20 Things You Might Not Know About “National Lampoon’s Vacation”

Here are  20 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About National Lampoon’s Vacation:

Here are my three favorites…

1. In Hughes’ original story “Vacation ’58,” initially published in National Lampoon magazine in 1979, it’s Disneyland that’s closed and Walt Disney who gets taken hostage by the irate dad. The story’s memorable first line: “If Dad hadn’t shot Walt Disney in the leg, it would have been our best vacation ever!” Warner Bros. snapped up the movie rights almost immediately.

10. Chase claims that no one ever spots the gag early in the film, when Ellen and Clark are doing the dishes and the dishes don’t actually get washed. Ellen scrapes the food off of them, and Clark dries them and puts them back in the cabinet.

25. A reboot has been in the works that would star Ed Helms (“The Hangover”) as the grown Rusty, taking his own wife (Christina Applegate) and family on vacation to Walley World, with Chase and D’Angelo to return as his parents. So far, however, the project has yet to make it off the drawing board.