The seminal 1978 film Animal House is a legendary pioneer of gross-out comedy – but its original Saturday-Night-Live-laced cast would arguably have made the movie even more impressive had it gone through. Following frat houses and freshmen at Faber College in 1962, the loose and wild mega-hit took cinema by storm when it grossed $141 million on just a three-million-dollar budget. Under the National Lampoon brand, Animal House has been credited as the first sophomoric comedy of its kind – paving the way for endless imitations and teen movies in the following decade. But, for all this success, its original SNL cast could have made things even better.
National Lampoon Magazine was an irreverent and often shocking humor publication that was popular with college students throughout the mid-1970s. While SNL has since launched numerous movies, Co-founder Doug Kenny and writer Chris Miller had been kicking ideas back and forth in attempts to put their distinct brand of humor to the screen. The original plotline of Animal House revolved around Charles Manson going to high school and was called Laser Orgy Girls. After the duo brought on writer Harold Ramis to help develop the script, everything began to fall into place. Nine drafts later, they had the story and managed to attract director John Landis (fresh off his first film The Kentucky Fried Movie), as well as producers Matty Simmons and Ivan Reitman. Animal House got the green light at Universal soon after that.
John Belushi always was destined to play the brutish toga-wearing Bluto, but his Saturday Night Live alums Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray were expected to star alongside him. Despite being older than typical college freshman, Chase would have played Otter (Tim Matheson’s role), Murray would have been Boon (Peter Riegert), and Aykroyd would have played D-Day (a role that eventually went to Bruce McGill). Unfortunately, Chase had just left SNL and chose to star in Foul Play with Goldie Hawn. Murray was disinterested right from the start. Aykroyd wanted the role, but SNL producer Lorne Michaels apparently threatened to fire him if he took the role since Belushi’s involvement was already creating production problems. Even though the end result was a phenomenon, there’s no doubt that adding three other SNL and comedy veterans could have radically altered the final movie. However, given the complex politics at play behind the scenes, it is perhaps unsurprising that it didn’t happen.
While seventies comedy fans may salivate at the thought of those four coming together for one movie, it was highly unlikely given their history. Chase reportedly turned down the role because the film was an ensemble piece and that there was no leading part. At the time, Chase and Murray were comedic rivals and even physically fought backstage during an episode of SNL. While they buried the hatchet several years later for Caddyshack, these two would have likely been at each other’s throats if they had both said yes to Animal House. Aykroyd was additionally more focused on the Blues Brothers act, operating a nightclub while writing the film adaptation’s screenplay around the same time.
While several films like the Ghostbusters franchise, Neighbors, 1941, Caddyshack, Nothing But Trouble, and Spies Like Us feature different parings of these four, audiences never got to see how the quartet could have impacted on Animal House. Instead, Belushi went into the project alone and came out a breakout comedy star that left the world far too soon. However, fans will always have the Animal House version that, while very dated, is still a celebrated comedy classic, even without a smorgasbord of SNL alumni.
