A long time ago – November 1978, to be exact – instead of episodes of “The Incredible Hulk” and “Wonder Woman,” CBS aired a holiday special that was, well, totally out of this world.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
A long time ago – November 1978, to be exact – instead of episodes of “The Incredible Hulk” and “Wonder Woman,” CBS aired a holiday special that was, well, totally out of this world.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL”)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: “The Star Wars Holiday Special.”
DETROW: That’s right. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher all appeared in their roles as Luke, Han Solo and Leia. But there were guest stars, too. People like Bea Arthur were there. There was singing and dancing. There were skits. George Lucas had authorized “The Star Wars Holiday Special,” but as you could possibly tell from that description, he hated it. It never aired again, and instead it became a beloved bootleg passed around from fan to fan. Now, a documentary called “A Disturbance In The Force” looks back at the special, talking to some of the famous fans who love it and the people who made it. And it asked the key questions, why, how did this ever happen, and others. Linda Holmes of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour joins us now to cover this strange territory. Welcome, Linda.
LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting. I know you are a “Star Wars” guy.
DETROW: I am. And I can still remember, like, the first time I came across clips of this in, like, the GeoCities-era internet, and just thinking, like…
HOLMES: Yep.
DETROW: …What is going on? Like, what is this? How did this special become so legendary?
HOLMES: Well, in the documentary, there are a bunch of guys who are “Star Wars” people like Patton Oswalt and Weird Al Yankovic and other kind of famous nerds. And they talk about how the fact that they never released this on any kind of home video officially made it feel sort of…
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