
A Disturbance in the Force
How and Why the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened
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Narrated by:
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Kirby Heyborne
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By:
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Steve Kozak
Even by the standards of the 1970s, even compared to Jar-Jar Binks, the legendary 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special is a peerlessly cringeworthy pop-culture artifact. George Lucas, who completely disowned the production, reportedly has said, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." Just how on earth did this thing ever see the light of day?
To answer that question, as Steven Kozak shows in this fascinating and often hilarious inside look into the making of the Special, you have to understand the cultural moment in which it appeared—a long, long time ago when cheesy variety shows were a staple of network television and Star Wars was not yet the billion-dollar multimedia behemoth that it is today. Kozak explains how the Special was one piece of a PR blitz undertaken by Lucas and his colleagues as they sought to protect the emerging franchise from hostile studio executives. He shows how, despite the involvement of some of the most talented people in the business, creative differences between movie and television writers led to a wildly uneven product. Packed with memorable anecdotes, drawing on new interviews with countless people involved in the production, and told with mingled affection and bewilderment, this never-before-told story gives a fascinating look at a strange moment in pop-culture history.
©2023 Steve Kozak (P)2023 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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Very well-researched and great information for any Star Wars fan. Super fun especially if you actually lived through that time and remembered the variety show experience!
The author also did a good job of presenting as little bias as possible towards any angle about the special, and presenting a wide range of views, ideas, and quotes from the people who were a part of the experience.
A lot of repetition of information.... A good read for anyone who is a Star Wars fan.
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Fascinating history of TV variety shows in general
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Fascinating and hilarious!
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more than just the Holiday Special!
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Informative!
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Aside from the intro, I made it to Chapter 5 with almost no mention or information about the Holiday Special. None of us who buy this need to know the history of how Star Wars was made. The book is simply padded with info about things other than the topic we all bought this for.
Additionally, the book sounds as though it were written by someone who simply read other books or articles as his source material for this one,
There’s also some factual errors. For example, the author mentions “DVD technology” being used to distribute the Holiday Special in the mid ‘90s, but DVD players were a *late* ‘90s product. He says that the Star Wars Early Bird Kit could be used to acquire 4 figures of your choice, when in fact it provided a *specific* 4 figures. Also, Jason Lenzi (look him up on IMDB) is described as an “action figure designer”. Not quite. He owns a toy company (among other things). Oh, and Charles Lippincott is not an unsung hero (“unmentioned” is the word the author uses). He’s mentioned in other books about Star Wars (which is how I’d guess the *author* heard of him).
Lastly, there’s the narrator. If it’s your job to read books, you should take the time to learn how to pronounce any names or words you’re unfamiliar with. It’s not the end of the world, but this narrator just winged it.
I was excited to find a book about the Star Wars Holiday Special. But apparently, this wasn’t it.
Padded with Information Unrelated to the Special
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