National Lampoon's Animal House

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National Lampoon's Animal House.
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Landis
Produced by	Ivan Reitman Matty Simmons
Written by	Harold Ramis Douglas Kenney Christopher Miller
Starring	John Belushi Tim Matheson John Vernon Tom Hulce Peter Riegert Stephen Furst Mary Louise Weller
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	Charles Correll
Editing by	George Folsey Jr.
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	July 28, 1978 (premiere)
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,700,000
Gross revenue	$141,600,000 (USA)
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 comedy film in which a misfit group of fraternity boys take on the system at their college.

The movie was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Christopher Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller based on his experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College, Ramis's experiences in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis, and published in National Lampoon magazine.

The film was directed by John Landis. It is considered to be the movie that launched the gross-out genre^[1] (although it was predated by several films now also included in the genre).

Produced on a small ($2.7 million) budget, the film has turned out to be one of the most profitable movies of all time. Since its initial release, Animal House has garnered an estimated return of more than $141 million in the form of video and DVDs, not including merchandising.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.^[2] This film is first on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."^[3] It was #36 on AFI's "100 Years, 100 Laughs" list of the 100 best American comedies.^[4]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Characters 2.1 Deltas 2.2 Omegas 2.3 Other significant characters 3 Production 3.1 Origins 3.2 Writing the screenplay 3.3 Casting 3.4 Locations 3.5 Principal photography 4 Soundtrack and score 4.1 Soundtrack album listing 4.2 Other songs in the film 5 Reception 6 TV series, sequel 7 References in pop culture 7.1 Ask For Babs 7.2 Double Secret Probation 7.3 The smashed guitar 7.4 Ladder Peeping 8 DVD editions 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Plot summary

It is Rush Week 1962 at fictional Faber College in Pennsylvania. Vietnam, the Sexual Revolution and the counterculture movement are not even blips on the horizon. A 1950s mentality still pervades the campus, typified by the Omegas—the most prestigious, elitist fraternity. At the other end of the spectrum (but right next door) stands the Delta Tau Chi House, a repository for campus misfits.

Two freshmen, Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) are trying to pledge a good fraternity. They first try their luck at the Omega House rush party, but are out of their league. The Omegas quickly steer them to an area where they have segregated the other "undesirables": Mohammed, Jugdish, Sidney, and Clayton (who is blind and in a wheelchair).

Larry and Kent then try the Deltas next door. As they approach, a headless female mannequin comes flying out of a window and lands at their feet. They meet John "Bluto" Blutarsky (played by John Belushi), outside taking a leak. Bluto turns to greet them and urinates on their pants. Another member, "D-Day" (Daniel Simpson Day) (Bruce McGill), rides his motorcycle through the front door and up the stairs, where he gives a rendition of the William Tell Overture—using his throat as a percussion instrument. The Deltas "need the dues" so Larry and Kent are allowed to pledge Delta (in Dorfman's case, mainly because he is a legacy since his brother Fred was a Delta). They are sworn in as pledges and given the fraternity names "Pinto" (Larry) and "Flounder" (Kent).

Meanwhile, Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), is trying to kick the Deltas off campus. Since they are already on probation, he puts the Deltas on "Double Secret Probation" and orders Omega president Gregg Marmalard (James Daughton) to assign Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf) the job of finding a way to get rid of the Deltas once and for all.

As the campus ROTC detachment drills, Neidermeyer, the pompous cadet commander, spots plebe Flounder wearing a pledge pin on his uniform and begins berating him. Two Deltas, "Otter" (Tim Matheson) and "Boon" (Peter Riegert), witness this and object to the mistreatment (only they are allowed to "abuse their pledges"). They take turns hitting golf balls, aiming for the horse Neidermeyer is riding. A ball eventually strikes the horse, causing it to rear up. Then, a second ball hits Neidermeyer on the head, knocking him out of the saddle. The already spooked animal bolts, dragging a screaming Neidermeyer behind, entangled in the stirrups. Later, he orders Flounder to clean his horse's filthy stable stall.

Bluto and D-Day talk Flounder into sneaking the hated animal into Dean Wormer's office. They give him a gun and tell him to shoot it. Unbeknownst to Flounder, the gun is loaded with blanks. He can't bring himself to kill the horse and fires into the ceiling, but the noise causes the horse to have a heart attack and die. The next day, a chainsaw is required to remove the carcass, in rigor mortis, from the office.

In the cafeteria the next day, Bluto provokes Gregg and Omega pledge Chip (Kevin Bacon) with his impression of a popping zit and triggers a wild food fight. Not done, Bluto and D-Day rummage through a trash bin to steal the answers to an upcoming psychology test. Unfortunately, the exam stencil had been planted by the Omegas, and the Deltas get every answer wrong. Their grade point averages drop so low that Wormer only needs one more incident to revoke their charter.

Undaunted, the Deltas organize a toga party. Pinto invites Clorette (Sarah Holcomb), the cashier at the local supermarket; she turns out to be the underage daughter of shady Mayor Carmine DePasto (Cesare Danova). When she gets drunk and passes out, Pinto is tempted to take advantage of her (an angel and a devil appear over his shoulders and have a frank discussion of his choices); in the end, he takes her home in a shopping cart. A drunken Mrs. Wormer (Verna Bloom) crashes the party (both figuratively and literally) and spends the night with Otter. That turns out to be the last straw. Wormer gets the fraternity's charter revoked, and everything is confiscated. Bluto is horrified when they take "the bar, the whole fuckin' bar!" where Otter manages to lift a bottle of Jack Daniels from one of the movers and throws it to Bluto who in turn guzzles the whole bottle all at once and proclaims "Thanks, I needed that!"

To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto go on a road trip. Otter picks up some girls from Dickinson College, a local liberal arts college, by pretending to be the boyfriend of a girl recently killed on campus in a kiln explosion ("She was going to make a pot for me!") and unwisely go to a roadhouse called the Dexter Lake Club, which has an all-black clientèle. Otis Day & the Knights happen to be playing there that night. Some of the hulking regulars are not amused and intimidate (one with a knife at the bar) the guys into fleeing without their dates. Says one, "If I was in your shoes, I'd be...", "Leaving!!" "What a Great Idea!!" responds Boon. In their haste to leave, they damage several cars in the parking lot.

Things go from bad to worse. "Babs" (Martha Smith) lies to Gregg Marmalard, telling him that his girlfriend, Mandy (Mary Louise Weller), and Otter are having an affair (in fact, they only had a one-night stand). Marmalard and some of his fellow Omegas lure Otter to a motel and beat him up. The Deltas' midterm grades are so bad that they are all expelled from school (and their draft boards notified of their eligibility) by the ecstatic Wormer resulting in a very emotionally traumatized Flounder vomiting on him..

For revenge, the Deltas decide to wreak havoc on the annual Homecoming parade, inspired by Bluto's impassioned speech invoking the memory of the "Germans" bombing Pearl Harbor. In the ensuing chaos, Bluto steals a car, abducts Mandy and drives off into the sunset...or rather to Washington, D.C., as the futures of many of the main characters are "revealed" (Bluto and Mandy become Senator and Mrs. John Blutarsky).

[edit] Characters

[edit] Deltas

• Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim Matheson), a smooth playboy (the nickname suggests a sleek player), whose room is an uncannily pristine seduction den amid the sheer filth of the rest of the Delta house. Otter is essentially the fraternity's unofficial leader. He goes on to become a gynecologist in Beverly Hills.
• Donald "Boon" Schoenstein (Peter Riegert), Otter's best friend, who is forever having to decide between his Delta pals and his girlfriend Katy. They get married in 1964 and divorced in 1969. In the book adaption, Boon goes on to be a cab driver in New York and a part time writer.
• John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), an abject, drunken degenerate with a style all his own, in his seventh year of college, sporting a GPA of 0.0. He goes on to become a United States senator.
• Robert Hoover (James Widdoes), the affable, reasonably clean-cut president of the fraternity, who desperately struggles to maintain a façade of normalcy to placate the Dean. He becomes a public defender in Baltimore.
• Daniel Simpson Day (Bruce McGill), "D-Day", a tough biker with no grade point average: all classes incomplete. His later whereabouts are unknown.
• "Stork" (real name not mentioned, but in the book adaptation is listed as "Dwayne Storkman"). During his first year, everyone thought the Stork was brain damaged. This character was played by Animal House co-writer Douglas Kenney.
• Lawrence "Pinto" Kroger (Thomas Hulce), a shy but normal fellow, who becomes the editor of National Lampoon magazine.
• Kent "Flounder" Dorfman (Stephen Furst), an overweight, clumsy legacy pledge, later a sensitivity trainer in Cleveland.

[edit] Omegas

• Gregory Marmalard (James Daughton), the president of Omega House and boyfriend of Mandy Pepperidge. He goes on to become a Nixon White House aide and is subsequently raped in prison in 1974.
• Douglas C. Niedermeyer (Mark Metcalf), an ROTC cadet officer and scion of a military family who hates the Deltas with unbridled passion. He is killed by his own troops in Vietnam. His death is discussed in Twilight Zone: The Movie, also directed by Landis. Ironically, Metcalf played a character named "Colonel Neidermeyer" in the 1996 film The Stupids.
• Chip Diller, an Omega pledge (Kevin Bacon in his on-screen debut), is trampled by the panicking crowd at the end of the movie.

[edit] Other significant characters

• Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), who wants to revoke the Deltas' charter and kick them off-campus. In the book adaption, he suffers a stroke during the '69 campus riots.
• Marion Wormer (Verna Bloom), the Dean's dipsomaniac wife.
• Katy (Karen Allen), Boon's frustrated girlfriend who has a dalliance with a professor but subsequently goes on to marry and divorce Boon.
• Professor Dave Jennings (Donald Sutherland), a bored English professor who smokes marijuana and tries to turn his students on to left-wing politics.
• Clorette DePasto (Sarah Holcomb), the mayor's 13-year-old daughter, who (possibly) sleeps with Larry (who was unaware until after the act).
• Otis Day (DeWayne Jessie, who later legally changed his name to Otis Day), the leader of the band (Otis Day and the Knights) that plays at the toga party. In the book adaption, Otis Day and the Knights go on to be a houseband for a club in upstate New York.
• Mandy Pepperidge (Mary Louise Weller), a cheerleader and sorority girl who dates Gregg, but is not entirely "satisfied" with the relationship. She goes on to marry Bluto.
• Barbara Sue "Babs" Jansen (Martha Smith), a Southern belle who wants Gregg for herself and is turned off by the crude Deltas. She ends up a tour guide at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
• Mayor Carmine DePasto, the shady local mayor with suggested mafia ties. In the book adaption, he ends up missing a few years later and is rumored to be part of the recently built Faber Freeway.

[edit] Production

[edit] Origins

Animal House was the first movie produced by National Lampoon, the most popular humor magazine on college campuses in the mid-1970s.^[5] The periodical specialized in humor and satirized politics and popular culture. Many of the magazine’s writers were recent college graduates, hence their appeal to students all over the country. Doug Kenney was the magazine’s first editor-in-chief and also wrote for the Lampoon. He had graduated from Harvard College in 1969. He was responsible for the first appearances of two characters that would appear in Animal House – Larry Kroger and Mandy Pepperidge. They made their debut in National Lampoon’s High School Yearbook, a satire published in 1975.

However, Kenney felt that fellow Lampoon writer Chris Miller was their expert on the college experience. Faced with an impending deadline, Miller submitted a chapter from his then-abandoned memoirs (later published in 2006 as The Real Animal House) entitled, "The Night of the Seven Fires" that recalled his fraternity days (Alpha Delta Phi) at the Ivy League's Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. The antics of the Alphas became the inspiration for the Delta Tau Chis of Animal House. Filmmaker Ivan Reitman approached the magazine’s publisher Matty Simmons about making movies under the Lampoon banner. Reitman had worked on The National Lampoon Show in New York City that featured several future Saturday Night Live cast members, including John Belushi.

[edit] Writing the screenplay

Kenney met with another Lampoon writer, Harold Ramis, over brunch at the suggestion of Simmons. Ramis drew from his own fraternity experiences as a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis and was working on a treatment about college entitled, "Freshman Year" but the magazine’s editors were not happy with it. Kenney and Ramis started working on a treatment together and created the premise of Charles Manson in high school and called it, "Laser Orgy Girls." Simmons wasn’t crazy about this idea so they changed the setting to college. Kenney was a fan of Miller’s frat stories and suggested using them as a basis for a movie. Kenney, Miller and Ramis met for brunch and began brainstorming ideas. One thing they agreed on was that Belushi should star in it and Ramis wrote the part of Bluto specifically for the comedian.^[6] At the time, he was a big star thanks to Saturday Night Live and ended up doing the show while shooting the movie, spending Monday through Wednesday making it and then flying back to New York City to do the show on Thursday through Saturday.

The result was a 110 page treatment (the average was 15 pages) that Reitman and Simmons pitched to various Hollywood studios. They met with Ned Tanen, an executive at Universal Studios who hated it. Ramis remembers, "We went further than I think Universal expected or wanted. I think they were shocked and appalled. Chris’ fraternity had virtually been a vomiting cult. And we had a lot of scenes that were almost orgies of vomit...We didn’t back off anything."^[7] As the writers created more drafts of the screenplay (nine in total), the studio gradually became more excited about the project, especially vice-president Thom Mount who was responsible for championing it.^[8] Surprisingly, the studio green-lighted the film and set the budget at a modest $3 million. Simmons remembers, "They just figured, ‘Screw it, it’s a silly little movie, and we’ll make a couple of bucks if we’re lucky – let them do whatever they want.’"^[7]

[edit] Casting

Originally, the film's producers approached Richard Lester and Bob Rafelson before considering John Landis who got the job directing Animal House based on his work on the Kentucky Fried Movie.^[8] That film’s script and continuity supervisor was the girlfriend of Sean Daniel, an assistant to Mount. Daniel saw Landis’ movie and recommended him to direct Animal House. Landis then met with Mount, Reitman and Simmons and got the job. Ramis originally wrote the role of Boon for himself but Landis felt that he looked too old for the part and Peter Riegert was cast instead. Landis did offer Ramis a smaller part, but Ramis declined, saying gruffly, "I'm too proud to be an extra." Landis remembers, "When I was given the script, it was the funniest thing I had ever read up to that time. But it was really offensive. There was a great deal of projectile vomiting and rape and all these things."^[9].One bit that was written in the original script but never filmed included a parade bust that was destroyed at the climax of film. The bust was of John F. Kennedy, the US President in 1962, and the gag was Kennedy's head was punctured by a beer keg in the same way the real Kennedy would be shot the next year. Landis cut the idea because he felt the tone of the gag was wrong. Another scene that Landis cut was one in which a Delta brother put out a campfire by vomiting on it. Yet another unfilmed portion from the original script called for a scene of competitive projectile vomiting ("booting") in the Delta House basement. Flounder was going to fail at this repeatedly. Later, after throwing up on Dean Wormer when he's told he's flunked out, Boon congratulates Flounder on his technique. There was also a certain amount of friction between Landis and the writers early on because he was a high school dropout from Hollywood and they were college grads. Ramis remembers, "He sort of referred immediately to Animal House as ‘my movie.’ We’d been living with it for two years and we hated that."^[7]

The initial cast was to feature Chevy Chase (as Otter), Bill Murray (as Boon), Brian Doyle-Murray, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi but only Belushi wanted to do it. Chase turned them down to do Foul Play. The character of D-Day was based on Aykroyd, who was a motorcycle aficionado. Aykroyd was offered the part, but he was already committed to Saturday Night Live.^[8] Landis met with Jack Webb to play Dean Wormer and Kim Novak to play his wife. Webb ultimately backed out due to concerns over his clean-cut image, and was replaced by John Vernon.

Belushi received only $35,000 for Animal House with a bonus after it became a hit.^[6] Landis also met with Meat Loaf to play Bluto in case Belushi didn’t want to do it. Much of the cast, including Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Mark Metcalf, Bruce McGill and Kevin Bacon, were struggling actors just starting out. Despite the presence of Belushi, Universal wanted another movie star because they said that the whole movie doesn't have a star; just a lot of sub-plots. Landis had been a crew member on Kelly's Heroes and had become friends with actor Donald Sutherland (he even used to babysit his son, Kiefer).^[7] Landis called up Sutherland and asked him to be in the film. He ended up becoming the highest-paid member of the cast. Sutherland's casting was essential for the movie being picked up by Universal as they were reluctant to produce a picture with no stars, and the veteran actor was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. For two days work on the picture, Sutherland was offered either a $40,000 flat fee or a percentage of the film's gross; assuming that the movie would be quickly forgotten, he opted for the sure money, a decision which (by his own admission) has cost him millions.^[7]

[edit] Locations

The filmmaker’s next problem was finding a college that would let them shoot the film on their campus. They had submitted the script to a number of colleges and universities, and the movie was set to be filmed at the University of Missouri until the president of the school read the script and refused permission. The University of Oregon agreed because after consulting with student government leaders and officers of Pan Hellenic Council, the Director of University Relations advised the president that the script, although raunchy and often tasteless, was a very funny spoof of college life.

The president of University of Oregon had been a senior administrator of a major California university years before. Back in the late 1960s his campus was considered for being the location for the film The Graduate. After he consulted with other senior administrative colleagues who advised him to turn it down, production moved to the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. The reason given by the president was that the board believed the film script to be without artistic merit. The Graduate went on to become a classic. He was determined not to make the same mistake twice, even allowing the filmmakers to use his office as Dean Wormer's. As Landis relates in the DVD special features, Oregon was pretty much their last hope for a shooting location.

This movie was filmed in Cottage Grove, Oregon and at the University of Oregon, in Eugene and features numerous sites from that campus and the surrounding area. Johnson Hall, the university's administration building, is prominently featured throughout the film (including then-UO President William Boyd's office), as is Gerlinger Hall (the women's dormitory in the film, but actually the women's gymnasium), the Erb Memorial Union (renovated since that time), Carson Hall (Dormitory), Fenton Hall, Straub Hall, Earl Hall, Hayward Field, the Knight Library (the building behind Emil Faber's statue), and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (seen in the opening credits). Despite all the campus locations, UO officials insisted that the university not be identified by name in the film's credits.

The actual house that was depicted as the Delta House was originally a residence in Eugene, the Dr. A.W. Patterson House. Around 1959, it was acquired by the Psi Deuteron chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and was their chapter house until 1967, when the chapter was closed due to low membership and the house was sold and slid into disrepair, with the spacious porch removed and the lawn graveled over. It was the sad state of the house that probably made it attractive as the chapter house for a degenerate fraternity. The interior of the Sigma Nu house was used for nearly all of the interior scenes. The individual rooms were filmed on a soundstage. At the time of the shooting, the Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Nu fraternity houses sat next to the old Phi Sigma Kappa house. The Omega House was actually the Phi Kappa Psi House, it is now the Alpha Epsilon Pi house. The Patterson house was demolished in 1986.^[10] A suite of physicians' offices now occupies the site. A large boulder placed to the west of the entrance to the parking lot displays a bronze plaque commemorating the Delta House location.

The selection of Oregon as a the principal location would have a profound effect on Belushi's career. While in the state for filming, Belushi (who had at the time a budding interest in blues music) would meet and be inspired by longtime Oregon bluesman Curtis Salgado, after which time Belushi became a devoted fan of the blues. This led to Belushi and fellow Saturday Night Live veteran Dan Aykroyd's formation of The Blues Brothers. The Cab Calloway-portrayed character "Curtis" in the 1980 film was so named in honor of Salgado, and the first Blues Brothers album is dedicated to him.^[11]

[edit] Principal photography

Landis brought the actors who played the Deltas up five days early in order to bond. Actor James Widdoes remembers, "It was like freshman orientation. There was a lot of getting to know each other and calling each other by our character names."^[7] This tactic encouraged the actors playing the Deltas to separate themselves from the actors playing the Omegas, helping generate authentic animosity between them on camera.^[7]

While shooting the film, Landis and Bruce McGill staged a scene for reporters visiting the set where the director pretended to be angry at the actor for being difficult on the set.^[12] Landis grabbed a breakaway pitcher and smashed it over McGill's head who fell to the ground and pretended to be unconscious. The reporters really believed the incident and when Landis asked McGill to get up, he refused to move.^[12] The film was shot in 28 days.

The studio became more enthusiastic about the film when Reitman showed executives and sales managers of various regions in the country a 10-minute production reel that was put together in two days.^[8] The reaction was very positive and the studio ordered 20 copies and sent them out to exhibitors.^[8]

[edit] Soundtrack and score

Animal House: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack by various artists
Released	1978
Genre	Rock and roll, R&B, film score
Length	36:23
Label	MCA
Professional reviews
All Music Guide Link

The soundtrack is a mix of rock and roll and R&B, mostly of songs that were popular around the approximate time period in which the film is set.

The original score was by film composer Elmer Bernstein, who had been a Landis family friend since John Landis was a child. According to the DVD special features, Bernstein was easily persuaded to score the film, but was not sure what to make of it. Landis asked him to score it as though it were serious. Bernstein said that his work on this film opened yet another door in his diverse career, to scoring comedies (he would write the so-called "God music" segment in the Landis picture The Blues Brothers, for example). The Faber College theme, played over the main credits, was based on the German student song "Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus"^[13][14] featured in Johannes Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, and the score includes a brief quotation from Richard_Wagner's "Rise of the Valkyries" as the Deltas' float makes its way to the homecoming parade.

In the film, the R&B band Otis Day and the Knights, is depicted performing 'Shout' at the Delta house toga party and later at an all-black club doing "Shama Lama Ding Dong". On the soundtrack album, the tracks are credited to a singer named Lloyd Williams. In the film, Otis Day is portrayed by actor DeWayne Jessie. Additionally, blues guitarist and singer Robert Cray is seen in the film, playing bass in the Knights.

Due to music licensing concerns, some DVD releases of the film have a new score that replaces the original songs heard in the film.^[15]

[edit] Soundtrack album listing

1. "Faber College Theme", composed by Elmer Bernstein
2. "Louie Louie", written by Richard Berry; performed by John Belushi
3. "Twistin' the Night Away", written and performed by Sam Cooke
4. "Tossin' and Turnin' ", written and performed by Bobby Lewis
5. "Shama Lama Ding Dong", written by Mark Davis; performed by Lloyd Williams
6. "Hey Paula", written by Ray Hildenbrand and performed by Paul & Paula
7. "Animal House", written and performed by Stephen Bishop
8. Intro
9. "Money (That's What I Want)", written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford; performed by John Belushi
10. "Let's Dance", written by Jim Lee; performed by Chris Montez
11. "Dream Girl", written and performed by Stephen Bishop
12. "Wonderful World", written and performed by Sam Cooke
13. "Shout", written by Rudolph Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Ronald Isley; performed by Lloyd Williams
14. "Faber College Theme", composed by Elmer Bernstein

[edit] Other songs in the film

• "Theme from A Summer Place", composed by Max Steiner; performed by Percy Faith and his Orchestra
• "Who's Sorry Now", written by Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby; performed by Connie Francis
• "Washington Post March", composed by John Philip Sousa
• "Tammy", by Debbie Reynolds

[edit] Reception

The first preview screening for Animal House was held in Denver four months before it opened nationwide. The crowd loved it and the filmmakers realized they had a potential hit on their hands.^[7] On its opening weekend, Animal House grossed $276,538, in 12 theaters and made $120,091,123 in North America,^[16] well above its $2.7 million budget.^[6]

In his review for the Washington Post, Gary Arnold praised Belushi's performance: "...he can seem irresistibly funny in repose or invest minor slapstick opportunities with a streak of genius."^[17] David Ansen wrote in Newsweek, "But if Animal House lacks the inspired tastelessness of the Lampoon's High School Yearbook Parody, this is still low humor of a high order."^[18]

Universal Pictures spent four million dollars promoting the film at selected college campuses and helped students organize their own toga parties.^[19] One such party at the University of Maryland attracted approximately 2,000 people while students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison tried for a crowd of 10,000 people and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.^[19]

[edit] TV series, sequel

Main article: Delta House

The film inspired a short-lived half-hour television sitcom, Delta House, in which John Vernon reprised his role as the long-suffering, malevolent Dean Wormer. The series also included Steven Furst as Flounder, Bruce McGill as D-Day and James Widdoes as Hoover.^[20] Tim Matheson declined. The producers had the right to call the show Animal House but for some reason, the network decided against it..^{[citation needed]} Michelle Pfeiffer made her acting debut in the series.

In the TV series, John Belushi's character from the film (John "Bluto" Blutarsky) was replaced with Bluto's brother, Jim "Blotto" Blutarsky^[21] played by Josh Mostel (son of Zero Mostel). The name "Blotto" is a reference to drunkenness.

Animal House also inspired Co-Ed Fever, another sitcom but with none of the involvement of the film's producers or cast. Set in a dorm of the formerly all-female Baxter College, the pilot of Co-Ed Fever was aired by CBS on February 4, 1979, but the network canceled the series before airing any more episodes.^[22] NBC also had its Animal House-inspired sitcom, Brothers and Sisters, in which three members of Crandall College's Pi Nu fraternity "interact" with members of the Gamma Iota sorority.^[23] Like ABC's Delta House, Brothers and Sisters lasted only three months.^[24]

The film's writers planned a movie sequel set in 1967 (the "Summer of Love"), in which the Deltas have a reunion for Pinto's marriage in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.^[19] The only Delta to have become a hippie is Flounder, who is now called Pisces. Later, Chris Miller and John Weidman, another Lampoon writer, created a treatment for this screenplay, but Universal nixed it because the sequel to American Graffiti (More American Graffiti), which had a few hippie-1967 sequences, had not done well. When John Belushi died, the idea died along with him.

[edit] References in pop culture

[edit] Ask For Babs

After the closing credits, a card appears advertising the Universal Studios tour. To correlate with the film, it reads, "When in Hollywood, visit Universal Studios. (Ask for Babs.)" Some later Landis films, such as The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London also carried this tagline in their theatrical releases, partially as an inside joke and reportedly as a tongue-in-cheek promotion for Universal's studio tour and its theme park in Los Angeles. As of 1989, Universal Studios no longer honors the "Ask for Babs" promotion, which was either a discount or a free entry.

[edit] Double Secret Probation

In the film, Dean Vernon Wormer tells Inter-Fraternity Council President Greg Marmalard that, since Delta is already on probation, "as of this moment they are on 'double secret probation.'" The expanded release of the original movie on DVD in 2003, was titled the Double Secret Probation Edition. In the Futurama episode "Mars University", Robot House is put on "dodecatuple secret probation" by Dean Vernon (a nod to John Vernon, who played Dean Wormer in the movie). The episode also features several other references to Animal House, including a secret fraternity handshake, "Louie Louie" and "Shout". The infamous ladder scene is also parodied, with the robots climbing to the top of a ladder to watch a sorority member repair her computer.

[edit] The smashed guitar

During the toga party, Bluto smashes an acoustic guitar belonging to a folk singer (portrayed by singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop, credited as "Charming Guy With Guitar") who is serenading a group of girls with the folk tune The Riddle Song. Bluto then hands him a splintered piece and says "Sorry." Bishop wrote and performed the "Animal House Theme" and claims to have framed the smashed guitar. One of the girls whom he is serenading is John Belushi's wife Judith.

The hole in the wall caused by the destruction of the guitar was the only damage done to the Sigma Nu fraternity house where the Delta House interiors were filmed. It was not repaired; instead, the hole was framed with an engraved brass tag commemorating the event.^[25]

In an episode of 8 Simple Rules, directed by "Hoover" actor James Widdoes, Rory sings while playing his guitar, then Kerry breaks it and says "Sorry!". This sight gag has been imitated on TV several times, memorably by Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation when he objected to Geordi La Forge's mandolin playing. During the second season of the television show Scrubs, Dr. Perry Cox abruptly ends a song by Colin Hay in the same manner.

[edit] Ladder Peeping

The sequence wherein Bluto puts a ladder up to the sorority house window has been recreated twice. First, as previously stated, in the Futurama episode "Mars University" when members of Robot House climb a ladder and watch a sorority girl fix her computer. The second time was on an episode of Family Guy. Herbert hops a ladder over in front of Chris's window. He then perfectly recreates the scene by turning around to look at the camera/audience and resumes peeping. He then falls backwards off the ladder.

[edit] DVD editions

A "Collector's Edition" DVD was released in 2002 and featured a 30-minute 1998 documentary entitled, "The Yearbook - An Animal House Reunion" by producer JM Kenny with new interviews with many of the cast and crew, including director Landis, stars Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, Peter Riegert, Mark Metcalf, and Kevin Bacon. Also included were production notes and the theatrical trailer. The "Double Secret Probation Edition" DVD released in 2003 features the members of the cast reprising their respective roles in a "Where Are They Now" mockumentary, which purported that the original film had been a documentary: This DVD also includes "Did You Know That? Universal Animated Anecdotes," a subtitle trivia track, the making of documentary from the "Collector's Edition," MXPX "Shout" music video, a theatrical trailer, production notes, and cast and filmmakers biographies.

[edit] See also

• Rick Meyerowitz, the illustrator who drew Animal House's iconic poster.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• National Lampoon's Animal House at the Internet Movie Database
• Entertainment Weekly retrospective article
• Interview (MP3) with John Belushi biographer Tanner Colby and widow Judith Belushi Pisano on the public radio program The Sound of Young America regarding their book, "Belushi." Includes clips from Belushi's work on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.
• NPR retrospective article
• IGN interview with Stephen Furst
• DVD.com interview with John Landis

v • d • e Films directed by John Landis Schlock (1973) • The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) • National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) • The Blues Brothers (1980) • An American Werewolf in London (1981) • Trading Places (1983) • Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) • Into the Night (1985)• Spies Like Us (1985) • ¡Three Amigos! (1986) • Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) • Coming to America (1988) • Oscar (1991) • Innocent Blood (1992) • Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) • The Stupids (1996) • Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) • Susan's Plan (1998) • Slasher (2004) • Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007) •