The Hollywood Show: Bruce Vilanch Reflects on Bea Arthur in the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’
Comedy writer, actor, songwriter, and t-shirt enthusiast Bruce Vilanch has had a long and storied career in Tinseltown using his talent to write for the Academy Awards, crafting monologues and jokes for hosts ranging from Billy Crystal to Whoopi Goldberg, playing Edna Turnblad on Broadway in the musical Hairspray, and penning many classic TV shows such as The Donny & Marie Show and Hollywood Squares.
But for Vilanch, the real comedy is in his stinkers.
In his 2025 memoir, It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time, the prolific writer goes into great and hilarious detail about some of the worst projects he ever partook in, including The Brady Bunch Hour, the 1980 Village People musical Can’t Stop the Music, and The Paul Lynde Halloween Special featuring the rock band Kiss AND Betty White.
Lucasfilm / Courtesy: Everett Collection
But perhaps his most infamous project was the Star Wars Holiday Special, a campy musical spectacular that veered into the surreal rather than sci-fi. Featuring the entire cast of Star Wars, along with a handful of odd guest stars and an animated segment introducing Boba Fett (the best part of the feature), the special gained notoriety for its unusual creative choices, fan backlash, and its format as a 1970s-style variety show. George Lucas‘s open disdain for the project ultimately ensured it was never officially released on VHS, DVD, or streaming, as Lucasfilm preferred to keep it buried.
At the Hollywood Show in Burbank, California, Vilanch chatted with ReMIND about the dubious special and working with Bea Arthur, who played Ackmena, a bartender in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
ReMIND Staff
“We did a thing called the Star Wars Holiday Special, which lives in infamy,” recalled Vilanch. “We hit the cantina on Tatooine, but we added Bea Arthur as the woman who ran the cantina. And Bea wanted to sing ‘The Alabama Song’ by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. And we went to the Brecht estate, and they said, ‘Nein.’ That was not the figure they were asking for it. It was ‘No’ in German. Very emphatically no. They didn’t see Bea Arthur singing the thing surrounded by aliens.”
In addition to issues with securing the song, production wasn’t the easiest. Apparently, the heat from the soundstage was a bit much for a few of the supporting aliens to handle.
“We wrote another song, and while watching her do it, we watched these aliens as they were passing out because of the heat on the stage,” recalled Vilanch. “And every time one would pass out, she’d say [mimicking her husky voice] ‘One’s down…another one down.'”
“It’s a great story. In the book, you’ll see it’s…I don’t want to say it out loud, because it’s absolutely filthy, but it’s great. You’ll love it. You can read it quietly,” laughed Vilanch at the memory.
Get the full story from Bruce Vilanch’s book, It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote
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