WI: No Animal House

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.

It could have always been possible that Kenney is still involved in Caddyshack if Animal House doesn't exist. Chevy Chase and Bill Murray being involved in Caddyshack still results in the film getting made anyway. A scenario where Kenney is not involved in Caddyshack in the event that Animal House doesn't get made is likely the failure of National Lampoon unfortunately having a negative effect of Kenney which unfortunately due to the failure of National Lampoon might actually cause him to actually commit suicide (Financial ruin has unfortunately driven others to do the same). Inferus was right about Kenney being a volatile personality.
 
TBH I never got Caddyshack or the Jerk.

I think The Jerk was kind of a throwback to Jewish-infused Silent Generation, Golden-Age-Of-TV comedy. Apart from Steve Martin, the big names involved(Carl Reiner, Jackie Mason) were not exactly the hottest properties in comedy at the time, and the whole thing has that apolitical, socially irrelevant, pre-1960s, fun-for-the-sake-of-fun feel about it. "Hyuk hyuk hyuk, he doesn't know the guy is shooting at HIM! Hyuk hyuk hyuk".

None of which stopped the producers from marketing it at teens and young adults. That film reflects an era when older artists could still make generally "square" material, and expect the kids to line up and pay to see it.
 
As for Caddyshack, that movie is summed up by the scene where Chase asks the kid if he does drugs, and it's supposed to be automatically funny when the kid says yes and Chase replies "Good, then what's your problem?" You can practically hear the howls of laughter from the adolescent stoners(or wannabe stoners) in the audience.
 
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!

Other classic films are made, a similar thread is made in that universe. You decide you wouldn't live in our universe! :biggrin:
 
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.

When did Kenney's cocaine habit get really bad? (It's tempting to say that even if he hadn't fallen/jumped off the cliff in Kauai, drugs would have killed him before too long, anyway. But remember that even Jerry Garcia made it to the age of 53...)
 
When did Kenney's cocaine habit get really bad? (It's tempting to say that even if he hadn't fallen/jumped off the cliff in Kauai, drugs would have killed him before too long, anyway. But remember that even Jerry Garcia made it to the age of 53...)

If Kenney didn't fall of the cliff that day an overdose which eventually happens to such addicts even those scores of individuals addicted to heroin (I once knew two people who unfortunately dropped over dead from drug overdoses) or one or more of his vital organ's failing and giving way (It happened to someone I used to know) due do the abuse of such substances killing him. If he didn't successfully find a way to kick the drug habit (Effectively impossible to do) he would've be dead before the late 1990's at the latest.
 
When did Kenney's cocaine habit get really bad? (It's tempting to say that even if he hadn't fallen/jumped off the cliff in Kauai, drugs would have killed him before too long, anyway. But remember that even Jerry Garcia made it to the age of 53...)
Somewhere between 1975-1978. With the millions he made selling the magazine people noticed he was using his new fortune to over indulge himself. He started withdrawing more and more from his work.
 
Somewhere between 1975-1978. With the millions he made selling the magazine people noticed he was using his new fortune to over indulge himself. He started withdrawing more and more from his work.

I didn't know Kenney was into cocaine, though I suppose it makes sense. I did read an interview with Sean Kelly once, in an anti-drug magazine aimed at teenagers, and the interviewer was prompting Kelly to say negative stuff about drugs. Kelly stated that Kenney had tried to write a novel while on daily doses of LSD for a few months, and that the novel was a failure. I also read the anecdote in a Lampoon edition dedicated to Kenney's work, but that didn't mention the drugs.

Kelly also trashed Caddyshack in that same interview, saying something like "If you're a goal-oriented person, you won't be satisfied with a talking gopher." I agree Caddyshack wasn't the height of brilliance, but I found that criticism somewhat odd coming from the man who founded Heavy Metal magazine.
 
I didn't know Kenney was into cocaine, though I suppose it makes sense. I did read an interview with Sean Kelly once, in an anti-drug magazine aimed at teenagers, and the interviewer was prompting Kelly to say negative stuff about drugs. Kelly stated that Kenney had tried to write a novel while on daily doses of LSD for a few months, and that the novel was a failure. I also read the anecdote in a Lampoon edition dedicated to Kenney's work, but that didn't mention the drugs.

Kelly also trashed Caddyshack in that same interview, saying something like "If you're a goal-oriented person, you won't be satisfied with a talking gopher." I agree Caddyshack wasn't the height of brilliance, but I found that criticism somewhat odd coming from the man who founded Heavy Metal magazine.
Kenney was an addictive personality who simply came unhinged once the final boundaries (millions of dollars granting him independence, no longer having a controlling voice in National Lampoon) were removed.

Whether he was depressive and used drugs to treat it, I don't know but Chevy Chase was quoted as saying he just got worse with Caddyshack being the final straw in his downward spiral. It was the entire reason Chevy took him to Maui, to cheer him up.
 
I don't know but Chevy Chase was quoted as saying he just got worse with Caddyshack being the final straw in his downward spiral.

(Schamltzy sentimentalism alert...)

Well, I wish Kenney could have known that my 1930s-vintage dad, normally NOT the kind of person to appreciate the Lampoon/SNL/SCTV style of humour, laughed pretty damned hard at Caddyshack. (He was a golfer, so I guess that might have helped.)

And I didn't know it was Chase who had taken Kenney to Hawaii. Thanks for the info.
 
I wonder if this also prevents Tom Hulce from later getting the role of Mozart. I always preferred Mark Hamill.
 
I wonder if no National Lampoon Vacation series means no career ressurection for Chevy Chase. Yeah, Caddyshack was a big hit, but after that we got films like Oh Heavenly Dog, Modern Problems, Deal of the Century, and Under the Rainbow. Vacation (along with Fletch) helped Chevy get popular again after those flops.
 
Kenny's drug problem actually makes a decent POD.

1973 - Lemmings, the only film to come of NL, becomes a minor cult classic, remembered for being one of John Belushi's two film roles.

~1975 - Kenney ODs. Animal House isn't made and National Lampoon quietly folds.

1976 - Belushi and Aykroyd put together the Blues Brothers on SNL.

1978 - Breifcase Full of Blues released. Aykroyd suggests doing a film.

1979 - Blues Brothers enters production. Camp Meatballs (slight title alteration) is released.

1980 - John Belushi has fatal OD on New Years. The Blues Brothers film and soundtrack album are released posthumously, with a dedication to Belushi. Caddys (altered name) released.

1981 - Stripes released.

1982 - Old School, a raunchy college sex comedy, is released. Set in a southern college in the early 60s, it was directed by Ivan Reitman and starred Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. (Mashup of OTL's Animal House, Porky's, and Revenge of the Nerds.)
 
I would be sad if ANIMAL HOUSE, CADDYSHACK and STRIPS had never been made. Three of the funniest films IMHO...

If you can read the original AH stories in National Lampoon, they are hilarious!
 
(It's tempting to say that even if he hadn't fallen/jumped off the cliff in Kauai, drugs would have killed him before too long, anyway. But remember that even Jerry Garcia made it to the age of 53...)

I might have added that Chet Baker somehow made it to 58...
 
I would be sad if ANIMAL HOUSE, CADDYSHACK and STRIPS had never been made. Three of the funniest films IMHO...

If you can read the original AH stories in National Lampoon, they are hilarious!

Strips - the "adult" version of Stripes, a la Flesh Gordon and Flash Gordon. :winkytongue:
 
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