THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL Documentary A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE To Premiere at SXSW
South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) has released its 2023 schedule, and one of the fun things spotlighted on the agenda is the documentary A Disturbance in the Force. The doc will dive into the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired on TV in 1978, then was seemingly wiped from the planet as fans were largely so unhappy with it.
This doc will dive into the how and why it was made, then talk about its aftermath. Here’s the synopsis:
In 1977, "Star Wars" became a cultural phenomenon that single-handedly revitalized a stagnant film industry, and forever changed how films were sold, made, and marketed. Movies would never be the same again.
A year later, neither would television.
In 1978, CBS aired the two-hour "Star Wars Holiday Special" during the week of Thanksgiving and was watched by 13 million people. It never re-aired.
While some fans of the franchise are aware of this dark secret, this bizarre two hours of television still remains relatively unknown among the general public. Simply put, we will answer how and why did the "Holiday Special" get made.
This sounds like it will be a lot of fun for fans, including those who happen to remember the special, and the ones who never got the chance to see it. The doc is directed by Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak, and you can expect to see Seth Green, Weird Al Yankovic, Taran Killam, Gilbert Gottfried, Bonnie Burton, Paul Scheer, Bruce Vilanch, Lenny Ripps, Donny Osmond, and Miki Herman help tell the story.
We will let you know as soon as A Disturbance in the Force is released after the festival is over.