Long, long ago — 40 years, to be precise — The Star Wars Holiday Special brought George Lucas‘s far, far away galaxy out of movie theaters and into living rooms for the very first time. Lucas himself conceived of the notorious two-hour variety show, which aired on CBS once, and only once, on the evening of Nov. 17, 1978. Arriving one year after the original Star Wars became a pop-culture phenomenon, the Holiday Special reunited everyone’s favorite Rebels — human, alien and droid. That meant that the Luke, Leia and Han (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford) were back, alongside Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and the dynamic duo of C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (a radio-controlled version stood in for Kenny Baker). They were joined by a cavalcade of celebrities eager to be associated with the biggest blockbuster around, including Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Harvey Korman and Diahann Carroll.

It could have — heck, it should have — been a new Yuletide classic. But the Star Wars faithful were immediately left with a bad feeling about the Holiday Special. The special remains a traumatic memory for the actors as well. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment in 2015 prior to the release of The Force Awakens, both Ford and Fisher reacted in real (not mock) horror when the subject of the special was raised. “It’s awful … not awful in a good way,” Fisher said. Ford was even harsher in his assessment of the show. Asked whether he hoped we’d ever see another attempt at a Holiday Special, he replied: “Not if I have anything to say about it! And if I have anything to say about it, you won’t see the first one. What an embarrassment.” (Watch our interview above.)

Carrie Fisher and Anthony Daniels in the notorious Star Wars Holiday Special (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) More

But when Yahoo Entertainment spoke with the special’s director, Steve Binder, he revealed himself to be one of its biggest fans. “I had a great time shooting it,” remarks the now-85 year old director. “I got to work with all of the cast of the original, and we had a crack A-plus television crew on the show.”

And Binder has a convincing explanation about why the show flopped so badly upon its original airing. “The public never knew this wasn’t Star Wars II. This was a television show that Lucas sold CBS to sell toys to kids, and that’s all it was. Everybody who tuned in without that knowledge was expecting it to be a big expensive movie! But Lucas made a deal with Hasbro and wanted to get on national television to sell merchandise, and that was the whole purpose of the show to begin with. The public never knew any of this — it was behind the scenes.”

From the beginning, Binder knew he would have little creative control over the content of the Holiday Special, which had been set in stone by Lucas. The Star Wars creator’s storyline involved Han and Chewbacca trying to get back to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk in time to celebrate Life Day. That requires them to outrun Darth Vader (voiced, again, by James Earl Jones) and the Imperial Army. Meanwhile, back on Kashyyk, Chewie’s wife assembles a Life Day feast, while their son, Lumpy, wiles away the time watching a cartoon where his dad and Han teaming up with their future enemy, the bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

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