A Disturbance in the Force: Documentary about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special will premiere at SXSW

It’s the much talked about Christmas special that you’re not allowed to talk about. It’s interesting to think that right after the cinema-changing release of 1977’s Star Wars, the immediate follow-up would be a dud. And I’m not talking about The Empire Strikes Back. In 1978, to capitalize on the success of the smash hit from George Lucas, director of such films as THX 1138 and American Graffiti, there was a TV Christmas special that brought in all the stars of the movie. That special became the first big misstep of the franchise that was so bad that George Lucas won’t even speak about it.

The Hollywood Reporter has the details on a new documentary that goes behind the scenes of the much-maligned TV program, including a teaser trailer. A Disturbance in the Force is a new film from Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak that is determined to find out just what led to such an abomination to make it to air. Coon has been responsible for the documentary, Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made. Kozak has a lengthy resume with TV credits such as the Drew Carey improvisational comedy Whose Line Is It Anyway? and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

The documentary will include a number of interviews featuring Seth Green, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Paul Scheer, Taran Killam, Donny Osmond, the late Gilbert Gottfried, Bonnie Burton, Steve Binder, and Bruce Vilanch, co-writer of the Star Wars Holiday Special.

The infamous holiday special features the cast in only short appearances as Han and Chewbacca are currently being pursued by the Empire during the Life Day holiday, which Chewie wants to get back home for. The special consisted of following Chewie’s family of Wookies on their home planet and features mostly Wookie howls as dialogue without subtitles. Scattered throughout the special are little vignettes featuring 70s stars such as Bea Arthur and Art Carney, and even includes an animated segment where Boba Fett was introduced for the first time.

The special never would be played anywhere again, and for a number of years, it was only available to watch through bootlegs. Lucas would notoriously say, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every bootlegged copy of the program and smash it.” 

The doc is about to premiere at the SXSW festival on March 11 and will be looking for a distributor, so strap yourselves in before they make the jump to lightspeed.