WI: No Animal House

What if Animal House wasn't made? What effects would this have on college culture (and possibly even high school culture)? What effects would this have on the movie industry?
 
I always thought Animal House was at least based on a true story, or at least a compilation. The deathmobile was a tad outre. That doesn't mean that times haven't changed, alas.
 
John Belushi's film career doesn't take off. As a result, Blues Brothers will likely just stay an SNL skit and 1941 doesn't get made. Belushi may well end up ODing earlier.

A number of gross out and sex comedy films don't get made. Revenge of the Nerds is gone, as are Porky's, American Pie, Up the Academy, and probably Police Academy.

National Lampoon
gives up on films after two failures (the earlier Disco Beaver, a made for HBO film, was a flop). The Vacation series is gone.

I always thought Animal House was at least based on a true story, or at least a compilation. The deathmobile was a tad outre. That doesn't mean that times haven't changed, alas.

Sort of, kind of - as I understood it, it was very losely based on Chris Miller and Harold Ramis's college experiences.
 
I always thought Animal House was at least based on a true story, or at least a compilation.

I think a lot of it was taken from Doug Kenney's college-humour pieces for National Lampoon. They usually spoofed recognizable experiences of college students in the 1960s, eg. first-year depression, burnt-out professors, sexual fumbling at parties etc.

The psychotic-dean isn't something I recall from Lampoon, and I'm GUESSING that character was added by Harold Ramis, as a cheap pander to that late-70s Welcome Back Kotter ethos.

Animal House is one of those movies that as a kid I found kind of offensive, until I actually went to univeristy and said "Hmm, okay, so stuff like that actually goes on."
 
Heh, cross-posted with Osaka, somewhat.

National Lampoon gives up on films after two failures (the earlier Disco Beaver, a made for HBO film, was a flop). The Vacation series is gone.

And as a result, the National Lampoon name doesn't become a sought-after logo for filmmakers to attach to comedy projects having no connection to the original magazine(ie. any "National Lampoon" movie from the last twenty-five years or so.)
 
Assuming that one unmade movie butterflies the direction of a whole career...

Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't hate John Landis nearly as much.
 
Also, toga parties don't make a come back on college campuses.

I do expect some sort of college sex comedy film to become a hit in the early 80s. Maybe a version of Revenge of the Nerds with less of a fraternity slant? The one thing I can think of that would be hilarious would be if it revived panty raids instead of toga parties.

PJ O Rourke is not as wealthy as OTL. Maybe he moves on to other journalism earlier.

The magazine would probably decline a lot faster, and he'd end up at Rolling Stone sooner.
 
Heh, cross-posted with Osaka, somewhat.

National Lampoon gives up on films after two failures (the earlier Disco Beaver, a made for HBO film, was a flop). The Vacation series is gone.

And as a result, the National Lampoon name doesn't become a sought-after logo for filmmakers to attach to comedy projects having no connection to the original magazine(ie. any "National Lampoon" movie from the last twenty-five years or so.)

In that scenario National Lampoon falters financially with two film failures under it's belt the bottom falls out of the magazine's sales leading to bankruptcy and outright sale. The Vacation series could still happen if someone at Warner Bros. or one of it's competitors reads "Vacation 58" which is the short story John Hughes writes (If National Lampoon publishes it anyway) and decides to develop a film based on it anyway (Likely results in Warner buying up the full rights and copyrights to the story and National Lampoon is completely out of the picture), Warner Communications (Parent company of Warner Bros. at the time) or one of the parent companies of Warner's competitors buys up the National Lampoon assets (Not the name) from Bankruptcy auction (If National Lampoon did publish "Vacation 58"). Of if John Hughes outright decides to pitch his short story to be optioned to either Warner or one of it's competitors (If National Lampoon rejects Hughes short story).

With the failure of National Lampoon the world of comedy goes a different direction (Likely long term ripple effects) as a result.
 
PJ O Rourke is not as wealthy as OTL. Maybe he moves on to other journalism earlier.

For all of the Hasty Pudding Club aura that surrounded its early years, late-70s Lampoon quite happily played to the anti-intellectualism of suburban youth culture. For example...

Are You a Nurd?

Early Lampoon satirized posers and fake hipsters, among its other targets. Whereas this poster tells the viewer that if he scores low on the test, he's "probably a cool guy". I knew the kind of people who purchased this poster in junior high. They were the kids who bought hook, line, and sinker the dichotomy between "cool" and "nerd"(and of course considered themselves, non-ironically, to be the former).

Plus, the rather gratuitous nudity of the later editions. Tony Hendra, in his autobiographical book Father Joe, opines that by that point, the magazine's investors wanted it to be something along the lines of a soft-core raunch magazine, and that P'J. O'Rourke got his promotion by basically promising to do that. Allowing for that being just Hendra's biased opinion, it does somewhat jibe with what I know of Lampoon from that era. (Not that it still wasn't doing some funny stuff.)
 
Heh, cross-posted with Osaka, somewhat.

National Lampoon gives up on films after two failures (the earlier Disco Beaver, a made for HBO film, was a flop). The Vacation series is gone.

And as a result, the National Lampoon name doesn't become a sought-after logo for filmmakers to attach to comedy projects having no connection to the original magazine(ie. any "National Lampoon" movie from the last twenty-five years or so.)
The National Lampoon name doesn't become a label for bad movies? Pretty sure no Animal House leads to the same conclusion. One other movie not mentioned: Caddyshack. God, I wouldn't want to live in this universe!
 
The National Lampoon name doesn't become a label for bad movies? Pretty sure no Animal House leads to the same conclusion. One other movie not mentioned: Caddyshack. God, I wouldn't want to live in this universe!
I don't see Caddyshack (and Meatballs as well) being butterflied away. Changed, yes, but not gone.
 
The National Lampoon name doesn't become a label for bad movies? Pretty sure no Animal House leads to the same conclusion. One other movie not mentioned: Caddyshack. God, I wouldn't want to live in this universe!

Caddyshack never had any direct link to Animal House or the National Lampoon name (Although Douglas Keeney was one of the writers on this film) no Animal House does not mean that Caddyshack doesn't exist either (It still gets made anyway). The only changes (At the very least) that Caddyshack sees is someone else than Douglas Keeney as one of the co-writers.
 
Caddyshack never had any direct link to Animal House or the National Lampoon name (Although Douglas Keeney was one of the writers on this film) no Animal House does not mean that Caddyshack doesn't exist either (It still gets made anyway). The only changes (At the very least) that Caddyshack sees is someone else than Douglas Keeney as one of the co-writers.

Thing is, though, without Animal House, are Kenney and Ramis(the director of Caddyshack) as sought-after by Hollywood?

EDIT: Sorry, just re-read. I see you're posting a scenario where Kenney ISN'T wanted for Caddyshack. I guess that raises the question as to how much of Caddyshack's existence is owed to the creative team, and how much to the studio.
 
Thing is, though, without Animal House, are Kenney and Ramis(the director of Caddyshack) as sought-after by Hollywood?
They aren't. Raimis even admitted in a doc on National Lampoon they never would have received backing for Caddyshack. In fact the perceived failure of Caddyshack is believed to have driven Kenney to suicide. With no Animal House and the millions it gave him coupled with the falling profits of the magazine, will Kenney even still be alive by 1980? He was an incredibly volatile personality.
 
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