2 Clips -- Carrie Fisher on Star Wars Holiday Special from 30 Years Ago: "The Best Awful"
Some applicable content in advance of the premiere of the second stanza in Robot Chicken's Star Wars episodes.
(Later, I have something on Seth Green's eyebrow waxing addiction, it'll be fun.)
Today in the LA Times, Donald Liebenson (see his HuffPo page at this link) dissects the comic-tragic Star Wars Holiday Special. The 30th anniversary of its first and only airing on TV is tomorrow.
It's legendarily bad, as you know. I have clips after the jump to prove it, including the YouTube favorite "The Two Hour Star Wars Holiday Special in Just Five Minutes."
But here's where it gets weird. Mixed in with all the principals from the original "Star Wars" movie are Bea Arthur singing a Brechtian tune in the cantina; Diahann Carroll entrancing Lumpy as his virtual reality fantasy; and Harvey Korman cooking up an alien Julia Child impersonation.
This is what OMG looked like in 1978.
OMG indeed! Though the Harvey Korman part actually sounds funny. Hell, he could have read the phonebook ...
Click over to StarWarsHolidaySpecial.com for more great stuff. You have to check out everything to really get how bizarre a concept this was and why it has never been shown again on TV or released on DVD.
Wanna see it released on DVD? Click over to PetitionOnline.com to sign.
Two clips after the jump -- the whole thing condensed to five minutes and a musical number with Carrie Fisher. I'm sure she's thrilled that I'm posting it.
George Lucas never comments on the project, Harrison Ford tries to deny it ever happen with a big smile on his face and there are bootlegs of the thing all over the place.