Star Wars News
Editorial: ‘It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time’ – Bruce Vilanch’s New Book and Writing the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’
By Colin Walker
March 27, 2025

In 1978 something bizarre and not of this world was unleashed upon unsuspecting audiences. Some people believe it to be the worst thing ever to come out of a beloved franchise. Others see it as a relic of a bygone time. Still others view it as a quirky curiosity; something to be dredged up form the internets and passed along to those not in the know. For the writer of this unique piece of kitsch, one that has remained amazingly stubborn in its tenacity to survive into these modern times, it was just another project and paycheck.

Of course, we’re talking about non-other than the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, a disaster of such epic proportions that the father of all things form that galaxy far, far away, has deemed it only worthy to exist at the end of falling hammer. What once was spoken of in hushed tones and passed from fan to fan via bootleg videotape or DVD is now as much a part of modern Star Wars as blue milk and “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

While countless articles and opinion pieces have been written about the history of this much maligned turkey of a show, broadcast by CBS on November 17th, 1978, until recently, we had only ever heard bits and minor anecdotes from those involved in the production. Enter the newest player to spill the beans—Hollywood writer, Bruce Vilanch. Larger than life, Vilanch is a writer, actor, comedian, and queer icon, if you were consuming American television any time between the 1970s to the late 90s, you’ve more than likely encountered this man’s work.

Released earlier this month, It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote is a tell-all book from one of the biggest names in late 20th century film, stage, and television you’ve more than likely never heard of. Vilanch has written for Broadway, film, and television and has acted, both on and off the screen, and was even a long-running mainstay on the popular B and C-list celebrity gameshow, Hollywood Squares (if you haven’t heard of that one, ask you parents or maybe even your grandparents). Amid all these projects and accomplishments, the man gleefully acknowledges and revels in the fact that he has written for and participated in some of the lousiest productions imaginable:

“When you write something for variety television, you don’t have the burden of greatness taking up residence on your shoulders. And you are getting paid, unlike Eugene O’Neill, who understood the maxim all playwrights understand—the theater is a great place to make a killing, but a lousy place to make a living. In TV you can make either, or enough so that you can walk away and exercise your inner O’Neill. If you have one. And you feel like letting in out to play. Not everyone does, especially with the dazzling array of substances we have at our disposal to keep our inner O’Neills at bay.”

—Bruce Vilanch (It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time)

Like another queer icon of film and television, John Waters, Vilanch wields nostalgia and camp with the deftness and precision of a brain surgeon—he knows that what he does is more than likely going to be viewed as crap and he revels in it all the way to the bank. The book covers a huge chunk of the writer’s worst works from his appearance in the cult classic Star Wars knockoff The Ice Pirates to the disco fueled fever-dream that is Can’t Stop the Music and a personal favorites of mine, the delightfully campy The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. Each of these projects, whether it be a small budget sci-fi film, a starring vehicle for the Village People, or seeing Paul Lynde be the very first to introduce KISS to TV audiences, like the writer behind them, never take themselves too seriously.

Then there is the slowly moving train wreck that is, The Star Wars Holiday Special; the strange child born of George Lucas’s influence and a heaping dose of television variety show staples such as Art Carney, Harvey Korman, and Bea Arthur. It’s the kind Bizarro World experience that, as you watch, feels both like a fever-dream and infinitely, painfully longer than it’s relatively short runtime of an hour and thirty-seven minutes (about the length of a modern comedy or an animated Disney film) make it feel.

In his book there are fantastic stories and anecdotes; Vilanch praises Carrie Fischer for her singing chops as well as her willingness to roll with such a stinker of a program all while trying to get the producers to let her really belt out something special. He also fills in some of the strange casting decisions and even speculates on which creations were his and the other writer’s

(Gormaanda) and which were Lucas’s. According to Vilanch, most of the special’s plot and characters were directly provided by Lucas himself:

“Given this hindsight, it might be hard to recognize that at the time, The Star Wars Holiday Special was itself something of a joke idea. If it had been the thing George originally envisioned, it might have gone on to be a joyous season perennial, to be trotted out along with the Bing Crosby—David Bowie duet on “Little Drummer Boy” that routinely shows up between Thanksgiving and Kwanzaa. But, as I think you know, it wasn’t that thing.”

—Bruce Vilanch (It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time)

Some might criticize the decision to not end his book on such a colossal pop-culture misfire, I would argue that Vilanch’s choice to put it out front sets the tone for everything that is to follow in the subsequent chapters. Honestly, the stories in this book are all so great and hilarious and mind-meltingly cringe that going for broke and putting the most simultaneously revered and reviled of these works out front is a bold statement that says, “You came for the worst and I’m here to tell you that it only goes downhill from here, folks!”

While I’ve been a lifelong fan of Vilanch and his work, upon discovering his involvement in the iconic disaster when I was a kid made seeking out the show even more of a joy knowing that he had a direct hand in something so beautifully bad in ever facet of its production and something still intrinsically woven into the fabric of my beloved space-opera. If you’ve never heard of Bruce Vilanch, don’t fret, by the end of this book, you will be seeking out clips online from each of these projects and hopefully finding them equal parts odd, of their time, and hilariously cringy.

It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote is now available.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is still unfortunately not available to purchase, for better or worse.

The post Bruce Vilanch’s New Book and Writing the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Los Angeles Times
Bruce Vilanch has written ‘some of the biggest disasters’ on TV. He’s embracing his legacy
By Chris Vognar
March 5, 2025

Bruce Vilanch’s new book, “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time,” details his involvement in some of the most gloriously awful moments in the history of entertainment.

If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

Remember that Snow White-Rob Lowe debacle at the 1989 Oscars? How about the galactically bizarre 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special”? Or the 1980 Village People disco bomb “Can’t Stop the Music”?

Bruce Vilanch had a hand in all of the above, and lived to kiss and tell — and now write about it. His new book, “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time,” details his involvement in some of the most gloriously awful moments in the history of entertainment. Never the shy or retiring type, Vilanch is happy to embrace his legacy (which is easier to do when you’ve also won two Emmys and written for 25 Oscar telecasts).

“These were some of the biggest disasters, but everybody has disasters,” he told The Times in a recent interview. “It wasn’t like they said, ‘Oh, this is s—. Let’s get Vilanch.’ It’s just the luck of the draw. It’s just the way things turned out.”

Vilanch, now a snarky and youthful 76, comes across as a big, caustically friendly and wonderfully gay Muppet. He’s successful enough to have been the subject of an excellent documentary about the craft of comedy (1999’s “Get Bruce,” featuring Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Nathan Lane, among others), and he’s seasoned enough to know where plenty of bodies are buried.

And yes, he helped write some serious stinkers.

Some of this can be attributed to the era when he made his showbiz bones. The ’70s was the decade of the prime-time TV special, usually built around a middling star and featuring talent from the airing network. (Synergy. It’s been around for a minute.) The specials were a blatant attempt to offer something for everyone, in a precable epoch defined by broadcasting, as opposed to today’s narrowcasting.

It was also, not coincidentally, a time when drugs were rather prevalent.

“Many of these things were made in a cloud of smoke,” Vilanch said. “It was also just a crazy period when it was a three- or four-channel universe, so you could get away with a whole lot of stuff because a lot of people were coming home and watching television at a certain hour. People actually sat down in the living room. They only do that now for a few events, either a football game or Nikki Glaser roasting a football player.”

Such were the circumstances that gave us “The Star Wars Holiday Special.” George Lucas’ space adventure — there was only the one at the time — was red-hot. As Vilanch writes, “Either someone at CBS, or someone at ILM, or someone in the IRA, or someone on the IRT — depends on which version you’ve heard — suggested producing some sort of ‘Star Wars’ spectacle for TV to keep the franchise bubbling on the burner of public awareness until the second installment was released.”

The results, which aired Nov. 17, 1978, were not spectacular, but they were spectacularly strange. I could sense this even as a “Star Wars”-besotted 8-year-old. The story, such as it is, involves Chewbacca’s mission to return to his home planet of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day. The major cast members were on hand. So were CBS mainstays including Art Carney, Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman, all of whom stopped in to do wacky bits.

“We were doing the thing on a hand-painted set pulled together from other things,” Vilanch said. “We didn’t go to London for six months to shoot this thing. It was crazy. We had hand-me-down aliens that we had to get at the outlet store. Anybody who was interested in ‘Star Wars’ would look at it and go, ‘What is this?’

“And then it disappeared. We thought we could put it in a shallow grave and nobody would really find it.”

Enter: the internet, where all shallow graves are eventually dug up. As Vilanch recalled, “When I started doing podcasts during COVID, people way younger than I am would say, ‘“The Star Wars Holiday Special,” how did that happen? Who said yes? And have they paid their debt to society?’”

Vilanch writes of the “keyboard warriors” who track him down when they discover he was among the parties responsible for such trainwrecks. They also want to know about the 1989 Oscars, which kicked off with the spectacle of Snow White, played by the relatively anonymous Eileen Bowman, interacting with stars in the audience wearing a collective look of “What on Earth is happening right now?” This led into a duet with Lowe on a Hollywood-themed version of “Proud Mary.”

The response was less than enthusiastic. But Vilanch was essentially an innocent bystander, even as a writer on the show. The bit was the brainchild of producer Allan Carr, who also hired (and fired) Vilanch on “Can’t Stop the Music” (and, it should be noted, also produced the massive 1978 blockbuster “Grease”). The Oscars debacle effectively ended Carr’s career. He died in 1999.

“They had delivered the show to Allan as a savior because the ratings had been going down, and there was some fresh blood at the Academy,” Vilanch said. “His mandate was, ‘Make it different, make it young, make it unusual.’ So they were trying not to second-guess him. And that proved to be fatal.” Vilanch still has a soft spot for his late friend, and is currently working on a theater piece about him.

That telecast didn’t slow Vilanch’s roll. He reigned for many years as the wisecracking center square on “Hollywood Squares,” a space once occupied by Paul Lynde, for whom Vilanch wrote another special featured in the book, 1976’s “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special.” A game of Six Degrees of Bruce Vilanch would include Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, Steven Tyler, Roseanne Barr and a long list of others. The guy knows, and has written for, a lot of people.

“When you do the Oscars you meet the stars who are just guesting on the show, and they’re all marching through your office with their publicists and their spouses and their holistic pet psychiatrists and all the other people in their entourage,” he said. “So you do meet a lot of people and I love that.”

He helped serve up a lot of turkeys. And now he gets to gobble.

The post Bruce Vilanch has written ‘some of the biggest disasters’ on TV. He’s embracing his legacy first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

We Got Bruce
Bruce Vilanch Is On The Cover Of Metro Weekly
By Mister D
March 9, 2025

Bruce Vilanch is on the cover of Washington D.C.’s Metro Weekly with a great, long article written by Andre Hereford. Of course, Bruce’s new book, It Seemed Like A Bad Idea At The Time, is discussed along with life stories, and the celebrities he’s worked with. A must read!

The post Bruce Vilanch Is On The Cover Of Metro Weekly first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Los Angeles Times
Bruce Vilanch has written ‘some of the biggest disasters’ on TV. He’s embracing his legacy
By Chris Vogner
March 5, 2025

Bruce Vilanch has written ‘some of the biggest disasters’ on TV. He’s embracing his legacy

On the Shelf

It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time
By Bruce Vilanch
Chicago Review Press: 256 pages, $29

Remember that Snow White-Rob Lowe debacle at the 1989 Oscars? How about the galactically bizarre 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special”? Or the 1980 Village People disco bomb “Can’t Stop the Music”?

Bruce Vilanch had a hand in all of the above, and lived to kiss and tell — and now write about it. His new book, “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time,” details his involvement in some of the most gloriously awful moments in the history of entertainment. Never the shy or retiring type, Vilanch is happy to embrace his legacy (which is easier to do when you’ve also won two Emmys and written for 25 Oscar telecasts).

“These were some of the biggest disasters, but everybody has disasters,” he told The Times in a recent interview. “It wasn’t like they said, ‘Oh, this is s—. Let’s get Vilanch.’ It’s just the luck of the draw. It’s just the way things turned out.”

Vilanch, now a snarky and youthful 76, comes across as a big, caustically friendly and wonderfully gay Muppet. He’s successful enough to have been the subject of an excellent documentary about the craft of comedy (1999’s “Get Bruce,” featuring Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Nathan Lane, among others), and he’s seasoned enough to know where plenty of bodies are buried.

And yes, he helped write some serious stinkers.

Some of this can be attributed to the era when he made his showbiz bones. The ’70s was the decade of the prime-time TV special, usually built around a middling star and featuring talent from the airing network. (Synergy. It’s been around for a minute.) The specials were a blatant attempt to offer something for everyone, in a precable epoch defined by broadcasting, as opposed to today’s narrowcasting.

“Many of these things were made in a cloud of smoke,” Vilanch said. “It was also just a crazy period when it was a three- or four-channel universe, so you could get away with a whole lot of stuff because a lot of people were coming home and watching television at a certain hour. People actually sat down in the living room. They only do that now for a few events, either a football game or Nikki Glaser roasting a football player.”

Such were the circumstances that gave us “The Star Wars Holiday Special.” George Lucas’ space adventure — there was only the one at the time — was red-hot. As Vilanch writes, “Either someone at CBS, or someone at ILM, or someone in the IRA, or someone on the IRT — depends on which version you’ve heard — suggested producing some sort of ‘Star Wars’ spectacle for TV to keep the franchise bubbling on the burner of public awareness until the second installment was released.”

The results, which aired Nov. 17, 1978, were not spectacular, but they were spectacularly strange. I could sense this even as a “Star Wars”-besotted 8-year-old. The story, such as it is, involves Chewbacca’s mission to return to his home planet of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day. The major cast members were on hand. So were CBS mainstays including Art Carney, Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman, all of whom stopped in to do wacky bits.

“We were doing the thing on a hand-painted set pulled together from other things,” Vilanch said. “We didn’t go to London for six months to shoot this thing. It was crazy. We had hand-me-down aliens that we had to get at the outlet store. Anybody who was interested in ‘Star Wars’ would look at it and go, ‘What is this?’

“And then it disappeared. We thought we could put it in a shallow grave and nobody would really find it.”

Enter: the internet, where all shallow graves are eventually dug up. As Vilanch recalled, “When I started doing podcasts during COVID, people way younger than I am would say, ‘“The Star Wars Holiday Special,” how did that happen? Who said yes? And have they paid their debt to society?’”

Vilanch writes of the “keyboard warriors” who track him down when they discover he was among the parties responsible for such trainwrecks. They also want to know about the 1989 Oscars, which kicked off with the spectacle of Snow White, played by the relatively anonymous Eileen Bowman, interacting with stars in the audience wearing a collective look of “What on Earth is happening right now?” This led into a duet with Lowe on a Hollywood-themed version of “Proud Mary.”

The response was less than enthusiastic. But Vilanch was essentially an innocent bystander, even as a writer on the show. The bit was the brainchild of producer Allan Carr, who also hired (and fired) Vilanch on “Can’t Stop the Music” (and, it should be noted, also produced the massive 1978 blockbuster “Grease”). The Oscars debacle effectively ended Carr’s career. He died in 1999.

“They had delivered the show to Allan as a savior because the ratings had been going down, and there was some fresh blood at the Academy,” Vilanch said. “His mandate was, ‘Make it different, make it young, make it unusual.’ So they were trying not to second-guess him. And that proved to be fatal.” Vilanch still has a soft spot for his late friend, and is currently working on a theater piece about him.

That telecast didn’t slow Vilanch’s roll. He reigned for many years as the wisecracking center square on “Hollywood Squares,” a space once occupied by Paul Lynde, for whom Vilanch wrote another special featured in the book, 1976’s “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special.” A game of Six Degrees of Bruce Vilanch would include Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, Steven Tyler, Roseanne Barr and a long list of others. The guy knows, and has written for, a lot of people.

“When you do the Oscars you meet the stars who are just guesting on the show, and they’re all marching through your office with their publicists and their spouses and their holistic pet psychiatrists and all the other people in their entourage,” he said. “So you do meet a lot of people and I love that.”

He helped serve up a lot of turkeys. And now he gets to gobble.

The post Bruce Vilanch has written ‘some of the biggest disasters’ on TV. He’s embracing his legacy first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble The Grove welcomes Bruce Vilanch to discuss IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME
By Staff
Feb 27, 2025

Bruce Vilanch talks IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME at B&N The Grove

Barnes & Noble The Grove welcomes Bruce Vilanch to discuss IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME on March 6th at 7:00 PM!

35.31 USD

Get Ticket

Date and time

• Mar 06, 2025 19:00 – 20:00

Location

Barnes & Noble The Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA

About this event

Join Barnes & Noble – The Grove at Farmers Market on March 6, 2025, as we welcome Bruce Vilanch to discuss IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME.

“Bruce Vilanch, a storyteller without peer, has written a tell-all . . . on himself! And it’s hilarious! He’s finally coming clean and owning up to his part in creating some of the worst television of the twentieth century, and that’s saying a lot. There’s no one like him. As they’ve been saying since I discovered him as a cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune, when you’re in a pinch . . . Get Bruce!” —BETTE MIDLER

To make this event safe and enjoyable for all attendees, please read the below guidelines ahead of buying a ticket, so you know what to expect on the day. To avoid disappointment, we must stress that there will be no access to the event for non-ticketholders.

TICKET INFORMATION

**A ticket includes:

Solo Book Admission – $31.74 (Admission + one pre-signed copy of IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME): **LIMITED QUANTITY AVAILABLE**: A ticket PER PERSON includes:

• One pre-signed copy of IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME.
• Admission to the event space for the discussion and signing with Bruce Vilanch.

For Seated Tickets: Limited quantity is available and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Purchase of a ticket guarantees entrance to the event for the discussion and photo-op. However, this ticket may not necessarily guarantee a seat at the event, as later arrivals may be placed in a line behind the seated audience.

If you need any special assistance, please email our Event Director at crm2089@bn.com.

For Standing Room-Only Tickets: Purchase of a ticket guarantees entrance to the event for the discussion and photo-op. Ticket Holders will be granted a standing view from behind the seated audience — some views may be more limited/obstructed than others.

Ticket Holders will be admitted into the event beginning at 6:00 PM on the day of the event. Check-in will be at the third-floor customer service desk. Please have a copy of your ticket available (either printed out or on your phone) for check-in.

GUIDELINES

• This is a discussion and photo-op event. Books will be pre-signed.
• No memorabilia or backlist will be signed at this event.
• Photos will be taken by a BN Bookseller on the Ticket Holder’s phone/camera.
• No large bags will be permitted into the event.
• Barnes & Noble may cancel this event at any time with or without notice to the ticket holders.

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES

• Some outside queuing may be required, so please come dressed appropriately for all weather.
• The exact time at which the event ends will be determined on the day.
• To avoid disappointment, we strongly advise you to arrive on time for the event. Late arrivals may not have the opportunity to enter the event space.
• Due to health and safety and space limitations, those without a ticket will not be permitted to join the queue.
• All event guidelines are subject to change.
• If you have any additional questions, you can call the store directly at 323-525-0270.

Please note that Eventbrite is the only authorized dealer for this event. Each person must have a ticket to enter.

Refunds:

Attendees can receive refunds up to 1 day before your event start date.

If you are unable to attend the event, Barnes & Noble – The Grove will hold your book for seven days after the event. Please contact the store to arrange your pickup.

Event guidelines are subject to change.

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The post Barnes & Noble The Grove welcomes Bruce Vilanch to discuss IT SEEMED LIKE A BAD IDEA AT THE TIME first appeared on We Got Bruce!.