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'''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. It is considered to be the movie that started the gross-out genre.^[1]
It stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, John Vernon, Thomas Hulce, Cesare Danova, Peter Riegert, Mary Louise Weller, Stephen Furst, James Daughton, Bruce McGill, Mark Metcalf, James Widdoes, Verna Bloom, Martha Smith, Kevin Bacon (in his film debut) and Donald Sutherland. 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 and published in ''National Lampoon'' magazine. It was directed by John Landis.
Produced on a small ($3 million) budget, the film has turned out to be one of the most profitable of all time; since its initial release, ''Animal House'' has garnered an estimated return of more than $200 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. This film is first on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". It was #36 on AFI's "100 Years, 100 Laughs" list of the 100 best American comedies.

Contents

Plot summary

Characters

Deltas

Omegas

Other significant characters

Production

Origins

Writing the screenplay

Casting

Locations

Principal photography

Pop Culture

Ask For Babs

Double Secret Probation

The smashed guitar

Soundtrack and score

Soundtrack album listing

Other songs in the film

DVD editions

TV series, sequel

See also

References

External links

Plot summary

It is Rush Week 1962 at fictional Faber College, a mediocre school whose motto is "Knowledge is Good." 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 stands the Delta Tau Chi House, a repository for every campus misfit.
Two freshmen, Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst), described respectively as "a wimp and a blimp", 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 (a Turk), Jagdish (an Indo-Aryan), Sidney (a Jew), and Clayton (who is blind and in a wheelchair).
They try the Deltas next door, despite their reputation as "the worst house on campus". As they approach, a headless female mannequin comes flying out of a window and lands at their feet. They meet "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), outside taking a leak. Bluto turns to greet them and urinates on their legs without noticing it. Another member, "D-Day" (Daniel Simpson Day) (Bruce McGill), rides his motorcycle through the front door and up the stairs, where he gives a surprisingly good rendition of the William Tell Overture—using his throat as a percussion instrument. The Deltas "need the dues" (and in Dorfman's case, he's a legacy since his brother Fred was a '59 Delta), so they are accepted and given the pledge names "Pinto" (Kroger) and "Flounder" (Dorfman).
Meanwhile, Dean Wormer (John Vernon), is trying to kick the Deltas off campus. Since they are already on probation, he puts them on "double secret probation" and tells Omega president Gregg Marmalard (James Daughton) to get the "sneaky little shit" Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf) working on a way to get rid of the Deltas once and for all.
Flounder joins the ROTC. Neidermeyer, its pompous cadet commander, despises the overweight Flounder on sight and begins berating him. He orders Flounder to clean his horse's filthy stable stall. 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.
Bluto and D-Day talk Flounder into sneaking the animal into the Dean's office. They give him a gun and tell him to shoot the hated animal. 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 of the shot causes it to have a heart attack and die anyway. The Deltas panic and flee. The next day, a chainsaw is required to remove the horse, 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 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 the Dean only needs one more incident to revoke their charter.
Undaunted, they 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, "even the stuff we didn't steal!"
To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto go on a road trip in Flounder's brother's new car. They pick up some girls from a liberal-arts college and by mistake, go to a club with an all-black clientele. Some of the hulking regulars are not amused and intimidate the guys into fleeing without their dates, badly damaging Flounder's brother's new car in their panic.
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, which Mandy later said "wasn't that great"). 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 availability) by the ecstatic Wormer.
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 climactic scene, the Deltas crash the parade with their own float. In the ensuing chaos, Bluto steals a car, abducts Mandy and drives off into the sunset...or rather to Washington, DC, as the futures of many of the main characters are "revealed" (Bluto and Mandy become Senator and Mrs. John Blutarsky).

Characters

Deltas

★ Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim Matheson), a smooth Playboy-style sex maniac (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;

★ Donald "Boon" Schoenstein (Peter Riegert), Otter's best friend, who is forever having to decide between his Delta pals and his girlfriend Katy;

★ John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), an abject, drunken degenerate with a style all his own; GPA of 0.0;

★ Robert Hoover (James Widdoes), the affable, frequently nervous, reasonably clean-cut president of the fraternity, who desperately struggles to maintain a façade of normalcy to placate the Dean, rumored to have attended an elite New England boarding school in Windsor, Connecticut;

★ Daniel Simpson Day (Bruce McGill), "D-Day", a tough biker with a penchant for riding up the stairs; has no grade point average: all classes incomplete;

★ "Stork" (real name not mentioned, but in the book adaptation is listed as "Dwayne Storkman"). During his first year, many thought the Stork was brain damaged; This character was played by ''Animal House'' co-writer Douglas Kenney and speaks only once (''Well, what the hayl' we s'posed ta do, ya moe-ron?!'').

★ And the two pledges:

★
★ Larry "Pinto" Kroger (Thomas Hulce), a shy but normal fellow;

★
★ Kent "Flounder" Dorfman (Stephen Furst), an overweight, clumsy legacy pledge.

Omegas

★ Gregg Marmalard (James Daughton), the president of Omega House, who dates Mandy Pepperidge;

★ Douglas C. Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), an ROTC cadet officer and scion of a military family who hates the Deltas with unbridled passion. When the fates of the characters are revealed at the end it mentions that Neidermeyer was killed by his own troops in Vietnam.

★ Chip Diller, an Omega pledge (Kevin Bacon in his on-screen debut).

Other significant characters

★ Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), who wants to revoke the Deltas' charter and kick them off-campus; also noted for putting Delta House on "Double Secret Probation"

★ Marion Wormer (Verna Bloom), the Dean's dipsomaniac wife, who succumbs to Otter's charms;

★ Katy (Karen Allen), Boon's fed-up and not-exactly-faithful girlfriend;

★ Professor Dave Jennings (Donald Sutherland), who is bored with his job as English professor, 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;

★ 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;

★ Mandy Pepperidge (Mary Louise Weller), a cheerleader and sorority girl who dates Gregg, but is not entirely "satisfied" with the relationship;

★ Barbara "Babs" Jansen (Martha Smith), a Southern belle who wants Gregg for herself and is turned off by the crude Deltas.

Production

Origins

''Animal House'' was the first movie produced by ''The National Lampoon'', the most popular humor magazine on college campuses in the mid-1970s.^[2] 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 and had the kind of resume that the Omegas would have envied but, like the Deltas, he had a wicked sense of humor (he could fit his entire fist in his mouth). He was also responsible for the first appearances of two characters that would appear in ''Animal House'' – Larry Kroger and Mandy Pepperidge. They made their debut in ''Doug Kenney’s High School Yearbook''.
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 debauched 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.

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. 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 Simmons pitched to various Hollywood studios. He 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." Building ''Animal House'' Chris Nashawaty Surprisingly, the studio greenlighted 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.’"

Casting

John Landis got the job directing ''Animal House'' based on his work on the ''Kentucky Fried Movie''. That film’s script and continuity supervisor was the girlfriend of Sean Daniel, an assistant to Universal executive Thom 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."^[3] 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."
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''. Landis met with Jack Webb to play Dean Wormer and Kim Novak to play his wife. The director chose John Vernon as Dean Wormer after seeing him in the Clint Eastwood film ''The Outlaw Josey Wales''.
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). 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.
To get the role of Neidermeyer, Mark Metcalf lied about his ability to ride horses. After he got the role, he immediately took equestrian classes. Dee Snider, lead singer of the heavy metal music group Twisted Sister, was so enamored of Metcalf's performance that he had the actor perform a similar role in the music videos for two of Twisted Sister's songs, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock"; the latter video featured Stephen Furst (Flounder) in a brief cameo at the end.
John Belushi's then girlfriend (later wife), Judy Jacklin (now Judith Belushi-Pisano), shows up as an uncredited extra in several toga party scenes.

Locations

Plaque at the site where the house used to portray the Delta House used to be

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 dorm), 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 gravelled 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 exterior of the Omega House was actually that of the Phi Kappa Psi House. The Patterson house was demolished in 1986.^[4] 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. Local fans of ''Animal House'' arranged for its placement when their efforts to preserve the original building failed.
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.^[5]

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." 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. The film was shot in 28 days.
The first preview screening 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.

Pop Culture

Since the film's initial sucess, the film has become pop culture treasure.

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.

Double Secret Probation

''Double Secret Probation'' is a condition of arbitrarily imposed scrutiny of a given person or group's activities in an organizational or academic setting without procedural warning. In the film, Dean Vernon Wormer tells Inter-Fraternity Council President Greg Marmalard that he has already placed the offending Delta Tau Chi house on "double secret probation". The expanded release of the original movie on DVD in 2003, was titled the ''Double Secret Probation Edition''.

The smashed guitar

In one scene during the toga party, John Belushi's character, John "Bluto" Blutarsky, smashes an acoustic guitar belonging to a folk singer (portrayed by singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop, who is credited as "Charming Guy With Guitar") who is serenading a group of girls with the time-worn folk tune ''The Riddle Song''. One of the girls whom he is serenading is John Belushi's wife, Judith. Bluto then hands him a splintered piece and says "Sorry."
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, most memorably by Worf on ''.'' During the second season of the television show ''Scrubs'', Dr. Perry Cox abruptly ends a song by Colin Hay in the same manner. Bishop wrote and performed the "Animal House Theme," and claims to have framed the smashed guitar.
The hole in the wall made by the guitar was the only damage done to the Sigma Nu fraternity house where the Delta House interiors were filmed. Instead of repairing the damage, the hole has been framed with an engraved brass tag commemorating the event.http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/trivia.htm

Soundtrack and score

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).
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, who later legally changed his name to Otis Day and formed a real-life Otis Day and the Knights. 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.^[6]

Soundtrack album listing

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

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

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.

TV series, sequel

Main articles: 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. Tim Matheson declined. The producers had the right to call the show ''Animal House'' but for some reason, the network decided against it. 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^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] Like ABC's ''Delta House'', ''Brothers and Sisters'' lasted only three months.^[10]
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. 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.

See also

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

References

1. ''National Lampoon's Animal House'' Molly Peterson
2. National Lampoon's Animal House Molly Peterson
3. Director, John Landis: The Dean Speaks Eric Olson
4. On Film
5. Curtis Salgado
6. Olsen, Eric. August 25, 2003. Animal House Soundtrack, Blogcritics.org (retrieved on October 19, 2006).
7. Full cast and crew for "Delta House" at IMDB.
8. ''Co-Ed Fever'' episode list from TV.com
9. IMDB listing for ''Brothers and Sisters''
10. ''Brothers and Sisters'' episode list from TV.com

External links

★

★ ''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