The NPR story I linked yesterday says that "Animal House" started as a short story by Chris Miller in the National Lampoon (although some characters -- Pinto and Mandy Pepperidge -- made their appearance earlier in Doug Kinney's High Scool Yearbook in the Lampoon. You can read Miller's story by clicking here: The Night of the Seven Fires. Enjoy!

P.S. -- I didn't actually read the story until after I posted the link. Not necessarily for the queasy -- and guaranteed to make risk management types unhappy.

With all the GC talk defending Greeks from their stereotypes on MTV, I find it ironic that I LOVE this movie and it cracks me up every time I see it. Pretty interesting that playing up a fraternity stereotype, i.e. the schmoozing, trouble-making toga-partiers is so funny!

Yep. One my favorite movies ever. Really funny. I think most of the Greek streotype movies are pretty entertaining.

But I know they're not real. I guess some people don't.

Come on guys, Animal House was so successful because, while it was a send-up of the times and the institutions, it touched the nerve of reality. For a lampoon to be effective it has to be close enough to the truth to make it both recognizable and funny. Talking to older alums, and to my Dad and Uncles, it was a pretty accurate picture of the early 1960s Greek experience (Tom Earp, please comment on this) and it was very recognizable in the mid to late 1990s during my undergraduate years (and still is now that I'm back in a University setting for Law School). No one house fully fit the DTXs or the Omegas but I could put a face on every character in the film from among the guys I knew from all the fraternities on campus. I'm sure this is the norm and not the exception at most universities with Greek systems. In all honesty, can't you put the face of someone you know on just about every character in the film?

That was the BEST description of not only this Epic Film, but how a spoof or lampoon should work.

I watched this movie for the first time AFTER I became a Delta Sig, and almost every character in the movie resembled either one of the guys in my house, or one of the other Greeks (including the Tri-Pis Mandy and Babs) at SDSU. I think it's timeless and doesn't portray Greeks in a negative way because you know it's a lampoon.

Hey SIUAGD,
You're right Jim Belushi did attend school @ SIUC. I visited SIUC a few years ago & in the visitor center there was a picture of him hanging under famous alum. I also know about the COLLEGE shirt you're talking about. My friend is attending SIU in the fall & he has been down there this summer....he picked up an edition the paper & saw an articl all about where the COLLEGE shirt was made. I think SIUC also ranked in where Animal House would be shot....b/c of the whole part image.

I LOVE this movie! It is perhaps the reason I decided to rush in the first place! The scene that always gets me is when the two guys go to the Omega House for a rush party, and the rush chairman takes them to the couch with the other "losers", out of the way! LOL!:D

And knowing your Tekes, that wouldn't be surprising....too bad it isn't true! I went to summer school there this year, and that house was just crazy.

I like when they synchronise their watches to 11 and blutos says 5:30 or something random like that

he he..
 

Oh gosh, every fraternity in the whole world thinks they are connected to Animal House!

My bf told me that guys from his chapter wrote the movie, and I just laughed cause i knew i could go to any house on campus and hear the same thing.

That'd be a simple question so solve though, the writers are on the poster in his room so he could just look them up to see if they were ever in his chapter. Somehow he just wasn't too enthusiastic about checking this.

"College Shirt"
 

Wooglin4Ever, is right. The infamous shirt was made at Gusto's He (Gusto) was still in business, and I spoke with him about it when I attended. One of my all time favorite movies, so I thought it was an interesting topic.

I never could find info that John did attend there, but being that his brother Jim studied at SIUC, it would not be beyond the realm that John had some tie to the school, whether he attended or just dropped in on occassion.

I was watching the travel channel the other day ( dont ask) and there was a commercial for some kind of road trip show were they showed places where movies were filmed. They showed a picture of the Omega's house and it had Pike letters on the house. So is the house Sigma Nu now or is it a Pike house?

I've never seen Animal House!!! :eek: :p I know, I know, for shame!

Wow..it really is a must-see. It's one of the funniest, best-made comedies I've ever seen, and the cast is ridiculous. All of the main cast members went on to other major roles, and at least one (the character who played Pinto) was nominated for an Academy Award for future roles.

random animal house cast trivia...
 

Thomas Hulce (Pinto) was nominated for an Oscar for the title role in Amadeus.

Peter Reigert (Boon) was a longtime boyfriend of Bette Midler and appeared in the TV remake of Gypsy with her. (they both blew the movie actors away, IMO)