What You Probably Didn't Know About Animal House (1978)

 

Here we are yet again folks, another installment of What You Probably Didn't Know About. And this time I'm covering one of my many favorite comedy films, Animal House.

1. During the filming of Animal House, John Belushi would also have to take a flight back and forth for two weeks between Oregon and New York, because he would also be rehearsing and taping Saturday Night Live.

2. It's one of Donald Sutherland's personal favorites of all his films. He described working in it as the funniest experience he had on set.

3. The scene where Bluto crushes a beer against his forehead and would later smash a beer bottle over his head to cheer Flounder up, took a number of 18 times to get it right. This was because Stephen Furst kept breaking character because he was laughing so much.

4. The role of D-Day was originally meant for Dan Aykroyd because of his motorcycle-loving personality. According to John Landis (the director of the movie), Lorne Michaels (the producer of Saturday Night Live) threatened to fire Aykroyd if he took the role.

5. More money was spent on promotions and marketing than the actually film itself.

6. The writers chose to set the movie in 1962 because they saw it as "the last innocent year of America".

7. The University of Oregon reluctantly allowed the film crew to use their campus. They only gave them thirty days to complete filming. This meant that the cast and crew had a six-day work weeks and could only complete shooting in a span of two days.

8. The University of Missouri was going to be the setting for Animal House. Those plans had to change because once the president of the school read the script, he refused to give them permission to film there.

9. The name for the Delta House changes during the movie. Earlier in the film they name was Delta Chi Tau, but when the movers come by and take away their stuff it reads Delta Tau Chi.

10. Ivan Reitman was originally going to direct, but Universal wanted someone with more experience. They first approach Richard Lester and Bob Rafelson, before settling with John Landis.

11. The food fight scene was the source of inspiration for the 1983 Atari arcade game, Food Fight.

12. In the original script Flounder and Sissy fall asleep during the toga party, which was to give another of how uncool Flounder is. This scene was apparently never filmed, but one publicity still photo does show them sleeping on a couch.

13. Because this was Kevin Bacon's first role he naturally went to the premiere. However he wasn't allowed to sit with the rest of the cast because the ushers didn't believe he was in the movie. He had to sit in the back with everyone else.

14. Harold Ramis [the co-writer of the movie] based some of the pranks on his college experience. Pranks like the golf scene with Otter and Boon.

15. Toga parties where originally popular during the 1950s and 60s, following the release of the film, they became popular once again across colleges across America.

16. A sequel was once considered. It was to take place during the summer of 1967 and would've involved the Deltas reuniting at Otter's wedding. The plan stall when Universal saw how badly More American Graffiti bombed at the box office. The sequel was scrapped for good when John Belushi sadly died in 1982.

17. Because of the popularity of the movie it came to no one's surprise that executives tried to capitalize. There would be not one, not two but three tv spin-offs, Delta House, Brothers and Sisters, and Co-Ed Fever. Neither of the shows found any long staying power, and were then cancelled.

18. During the 25th anniversary, a real parade was held in Hollywood Boulevard featuring not only the original cast and crew, but there was also re-creations of the parade floats used in the movie.

Well folks, I hoped you enjoyed this edition of What You Probably Didn't Know About. That's going to do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Mar 12th for my review of the brand new Pixar movie, Turning Red. Until then, enjoy the rest your day, and do watch Animal House if you haven't already. It's one of many great comedy films.