Bea Arthur’s Star Wars Holiday Special Character Ackmena Explained

Die-hard Star Wars fans may be aware of the much-maligned TV special that was broadcast in the late 1970s, but for the uninitiated here’s Bea Arthur’s Star Wars Holiday Special character Ackmena explained. Earlier this year Disney delighted fans with the release of its Star Wars Vintage Collection on Disney+ which included an animated segment titled The Story Of The Faithful Wookiee. The animation is notable for two things – being the first Star Wars cartoon and featuring the debut of Boba Fett – and is highly regarded within the fandom. However, the property from which it originated, the Star Wars Holiday Special, isn’t so highly rated.

The Star Wars Holiday Special was broadcast on CBS in 1978 and is set between the events of the very first Star Wars and its 1980s sequel The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a curious mix of Star Wars lore and variety show-style segments loosely linked by a plot that follows Han Solo and Chewbacca as they travel to the latter’s home planet of Kashyyyk to celebrate the Wookiee holiday Life Day with his family. The TV special was panned by Star Wars fans and critics alike and is so infamously terrible that it’s never been re-broadcast in the USA or even officially released on home video.

The Star Wars Holiday Special wasn’t all bad though. One segment featured future Golden Girls star Bea Arthur and, like The Story Of The Faithful Wookiee, it’s hailed as a highlight in an otherwise truly awful piece of Star Wars media. The segment is presented as a holodocumentary titled Life On Tatooine and stars the late, great Arthur as a bartender named Ackmena who is working a busy night at Chalmun’s Cantina in Mos Eisley.

Not only does Ackmena have to deal with amorous patron Krelman (Harvey Korman), she also has to persuade the cantina’s rowdy crowd to leave when the Empire imposes a curfew. To cheer up her disgruntled customers, Ackmena offers them one more drink on the house and serenades them with parting song “Goodnight, But Not Goodbye” while the cantina house band Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes plays along.

In an interview with Portland Mercury, Arthur said she had fun making it but never knew the Star Wars Holiday Special was part of the then-budding space opera franchise:

“I didn’t know what that was about at all. I was asked to be in it by the composer of that song I sang—”Goodnight, But Not Goodbye.” It was a wonderful time, but I had no idea it was even a part of the whole Star Wars thing … I just remember singing to bunch of people with funny heads”.

Unfortunately, other Star Wars Holiday Special cast members don’t have such fond memories of the production. Harrison Ford, for example, prefers not to acknowledge its existence while Mark Hamill once jokingly asked the former POTUS to officially pardon the TV special. As for George Lucas, he rarely talks about the Star Wars Holiday Special but reportedly once said, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it”. So, his feelings on the matter are pretty clear.