How did the Star Wars Holiday Special ever happen?

George Lucas was trying to keep Star Wars on peoples' minds by producing a holiday variety TV special. As the filmmakers ask, what could possibly go wrong?

Everything.

Directors Jeremy Koon (Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made) and Steve Kozak have assembled the people who were there when it was made, the folks who watched it when it was first on TV and those who have been influenced by it. You'll hear from writer Bruce Villanch, director Steve Binder, superfans like Paul Scheer and Taran Killam, and those who have been close to the Forece like Seth Green and Donny Osmond. Donny Osmond? Yes.

I watched the special live when it aired - the only time it ever played - on November 17, 1978. Even at six years of age, I wondered why Harvey Korman, Bea Arthur, Diahann Carroll, Starship and Art Carney were in a special that should have been about the Rebellion fighting the Empire.

What cultural force can unite Bob Mackie - who designed the dresses - and Weird Al, Kevin Smith, Mick Garris and the Wookies?

Only the Star Wars Holiday Special.

This film does a great job of explaining why this happened without just making fun of it. It would have been so easy to just laugh at it, but I love that this takes a balanced - yet still fun - look at something many have heard of and few have seen.

Stumbling upon the 2023 documentary "A Disturbance in the Force" and of course having already watched the 1978 abysmal "The Star Wars Holiday Special", of course there was no doubt about me having to sit down and watch this documentary.

Directors Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak definitely deliver a rather enjoyable insight into the making of the eyesore that came to be known as "The Star Wars Holiday Special" and what would become George Lucas's Achilles heel.

There are some very insightful interviews, footage and information shared throughout the course of the 85 minutes that the documentary runs for. And I have to admit that I enjoyed sitting through this. It does give you a better understanding of just what happened in the process of making "The Star Wars Holiday Special" and why it ended up like a farce.

The documentary has some good interviews with members of the "nerd" community and people who are devoted "Star Wars" fans. It is just a shame that they didn't have members of the original cast participate for interviews. Sure, they were there, but it was stock footage of interviews done elsewhere. But it was better than nothing.

If you have seen the 1978 "The Star Wars Holiday Special" then you definitely have to sit down and watch this documentary.

My rating of "A Disturbance in the Force" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I actually saw the original telecast of the Star Wars Holiday Special. At that time in my life I was young, was both a Star Wars fan and a Trekkie (yes, Trekkie, not Trekker... that's how deep I was in this stuff)... and I remember thinking even 1/4 of the way in to it, "This is awful". At that time I was not acquainted with the concept of "So bad it's good" and Mystery Science Theater did not yet exist. I was in my early 20s, so I wasn't an enraptured child. I was an adult and I knew schlock when I saw it.

That said, after watching this documentary I almost want to see it again. I now have an appreciation for "so very bad productions". Several Star Wars movies down the line, I think it would be interesting to see these actors while they were still young and vibrant, and watch what they put into the show, no matter how many Rotten Tomatoes it may have received.

Should Disney restore and remaster this and put it on Disney+ and DVDs? Only if they want to make millions of dollars. If they did they should go all the way and make it a collectors boxed set, and include this documentary with it. Because this documentary would definitely make the set shine. Put in great big bold letters, "The worst Star Wars ever produced! So bad it's great!" Make the collector's set as intentionally hokey as the show, and maybe even include collectable figures. ;D

This documentary is really an excellent presentation. They examined this show from all sides, good and bad. They presented its very obvious defects along with its not so obvious benefits later down the line. Seeing the "easter eggs" put in shows years later was very interesting. And the lasting duration of LIFE DAY is something everyone can celebrate, eh?

One part I especially enjoyed was when they presented snippets of other shows that had aired during the same years... and they were equally horrid if not far worse. Bringing in Donnie Osmond was a brilliant bit of insight on the part of the writers and directors. He gave a balanced, sensible viewpoint of the show and even compared it with his own show. Smart documentation.

So overall I really enjoyed this, beginning to end. I'm no longer a Trekkie / Trekker / Star Wars "fan" (ie, fanatic). I still enjoy Star Trek now and then, somewhat enjoy Star Wars (it has gotten quite a bit darker and my tastes these days are a bit more discerning than when I was young). Yet I have enough appreciation for the history and uniqueness of all these things to have watched this documentary.

That very fact is I think, what validates this video, and makes the point they were aiming at all the way through the documentary: good or bad, enjoyable or not, loved or hated, this is a part of Star Wars history. And if someone like me, a few decades down the line, can still appreciate this documentary... that really says something about the impact Star Wars had on the industry.

I was privileged to see the first public showing of Star Wars ever shown in a theater (right place, right time). Before Star Wars, science fiction was a "closet" hobby. People who really enjoyed sci fi were "nerds"... and in those days that was not a positive term. Science fiction was definitely not mainstream... nor anywhere near it.

AFTER Star Wars, science fiction as a genre exploded. It not only went mainstream, it became THE mainstream. Everyone wanted in on it, and every company was racing to produce more sci fi movies. Star Wars changed not only the industry, but as the documentary points out... the world. It affected the economy, the theaters (say what you will, George Lucas forcefully dragged the entire movie industry into the digital projection age)... it changed literature and television and arguably the entire movie industry. It set a bar so high that they had to invent CGI just to reach it.

I think people often forget that along with the good comes the bad and even the terrible. I think the fans forgot that, which is part of what caused the rift between the fanbase and Lucas and eventually pushed him to washing his hands of the whole thing and selling the lot to Disney (of all companies).

So this documentary was great. It makes people aware of the good and the bad, the positive influences and the failures-- and how even the failures went on to influence future success. And what is still left in me that remembers my days of being a Trekkie / Trekker / hard-core sci fi fan... appreciates what they succeeded in doing with this video: they presented a BALANCED view of not only the Holiday Special, but Star Wars fandom, television and the industry in general.