:29,853 --> 00:56:34,792
and he could translate so
the audience would understand

1302
00:56:34,792 --> 00:56:36,860
what they were talking about.

1303
00:56:36,860 --> 00:56:38,730
[wookiee talk]

1304
00:56:38,730 --> 00:56:41,568
Officer, maybe I could
be of some help here.

1305
00:56:41,568 --> 00:56:43,273
I found, in Art
Carney’s trailer,

1306
00:56:43,273 --> 00:56:46,441
he filled the shower
with ice, and then he

1307
00:56:46,441 --> 00:56:49,840
had bottles of different
kinds of alcohol

1308
00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:52,007
in the bottom of the trailer.

1309
00:56:52,007 --> 00:56:57,650
So when I met Art, he
was pleasant enough.

1310
00:56:57,650 --> 00:57:02,886
But I learned soon that I had
to shoot all of his scenes

1311
00:57:02,886 --> 00:57:03,722
early in the day.

1312
00:57:03,722 --> 00:57:06,021
That wherever he
went to eat lunch,

1313
00:57:06,021 --> 00:57:10,663
he may have had a little bit
too much to drink at the time.

1314
00:57:10,663 --> 00:57:12,467
It’s me, Saun Dann.

1315
00:57:12,467 --> 00:57:16,504
[wookiee talk]

1316
00:57:17,538 --> 00:57:19,639
God bless, Art Carney
and his character

1317
00:57:19,639 --> 00:57:25,040
of Saun Dann, where Saun Dann
brings gifts to the family,

1318
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:31,651
hands Itchy a mind
evaporator, which tells you

1319
00:57:31,651 --> 00:57:33,785
everything you need to
know about what they

1320
00:57:33,785 --> 00:57:36,788
thought VR would be for people.

1321
00:57:36,788 --> 00:57:40,693
Now then, Itchy, I thought
you might like this.

1322
00:57:40,693 --> 00:57:41,694
It’s one of those--

1323
00:57:41,694 --> 00:57:44,763
well, it’s a real-- it’s
kind of hard to explain.

1324
00:57:44,763 --> 00:57:47,931
It’s a wow!

1325
00:57:47,931 --> 00:57:48,866
If you know what I mean.

1326
00:57:48,866 --> 00:57:51,638
When you put this
helmet on, it attached

1327
00:57:51,638 --> 00:57:56,874
to a port that had been put
under your skin in your brain,

1328
00:57:56,874 --> 00:58:00,449
and it would realize
your fantasies.

1329
00:58:00,449 --> 00:58:02,715
So you could sit at
home in your chair,

1330
00:58:02,715 --> 00:58:06,521
and your fantasies would
play out in front of you.

1331
00:58:06,521 --> 00:58:07,918
Happy Life Day.

1332
00:58:10,789 --> 00:58:12,494
I do mean Happy Life Day.

1333
00:58:12,494 --> 00:58:15,497
So we were going to see
all the Wookiee’s dreams.

1334
00:58:15,497 --> 00:58:19,666
So itchy, the silverback
Wookiee, had a fantasy.

1335
00:58:19,666 --> 00:58:21,668
It was supposed
to be about Cher,

1336
00:58:21,668 --> 00:58:24,704
but Cher suddenly
couldn’t do it.

1337
00:58:24,704 --> 00:58:26,541
And so, Diane
Carroll stepped in.

1338
00:58:26,541 --> 00:58:30,006
And Diane fit into the
Bob Mackie costume.

1339
00:58:30,006 --> 00:58:31,975
I exist for you.

1340
00:58:31,975 --> 00:58:36,980
I am in your mind
as you create me.

1341
00:58:36,980 --> 00:58:39,521
Oh, yes.

1342
00:58:39,521 --> 00:58:41,116
I can feel my creation.

1343
00:58:41,116 --> 00:58:45,725
[giggles] I’m
getting your message.

1344
00:58:45,725 --> 00:58:47,023
Are you getting mine?

1345
00:58:47,023 --> 00:58:47,859
[wookiee talk]

1346
00:58:47,859 --> 00:58:52,864
In what world, planet,
galaxy, in any time,

1347
00:58:52,864 --> 00:58:54,965
has anybody ever
wanted their grandpa

1348
00:58:54,965 --> 00:58:57,803
to enjoy porn in the
middle of the living room?

1349
00:58:57,803 --> 00:59:05,514
That’s the least believable
thing in a holiday special.

1350
00:59:05,514 --> 00:59:06,845
Oh.

1351
00:59:06,845 --> 00:59:10,717
We are excited, aren’t we?

1352
00:59:10,717 --> 00:59:11,982
Well, just relax.

1353
00:59:11,982 --> 00:59:13,148
Just relax.

1354
00:59:13,148 --> 00:59:15,117
Yes.

1355
00:59:16,151 --> 00:59:21,464
It’s him watching humans or
aliens that are not Wookiees.

1356
00:59:21,464 --> 00:59:22,498
And we had to be careful--

1357
00:59:22,498 --> 00:59:26,766
I remember this-- not to make
it too racy for the grandfather

1358
00:59:26,766 --> 00:59:27,569
with Diane.

1359
00:59:27,569 --> 00:59:28,438
(LAUGHING) Yes.

1360
00:59:28,438 --> 00:59:31,870
You know, I didn’t have
approval of anything,

1361
00:59:31,870 --> 00:59:34,972
but that just seemed wrong.

1362
00:59:34,972 --> 00:59:36,941
But I didn’t see that
when I was a kid.

1363
00:59:36,941 --> 00:59:41,979
All I saw was, why isn’t
Han Solo on the screen?

1364
00:59:41,979 --> 00:59:44,454
Why can’t we see
the real Chewie?

1365
00:59:44,454 --> 00:59:46,456
Chewie’s family sucks!

1366
00:59:46,456 --> 00:59:50,955
Now, we can have a good time.

1367
00:59:50,955 --> 00:59:53,056
Can’t we?

1368
00:59:53,056 --> 00:59:54,057
And it’s cringe-worthy.

1369
00:59:54,057 --> 00:59:59,766
Because as he sits there
and rewinds, and replays,

1370
00:59:59,766 --> 01:00:02,197
and rewinds, and replays.

1371
01:00:02,197 --> 01:00:09,710
I find you adorable.

1372
01:00:09,710 --> 01:00:14,451
And then goes into a song
that Itchy enjoys thoroughly.

1373
01:00:14,451 --> 01:00:17,080
(SINGING) This minute now.

1374
01:00:17,080 --> 01:00:27,080
This minute now.

1375
01:00:36,473 --> 01:00:37,639
This was not made for children.

1376
01:00:37,639 --> 01:00:41,038
Whoever the creative team was in
charge of the Star Wars Holiday

1377
01:00:41,038 --> 01:00:44,547
Special has zero time for
children’s entertainment.

1378
01:00:44,547 --> 01:00:47,682
They’re like, uh, uh, uh,
I saw that Star Wars movie,

1379
01:00:47,682 --> 01:00:51,851
and there wasn’t enough
VR Wookiee porn for me.

1380
01:00:51,851 --> 01:00:53,919
[wookiee talk]

1381
01:00:53,919 --> 01:00:55,052
Where’s Chewbacca?

1382
01:00:55,052 --> 01:00:55,888
[wookiee talk]

1383
01:00:55,888 --> 01:00:58,693
When you were on the
Wookiee home planet,

1384
01:00:58,693 --> 01:01:01,795
how did you even understand
what they were saying?

1385
01:01:01,795 --> 01:01:05,700
I don’t remember ever being
on a Wookiee home planet.

1386
01:01:05,700 --> 01:01:06,261
[laughter]

1387
01:01:06,261 --> 01:01:09,605
Actually, Luke was on the
Wookiee home planet Kashyyyk

1388
01:01:09,605 --> 01:01:11,871
in the Holiday
Special when he helped

1389
01:01:11,871 --> 01:01:13,741
Chewie get home to his wife.

1390
01:01:13,741 --> 01:01:15,941
[laughter]

1391
01:01:15,941 --> 01:01:18,812
Chewie had a wife?

1392
01:01:18,812 --> 01:01:20,209
Her name is Malla.

1393
01:01:20,209 --> 01:01:21,078
Come on, Malla.

1394
01:01:21,078 --> 01:01:22,882
Let’s see a little smile.

1395
01:01:22,882 --> 01:01:24,554
Come on.

1396
01:01:24,554 --> 01:01:26,787
Mark Hamill’s makeup
in the holiday special

1397
01:01:26,787 --> 01:01:31,528
rivals Huey Lewis’s makeup in
the "Do You Believe in Love"

1398
01:01:31,528 --> 01:01:32,023
video.

1399
01:01:32,023 --> 01:01:34,927
We always thought it was because
Mark Hamill was covering up

1400
01:01:34,927 --> 01:01:37,094
a scar, like the plastic
surgery didn’t heal.

1401
01:01:37,094 --> 01:01:40,834
And that’s why they added
that wampa capture scene,

1402
01:01:40,834 --> 01:01:45,003
because they needed to
show why Luke Skywalker had

1403
01:01:45,003 --> 01:01:46,301
a scar on his face.

1404
01:01:46,301 --> 01:01:47,610
Now, decades pass.

1405
01:01:47,610 --> 01:01:49,612
We find out that
that’s not true at all.

1406
01:01:49,612 --> 01:01:51,240
But that really wasn’t
the main emphasis

1407
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:53,616
of why we wrote the
monster in the beginning.

1408
01:01:53,616 --> 01:01:56,883
It was just we needed something
to kind of keep the film

1409
01:01:56,883 --> 01:02:01,085
suspenseful at the beginning
while the empire is

1410
01:02:01,085 --> 01:02:01,921
finding them.

1411
01:02:01,921 --> 01:02:03,989
But the truth is,
it’s just bad makeup.

1412
01:02:03,989 --> 01:02:07,289
These are Tony producers
making this special.

1413
01:02:07,289 --> 01:02:11,700
They are used to caking on
the makeup for musicals,

1414
01:02:11,700 --> 01:02:12,899
for stage performances.

1415
01:02:12,899 --> 01:02:14,571
Also, you have to
remember the degradation

1416
01:02:14,571 --> 01:02:17,332
of each copy of the holiday
special gets worse and worse

1417
01:02:17,332 --> 01:02:19,906
and worse, which means
the coloring is not

1418
01:02:19,906 --> 01:02:20,874
going to be corrected.

1419
01:02:20,874 --> 01:02:24,108
Over the period of
years, it’s built up

1420
01:02:24,108 --> 01:02:26,583
into having my
face reconstructed

1421
01:02:26,583 --> 01:02:28,585
with plastic surgery.

1422
01:02:28,585 --> 01:02:32,622
George told us that
he had 10 stories

1423
01:02:32,622 --> 01:02:34,184
that he had come
up with, and he was

1424
01:02:34,184 --> 01:02:35,724
planning on making six movies.

1425
01:02:35,724 --> 01:02:39,222
And he had four other
stories that he was

1426
01:02:39,222 --> 01:02:40,729
putting in different places.

1427
01:02:40,729 --> 01:02:43,930
And one of them was Boba
Fett, but he hadn’t quite

1428
01:02:43,930 --> 01:02:46,735
figured out what Boba Fett’s
story was going to be.

1429
01:02:46,735 --> 01:02:49,672
So he took his
pilot version of it

1430
01:02:49,672 --> 01:02:53,610
and made it an animated thing
and was going to inserted it

1431
01:02:53,610 --> 01:02:54,303
into this special.

1432
01:02:54,303 --> 01:02:57,878
They were doing this
holiday special,

1433
01:02:57,878 --> 01:03:01,244
and there wasn’t much
of our involvement,

1434
01:03:01,244 --> 01:03:04,984
but I came up with the idea,
why don’t we take the Boba Fett

1435
01:03:04,984 --> 01:03:06,722
character and put him in that.

1436
01:03:06,722 --> 01:03:08,317
Make a little movie out of it.

1437
01:03:08,317 --> 01:03:09,824
I am Boba Fett.

1438
01:03:09,824 --> 01:03:10,726
Follow me, friend.

1439
01:03:10,726 --> 01:03:12,860
After Return of the Jedi,
all the Tim Zahn novels,

1440
01:03:12,860 --> 01:03:15,159
all the Dark Horse comics,
like all of this content

1441
01:03:15,159 --> 01:03:17,931
came out about how
awesome Boba Fett was.

1442
01:03:17,931 --> 01:03:21,132
But it all starts
with that animation

1443
01:03:21,132 --> 01:03:23,002
in the holiday special.

1444
01:03:23,002 --> 01:03:24,674
The animated bit,
which I think was

1445
01:03:24,674 --> 01:03:26,775
done by Nelvana, which is
a Canadian company that

1446
01:03:26,775 --> 01:03:30,405
eventually did the Droids
and Ewoks TV series.

1447
01:03:30,405 --> 01:03:36,950
George had seen a special that
we did called Cosmic Christmas

1448
01:03:36,950 --> 01:03:39,150
and really liked it.

1449
01:03:39,150 --> 01:03:43,792
And so, when he was working
with David Acomba, who

1450
01:03:43,792 --> 01:03:46,058
was a mutual friend,
you know, David

1451
01:03:46,058 --> 01:03:49,798
had suggested that we might be
good for the Star Wars special.

1452
01:03:49,798 --> 01:03:52,295
That was how the
relationship all started.

1453
01:03:52,295 --> 01:03:55,969
So the cartoon that’s contained
within the holiday special

1454
01:03:55,969 --> 01:03:59,335
is this kind of short,
10 or 11-minute cartoon,

1455
01:03:59,335 --> 01:04:01,205
subtitled "The
Faithful Wookiee."

1456
01:04:01,205 --> 01:04:03,977
And it’s the story
about how the rebels are

1457
01:04:03,977 --> 01:04:06,815
looking for Han Solo and
Chewbacca who have disappeared.

1458
01:04:06,815 --> 01:04:11,314
They find them, and they’ve
been affected by this sleeping

1459
01:04:11,314 --> 01:04:12,447
virus that only affects humans.

1460
01:04:12,447 --> 01:04:15,956
And as soon as they discover
it, Luke gets infected.

1461
01:04:15,956 --> 01:04:19,421
And then it’s up to
Chewbacca and the droids

1462
01:04:19,421 --> 01:04:21,423
to try and rescue them.

1463
01:04:21,423 --> 01:04:22,897
And it was written by George.

1464
01:04:22,897 --> 01:04:25,427
And I loved the
roughness of Star Wars.

1465
01:04:25,427 --> 01:04:29,871
I loved the fact that everything
was beaten up and lived in.

1466
01:04:29,871 --> 01:04:32,434
We wanted to get that
kind of real world quality

1467
01:04:32,434 --> 01:04:35,712
into the animation too and
not make it too pristine.

1468
01:04:35,712 --> 01:04:40,882
It was a little bit
loosely based on Moebius.

1469
01:04:40,882 --> 01:04:42,477
George wanted the
style of Moebius,

1470
01:04:42,477 --> 01:04:45,755
who was a famous science
fiction Illustrator.

1471
01:04:45,755 --> 01:04:49,825
And so, that was the
inspiration for the style

1472
01:04:49,825 --> 01:04:50,727
of the characters.

1473
01:04:50,727 --> 01:04:53,488
That style of animation,
that like nearly rotoscoped,

1474
01:04:53,488 --> 01:04:56,326
everything that was vogue
in animation in that era,

1475
01:04:56,326 --> 01:04:59,736
it was that applied
to Star Wars.

1476
01:04:59,736 --> 01:05:00,363
But it was crazy.

1477
01:05:00,363 --> 01:05:03,938
Like, this was-- there’s
nothing like it, that animated

1478
01:05:03,938 --> 01:05:04,433
sequence.

1479
01:05:04,433 --> 01:05:06,875
To me, to this day,
even if I don’t--

1480
01:05:06,875 --> 01:05:08,437
I know what the
holiday special is.

1481
01:05:08,437 --> 01:05:11,308
I know it’s crazy
and kind of a mess.

1482
01:05:11,308 --> 01:05:15,081
But I still point to
that animated bit and go,

1483
01:05:15,081 --> 01:05:16,214
this is crazy.

1484
01:05:16,214 --> 01:05:17,347
Like, this is just vibrant.

1485
01:05:17,347 --> 01:05:21,186
But I love the introduction
of Boba Fett and that rifle

1486
01:05:21,186 --> 01:05:21,989
that he had.

1487
01:05:21,989 --> 01:05:23,991
That animated piece
still holds up.

1488
01:05:23,991 --> 01:05:24,827
It’s pretty cool.

1489
01:05:24,827 --> 01:05:26,092
And I draw
inspiration from that.

1490
01:05:26,092 --> 01:05:30,360
Jon Favreau has declared himself
a fan of the Star Wars Holiday

1491
01:05:30,360 --> 01:05:32,461
Special and he made
a concerted effort

1492
01:05:32,461 --> 01:05:36,036
to put lots of little Easter
eggs and little references

1493
01:05:36,036 --> 01:05:38,401
to the holiday special
throughout The Mandalorian.

1494
01:05:38,401 --> 01:05:41,140
Because we all ordered
the Boba Fett figure

1495
01:05:41,140 --> 01:05:42,405
by sending in our
proofs of purchase

1496
01:05:42,405 --> 01:05:45,881
from the back of the package,
and we got this figure

1497
01:05:45,881 --> 01:05:47,278
before he ever
appeared on screen.

1498
01:05:47,278 --> 01:05:51,315
You could get Boba Fett in the
mail before the movie came out.

1499
01:05:51,315 --> 01:05:52,822
So at the time,
the action figure

1500
01:05:52,822 --> 01:05:56,419
Boba Fett was supposed to have
a little rocket that fired out

1501
01:05:56,419 --> 01:05:57,288
of the jetpack.

1502
01:05:57,288 --> 01:05:58,553
But there were a
lot of safety issues

1503
01:05:58,553 --> 01:06:01,193
at the time with a lot of toys
that came out then that had

1504
01:06:01,193 --> 01:06:02,799
that rocket-firing feature.

1505
01:06:02,799 --> 01:06:04,933
And so, they never
made it that way.

1506
01:06:04,933 --> 01:06:08,200
His toy is so badass,
it might kill me.

1507
01:06:08,200 --> 01:06:10,268
They had to include
the rocket in.

1508
01:06:10,268 --> 01:06:14,107
And so, a generation of
kids were like, whoa,

1509
01:06:14,107 --> 01:06:14,910
who is this guy?

1510
01:06:14,910 --> 01:06:16,109
And the only time
we’d seen him was

1511
01:06:16,109 --> 01:06:18,144
in the holiday special,
which you know well

1512
01:06:18,144 --> 01:06:19,211
because you put the gun in.

1513
01:06:19,211 --> 01:06:22,577
So the forked rifle that
the Mandalorian carries

1514
01:06:22,577 --> 01:06:24,414
is a direct reference
to the holiday special,

1515
01:06:24,414 --> 01:06:29,353
because Boba Fett does not have
that weapon when he appears

1516
01:06:29,353 --> 01:06:30,420
in The Empire Strikes Back.

1517
01:06:30,420 --> 01:06:31,894
So it’s not in
any of the movies.

1518
01:06:31,894 --> 01:06:34,490
It’s only in the Star
Wars Holiday Special.

1519
01:06:34,490 --> 01:06:38,263
I remember when you were all
proud when George came to set.

1520
01:06:38,263 --> 01:06:40,001
Did you see the gun we have?

1521
01:06:40,001 --> 01:06:40,496
Yeah.

1522
01:06:40,496 --> 01:06:43,136
Do you know that
was a homage too.

1523
01:06:43,136 --> 01:06:44,533
That cannon, right?

1524
01:06:44,533 --> 01:06:45,875
Because you wrote it.

1525
01:06:45,875 --> 01:06:46,469
Not really.

1526
01:06:46,469 --> 01:06:48,372
You said, hey, we put that gun
in from the holiday special.

1527
01:06:48,372 --> 01:06:51,177
And he goes, oh, I had
nothing to do with that.

1528
01:06:51,177 --> 01:06:52,112
[laughter]

1529
01:06:52,112 --> 01:06:57,018
One thing people love to talk
about in terms of Chewbacca’s

1530
01:06:57,018 --> 01:07:00,285
role and how important he
was at the end of Star Wars,

1531
01:07:00,285 --> 01:07:01,451
and how important
he may have even

1532
01:07:01,451 --> 01:07:05,158
been seen by the filmmakers
at the end of Star Wars,

1533
01:07:05,158 --> 01:07:07,391
is that you give
Han Solo a medal,

1534
01:07:07,391 --> 01:07:09,129
and you give Luke
Skywalker a medal,

1535
01:07:09,129 --> 01:07:11,593
but Chewbacca only gets
a chance to stand up

1536
01:07:11,593 --> 01:07:14,431
on the platform and roar
at the end of Star Wars.

1537
01:07:14,431 --> 01:07:17,907
There was a question--
why didn’t Chewbacca

1538
01:07:17,907 --> 01:07:21,174
get a medal at the
end of Star Wars?

1539
01:07:21,174 --> 01:07:26,245
And George’s answer
to that was Wookiees

1540
01:07:26,245 --> 01:07:28,379
don’t want-- he
didn’t want a medal.

1541
01:07:28,379 --> 01:07:32,218
But his reward was that
Han would take them

1542
01:07:32,218 --> 01:07:36,552
back to his home planet
for Life Day celebration.

1543
01:07:36,552 --> 01:07:40,160
So on the very last day
of shooting, from day one

1544
01:07:40,160 --> 01:07:41,326
when I arrived at
Warner Brothers,

1545
01:07:41,326 --> 01:07:43,064
I was curious how we
were going to approach

1546
01:07:43,064 --> 01:07:46,232
shooting the finale, which
has not only the original

1547
01:07:46,232 --> 01:07:51,270
cast from Star Wars I the movie,
but also about 100 extras.

1548
01:07:51,270 --> 01:07:52,909
They saved all this
money by not having

1549
01:07:52,909 --> 01:07:56,671
to suit them by just dressing
them in these robes--

1550
01:07:56,671 --> 01:07:58,310
these honorary Life Day robes.

1551
01:07:58,310 --> 01:08:03,546
And they’re all parading through
while Carrie sings her song.

1552
01:08:03,546 --> 01:08:05,581
And that song that I sing--

1553
01:08:05,581 --> 01:08:12,621
(SINGING) We celebrate
a day of peace.

1554
01:08:12,621 --> 01:08:15,426
(SINGING)--a day of harmony.

1555
01:08:17,230 --> 01:08:20,002
She wasn’t-- she
wasn’t a great singer.

1556
01:08:20,002 --> 01:08:25,172
But the song was apparently
the deciding factor

1557
01:08:25,172 --> 01:08:28,142
in getting her onto the show.

1558
01:08:28,142 --> 01:08:31,607
Just the set itself
looked so fake.

1559
01:08:31,607 --> 01:08:32,311
You know?

1560
01:08:32,311 --> 01:08:34,676
Film is very
forgiving, especially

1561
01:08:34,676 --> 01:08:36,117
if it’s lit properly.

1562
01:08:36,117 --> 01:08:39,989
But this just looked so cheesy.

1563
01:08:39,989 --> 01:08:41,650
I called my art director in.

1564
01:08:41,650 --> 01:08:44,554
What’s the set for
the big finale?

1565
01:08:44,554 --> 01:08:47,128
And he looked at me straight
in the eye, and he said,

1566
01:08:47,128 --> 01:08:51,297
Steve, I hate to break it to
you, but we’re out of money.

1567
01:08:51,297 --> 01:08:53,200
We have no set for the finale.

1568
01:08:53,200 --> 01:08:56,269
I want you to go into
Hollywood, go to every candle

1569
01:08:56,269 --> 01:08:59,173
store you can find,
and buy every candle

1570
01:08:59,173 --> 01:09:00,108
they have in their shop.

1571
01:09:00,108 --> 01:09:03,474
So the night before we
actually shot the finale,

1572
01:09:03,474 --> 01:09:08,215
we placed fat candles,
thin candles, tall candles,

1573
01:09:08,215 --> 01:09:12,153
short candles all over
the floor of the stage.

1574
01:09:12,153 --> 01:09:17,158
And we spent the morning of
the actual shoot lighting

1575
01:09:17,158 --> 01:09:18,489
all of these candles.

1576
01:09:18,489 --> 01:09:19,996
The end of this
movie is basically

1577
01:09:19,996 --> 01:09:23,626
like the Heaven’s Gate cult
occurs to the Wookiee family.

1578
01:09:23,626 --> 01:09:26,035
(LAUGHING) Like, they all--

1579
01:09:26,035 --> 01:09:26,530
right?

1580
01:09:26,530 --> 01:09:29,533
Like, they start singing a song,
they hold up their light orbs,

1581
01:09:29,533 --> 01:09:32,767
and clearly they die and
ascend to a new realm

1582
01:09:32,767 --> 01:09:36,144
where they enter the tail
of the Hale-Bopp comet.

1583
01:09:36,144 --> 01:09:37,343
I think that’s what it--

1584
01:09:37,343 --> 01:09:38,410
I think that’s what’s happening.

1585
01:09:38,410 --> 01:09:42,480
The line producers of the
Star Wars Holiday Special

1586
01:09:42,480 --> 01:09:43,679
were Ken and Mitzie Welch.

1587
01:09:43,679 --> 01:09:46,220
They admittedly came
to me and said, hey,

1588
01:09:46,220 --> 01:09:48,486
we’ve never produced
anything like this.

1589
01:09:48,486 --> 01:09:52,556
Miki was the point person
between Lucasfilm, and CBS,

1590
01:09:52,556 --> 01:09:55,328
and the production
company, Smith-Hemion,

1591
01:09:55,328 --> 01:09:58,496
that was actually
making the special.

1592
01:09:58,496 --> 01:10:00,729
We couldn’t tell
them what to do.

1593
01:10:00,729 --> 01:10:04,766
I mean, that was their project,
their show, and they didn’t--

1594
01:10:04,766 --> 01:10:06,768
it was, like, out of control.

1595
01:10:06,768 --> 01:10:11,080
I told Gary if I came in
to direct and help put

1596
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:15,414
the fire out, the one thing
I would not be available

1597
01:10:15,414 --> 01:10:18,681
was I had a show to go to,
I was already committed to.

1598
01:10:18,681 --> 01:10:23,290
I would not be able to
participate in one day or one

1599
01:10:23,290 --> 01:10:24,192
second of editing.

1600
01:10:24,192 --> 01:10:26,260
But we weren’t in--
you have to understand,

1601
01:10:26,260 --> 01:10:27,756
we weren’t in the
loop at that point.

1602
01:10:27,756 --> 01:10:31,793
I mean, at that point, it was
Ken and Mitzie Welch’s show.

1603
01:10:31,793 --> 01:10:35,698
Ken and Mitzie were
variety show producers,

1604
01:10:35,698 --> 01:10:39,075
but they didn’t know anything
about science fiction,

1605
01:10:39,075 --> 01:10:42,606
and they didn’t
know how to edit.

1606
01:10:42,606 --> 01:10:47,182
I had never edited
anything in my life.

1607
01:10:47,182 --> 01:10:47,743
You know?

1608
01:10:47,743 --> 01:10:48,579
I write.

1609
01:10:48,579 --> 01:10:49,514
I’ll never forget this--

1610
01:10:49,514 --> 01:10:54,651
I saw all of those tapes, and I
thought, what am I going to do?

1611
01:10:54,651 --> 01:10:57,357
And I do remember,
I burst into tears.

1612
01:10:57,357 --> 01:11:02,494
I have never ever not edited any
of my shows other than the Star

1613
01:11:02,494 --> 01:11:04,298
Wars Holiday Special.

1614
01:11:04,298 --> 01:11:06,201
And to this day, I regret it.

1615
01:11:06,201 --> 01:11:07,169
I’m sorry I wasn’t there.

1616
01:11:07,169 --> 01:11:10,139
Because I knew it would
fall on Mitzie and Ken,

1617
01:11:10,139 --> 01:11:12,537
and I knew they had
zero experience.

1618
01:11:12,537 --> 01:11:14,770
They were there to
get the show done.

1619
01:11:14,770 --> 01:11:17,344
It would never have
gotten done otherwise.

1620
01:11:17,344 --> 01:11:19,478
But we were in contact
with George Lucas,

1621
01:11:19,478 --> 01:11:21,843
and he knew what
he wanted in terms

1622
01:11:21,843 --> 01:11:24,219
of the look and everything.

1623
01:11:24,219 --> 01:11:25,121
Yeah, Miki Herman.

1624
01:11:25,121 --> 01:11:26,749
She was our liaison with--

1625
01:11:26,749 --> 01:11:27,585
That’s right.

1626
01:11:27,585 --> 01:11:28,289
George.

1627
01:11:28,289 --> 01:11:30,489
She was there all
the time, every day.

1628
01:11:30,489 --> 01:11:31,853
And there in editing too.

1629
01:11:31,853 --> 01:11:32,821
And in editing, yeah.

1630
01:11:32,821 --> 01:11:37,430
They just left it up to
the variety show producers.

1631
01:11:37,430 --> 01:11:42,765
And, you know,
they regretted it.

1632
01:11:42,765 --> 01:11:43,898
[dramatic music]

1633
01:11:43,898 --> 01:11:47,407
On Friday night, blast off
to a galaxy far, far away.

1634
01:11:47,407 --> 01:11:50,542
It’s the Star Wars
Holiday Special.

1635
01:11:50,542 --> 01:11:51,312
You’re on.

1636
01:11:51,312 --> 01:11:53,182
So we would throw a
Thanksgiving for the lost

1637
01:11:53,182 --> 01:11:56,218
boys-- for all the people
who couldn’t go home.

1638
01:11:56,218 --> 01:11:57,318
So that was the night before.

1639
01:11:57,318 --> 01:12:00,453
So the next night we all
went back and had leftovers

1640
01:12:00,453 --> 01:12:01,850
and watched the
Star Wars special,

1641
01:12:01,850 --> 01:12:03,489
which was on Friday
night of that weekend.

1642
01:12:03,489 --> 01:12:06,756
This is the days before the
VCR, so we couldn’t tape it.

1643
01:12:06,756 --> 01:12:11,167
If you did not see it when
it aired, that was it.

1644
01:12:11,167 --> 01:12:14,401
So I had a party at
my house that night

1645
01:12:14,401 --> 01:12:15,732
for when the show was there.

1646
01:12:15,732 --> 01:12:18,669
It was catered, and it
had all of my friends,

1647
01:12:18,669 --> 01:12:20,869
and there were
people with trays.

1648
01:12:20,869 --> 01:12:24,708
I wanted to see this more
than I wanted to live.

1649
01:12:24,708 --> 01:12:26,215
You know, I was a
young Catholic kid,

1650
01:12:26,215 --> 01:12:28,943
and I was always afraid God
was going to kill me and stuff.

1651
01:12:28,943 --> 01:12:30,219
And I was like, oh lord, please.

1652
01:12:30,219 --> 01:12:33,882
Please, just don’t kill me until
I see the Star Wars Christmas

1653
01:12:33,882 --> 01:12:34,553
special.

1654
01:12:34,553 --> 01:12:36,291
And after that first
commercial, I turned it off,

1655
01:12:36,291 --> 01:12:38,491
and I said, OK,
everybody, let’s eat.

1656
01:12:38,491 --> 01:12:39,195
You know?

1657
01:12:39,195 --> 01:12:42,561
I had no idea what
it had become.

1658
01:12:42,561 --> 01:12:43,397
And it was great.

1659
01:12:43,397 --> 01:12:45,531
I mean, they loved me Bea,
and they loved Harvey,

1660
01:12:45,531 --> 01:12:46,598
and they loved all of that.

1661
01:12:46,598 --> 01:12:48,633
They loved all the
crap, of course.

1662
01:12:48,633 --> 01:12:51,240
All the camp stuff they loved.

1663
01:12:51,240 --> 01:12:53,242
But what wasn’t
camp in that show?

1664
01:12:53,242 --> 01:12:56,410
It just seemed so
weird even at the time.

1665
01:12:56,410 --> 01:13:01,316
And when it came out, it
was like, oh my god, this

1666
01:13:01,316 --> 01:13:03,252
is what they did for
the holiday special?

1667
01:13:03,252 --> 01:13:06,651
They made the mistake of farming
it out I think was the problem.

1668
01:13:06,651 --> 01:13:07,916
They farmed it
out to people that

1669
01:13:07,916 --> 01:13:11,425
were used to doing Perry
Como and Bob Hope specials.

1670
01:13:11,425 --> 01:13:12,261
And it shows.

1671
01:13:12,261 --> 01:13:16,661
I noticed that a lot of people
who write me and make comments

1672
01:13:16,661 --> 01:13:19,829
about the Star Wars
Holiday Special say,

1673
01:13:19,829 --> 01:13:21,897
I was five years old
when I watched it.

1674
01:13:21,897 --> 01:13:24,339
I was 10 years old
when I watched it.

1675
01:13:24,339 --> 01:13:26,341
They have a whole different
perspective of it.

1676
01:13:26,341 --> 01:13:28,673
Because they usually
add, "And I loved it."

1677
01:13:28,673 --> 01:13:33,942
From what I remember as a kid,
the Star Wars Holiday Special

1678
01:13:33,942 --> 01:13:36,010
was tremendous.

1679
01:13:36,010 --> 01:13:37,748
I was super excited.

1680
01:13:37,748 --> 01:13:40,916
I was over anxious,
simply because something

1681
01:13:40,916 --> 01:13:44,854
from the Star Wars world was
going to be on television.

1682
01:13:44,854 --> 01:13:48,495
We’re starving, as fans,
for anything Star Wars.

1683
01:13:48,495 --> 01:13:51,465
Other than the movie,
that’s the only other thing

1684
01:13:51,465 --> 01:13:55,931
that I saw that had Harrison
Ford in it or on it at all.

1685
01:13:55,931 --> 01:13:56,866
I’ll take anything.

1686
01:13:56,866 --> 01:13:58,868
I don’t care if they’re
going to juggle, sing, dance.

1687
01:13:58,868 --> 01:14:01,739
And all the kids talked
about it at school

1688
01:14:01,739 --> 01:14:02,872
the next day and so forth.

1689
01:14:02,872 --> 01:14:06,513
And then everybody promptly
forgot about it after that.

1690
01:14:06,513 --> 01:14:09,879
A sinking feeling came
in, where I was like,

1691
01:14:09,879 --> 01:14:12,849
oh, this isn’t going to be
as good as I’d hoped it.

1692
01:14:12,849 --> 01:14:15,621
In a weird way, it
was a prep for what

1693
01:14:15,621 --> 01:14:18,723
I would experience decades
later with the prequels,

1694
01:14:18,723 --> 01:14:21,660
where I sat down, could
not have been more excited,

1695
01:14:21,660 --> 01:14:23,299
could not have been
more jazzed, and then

1696
01:14:23,299 --> 01:14:28,337
it took time, as I was watching
it, to realize like something’s

1697
01:14:28,337 --> 01:14:28,832
wrong.

1698
01:14:28,832 --> 01:14:32,737
I think with probably like
the plague in the Middle Ages,

1699
01:14:32,737 --> 01:14:37,511
after everybody died, they
decided to change the subject.

1700
01:14:37,511 --> 01:14:41,713
So I don’t remember people
talking about it much.

1701
01:14:41,713 --> 01:14:43,913
[mysterious music]

1702
01:14:43,913 --> 01:14:45,981
It’s like one of those
Mandela effect things,

1703
01:14:45,981 --> 01:14:47,587
where for a long time
a bunch of people

1704
01:14:47,587 --> 01:14:50,854
didn’t even know the Star Wars
Christmas special existed.

1705
01:14:50,854 --> 01:14:53,626
As the internet grew,
it became this sort

1706
01:14:53,626 --> 01:14:54,726
of like talking point.

1707
01:14:54,726 --> 01:14:55,958
Are you a Star Wars fan?

1708
01:14:55,958 --> 01:14:56,662
Yeah.

1709
01:14:56,662 --> 01:14:57,960
Do you know about
the holiday special?

1710
01:14:57,960 --> 01:14:59,401
Now, I know you’re
a Star Wars fan.

1711
01:14:59,401 --> 01:15:00,963
But this really showed a
different level of commitment.

1712
01:15:00,963 --> 01:15:03,999
Like, most casual
Star Wars fans don’t

1713
01:15:03,999 --> 01:15:05,539
know about the holiday special.

1714
01:15:05,539 --> 01:15:08,036
And so, all of a sudden,
it kind of surfaced.

1715
01:15:08,036 --> 01:15:10,709
And that was when he
tried to really bury it.

1716
01:15:10,709 --> 01:15:13,580
You tell somebody you
can’t have something,

1717
01:15:13,580 --> 01:15:14,647
they want it even more.

1718
01:15:14,647 --> 01:15:19,388
So I got the Star
Wars Holiday Special
on a VHS tape,

1719
01:15:19,388 --> 01:15:20,620
sixth-generation copy.

1720
01:15:20,620 --> 01:15:22,919
That would have been
valuable currency

1721
01:15:22,919 --> 01:15:24,855
to a prototypical
nerd, Star Wars fan.

1722
01:15:24,855 --> 01:15:27,055
Years later, when I first
interviewed George Lucas,

1723
01:15:27,055 --> 01:15:30,597
and we finished the main part
of the interview, and I said,

1724
01:15:30,597 --> 01:15:32,434
I’ve got another
question for you.

1725
01:15:32,434 --> 01:15:33,864
What about the holiday special?

1726
01:15:33,864 --> 01:15:36,097
And he said, "Oh,
that damn thing."

1727
01:15:36,097 --> 01:15:40,640
He said, "If I could
personally go out and find

1728
01:15:40,640 --> 01:15:44,512
all of the bootleg VHS tapes,
I would smash them all."

1729
01:15:44,512 --> 01:15:48,846
And I told that anecdote at
a convention in Australia.

1730
01:15:48,846 --> 01:15:50,617
That sort of went
around the world.

1731
01:15:50,617 --> 01:15:54,555
George Lucas wishes there
were never a holiday special,

1732
01:15:54,555 --> 01:15:56,557
and he would smash
all the tapes.

1733
01:15:56,557 --> 01:15:59,560
I take some pride in having
started that anecdote,

1734
01:15:59,560 --> 01:16:02,090
and I got it right
from the horse’s mouth.

1735
01:16:02,090 --> 01:16:04,466
In a way, the fact
that Lucas has

1736
01:16:04,466 --> 01:16:09,130
spent so much time
denying it makes it

1737
01:16:09,130 --> 01:16:10,571
more popular for some people.

1738
01:16:10,571 --> 01:16:12,166
Because it seems
like it’s something

1739
01:16:12,166 --> 01:16:15,004
they shouldn’t see or can’t see.

1740
01:16:15,004 --> 01:16:18,678
[dramatic music]

1741
01:16:20,042 --> 01:16:23,144
George didn’t say anything
during production.

1742
01:16:23,144 --> 01:16:27,852
Because, again he had moved
away to work on other things.

1743
01:16:27,852 --> 01:16:29,557
I blame-- not blame.

1744
01:16:29,557 --> 01:16:30,525
That’s the wrong word.

1745
01:16:30,525 --> 01:16:33,957
Lucas-- when Lucas walked away,
he said, do whatever you want.

1746
01:16:33,957 --> 01:16:37,059
And then he got upset because
we did whatever we wanted.

1747
01:16:37,059 --> 01:16:39,468
He knew it wasn’t
going to be wonderful.

1748
01:16:39,468 --> 01:16:41,569
And really, I don’t
think he saw it

1749
01:16:41,569 --> 01:16:44,099
until about the same
time we all did.

1750
01:16:44,099 --> 01:16:46,035
And he immediately hated it.

1751
01:16:46,035 --> 01:16:48,510
Because I’m bold with
George when we’re having

1752
01:16:48,510 --> 01:16:51,579
conversations, and I asked him.

1753
01:16:51,579 --> 01:16:54,813
And I was like, "Oh,
man, what did you--

1754
01:16:54,813 --> 01:16:56,947
how did you feel when
you saw the first cut?"

1755
01:16:56,947 --> 01:17:01,457
And he was like, "Well,
I did ask if there was

1756
01:17:01,457 --> 01:17:04,053
a way that we couldn’t air it.

1757
01:17:04,053 --> 01:17:05,989
Did it have to air?"

1758
01:17:05,989 --> 01:17:09,498
But it was a lot of
money, and it had to air.

1759
01:17:09,498 --> 01:17:11,533
To this day, I’ve
never met George Lucas.

1760
01:17:11,533 --> 01:17:13,865
All I heard was he tried
to buy the negatives

1761
01:17:13,865 --> 01:17:17,033
and never ever showed
this again after it aired.

1762
01:17:17,033 --> 01:17:22,005
I don’t blame anybody, but he
is the only person who really

1763
01:17:22,005 --> 01:17:23,039
could have controlled it.

1764
01:17:23,039 --> 01:17:24,777
You know, all the
Star Wars actors

1765
01:17:24,777 --> 01:17:28,715
were in this thing playing the
roles that they made famous

1766
01:17:28,715 --> 01:17:29,584
a year earlier.

1767
01:17:29,584 --> 01:17:31,685
And now, the guy who
created those roles

1768
01:17:31,685 --> 01:17:34,985
for them, George Lucas,
says, eh, I’m not

1769
01:17:34,985 --> 01:17:38,186
really associated with this.

1770
01:17:42,927 --> 01:17:46,733
I have my name on all
the good things I’ve done

1771
01:17:46,733 --> 01:17:49,197
and all the bad
things I’ve done.

1772
01:17:50,198 --> 01:17:53,971
But maybe if I could have taken
my name off of the bad things

1773
01:17:53,971 --> 01:17:55,269
I would have.

1774
01:17:55,269 --> 01:17:57,546
George, to be fair,
hasn’t been out there

1775
01:17:57,546 --> 01:17:59,581
going, like, I hate
the Christmas special.

1776
01:17:59,581 --> 01:18:02,584
It’s not like he’s
lamenting it loudly.

1777
01:18:02,584 --> 01:18:05,213
But it’s very-- he’s made
it clear over the years

1778
01:18:05,213 --> 01:18:06,148
that he ain’t into this.

1779
01:18:06,148 --> 01:18:08,854
I think, at the time, when the
holiday special was broadcast,

1780
01:18:08,854 --> 01:18:12,627
it was not considered to
be a big failure or giant

1781
01:18:12,627 --> 01:18:15,289
anomaly that it is
considered to be today.

1782
01:18:15,289 --> 01:18:17,027
I don’t know for
sure, but I certainly

1783
01:18:17,027 --> 01:18:18,259
didn’t hear from
anybody that there

1784
01:18:18,259 --> 01:18:22,131
was any fallout from the
show, that anybody was fired.

1785
01:18:22,131 --> 01:18:24,573
I think life just
went on at Lucasfilm.

1786
01:18:24,573 --> 01:18:27,268
The whole purpose of this
show was to sell toys to kids.

1787
01:18:27,268 --> 01:18:31,712
There were also going to be
action figures of the Wookiee

1788
01:18:31,712 --> 01:18:32,240
family.

1789
01:18:32,240 --> 01:18:34,946
We only know of one set of
the prototype Wookiee action

1790
01:18:34,946 --> 01:18:38,246
figures that Kenner was
maybe going to make.

1791
01:18:38,246 --> 01:18:40,083
But there were the
four action figures--

1792
01:18:40,083 --> 01:18:44,120
Itchy, Chewbacca,
Mallatobuck, and Lumpy.

1793
01:18:44,120 --> 01:18:45,924
So clearly, somebody
thought that there

1794
01:18:45,924 --> 01:18:50,599
was money to be made in doing
merchandise based on the Star

1795
01:18:50,599 --> 01:18:52,095
Wars Holiday Special.

1796
01:18:52,095 --> 01:18:53,701
But that never happened.

1797
01:18:53,701 --> 01:18:57,166
When something is
that huge, people

1798
01:18:57,166 --> 01:19:01,907
can’t control, as hard
as they do, the way it’s

1799
01:19:01,907 --> 01:19:02,875
going to be marketed.

1800
01:19:02,875 --> 01:19:05,141
An advertising series
in Japan for Panasonic,

1801
01:19:05,141 --> 01:19:11,246
between 1989 and 1993, and
they used George Lucas and all

1802
01:19:11,246 --> 01:19:12,885
of the characters in Star Wars.

1803
01:19:12,885 --> 01:19:13,886
And I saw the contract.

1804
01:19:13,886 --> 01:19:18,792
There was a series of penalties
if any of these commercials

1805
01:19:18,792 --> 01:19:19,628
showed in the US.

1806
01:19:19,628 --> 01:19:22,191
And in terms of embarrassment
to the franchise,

1807
01:19:22,191 --> 01:19:25,260
I remember a commercial where
Darth Vader was fighting

1808
01:19:25,260 --> 01:19:27,328
with a lightsaber, and
then it shorted out,

1809
01:19:27,328 --> 01:19:29,836
and he opened up the hilt
and the batteries were dead.

1810
01:19:29,836 --> 01:19:33,642
Energizer bunny, like, goes
cymballing through the frame.

1811
01:19:33,642 --> 01:19:38,174
And I was like, there goes the
dignity of the great Sith Lord.

1812
01:19:38,174 --> 01:19:41,947
You can see the awful
George Lucas Super Live

1813
01:19:41,947 --> 01:19:44,147
Adventure in seven
parts from Japan

1814
01:19:44,147 --> 01:19:46,182
from 1993 on the internet.

1815
01:19:46,182 --> 01:19:47,249
And it’s like a stage show.

1816
01:19:47,249 --> 01:19:50,252
And it covered not only like
Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

1817
01:19:50,252 --> 01:19:52,023
I mean, I think it
was covering Tucker,

1818
01:19:52,023 --> 01:19:54,762
and it’s covering everything
that Lucas has done.

1819
01:19:54,762 --> 01:19:57,864
That was all singing, all
dancing stormtroopers.

1820
01:19:57,864 --> 01:19:59,965
I mean, you know,
give me a break.

1821
01:19:59,965 --> 01:20:04,266
It’s just (LAUGHING) the machine
is just going to take over.

1822
01:20:04,266 --> 01:20:09,645
And it’s like, why not
make a holiday special?

1823
01:20:18,346 --> 01:20:22,053
And at that time, I have
a feeling that George just

1824
01:20:22,053 --> 01:20:22,724
wasn’t--

1825
01:20:22,724 --> 01:20:26,024
either he was too busy, or
he didn’t fully understand

1826
01:20:26,024 --> 01:20:29,830
the changes that were happening,
or maybe just figured this is

1827
01:20:29,830 --> 01:20:32,327
a variety show, who
cares. (LAUGHS) You know?

1828
01:20:32,327 --> 01:20:36,133
A lot of people came into
watching it thinking, oh,

1829
01:20:36,133 --> 01:20:39,433
we’re going to get a
TV sequel to Star Wars.

1830
01:20:39,433 --> 01:20:43,107
It’s going to be a science
fiction adventure show

1831
01:20:43,107 --> 01:20:44,075
and stuff like that?

1832
01:20:44,075 --> 01:20:46,011
And that’s never what it was.

1833
01:20:46,011 --> 01:20:47,683
It was a variety show.

1834
01:20:47,683 --> 01:20:49,212
It’s easy to poke fun
at stuff after the fact,

1835
01:20:49,212 --> 01:20:52,248
and question how it happened,
and sort of make fun of it.

1836
01:20:52,248 --> 01:20:57,088
It’s cliche, at this point, to
crap on the Star Wars Holiday

1837
01:20:57,088 --> 01:20:57,759
Special.

1838
01:20:57,759 --> 01:20:58,386
It really is.

1839
01:20:58,386 --> 01:21:02,258
Everybody, without even having
sat through the entire thing,

1840
01:21:02,258 --> 01:21:03,963
just instantly
it’s a punch line.

1841
01:21:03,963 --> 01:21:06,735
The legacy of the Star
Wars Holiday Special

1842
01:21:06,735 --> 01:21:10,167
is in how it impacted
all of us fans.

1843
01:21:10,167 --> 01:21:12,972
And as people continue
to create for Star Wars,

1844
01:21:12,972 --> 01:21:15,139
they’ll keep on adding
these Easter eggs in.

1845
01:21:15,139 --> 01:21:16,910
You’ll keep on seeing
things in the background--

1846
01:21:16,910 --> 01:21:22,014
these callbacks, these little
things that tip the hat to you,

1847
01:21:22,014 --> 01:21:26,084
the viewer, that this
is made by someone

1848
01:21:26,084 --> 01:21:27,217
who truly loves Star Wars.

1849
01:21:27,217 --> 01:21:30,726
Together we will
rule the galaxy--

1850
01:21:30,726 --> 01:21:32,321
Cut, cut, cut.

1851
01:21:32,321 --> 01:21:33,058
I quit.

1852
01:21:33,058 --> 01:21:35,225
This is the holiday
special all over again.

1853
01:21:35,225 --> 01:21:36,996
[laughter]

1854
01:21:36,996 --> 01:21:39,966
The Glee Holiday Spectacular.

1855
01:21:39,966 --> 01:21:42,936
[PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY,
"TREPAK (RUSSIAN DANCE)"]

1856
01:21:42,936 --> 01:21:46,137
Our first ever, live-action
holiday special.

1857
01:21:46,137 --> 01:21:48,304
What is it, Star Wars Christmas?

1858
01:21:48,304 --> 01:21:49,437
[laughter]

1859
01:21:49,437 --> 01:21:51,307
No, don’t be ridiculous.

1860
01:21:51,307 --> 01:21:53,111
That’s Wookiee Life Day.

1861
01:21:53,111 --> 01:21:55,146
[laughter]

1862
01:21:55,146 --> 01:21:56,884
I’ve got you now.

1863
01:21:56,884 --> 01:21:58,787
[wookiee talk]

1864
01:21:58,787 --> 01:21:59,282
Sorry.

1865
01:21:59,282 --> 01:22:04,859
Yeah, I was hoping to
be free for Life Day.

1866
01:22:04,859 --> 01:22:06,025
I love these connective tissues.

1867
01:22:06,025 --> 01:22:08,929
I love the fact that
we’ve taken Life Day,

1868
01:22:08,929 --> 01:22:12,097
and we said, no, November
17, the day the special was

1869
01:22:12,097 --> 01:22:13,131
released, is now Life Day.

1870
01:22:13,131 --> 01:22:16,937
So on Earth, in the Disney
Parks, in the world,

1871
01:22:16,937 --> 01:22:17,531
we celebrate it.

1872
01:22:17,531 --> 01:22:20,402
As much as Lucasfilm might
not want to acknowledge its

1873
01:22:20,402 --> 01:22:24,373
existence, we’ve seen
it infiltrate Disney+.

1874
01:22:24,373 --> 01:22:29,851
We’ve seen merchandise all
over the theme parks themed

1875
01:22:29,851 --> 01:22:30,445
around Life Day.

1876
01:22:30,445 --> 01:22:32,315
No one’s talking about the
holiday special directly,

1877
01:22:32,315 --> 01:22:36,451
but we are, as a fandom,
embracing Life Day.

1878
01:22:36,451 --> 01:22:39,025
Maybe this could mean, down
the road, at some point,

1879
01:22:39,025 --> 01:22:41,962
they might release the
entire holiday special.

1880
01:22:41,962 --> 01:22:43,799
Who knows?

1881
01:22:54,304 --> 01:22:55,404
I think he should embrace it.

1882
01:22:55,404 --> 01:22:59,375
I mean, like, it’s not his
fault. He didn’t do it--

1883
01:22:59,375 --> 01:23:00,211
I don’t think.

1884
01:23:00,211 --> 01:23:03,412
And am I going to
stand on a soapbox

1885
01:23:03,412 --> 01:23:05,480
and proclaim that this is canon?

1886
01:23:05,480 --> 01:23:06,151
No.

1887
01:23:06,151 --> 01:23:09,088
But it’s really interesting,
and it’s really fun.

1888
01:23:09,088 --> 01:23:12,157
The Star Wars special is
kind of an anomaly for fans,

1889
01:23:12,157 --> 01:23:14,995
because it was kind
of the one big thing

1890
01:23:14,995 --> 01:23:19,164
that Lucasfilm did before it
got its act together and got

1891
01:23:19,164 --> 01:23:22,464
its system together to make
sure that things like this

1892
01:23:22,464 --> 01:23:24,070
never happened again.

1893
01:23:24,070 --> 01:23:25,335
It’s just a curiosity.

1894
01:23:25,335 --> 01:23:29,878
I mean, the Star Wars
universe is so different now.

1895
01:23:29,878 --> 01:23:31,110
As much as I, as
a fan, would love

1896
01:23:31,110 --> 01:23:35,378
to have a nice, pristine copy of
the Star Wars Holiday Special,

1897
01:23:35,378 --> 01:23:38,051
I understand why he
probably wouldn’t want

1898
01:23:38,051 --> 01:23:39,151
to put that out in the world.

1899
01:23:39,151 --> 01:23:42,550
You know, it may not be, like,
our favorite part of the Star

1900
01:23:42,550 --> 01:23:44,552
Wars mythos, but
it has its place.

1901
01:23:44,552 --> 01:23:47,126
It’s an important part
of Star Wars history.

1902
01:23:47,126 --> 01:23:48,963
Star Wars fans are
collectors, right?

1903
01:23:48,963 --> 01:23:54,166
So it does have, built into
it, more than any film or TV

1904
01:23:54,166 --> 01:23:59,633
show made for Star Wars,
this exclusive collectibility

1905
01:23:59,633 --> 01:24:00,469
element of it.

1906
01:24:00,469 --> 01:24:02,075
I don’t think Disney+
should put it out.

1907
01:24:02,075 --> 01:24:05,078
Part of the thing that
makes it so wonderful

1908
01:24:05,078 --> 01:24:07,344
is that it still has
that bootleg feel to it.

1909
01:24:07,344 --> 01:24:11,018
I think it’s actually surprising
that Lucasfilm and Disney

1910
01:24:11,018 --> 01:24:14,054
haven’t released the holiday
special in some format.

1911
01:24:14,054 --> 01:24:15,352
Why let the bootlegs
run the show?

1912
01:24:15,352 --> 01:24:17,926
They should actually have
an official release of it.

1913
01:24:17,926 --> 01:24:19,026
Let the audience discover it.

1914
01:24:19,026 --> 01:24:21,457
And when they discover
it, it means more.

1915
01:24:21,457 --> 01:24:23,195
Here’s the one way
they should release it.

1916
01:24:23,195 --> 01:24:27,661
They should let George
Lucas have it and then put

1917
01:24:27,661 --> 01:24:28,530
all the crazy--

1918
01:24:28,530 --> 01:24:31,203
just let him George
Lucas the hell out of it.

1919
01:24:31,203 --> 01:24:32,138
I would love to do--

1920
01:24:32,138 --> 01:24:34,569
someday, maybe on Disney+,
we’ll do a holiday special too.

1921
01:24:34,569 --> 01:24:38,342
Do you think we’ll ever see
another Star Wars holiday

1922
01:24:38,342 --> 01:24:39,013
special.

1923
01:24:39,013 --> 01:24:40,476
Not if I have anything
to say about it.

1924
01:24:40,476 --> 01:24:42,445
Maybe there’s a
version that none of us

1925
01:24:42,445 --> 01:24:44,414
can imagine that
would be genius.

1926
01:24:44,414 --> 01:24:45,118
Yeah.

1927
01:24:45,118 --> 01:24:46,185
Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

1928
01:24:46,185 --> 01:24:47,153
Oh, that’d be insane.

1929
01:24:47,153 --> 01:24:48,517
I got to pitch that to them.
We’ll see.

1930
01:24:48,517 --> 01:24:50,354
If you want to see a holiday
special, let Disney+ know.

1931
01:24:50,354 --> 01:24:51,454
Wow, you heard it here first.

1932
01:24:51,454 --> 01:24:55,359
I also believe that George
Lucas is, at his heart,

1933
01:24:55,359 --> 01:24:57,130
an experimental
filmmaker, and he

1934
01:24:57,130 --> 01:25:00,364
wants to make things that
are weird and different.

1935
01:25:00,364 --> 01:25:02,399
And the holiday special is that.

1936
01:25:02,399 --> 01:25:06,403
The greatest crime of the Star
Wars Christmas and/or Holiday

1937
01:25:06,403 --> 01:25:11,309
Special is that it
ain’t Star Wars.

1938
01:25:11,309 --> 01:25:12,673
But to be fair, what is?

1939
01:25:12,673 --> 01:25:15,511
At this point, George
Lucas is probably

1940
01:25:15,511 --> 01:25:18,184
like, you know what,
it’s been out there.

1941
01:25:18,184 --> 01:25:18,679
Whatever.

1942
01:25:18,679 --> 01:25:19,515
I’ve moved on.

1943
01:25:19,515 --> 01:25:20,582
It’s a thing that happened.

1944
01:25:20,582 --> 01:25:22,452
But if Star Wars Holiday
Special kind of sneaks in there,

1945
01:25:22,452 --> 01:25:23,585
I don’t think he cares anymore.

1946
01:25:23,585 --> 01:25:26,962
Though, I don’t think
he’d want another one.

1947
01:25:26,962 --> 01:25:28,095
[laughs]

1948
01:25:28,095 --> 01:25:32,264
[triumphant music]

1949
01:25:35,003 --> 01:25:38,237
George once asked us, please,
never mention it again.

1950
01:25:38,237 --> 01:25:40,635
And I said, George,
we should own that.

1951
01:25:40,635 --> 01:25:43,605
Because it shows that
everybody’s fallible.

1952
01:25:43,605 --> 01:25:44,606
Everybody makes mistakes.

1953
01:25:44,606 --> 01:25:48,049
When you work in any
project, you fall in love.

1954
01:25:48,049 --> 01:25:49,446
What else are you going to do?

1955
01:25:49,446 --> 01:25:51,646
I have worked on shows
that were really popular

1956
01:25:51,646 --> 01:25:55,584
and shows that were horrible,
and I didn’t work any more

1957
01:25:55,584 --> 01:25:58,257
or less hard on any of them.

1958
01:25:58,257 --> 01:25:59,093
[blues piano]

1959
01:25:59,093 --> 01:26:03,064
Every filmmaker has to
grapple with not everything is

1960
01:26:03,064 --> 01:26:03,757
going to be a hit.

1961
01:26:03,757 --> 01:26:05,429
There is no being an
artist without failure.

1962
01:26:05,429 --> 01:26:07,629
There just-- there is no being
an artist without failure.

1963
01:26:07,629 --> 01:26:14,141
Time has a real
amazing way of allowing

1964
01:26:14,141 --> 01:26:15,175
you to embrace the past.

1965
01:26:15,175 --> 01:26:17,111
It’s a very
difficult place to be

1966
01:26:17,111 --> 01:26:20,444
an artist on the public
stage making movies.

1967
01:26:20,444 --> 01:26:23,348
Because everybody
is watching you,

1968
01:26:23,348 --> 01:26:25,185
and many people are
rooting for you to fail.

1969
01:26:25,185 --> 01:26:29,288
All my life, since the Donny
and Marie Show was created,

1970
01:26:29,288 --> 01:26:32,786
I’ve wanted nothing
to do with it.

1971
01:26:32,786 --> 01:26:35,624
If you look at other
franchises, they

1972
01:26:35,624 --> 01:26:39,298
would die to have the
fan base of Star Wars.

1973
01:26:39,298 --> 01:26:40,101
It’s crazy.

1974
01:26:40,101 --> 01:26:42,136
Like, Star Trek would love
to have what Star Wars has.

1975
01:26:42,136 --> 01:26:44,072
They don’t have
anything like it.

1976
01:26:44,072 --> 01:26:44,666
Nobody does.

1977
01:26:44,666 --> 01:26:46,371
When you have a bunch of
people that love something

1978
01:26:46,371 --> 01:26:50,144
and take it into their
hearts, they claim it.

1979
01:26:50,144 --> 01:26:55,248
And when these things don’t
behave the way we want them to,

1980
01:26:55,248 --> 01:26:59,747
well, it seems like we’ve
become a culture that doesn’t

1981
01:26:59,747 --> 01:27:00,682
know how to handle that.

1982
01:27:00,682 --> 01:27:03,619
Watch the good stuff, and
either ignore the bad stuff

1983
01:27:03,619 --> 01:27:06,655
or delight in the
bad stuff ironically.

1984
01:27:06,655 --> 01:27:08,063
I have learned to embrace it.

1985
01:27:08,063 --> 01:27:12,496
I’ve learned to say, you know,
I’m not embarrassed about it

1986
01:27:12,496 --> 01:27:13,794
as much.

1987
01:27:13,794 --> 01:27:17,138
You know, I did the best
I could at the time.

1988
01:27:17,138 --> 01:27:18,073
That’s what was popular.

1989
01:27:18,073 --> 01:27:21,406
That’s what people were
buying and watching,

1990
01:27:21,406 --> 01:27:25,806
and it was appropriate
for the day.

1991
01:27:25,806 --> 01:27:30,448
I think failure defines people
sometimes more than success.

1992
01:27:30,448 --> 01:27:34,551
I think failure is one
of the great motivators.

1993
01:27:34,551 --> 01:27:40,392
The Star Wars Holiday Special
led to stuff like Andor.

1994
01:27:40,392 --> 01:27:43,560
That all of that failure
is part of that process.

1995
01:27:43,560 --> 01:27:46,761
Someway, somewhere,
somehow, somebody

1996
01:27:46,761 --> 01:27:50,369
is going to make fun of you.

1997
01:27:50,369 --> 01:27:51,568
Don’t let it bother you.

1998
01:27:51,568 --> 01:27:52,470
Move ahead.

1999
01:27:52,470 --> 01:27:53,306
Be an artist.

2000
01:27:53,306 --> 01:27:56,672
Sometimes the magic
happens, and sometimes it’s

2001
01:27:56,672 --> 01:27:59,147
the Star Wars Holiday Special.

2002
01:27:59,147 --> 01:28:03,250
[upbeat music]

2003
01:28:33,775 --> 01:28:36,910
There was a new flash in
between the commercials,

2004
01:28:36,910 --> 01:28:40,815
and the bootleg had all
the commercials from 1978.

2005
01:28:40,815 --> 01:28:42,751
And that was
actually-- eventually,

2006
01:28:42,751 --> 01:28:43,851
that became part of the charm.

2007
01:28:43,851 --> 01:28:46,359
They’ve become
part of this movie.

2008
01:28:46,359 --> 01:28:48,691
And the anchor is
the funniest part is.

2009
01:28:48,691 --> 01:28:50,726
Because he’s just
there, and he’s like

2010
01:28:50,726 --> 01:28:51,760
fighting the frizzies.

2011
01:28:51,760 --> 01:28:53,267
You know, tonight at 11:00.

2012
01:28:53,267 --> 01:28:55,335
Fighting the frizzies at 11:00.

2013
01:28:55,335 --> 01:29:01,176
I’ve been surreptitiously
made a cult figure,

2014
01:29:01,176 --> 01:29:02,243
whether I wanted to or not.

2015
01:29:02,243 --> 01:29:04,278
And then they parodied
that on South Park.

2016
01:29:04,278 --> 01:29:07,809
And now, fighting the frizzies.

2017
01:29:07,809 --> 01:29:09,910
Why are they doing this?

2018
01:29:09,910 --> 01:29:11,252
Why the parody?

2019
01:29:11,252 --> 01:29:16,422
Nobody remembers the serious
things and the profound things

2020
01:29:16,422 --> 01:29:18,721
that I did in my
career, but they all

2021
01:29:18,721 --> 01:29:22,659
remember fighting the
frizzies at 11:00.

2022
01:29:22,659 --> 01:29:28,632
[music continues]