WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar - Day 2: The Star Wars Holiday Special

 

Continuing with our Advent Calendar in celebrating of my book about MST3K, RiffTrax, The Mads and others!

The Star Wars Holiday Special (November 17, 1978)

Program: RiffTrax

Air-Date: 2007 (some listings have this as being released in April 2007, but that was when a riff of Attack of the Clones came out and December 2007 appears to be more accurate)

Plot: Chewbacca must get home for Life Day.  He does. Some other stuff happens, but – really – you don’t want to know.  You DON’T want to know.

The original TV Guide ad for the special along with the featured artwork for the RiffTrax version

Thoughts:  Just as we as kids asked, “Daddy, what’s Vietnam?” our children and grandchildren will turn to us elders and ask, “Gramps, did you lose your pants again?”  They’ll also ask, “What was The Star Wars Holiday Special?”  And we shudder against the harsh reality. Namely because we’re pants-less, but also because we grew up running to the television set that November 17, 1978, warning off our elder siblings who wanted to watch The Love Boat on ABC, and swearing to your parents how absolutely brilliant this Star Wars special was going to be. This was then followed the hollow, sickening sound of your siblings’ laughter while the shield of innocence crumble before your eyes as you watched Luke’s glassy-eyed stance, heard Leia’s singing, and experience Itchy’s porn obsession.

Art really selling the "Wow!" to Itchy. Itchy needs no sales-pitch, however. Eww.

Really, what more can be said about this special that hasn’t been covered by numerous sites over the years? We know everyone who performed played along as best they could, and that George Lucas had so little involvement that at one point stated he’d like to destroy every last copy of the special, but times have mellowed a bit. The videos out there can be seen readily in a variety of places, and the actors have joked repeatedly over time about what a mess it is. Most of us have seen it, talked about, and read about it. When even a wrestling website features an article about it, you know reviews of the special is oversaturated.

Chewy looking like he's being featured at the end of an episode of Dragnet.

A dive into newspaper articles from the time namely focused on trying to get cast members to discuss Battlestar Galatica, which had just come out at the time, and little on the show itself. Fisher tried to steer conversation to how she had sung most of her life, so obviously she wanted to present the idea that she was comfortable with Leia singing (even if you can’t be sure about that from watching the special). Hamill seemed to take it all in stride, while Ford had more to say about Galatica in interviews than the show he was working on. Speaking of which, while watching you at least feel everyone gave 100%, and Ford comes off best of the group (he’s given the least dopey dialogue, so that helps). This is understandable - the three mains were all veterans of network television, so no matter how “big” the producers tried to make the show sound great (“We make the Wookies into something like the Waltons,” said producer Mitzie Welch at the time, while also stating, “I think variety shows, as we know them, are dead. There has to be a new form invented and maybe this is it.”), this wasn’t it and they knew it.

The look you really don't want to have when being pulled over by the cops.

Most interesting sidenote I can make that isn’t regularly covered is an article from Peter Brown of the Gannett News Service back in November 1978 stating that there was a closed set when filming Jefferson Starship with their “Light the Sky on Fire” number as they wanted to make sure Grace Slick did not try to interfere with filming. Costumer Bob Mackie had an outfit all set for her, but the band had pushed her out of the band that summer after a series of drunken incidents while the band was on town that year (specifically an incident for German television with Slick channeling Basil Fawlty). It is that weird harsh spirit that seems to prevail over the program; like everyone is looking over their shoulders  at the reality heading their way.

Some images sent to newspapers to promote the special in 1978.

It should be pointed out that many fans actually begrudgingly admit that they have a soft-spot for Bea Arthur’s song midway through the show (even if Korman pouring a drink down his head is about the “stupidest thing” ever seen on television). And of course, there’s the premiere of Boba Fett in the animation portion of the show, which most fans took away as a positive.  But, you know, you take the good with the bad, that’s the force of Life … Day.  (Ha, see, force instead of facts and … life instead of … I … anyway ….)

Favorite Riff: (after narrator introduces Chewbacca’s family) “And many a scream-yourself-awake nightmares!”

The Riffing: As I discuss in The Worst We Can Find book, Mike Nelson was working here and there with Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy on various projects since leaving MST3K, including that of the commentary-filled riffing done for The Film Crew that looks now to be a mid-metamorphosis between their work in MST3K and what would come with RiffTrax in 2006. 

Many of the early RiffTrax offerings were done as downloadable commentaries that could be played alongside the movies already purchased by viewers, and thus avoiding any copyright issues. This was how the original version of the commentary with Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy was released in 2007, which was then lined up with a version of the special someone had recorded on video back in 1978 and had been lurking around in the gray-market of fandom for some time.  Eventually, RiffTrax was able to release a version for patrons of their website that includes the video as well, and this can still be found there, while edited portions of the special are available on YouTube.

But perhaps best to see here is that, although the earlier RiffTrax productions are a bit a work-in-progress, by the time they get to The Star Wars Holiday Special, the trio are in a solid form of sync, playing out as characters doing commentary more-so than simply saying riffs into a microphone.  Just as with the early days of MST3K, there would still be some bumps in the road ahead, but by this time fans would be assured to see (or hear at least) a very funny show.  To have it all come together on such a weird memory from our youth, and with the emphasis on a major holiday setting and a number of ads related to the approaching Christmas season, the special is well-worth the time to seek out and enjoy. But you may want to fast-forward over Ichy’s “wow” session. Seriously.