Harrison Forddoesn’t have a whole lot to be embarrassed about. In addition to being the most beloved movie star in the world for nearly five decades,Ford has amassed critical acclaimfor his performances both in and outside the beloved franchises that he’s been involved with. Ford has a relatively low number of misses; whileParanoiaandHollywood Homiciderepresent some of the lower points of his career, no actor has a spotless track record. Ford’s resume is much more solid than many of his contemporaries (as he’s yet to tread into the direct-to-VOD films thatRobert De NiroandAl Pacinoso often star in), but there’s one performance from early on in his career that Ford is truly humiliated by.
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What Is ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’?
Shortly after the release of the originalStar Wars: Episode IV — A New Hopein 1977,George Lucaswas cajoled into allowing ABC tocreate a two-hour “holiday special” sketch variety showthat featured appearances by characters from theStar Warsfranchise. This meant thatStar Warsactors like Ford,Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher,andMark Hamillappeared in sketches alongside 1970s television and music stars likeBeatrice Arthur, Art Carney, Diahann Carroll, Jefferson Starship,andHarvey Korman, among others. A narrative about Han trying to get Chewbacca back to his homeworld of Kashyyyk to celebrate the Wookiee holiday “Life Day” serves as an excuse to tie in various comedy sketches that would have been featured in 1970s holiday specials at the time. Despite being headlined on the poster, Ford only appears in a few perfunctory scenes that tie the sketches together.
The Star Wars Holiday Specialreceived almost no supervision from Lucas or anyone involved with the original film. While it’s sometimes compared to the made-for-television filmsCaravan of Courage: An Ewok AdventureandEwoks: The Battle for Endor,the twoWarwick Davis-led spin-offswere overseen by creatives involved withStar Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. While Ford is now regarded as one of the biggest stars of all time, he didn’t have quite the same reputation in 1978; in fact, he was coming off of the critical disappointment of films likeHanover StreetandForce 10 From Navarone.Reprising his role from the highest-grossing film of all time for a quick television appearance was likely a quick payday for Ford.
To say that Ford seems unenthused about the role would be an understatement. Ford has notoriously stated his preference forthe character of Indiana Jones over Han Solo, but acting alongside a child actor dressed as Chewbacca’s son “Lumpy” goes beyond just disrespecting hisStar Warscharacter. Ford is acting to play things completely straight, and it feels like he desperately wants to leave the set as soon as he can. You can practically hear his soul die as he utters the phrase “You guys are like family to me” to Chewbacca’s wife “Malla,” his grandfather “Itchy,” and Lumpy.
Why Does Harrison Hate ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’?
While Ford gets stung with the reputation of being a notorious grouch, he’s shown a lot more passion for the character of Han Solo than most would imagine the famously reclusive actor to have. Ford even teared up when he was on stage at the 2015 Comic Conpromoting the upcoming release ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens, and stated he was deeply moved by the respect thatJ.J. Abramsand the production team showed the legendary smuggler. That being said, Ford has also enjoyed poking fun at the franchise over the years, and the subject ofThe Star Wars Holiday Specialinspired one of his funniest talk show appearances ever.
While promoting the upcoming release of the espionage thrillerFirewall(a film he should actually be embarrassed by),Ford appeared onLate Night With Conan O’Brien, andThe Star Wars Holiday Specialwas brought up. In another showcase of his surprising comedic genius, Ford appears to have no recollection of whatThe Holiday Specialwas or ever having filmed his role in it. While Conan and Ford have had fun lampooning his supposed temper of the years, things escalate quickly when the talk show host attempts to show a clip from the special. Ford tackles Conan to wrestle the tape away from him to prevent anyone from seeing it. After the pre-planned sketch ends, Conan provides a bit of context on the special itself and why it has been such a “Holy Grail” item forStar Warsfans.
Why Hasn’t ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’ Been Released by Lucasfilm?
One of the reasons thatThe Star Wars Holiday Specialis such a sought-after item is that it has never been released in any official capacity by Lucasfilm.Lucas is quotedin the recent documentary,A Disturbance In the Force, as saying that if he “had the time and a hammer, I would smash every copy of theHoliday Special," and as a result, the two-hour broadcast has never been made available on VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, or streaming services; Disney+ only recently released the short animated segmentThe Story Of The Faithful Wookiee, which featured the first onscreen appearance of Boba Fett beforeThe Empire Strikes Back. Bootleg copies have been a commodity atStar Warsconventions for years, and althoughsomeStar Warsactors like Hamillhave advocated for its release, Ford has remained relatively tight-lipped about his performance.
The Star Wars Holiday Specialtaught Lucas an important lesson about not licensing the characters fromStar Warswithout careful discretion; in many ways, the two-hour disaster is responsible for Lucasfilm’s notoriously selective process in creating Expanded Universe material and spin-off projects. Ford seemed to learn the same lesson; unlike otherStar Warsactors, he never returned to appear as Solo in any video games, television shows, or parodies until the release ofThe Force Awakensin 2015. It’s a relatively forgivable error for that period in his career, but in all honesty, it’s much less embarrassingthan his half-hearted cameo inStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
