National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Hey, Do You Remember...?
Christopher Schrader
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2020
⏱️ 99 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s a holiday classic that’s become quintessential viewing every holiday season, but at the time Warner Bros. wasn’t even sure they wanted another Vacation movie. After the lukewarm response to European Vacation, the studio spent several years dragging their feet on the prospect of a second sequel.
After they realized that 1989 had a surprising lack of holiday-themed movies from their competitors, they finally came around on the idea of getting the Griswold clan back together for Christmas Vacation. And what a lucrative decision that turned out to be! Not only did the film easily outgross its predecessor, it’s also now firmly entrenched in the pantheon of must-watch Christmas movies.
Topics include: the friction with Chevy Chase that caused the original director to quit right before filming began, how we reckon with hearing stories like that about actors or celebrities we were fans of, the bittersweet quality certain aspects of this took on watching it under our current circumstances, a couple of otherwise great scenes that feel like they happen in the wrong order, the original ending to the first film that was repurposed for this entry and whether or not it works better here, where this lands in our ranking of the Vacation movies, and more!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, hello. I just wanted to give you all a heads up that we had some technical difficulties recording this episode. |
| 0:06.1 | Trying to produce these remotely is just the gift that keeps on giving. So the good news is we caught it early. |
| 0:12.2 | It's really only the first 20 minutes or so. Carlos was having some trouble with his computer, and at some point he realized there were certain stretches of his audio track that were |
| 0:22.2 | just not there. They weren't recorded. So I just cut out most of those sections entirely, |
| 0:28.0 | but there are a few spots you might find yourself wondering why he's being so quiet. And now you |
| 0:34.0 | know, I keep telling him, you can't just tie a piece of string to an old soup can and plug that into your laptop. |
| 0:39.8 | He's determined to prove me wrong, I guess. |
| 0:42.1 | What are you even plugging it into, Carlos? |
| 0:44.9 | So listen, just in general, I know there's been a dip in quality when it comes to the production. |
| 0:50.3 | I apologize. |
| 0:51.5 | I am doing what I can to keep it sounding as good as possible, but this whole |
| 0:56.2 | situation, it's been very challenging. And I appreciate you all bearing with us while we try and |
| 1:01.6 | make the best of the circumstances we find ourselves in. So that's that. Happy holidays and enjoy the |
| 1:09.7 | episode. |
| 1:41.2 | Hey, do you remember National Lampoon's Christmas vacation? Hello and welcome to Hey Do You Remember, a show where we reminisce about a movie or TV series we grew up with, then take off the rose-tinted glasses to see how it holds up. |
| 1:42.1 | I'm Chris. |
| 1:43.0 | I'm Donna. |
| 1:44.1 | And I'm Carlos. |
| 1:47.1 | And today we're revisiting Christmas vacation. It's now regarded as quintessential viewing this time of year, but this holiday classic actually had a pretty inauspicious beginning. |
| 2:10.9 | After the lukewarm response to the second installment in the National Lampoon's Vacation Series, |
| 2:16.2 | Werner Brothers wasn't even sure they wanted |
| 2:18.0 | another sequel. The studio dragged their feet on committing to one for several years, despite |
... |
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