May the farce be with you

"Weird Al" Yankovic, who affectionately needled "Star Wars" with his popular Lucas-approved song parodies "Yoda" and "The Saga Begins," included a sight gag in his "White and Nerdy" video in which the title character makes a back alley purchase of "TSWHS." In a phone interview, the comedian could not make it through the list of the show's guest stars without cracking up. "Nobody evokes the gravitas of the 'Star Wars' universe more than those people," he said.

"TSWHS" is awful, but to quote the title of Carrie Fisher's 2003 novel, it is "The Best Awful."

"I think it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen," marveled Mike Nelson, who, with his former "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" costars, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, recorded heckling audio commentary to accompany the special that can be downloaded from Rifftrax.com. "It makes you want to reach behind the scenes and imagine how it all happened," he said in a phone interview. "You have to ask, 'Who approved it? Where was the fail-safe point?' "

Put in historical context, "TSWHS" was not all that out of the ordinary, points out Bruce Vilanch, who co-wrote the script. " 'Star Wars' was just so hot, and in those days, television specials were all about taking the hottest movie phenomenon and capitalizing on the audience," he said. "There were all kinds of specials. The year before, I worked on 'The Paul Lynde Halloween Special' with Margaret Hamilton, KISS, Florence Henderson and Witchy Poo from 'H.R. Pufnstuf.' So a 'Star Wars Holiday Special' made perfect sense."

Some fans believe it was television philistines who trashed Lucas' vision. But according to several people involved in the production, Lucas, whose name is conspicuously absent from the credits, did supply the story and creative blueprint. He then focused his attention on "The Empire Strikes Back," leaving the screenwriters with formidable challenges.

For starters, Vilanch pointed out, wookiees do not speak. They make noises "that sound like fat people having orgasms." (The first 10 minutes of "TSWHS" take place in the wookiee household. None of the grunts, groans or howls is subtitled or translated. It goes downhill from there.)

Co-producer Smith brought in Steve Binder to replace director David Acomba. Smith and Binder had first worked together on the 1965 rock music series "Hullabaloo." Binder had since directed some of television's most memorable specials, including Elvis Presley's 1968 "Comeback Special." Smith laughed at his own unintentional pun when he said, "Unlike any of the shows we had done, we were more executioners [on this project]. Once we got the outline from George, it was up to us to find a way to put it on paper."