On July 28, 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House, a movie spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi, opens in U.S. theaters. Produced with an estimated budget of $3 million, Animal House became a huge, multi-million-dollar box-office hit, spawned a slew of cinematic imitations and became part of pop-culture history with such memorable lines as “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
Set at the fictional Faber College (the University of Oregon served as a stand-in during filming), Animal House centered around the disreputable Delta House fraternity, whose members enjoyed beer-soaked toga parties and crude pranks such as putting a horse in the dean’s office. Animal House was the first big hit for director John Landis, who went on to helm The Blues Brothers (1980), Trading Places (1983) and Coming to America (1988). The film’s cast included a then-unknown Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Mystic River), Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Tom Hulce (Amadeus), all of whom were then just beginning their movie careers.
Animal House was co-written by Doug Kenney, Harold Ramis and Chris Miller, whose days at Dartmouth College in the early 1960s served as an inspiration for the film. Animal House marked the first film produced in affiliation with National Lampoon, a college magazine that was first published in 1970 and known for its dark humor. Other National Lampoon movies included Vacation (1983), which was written by John Hughes, directed by Ramis and starred SNL alum Chevy Chase.
At the time Animal House was released, John Belushi, who played party animal Bluto Blutarsky, was starring on the TV sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. Belushi, who was born January 24, 1949, appeared on SNL from 1975 to 1979 and co-starred in the hit movie Blues Brothers with his SNL castmate Dan Akroyd. Belushi died of a drug overdose at age 33 on March 5, 1982, at the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, California.
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Double secret probation.
I was BORN into double secret probation! Been bucking for triple secret probation ever since.
It’s a badge of honor … wear it proudly …
All that drinking and screwing gave her that bad accent in Caddyshack.
The greatest comedy in film history. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
It’s got serious competition — even eliminating all of the classic comedies before ’80 — from ‘1941’ (also Belushi and Ayckroyd), the ‘Blues Brothers and ‘Harold and Maude’ (both with great music), and, of course, ‘Blazing Saddles’.
besides liking it, I have a vivid memory of Dad telling me of the scenes he found absolutely hilarious.
Going to the theater alone was one of his simple pleasures.
The scene in the cafeteria, where Bluto inhales a jello square and a slice of pie, with those devious eyes looking around to escape reprimand…
Then the scene where he’s up on the ladder at the sorority house watching a chick undress, hopping it over from another window, then falling backwards when she starts to unclasp her brassiere…
Picture your father describing this, and laughing so hard that his eyelids turned up.
Good stuff.
My siblings and I were really surprised that our old man really liked ‘The Blues Brothers’ … for an old fart (born 1926) …
Went to college in 1980 and was in a dorm with about 12 guys from high school. We hated the frats, but the dorm was nearly a mirror image of the movie.
Most of them flunked out. I made it somehow…
That inspired some epic food fights.
” I’m here to pick up my date, Fawn Lebowitz ”
ROAD TRIP !!
This calls for a really stupid and futile gesture on somebodys part …..
and we’re just the guys to do it !
Animal House established the standards for young people for the next 30 years.
No way it could be made today, period. Ditto for Blazing Saddles & Caddyshack.
This was the first R-rated movie I saw in the theater – Dad took me when I was 12. I’m not sure Mom knew!