By 1973, singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson had starred in a handful of feature film roles, playing outlaw Billy the Kid in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which also co-starred Bob Dylan. That same year, just after her 14th birthday, Marie Osmond, of the performing Osmond clan, launched her recording career, becoming the youngest female act to hit Number One on the country chart with her song “Paper Roses.”
Although their career (and, indeed, personal) trajectories couldn’t be more divergent, the paths of Kristofferson — who died Saturday at 88 — and Osmond, along with her teen-idol brother Donny, would cross just a few years later when the Donny & Marie Show became a surprise hit for ABC at a time when variety series were quickly going out of vogue.
Yet, as one cultural phenomenon was breathing its last breath, another — also first launched in 1973 — was quickly hitting lightspeed. In April 1973, writer-director George Lucas, who had just completed the nostalgic American Graffiti, began writing the 13-page treatment for a project titled The Star Wars. Four summers later, Star Wars was in movie theaters and transformed modern cinema and the movie business, becoming one of the most profitable film franchises of all time.
With the U.S. fully engulfed in Star Wars mania by September 1977, Donny & Marie, who were “a little bit country and a little bit rock & roll,” were a staple of Friday-night TV. Their variety show debuted in 1976 with an array of guest stars, musical interludes, and comedy sketches, and usually included a closing production number featuring the show’s guests. In this episode, the lineup boasted Kristofferson and comedians Redd Foxx and Paul Lynde.
Kristofferson’s then-wife Rita Coolidge and young daughter Casey also popped up in a segment, and the Nashville star performed his song “The Legend.” He also duetted with Marie on the Lou Rawls hit “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine.”
But it’s the totally spaced-out 12-minute production number that closes the episode that has to be seen to be believed. Together, the Osmonds, Kristofferson, Foxx, and Lynde are joined by actual Star Wars characters C-3PO, R2-D2, and Darth Vader (voiced not by the late James Earl Jones but by Thurl Ravenscroft, best known as the “g-r-r-r-r-eat” voice of Tony the Tiger and the singer of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”) for a musical number inspired by Lucas’s film.
Kristofferson, bearded and shaggy-haired, plays it cool as space rogue Han Solo, accompanied by his hirsute co-pilot Chewbacca. But the musical numbers are anything but: There are dancing Stormtroopers, Lynde as an Imperial general, Foxx as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a whole lot of swaying. There’s also a cringe-worthy take on Sly and the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher” that, like much of this spectacle, only make sense in a galaxy far, far, far away.