Half-Assed Internet Research
Story adaptation; rejected script; alternative endings; reshoot fee; production incidents; car design; chart position
In the discussion (26)
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:52Read transcript
- Hughes’s National Lampoon short story Vacation 58 used Rusty’s perspective; Ramis and Chase shifted the screenplay toward the father.
- Brinkley’s role reportedly began as a thirteen-year-old Rusty love interest, possibly imagined; the precise original framing is uncertain.
- Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly rejected the script at Paramount as too episodic before Warner Bros. took it.
- The gross is reported as $61.4 million; the budget is transcribed as $50 million, but that figure is uncertain.
- Chase’s DVD commentary reportedly says Hall put his feet up spontaneously and the exchange was partly improvised.
- Ramis reportedly called St.Louis one of his most politically incorrect sequences and said it demonized everyone involved.
- The dead-dog scene reportedly required repeated attempts because the performers could not stop laughing.
- The beer container was reportedly empty, so Hall did not actually drink the beer during the father–son scene.
- Ramis’s daughter Violet played Eddie’s child born without a tongue.
- The original ending reportedly had Clark hold Roy Wally and others hostage at home and force them to perform theme songs before arrest; a later wrong-plane gag ended in hijacking.
- A rumor that Brinkley’s character was Wally’s daughter is explicitly described as debunked.
- Test audiences reportedly stopped laughing because the original ending denied the promised arrival at Wally World, prompting the new park ending.
- Candy reportedly received$1 million for three days of reshoots, a striking sum nevertheless judged well spent.
- Wally World and Marty Moose reportedly avoided Disney legal issues while Roy Wally retained a Disney-like appearance.
- The park sequence reportedly used a location in Arcadia and Six Flags in Valencia; the first location name is garbled in the transcript.
- The family truckster was built for the film based on a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire.
- Holiday Road reportedly peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- Hall recalled Chase embarrassing him by pointing out his sudden puberty-related growth and acne.
- Barron recalled gaining weight through constant craft-service meals while Hall grew taller.
- Repeated amusement rides reportedly made the performers sick during the park shoot.
- Coca reportedly suffered what was believed to be a stroke during production, went to hospital, relearned her lines, and completed the film.
- A crew bet concerned whether the truckster could jump fifty feet; the assistant director reportedly won.
- A deleted gag had Brian Doyle-Murray’s character enter the tent in a moose costume; the dog was judged funnier.
- A rescue involving two Native Americans and a camel rider was cut because the camel material failed, leaving the rider’s identity unexplained.
- Hall reportedly suffered heat stroke during the race toward the park entrance and went to hospital.
- Chase reportedly threw a suitcase at Ramis during a hot shoot; Ramis shouted back and the dispute passed.