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
About this listen
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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It’s time to unplug with the Grammy-winning Punch Brothers, fronted by singer-mandolinist Chris Thile, as they bring you a multi-episode musical variety show with dazzling musical guests, like Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Jon Batiste, Norah Jones, James Taylor, and many more.
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Gifted musicians and storytellers right in their element and at the height of their powers
- By Megan G Kahl on 10-27-24
By: Chris Thile, and others
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Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon
- Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, and the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream
- By: David McGowan
- Narrated by: Bill Fike
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day.
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My first review. This book changed me.
- By Robert on 06-30-19
By: David McGowan
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A Streetcar Named Desire
- By: Tennessee Williams
- Narrated by: Carla Gugino, Audra McDonald
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
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With Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald as Blanche DuBois alongside Carla Gugino as Stella, O’Hara takes a fresh and visceral look at the emotionally charged relationship between these two iconic sisters. Haunted by her past, Blanche seeks refuge with Stella and Stanley (Ariel Shafir) in New Orleans, where she wrestles with the nature of her sister’s husband, her sister’s denial, and her own unraveling mind.
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Classic With Fresh Insight
- By Talia Shafir on 12-04-20
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Song of the Northwoods
- By: Jessica Huang
- Narrated by: Michele Selene Ang, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Emma Kikue, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Original Recording
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After a betrayal at work costs Song Kuan her job, she retreats to her friend Lucy’s idyllic family cabin on a lake in Minnesota to lick her wounds. She devotes herself to recording Ice Cold Cases, a true-crime podcast that she and Lucy cohost with the gleeful energy of obsessed fans—until an anonymous tip about a missing-person case disrupts their equilibrium. Then Lucy disappears, leaving Song alone in an unfriendly and unfamiliar town where locals don’t take kindly to strangers asking questions.
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Asians in MN! I loved it. The vivid sounds of Northern Minnesota totally took me there, and I was hooked into the mystery.
- By Sheila Morris on 04-26-22
By: Jessica Huang
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Coreyography
- By: Corey Feldman
- Narrated by: Corey Feldman
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In this brave and moving memoir, Corey Feldman is revealing the truth about what his life was like behind the scenes: His is a past that included physical, drug, and sexual abuse, a dysfunctional family from which he was emancipated at age fifteen, three high-profile arrests for drug possession, a nine-month stint in rehab, and a long, slow crawl back to the top of the box office.
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Didn't like the Two Coreys, but liked this.
- By ricketsj on 04-29-14
By: Corey Feldman
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Petty: The Biography
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise.
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Tom Petty gets some bio love
- By tru britty on 12-15-15
By: Warren Zanes
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The Chris Farley Show
- A Biography in Three Acts
- By: Tom Farley, Tanner Colby
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer, L. J. Ganser, Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-selling biography of an American comedy legend. After three years of sobriety, Chris Farley's life was at its creative peak until a string of professional disappointments chased him back to drugs and alcohol. He fought hard against them, but it was a fight he would lose in December 1997. Farley's fans immediately drew parallels between his death and that of his idol, John Belushi. Without looking deeper, however, many failed to see that Farley was much more than just another Hollywood drug overdose. In this officially authorized oral history, Farley's friends and family remember his work and life.
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Incredibly sad....
- By Marie B on 04-12-15
By: Tom Farley, and others
What listeners say about A Disturbance in the Force
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Keith T
- 10-11-24
Fascinating history of TV variety shows in general
I loved the exploration of the variety show genre, and the early history of the Star Wars craze. I liked the balancing act towards the end: not everyone hated the show, and for some, it was the only Star Wars they knew. I like the calling out of Lucas for how he used up "friends" until they weren't yes men, but at the end it seemed to come back around to some Polly-Annish idea that Lucas cares about anything but money. Well, he also cares about absolute control, so I guess there's that. But references to The Last Jedi make no sense because Lucas had no input on those movies. They're not "his."
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- Marc R Luce
- 11-23-23
more than just the Holiday Special!
while the holiday special Remains the central subject of the entire book, there are numerous deep, informative and delightful diversions into the entire entertainment industry of the 1970s. unknown and obscure information on Star Wars itself would be more than enough to recommend the book. but in addition to that there is perspective interviews and histories on where popular television itself was as an art form at the time the special was conceived, produced and broadcast. Highly, highly recommended to anyone knowledgeable of or curious about not just the holiday special but 1970s American television.
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- Jam
- 01-08-24
Informative!
A lot of fun info in here I’ve never heard before. A fun book for a guy who saw stars in the theater in 1977.
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- Alan
- 12-28-23
Padded with Information Unrelated to the Special
I’ve been an Audible member for years, and during this time have only ever returned two books. This is one of them.
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.
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1 person found this helpful