Nerding Out About: Animal House (1978)

In another well-endowed episode of the Nerding Out About podcast, the crew breaks out their togas for an exciting review of 1978’s Animal House. Starring Tim Matheson, Bruce McGill, John Belushi and Karen Allen, this comedy classic left the crew asking the important questions like: What movie script was turned down before Animal House was written? Who were the original members of Delta Tau Chi? When will we ever start a frat? All this and more in this episode of Nerding Out About!

Movie Info:

• Directed by John Landis
• • Also directed Burke and Hare, Beverly Hills Cop 3, Spies Like Us, An American Werewolf in London
• Written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller
• Cast:
• • Bruce McGill - Daniel Simpson Day
  • • I cannot express how much I love this guy and the roles he’s done
    • • Lincoln, Cinderella Man, Time Cop
  • Tim Matheson - Eric Stratton
  • • Van Wilder, Playing Ronald Reagan in “Killing Reagan” tv movie
    • Some of the best IMDB Factoids on this guy
    • • Born at 9:00pm PST
      • Worked with John Belushi, John Candy, Sam Kinison and Chris Farley, all legendary overweight comic actors who died at an early age
      • Shares his birthday with Val Kilmer
  • Peter Riegert - Donald Schoenstein
  • • The Mask, Failed TV Show “Dad’s”
  • Donald Sutherland - Dave Jennings
  • • Universal greenlight the movie when Sutherland signed on
  • Karen Allen - Katy
  • • Raiders of the Lost Ark, Crystal Yawn, Scrooged
  • John Belushi
  • • Would shoot the film Monday - Wednesday and then fly back to NY to shoot SNL Thurs - Saturday
    • Improvised the cafeteria portion
    • Didn’t really chug Jack Daniels - It was Iced Tea
  • Kevin Mothafucking Bacon! - Chip Diller
  • • First Movie, and was forced to sit in the back at the premiere because the ushers didn’t believe he was in the cast
• Factoids:
• • Movie was originally about Charles Manson, entitled Laswer Orgy girls, but was rejected. Was about a cult leader and murderer in high school
  • Final script was the result of 3 month long brainstorming session about college life
  • Was originally a very SNL heavy cast - starring Dan Aykroyd, Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray and Chevy Chase
  • Shot at the University of Oregon
  • Delta’s motto is “Ars Gratia Artis” is latin for Art for Art’s Sake.
  • 3 Million Dollar Budget, made 141,600,000

Movie Thoughts:

• “Don’t be a fruit” - A phrase you’ll never hear these days
• Though I enjoy boob scenes as much as the next guy, It’s kinda gross when it’s set up by a peeping tom. Shit is gross..

Conversation Starters:

• So guys, the scene where the Otter and Schoenstein are shooting golf balls at the ROTC guys got me thinking. I wonder how many deaths have occurred from stray golf balls.