10 Weird But True Things About National Lampoon’s Vacation

1. You can now buy Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation and Vegas Vacation on a two-disk set for $9.99, except later, you check your receipt, and you paid $14.99, but it isn’t worth it to go back to Zellers because then you would have to admit that you bought it.
2. European Vacation has a lot of boobs in it, which briefly curtailed the series before Christmas Vacation came along in a more family-friendly form. Yeah, there are a lot of boobs. Boobs.
3. The children are different in every film because Anthony Michael Hall wouldn’t come back for European Vacation (originally titled Vacation 2 Europe). He was still recovering from spearing his brain, which also explains Johnny B. Goode. So producers recast Rusty, which meant recasting Audrey with the other Dana (from the two Danas), and off they went from there. In Christmas Vacation, the kids are Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis, which is quite surreal once you realize, usually around the time the grandparents show up, who they are.
4. If you know what I mean by “the two Danas,” you are old enough to be reading this blog.
5. Beverly D’Angelo is one of the most beautiful women who ever lived, something played to great effect in Vegas Vacation. And she used to shack up with Al Pacino, which I did not know until just now. Boobs.
6. I saw the first one with my buddy Mike Norris. Afterward, I said “They just ripped off a bunch of old stories from National Lampoon,” to which he replied “Maybe that’s why it’s called National Lampoon’s Vacation,” and I shut up. Please don’t ask why I grew up with binders full of archived National Lampoons from the ’70s. It was not a traditional childhood. Someday, I will tell you the tale of the Plastic Tess.
7. Randy Quaid starred in Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure, a sequel to a sequel, or maybe a spinoff, but definitely worth watching, if you like feeling like you want to pour vinegar in your eyes. Randy Quaid is currently fighting to become Canadian, and we are fighting back.
8. There is actually an online-only mini-sequel called Vacation: Horror Hotel, starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. It is not as good as you might think, but you should check it out.
9. A new film is in the works, this time following the misadventures of grown-up Rusty Griswold as he takes his family on a cross-country trip. For this film, Rusty will be played by Colin Farrell.
10. The woman who played old, senile Aunt Bethany (who gift-wrapped a cat) in Christmas Vacation was the actress who voiced Betty Boop. Now that I know that, I get a little chub when I see Aunt Bethany. Boops.