Hughes’s National Lampoon short story Vacation 58 used Rusty’s perspective; Ramis and Chase shifted the screenplay toward the father. — Bill Simmons
Brinkley’s role reportedly began as a thirteen-year-old Rusty love interest, possibly imagined; the precise original framing is uncertain. — Bill Simmons
Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly rejected the script at Paramount as too episodic before Warner Bros. took it. — Bill Simmons
The gross is reported as $61.4 million; the budget is transcribed as $50 million, but that figure is uncertain. — Bill Simmons
Chase’s DVD commentary reportedly says Hall put his feet up spontaneously and the exchange was partly improvised. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
The beer container was reportedly empty, so Hall did not actually drink the beer during the father–son scene. — Bill Simmons
Ramis’s daughter Violet played Eddie’s child born without a tongue. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
A rumor that Brinkley’s character was Wally’s daughter is explicitly described as debunked. — Bill Simmons
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. — Bill Simmons
Wally World and Marty Moose reportedly avoided Disney legal issues while Roy Wally retained a Disney-like appearance. — Bill Simmons
The park sequence reportedly used a location in Arcadia and Six Flags in Valencia; the first location name is garbled in the transcript. — Bill Simmons
The family truckster was built for the film based on a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire. — Bill Simmons
Holiday Road reportedly peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100. — Bill Simmons
Hall recalled Chase embarrassing him by pointing out his sudden puberty-related growth and acne. — Bill Simmons
Barron recalled gaining weight through constant craft-service meals while Hall grew taller. — Bill Simmons
Repeated amusement rides reportedly made the performers sick during the park shoot. — Bill Simmons
Coca reportedly suffered what was believed to be a stroke during production, went to hospital, relearned her lines, and completed the film. — Bill Simmons
A crew bet concerned whether the truckster could jump fifty feet; the assistant director reportedly won. — Bill Simmons
A deleted gag had Brian Doyle-Murray’s character enter the tent in a moose costume; the dog was judged funnier. — Bill Simmons
A rescue involving two Native Americans and a camel rider was cut because the camel material failed, leaving the rider’s identity unexplained. — Bill Simmons
Hall reportedly suffered heat stroke during the race toward the park entrance and went to hospital. — Bill Simmons
Chase reportedly threw a suitcase at Ramis during a hot shoot; Ramis shouted back and the dispute passed. — Bill Simmons
Bacon and Candy annihilate brief roles, but Sutherland is first called the winner for the 16-minute monologue, then his screen time is said to be about third most. — Bill Simmons
The pick moves to Candy because he did something he never did before or after, while Bacon found a tough swagger and kept doing it, as in A Few Good Men. — Brian Koppelman
Candy as Dusty Rhodes in a biopic is imagined on the spot; Candy wins. — Brian Koppelman
Gary Oldman as Oswald; Seinfeld spoof; Pesci-Tommy Lee Jones wig battle; Kevin Bacon's career revival; Oliver Stone's Dave cameo; Tommy Lee Jones in gold paint; Dealey Plaza recreation; John Williams score; New Orleans setting; specter of JFK; character actors in tiny roles
Offered as number one: Oldman as Oswald is creepy, great, and looks like Oswald.
Oldman must have shot much of his material separately with Stone; a 'Gary Oldman cut' as a standalone Oswald movie is wished for. — Chris Ryan
Deleted-scene story: Oldman asked Stone to point the camera at him late at night for an elegiac Oswald monologue; Stone shot him in a casket and planned to end the film with it before making a different call; it can be found on YouTube. — Brian Koppelman
The 1992 Seinfeld spoof 'The Boyfriend' features Wayne Knight and Keith Hernandez; Hernandez is praised and then jabbed as possibly a QAnon guy.
'The Boyfriend' is remembered as the episode that showed Seinfeld would be the biggest show, with the spitter bit called lights out. — Bill Simmons
Bacon is said to call the film a turning point that reignited his career, leading to A Few Good Men. — Bill Simmons
Stone's self-deprecating cameo in Dave two years later has aged best for one participant. — Bill Simmons
Tommy Lee in gold paint getting slapped by Pesci in a Dangerous Liaisons outfit is praised as the good version of a wild idea, unlike a cut Nicholson idea in The Departed; Tommy Lee doing it is what makes it great. — Bill Simmons
Objection: the same scene bumps against what's aged worst, the film's attitude about homosexuality, called retrograde and unacceptable; the counterpoint is that it was part of Garrison's case against Shaw and that era's judgment. — Brian Koppelman
Stone recreated the assassination in Dealey Plaza, spending $4 million to restore it to 1963 conditions and reroute traffic; Sutherland and Costner memorized their monologues. — Bill Simmons
Debate on whether acting is mostly memory: one participant says no, the camera reveals compelling people like Sutherland and memorizing matters more in theater; it is jokingly settled at 70% memory. — Brian Koppelman
John Williams's score and New Orleans as a setting are named.
The specter of JFK himself: the speech that opens Stone's documentary, the Caesar-like shot in the X speech and the still photograph of Kennedy.
