National Lampoon's European Vacation | S2E14 - Retromade

Episode Transcript
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Katie (01:33):
Hello.
Hello?
I'm Katie and welcome back toRetro Made Your Pop Culture Rewind.
Today you better pack yourbags and grab your phrase book.
Know what that is 'cause we're headedback to 1985 for the 40th anniversary
of National Lampoons European Vacation.
We'll relive the Griswold's chaoticTrek across the continent while

(01:55):
also diving into pop culturethat defined the mid eighties.
I am very happy to welcome back Zoefrom Back Look Cinema, the podcast.
Thank you for coming backto join me for season two.
Zoe, what's new?
What's up with back look Cinema lately?

Alonzo Richardson (02:12):
Thank you.
It's good to be back.
Well, we're closing inon our 200th episode.
I actually prerecorded that episode 'causeI wanted to make sure that I get it out.
It's gonna be on my favorite movie,so I'm excited to talk about that.
But upcoming now it's on Bill and Ted'sbogus journey, and I'm excited about

(02:32):
that because I actually like it betterthan Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.

Katie (02:39):
I don't remember it.
That's the sequel.
Right.

That is the first sequel.

Katie (02:44):
Well,

And.

Katie (02:45):
an example of you liking the sequel better than the original.
Okay.
All right.
Go

Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, there, there are lots ofexamples that I could pull out.
There's star Trek two, the RAF ofCon, which , everybody acknowledges
is way better than the first film.
Most people believe that the EmpireStrikes Backs is, is way better than Star
Wars, but that is, that's to be expectedbecause the production values are so much
better and it, it's kind of a, I don'twanna say it's a downer, but it's a darker

(03:11):
tail because in this, in the second.
Movie that the heroes don'tactually triumph in the end.
So it's an unusual ending.
And, and so on.
and so forth.
There, there are so many other examples.
There's none of these will berelevant to, to, to your interests,
but another example is CaptainAmerica and went Captain Civil War.

(03:34):
And in that one, actuallyit's Winter Soldier, I think
is first, and then Civil War.
Either one of those arebetter than the first Captain
America movie, so, yeah, yeah,

Katie (03:44):
have to trust you if not seen

yeah.
I know.
And you won't.

Katie (03:47):
No, I'll not.
I'll not,

As a matter of fact, I just watched two superhero movie two
superhero movies almost back to back.
So the Superman came out and thenFantastic Four came out, and I
had a blast with both of those.
And I recommend Supermanto, to any dog lover.
Any, anybody who loves adog would love this movie.
And I really loved that theyput a bunch of comic book

(04:12):
stuff in the movie that's not.
normally in the movie, especially crypto.
And it's just a, a touchingmovie that, that I truly enjoyed.

Katie (04:22):
I've heard good things.
I don't know, maybe we'll see.
Maybe, maybe I'll check it out.
I am a, a very big dog lover.

Yeah.

Katie (04:29):
both dogs and big dogs.
So Well awesome.
I'm looking forward to your 200th episode.
But before we do, we are here to continueto celebrate summer with the European
vacation that came out 40 years ago.
Now we're gonna open the timecapsule from this summer of 1985.

(04:50):
we did already cover a lot of thepop culture with the wheel that we
spend, the retro made wheel with allof the categories in the Weird science
episode and the Breakfast Club episode.
instead of doing that, Zoe, I'm just gonnaask you questions from the categories
that we didn't land on for those.

(05:10):
So whether you like it ornot, that's what we're doing.

Awesome.
Hit me.

Katie (05:14):
I feel like, okay, this is the mid eighties.
There's lots of good thingshappening in the pop culture
realm, especially, I feel like.
Now think back to 1985, there's a lotof iconic soundtracks in the top movies,
unforgettable, one-liners and someof the biggest stars of the decade.
Do you think that you can nameany of the top five movies?

Probably not.
I, I believe that one of 'emshould be back to the future.

Katie (05:44):
Number one,

But what else came out in 1985?

Katie (05:48):
I

that's

Katie (05:50):
all but one of them.
you already got back tofu, back to the future.
Number two

as, as.

Katie (05:57):
one of the biggest comedians of the time.

He is one of the biggest mediums of that time.
Oh my goodness.
But there were so many.
There's a, what's his name?
Rodney Dangerfield, but I don't knowif he had a movie in 1985, but he
did come out with a bunch of movies.
Even Andrew Dice Claywas big at one time, so,

Katie (06:17):
I would say the biggest comedian at the time, big movie star.
There were multiple sequels tothis movie, but this is the first

oh, I know what you're talking about.
You're talking about Eddie Murphy.
So you must be talkingabout Beverly Hills Cop.

Katie (06:30):
Yes, yes.
Yep.
Now number three and numberfour, this is amazing.
And it's very down my alley.
Up my alley, whichever you say.
One of the biggest, would saythe biggest one of two big
action stars of the eighties.
This particular gentleman hasboth the number three and the

(06:52):
number four movie in 1985.
What were they?

Hmm.

Katie (06:58):
Men.
Muscle Man.

Oh, must, oh, so probably Arnold Schwarzenegger.
So if it's Arnold Schwarzenegger,then oh, you're shaking your head no,
it's not him, but it is a Muscle Man.

Katie (07:09):
The other one.

The other one?
there are like three of 'em.
So there's Arnold

Katie (07:14):
two, two top ones, right?

two top ones.
The other one is Sylvester Stallone.

Katie (07:20):
Okay?
And he

um,

Katie (07:21):
Movies

he had two movies Goodness gracious.

Katie (07:23):
in 85.

Maybe one of 'em was tequila Sunrise.
Maybe one of 'em wasone of the Rocky movies.
Maybe.
Maybe Rocky two.

Katie (07:35):
Zoe, I'm disappointed in you.
Okay, so number three isRambo First Blood part two.

that's so sad.
That is, that is sad.
That's one of the earliestmovies that I covered that, that
may have been the first one.

Katie (07:50):
It was a really good one.
And I have a dog named Rambo

Right?

Katie (07:55):
number four is.
Rocky four

Oh, okay.
So one of 'em was the Rocky movies.
I just guessed the wrong one.
They both came out in 1985.

Katie (08:04):
Yeah.
Isn't that crazy?
He

Oh my goodness.
I didn't realize he was cooking like that.
He was, cooking with keroseneand gasoline mixed together,
and then he just set it on fire.

Katie (08:13):
he definitely.
And those are, oh man, Rockyfour is my favorite Rocky movie.
I have a dog named Balboa, so,

And as, as an aside, I think it's up your alley,
not down your alley, because downyour alley sounds dirty somehow.

Katie (08:27):
you're right.
You are correct.
Number five, I don't think you'll guess,

Okay.

Katie (08:37):
but maybe with this clue it's about old people and sci-fi.

Oh, I do know this one.
It's Cocoon.

Katie (08:46):
Yeah.

I remember that movie.
I gotta cover that one.
That was, so this was in themidst of the Gutenberg era.
When he was triumphant.
He was like on the top of his game.
Every, every man wanted to be him.
All the ladies wanted to be with him.
He was in that era and he had a bunchof movies, like a string of movies
that came out right around the sametime that just really elevated him.
And then he's.

(09:08):
Sort of just disappeared.

Katie (09:10):
He did.
He did

I mean, and the funny thing is that he hasn't disappeared.
He just leveled the television.
Did you see that thing with him?
During the California Fires?
I think it was last year.

Katie (09:19):
Yes, yes

And I was like,

Katie (09:21):
Yeah.

and he was talking to the reporter and the reporter
was Like can I have your name?
sir?
And, you know, he gave his Name?
Steve Guten Gutenberg, andthe reporter cheated him.
Like, He's just a regular dude.
That was the funniest thing in the world.

Katie (09:33):
Probably.
'cause the reporter waslike under 35 maybe.

yeah, yeah.

Katie (09:37):
Yeah.

I, you know what?
To be honest, I probably wouldn'trecognize him because I hadn't
seen him in such a long time.
So my only reference point isfrom his movies when he still
had black hair and he was.
in really good shape, and nowhe looks like a regular dude,
and his hair's gone all gray.
He looks way different thanwhen he was much younger.

Katie (09:54):
I don't know though, if you combine that with the very,
not typical name Steve Gutenberg.
You know, I think I, I think I'd belike, are you the Steve Gutenberg?
I

right, right, right, right.

Katie (10:08):
Let's do some commercials or some slogans.
Commercial.
Countdown.
So Kiss a little longer, left.
A little longer.
Stay close.
A little longer.
Longer with,

Big red.

Katie (10:20):
yeah.
Good job.

This is back when we were forced to watch commercials and so
everybody knew all of the commercials,so I'm going to get some of these.

Katie (10:31):
Well, there's one that you'll know, but if I sing it, it's the name of it.
So we'll skip that one.
They're magically delicious.

Hold on.
They still do that one.

Katie (10:40):
Uhhuh.

it is like Lucky Charms, isn't it?

Katie (10:42):
That's Lucky Charms.
I wanted to do re cola, but

Oh, re Rico.

Katie (10:47):
cola.

Yeah, it gives it away.

Katie (10:49):
do that without giving it away.
See.
Raise your hand if you're sure.
What was the product?

I know it's the odorant.

Katie (10:56):
Mm-hmm.
I said the name of it in it.

Sure.

Katie (11:01):
Yeah.
And I, that doesn'texist anymore, does it?

it?
probably does.
They just don't advertiselike they used to.
It's like I see all of the old brands.
I don't see, I, I don't, I don't feel likethere are any old brands that are missing.
I feel like I see all, like Tide is stillaround or some, even if the company falls
under that, somebody will pick up the.
The, what you call it, the name.

(11:25):
And they'll they'll use thatname and keep the name going.

Katie (11:28):
Mm-hmm.
I remember certain shampooslike PERT and Salon Selectives

Maybe not Salon Selective.
I, I thought maybe wewere gonna say suave.
I remember, I think I still see Suave.
It, it is funny, right?
'cause

Katie (11:43):
around.

I don't shop for those anymore, so I
don't, which is kind offunny that I don't, I'm, I'm
going to the fancier stuff.
I think it started with when I was inmy twenties and I was getting ax every,
every dude goes through the ax phase.

Katie (11:56):
Yep.
That was a little Later

Yeah.

Katie (11:59):
but yeah.
Are you ready for stars and scandals?

All right.
This is gonna be fun.

Katie (12:06):
Which two magazines caused Disturb by publishing intimate photos of a rising
pop star known for her bold persona thatmany saw as part of her image evolution.
two magazines were theyand who was the Pop Star

Ooh.
So I'm afraid I'm not gonna get this.
And the funny thing is that I used towatch Entertainment Tonight religiously.
So I'm thinking that maybe,

Katie (12:32):
Star

maybe one of 'em was People Magazine and maybe
one of 'em was maybe the Enquirer

Katie (12:40):
That's a good guess.
I would say intimate photos leans moretowards something a little more risque.

risque.
I can't.
I can't think of it.
It, and I don't, I'm not even surewhat photos they're talking about.
This is in the 1980s, so itcould have been like Madonna.
That's the only person I can think of,

Katie (13:01):
It's Madonna.
It is Madonna.

but I don't even know which what, what she did, because that
the things that were always risque abouther was like a lot of her music videos
that they garnered a lot of attention.
They, people were upset of all ofthe sexualization in the video.
So if there was a, a real life scandalwith some, some sex scandal that she

(13:23):
may have been in, I, I don't knowif I was all that tuned into it.

Katie (13:27):
Well, I think people were just a little prty so the
magazines are Playboy and Penthouse,

Oh,

Katie (13:33):
posed for photos and she was a rising pop star, and so
people were like, can't believe she

oh, so you're saying that, you're saying professional
photos, not paparazzi photos.

Katie (13:44):
I honestly, I don't know.
So if

Well, she,

Katie (13:47):
It just says that the, this them publishing the photos and I
don't know if she posed for them orif they were pop paparazzi photos,

well, I'm, I, remember she famously posed for a
Playboy and comedians used to makefun of it because she didn't shave.
Like she was like really hairy.
So
people made, made fun of the herPlayboy photos, and that was a big deal.
I remember it was a big deal.
It was going out that Madonna wasposing for Playboy, but I don't

(14:15):
remember what happened with Penthouse.
I don't remember herposing with penthouse.

Katie (14:19):
but yeah, it was Playboy and Penthouse, so she probably posed
for them and it was just in 85.

Right.

Katie (14:24):
the new, you know, be still kind of new on the scene and they're like, ah,

That's definitely scandalous,
especially if you're a pop star.

Katie (14:31):
Mm-hmm.

there were a lot of people doing it.
Well, not a lot of celebrities, but it waskind of a thing to do to pose for Playboy,
or at the very least, doing an interviewfor Playboy or one of its affiliates.
I remember there's a professionalwrestler named Shawn Michaels,
a Nelo for Play Girl Magazine.

Katie (14:51):
Gets attention, you know, people
About it.

So that, that was a big thing, and that there were a
couple other celebrities that did it.
But

Katie (15:00):
mm-hmm.

I was, if you really wanted to, I don't know.
It's like, instead of being a troll onthe internet, what they did back then
was posed for Playboy or penthouse.

Katie (15:11):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Alright.
Witch Hollywood actor whose death in1985 brought the public's focus to
a disease still widely misunderstoodat the time he died in Beverly Hills,
leaving behind a legacy that changedthe way that the disease was viewed.
Who was it?

I am thinking that you're talking about Rock
Hudson and the disease is aids.

Katie (15:34):
Mm-hmm.
I remember hearing about this,but I don't like at the time,
I, I was too young to recall

Right, right, right.
I remember I was young too, but Iremember that everybody was really
talking about it and one commentator,it was either a commentator or a
celebrity that was like, they shouldjust call it the Rock Hudson Disease.
'cause nobody was paying attentionto it until Rock Hudson died from it.

Katie (15:58):
Oh yeah.
'cause

Yeah.

Katie (16:00):
early.
85.

Yeah.
And obviously at that timethey were suppressing the
information about DIS disease.
They wanted people to believe thatit was only people in the L-G-B-T-Q
community that was getting thedisease, so specifically gay men.
And they didn't realize that regular,regular people like themselves
could get it to regular degular.

Katie (16:23):
Mm-hmm.

I'm regular, I can't get it.
Yes, yes you can.
AIDS is an equal opportunity disease.

Katie (16:32):
Mm-hmm.

everybody can catch it.
And that was one of the thingsthat helped people get informed
about and treat it seriously.

Katie (16:39):
Yeah, you're right.
It says that he left behinda legacy that changed the way
that the disease was viewed.
Yeah.
All right.
In August of 1985, a pop icon marriedan actor known for his volatile
reputation with the wedding takingplace in a dramatic clifftop ceremony.
Who were they?

I'm sure I don't know this probably Sean
Penn maybe Madonna and Sean Penn.

Katie (17:04):
Yeah.

Did, did I get that right?

Katie (17:06):
married for a short while?

I remember a couple of marriages.
I remember prince and Diana, Iremember that marriage and I, I
think I remember people talking aboutMadonna and Sean Penn getting married,

Katie (17:18):
Mm-hmm.

but I don't think they stayed married that long either, did they?

Katie (17:21):
No.

Yeah.

Katie (17:23):
one, another marriage short-lived in 1985, a famous action star known for
embodying a tough fighter Spirit surprisedmany by marrying his much younger
CoStar from a box office hit remember?
Remember

Oh, are you talking about

Katie (17:42):
in a short-lived marriage marked by public drama and
a divorce two years later.
Who were they?

are you talking about Rocky Four?
That was the movie and it was SylvesterStallone and Bridgette is it Nielsen?

Katie (17:54):
Jit Nielsen.

Alonzo Richardson: Bridgette Nielsen, yeah. (17:55):
undefined

Katie (17:57):
Yep,

she got some incredible tastes because I think,
didn't they star in Cobra together also?

Katie (18:03):
yep.

And then later on, BridgeIT Nielsen Star and
it was a, what do you call it,reality show with Flavor Flav.
And they had a, like a, ashort-lived relationship.
She, she has some incredibletastes, like she's tolerant.
She doesn't have a type,let's put it that way.
She doesn't seem to have a type.

Katie (18:19):
yeah.
Yes.
She's interesting.
I do remember I loved that show.
I watched every episode of it.
She called him Foofy Foofy.
I loved it.
Yep.
I was, I was there for the craziness of

Yeah, it.
was called flavor of love.

Katie (18:34):
Well, that was the surreal life.

Oh, okay.

Katie (18:38):
and then a spinoff.
So Flav Flav of FlavRe popularized by that.
And

Right,

Katie (18:46):
That off and did several seasons of Flavor of Love, and then that got
spun off and then that got spun off.
So there were like six spinoffs

right.

Katie (18:56):
that one romance.
Mm-hmm.

That's crazy.

Katie (19:00):
Like I love New York.
There was a few of 'em.
'cause Yeah.
And I would say he's the exact opposite ofSylvester Stallone in every possible way.

Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I agree wholeheartedly.

Katie (19:14):
That's, that's a wild romance.
That one.
'cause she's super tall too.


Katie (19:22):
Well, let's do maybe one more.
Hmm.
I gotta pick carefully.
Oh, which category?

Well, I like these questions.
I like the clues that yousupply because otherwise I, I
would be goose eggs over here.

Katie (19:37):
Let's do fad flashback.
This is actually prescient from our,just now, what we just talked about.
This television network launched in 1985,focused on music videos for an older
audience, older positioning itself asan alternative to a younger counterpart.
What

So you must be talking about VH one.

Katie (20:00):
Mm-hmm.

Ah, I got it.

Katie (20:02):
And that's what wasn't that what Surreal Life and Flavor of
Love and all those shows were on

I have no idea.

Katie (20:09):
Pretty sure of it.
Pretty sure of it.

I think the only the only reality television
I watched was probably somethinglike Cops or something similar.

Katie (20:19):
It's funny because I didn't really get into like road rules or I
think I watched like one season of thereal world, like when there was, when
it was still like real, real, like

It felt real.

Katie (20:32):
But I did like some of these VH one shows.
But I hate reality TV or trash tv,whatever you wanna call it now.
I don't watch any of those likeKardashians or Vander Plump or whatever.

I've never really gotten into it.
I maybe seen like a coupleof episodes of the Real World
and I was like, you know what?
Not for me.
I do, I do like the, theparodies of the real world.
Those are funny.

Katie (20:57):
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's do two more questionsfrom this category and then
we'll roll into the movie.

All.

Katie (21:04):
Alright.
Again, we're in 85.
This historic event kicked off aworldwide phenomenon that brought
together athletes for theatricalcompetition and entertainment.
What was it?

Theatrical competition.

Katie (21:19):
It was the first, I'll give you this additional clue.
It was the first of this longstanding

Hmm.
This isn't an, an award show, is it?

Katie (21:32):
athletes and theatrical performance, or just don't get too
caught up in the word theatrical.
It's not

Um, Right, right,

Katie (21:46):
it's, entertainment,

right, right, right,

Katie (21:49):
athletic entertainment.

right.
I mean, all I can think of is,professional wrestling, but I know
that's not what you're talking about.
Oh, that's what you're talking about.

Katie (21:57):
the first.
It is, but it's

Oh, so you're saying this is in 1985, so maybe
you're talking about WrestleMania one.

Katie (22:03):
Mm-hmm.

Ah, got it, got it.
Sports entertainment is what they call it.

Katie (22:09):
That is like a new term though, right?
They didn't

yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you, you, it was throwingme off when you said theatrical,
it was like, well, theatrics andathletes, it could only be wrestling.

Katie (22:21):
I know.
Yeah, you're right.
It was the first WrestleMania in 85.
I don't think I realized that.
I sort of assumed itwas earlier than 85 for

Yeah.
It seemed like it might've been earlier,but at at the same time, it's something
that could only happen in the eighties.
'cause any earlier than you havethe situation where the wrestling
organizations were divided in theterritories and even like in 1985, they
still had some of those territoriesand WrestleMania basically broke that.

(22:50):
It was like kind of brokeup the territorial system.

Katie (22:54):
Oh, that makes sense.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.

Alonzo Richardson: This, these are guesses. (22:58):
undefined
These aren't facts.
These are guesses.

Katie (23:01):
No, that tracks though.
That, I mean, I, I bought it.
last question.
This new service debuting in 1985offered classic television reruns
after dark, aimed at a nostalgic,older demographic, but shared
airtime with a children's channel.

So this would be Nick, at night.
and it's on Nickelodeon.

Katie (23:24):
Yes.
Nick, at

Yes.
I used to love Nickelodeon.
I caught a lot of the content and weused to have a Nickelodeon telephone.
I missed that phone.
It was a.
A landline phone and it, you know,I had a crazy child's design.
I I really appreciated that phone.
I have no idea what happened to it,but when it rang, instead of ringing

(23:46):
like a, a regular telephone, it wouldsing the nickname, it would go Nick,
Nick, Nick, the Nic, Nick Nickelodeon.
I love that phone.

Katie (23:55):
I forgot about that old time.
Like the original, you'reright, that's what it

Yeah,

Katie (24:01):
I loved Nick at night.
I can thank them for, that's how I gotintroduced to a lot of those old shows.

yeah, yeah.
And they had on when it was stillfor kids, they had the Double Dare.
I think I watched some of those shows

Katie (24:13):
I loved Double

and they had kids sit, I don't know when the,
where, what channel those sitcomscame on, but I'm remembering like,
um.

Katie (24:21):
like, Hey

Uh,

Katie (24:22):
And stuff like that.

that, and, well, I don't know, I'm probably mixing
it up with stuff that was on Disney,but there's a show called all that.
and I think that may have beenon Nickelodeon or maybe it was
on one of the other kid shows.
There was some or kid channels, but therewere so many kids channels to choose from.

Katie (24:38):
Mm-hmm.

it was, it was all over.
There was they had I think Foxhad a kids channel or maybe
they didn't have a channel.
Maybe it's just the Fox Network.

Katie (24:48):
Yeah, a little bit later.
I feel like the early ninetiesis when there were, it kind of
exploded with like kids content on

Yeah.

Katie (24:55):
But, but yeah, Nick at night, I didn't realize it debuted in 85.

I didn't either.

Katie (25:01):
All right, do you have any particular thoughts or fandom
or anything about John Hughes?

Well, the funny thing about it is that.
I'm aware of him, but I didn'twatch a lot of his movies that I
have been a guest on other podcastswhere they talk about John Hughes.
And when I talk to people aboutJohn Hughes, they have a lot
of nostalgia for him and theyhave a lot of emotion for him.
But even though I was aware ofthese movies, I never actually

(25:30):
got around to seeing them.
So a lot of these movies I'mseeing for the first time,
especially the ones he directed.
So the only one that I saw that I, Iknow that it's him is Home Alone and the
sequel, so I'm very familiar with that.
but well I watched it, but films like,The Breakfast Club and what was that is
desperately Seeking Susan, one of them.

Katie (25:52):
No,

Alonzo Richardson: Something about pink, right? (25:53):
undefined

Katie (25:55):
and pink.

and pink.
Yeah.

Katie (25:57):
the teen, he was like kind of known as like the teen King.

The teen guy,

Katie (26:02):
Yeah.

he, I think he did.
Planes, trains and auto automobiles.
He did that one.
And a lot of these movies, likeI had wanted to see, but I just
never got around to seeing them.

Katie (26:12):
Mm-hmm.

That's well, I just recognize him as being a,
a very good storyteller and, andfilmmaker for, for what he does.

Katie (26:21):
So this is, this is interesting that you didn't grow up with them,
which I guess I don't know where yougrew up, but they are very, there's
no people of color in his movies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Katie (26:34):
So, you know,

yeah.
There's that.

Katie (26:39):
There's that.
So that's a, that's

But see there were, there were a lot of movies like
that when I was growing up, so itis like, it's not what you call it.
Not that it's, it is not like overlyoffensive or anything like that.
Like nowadays something like that wouldbe questioned, but back then it was
like, you know, the, the movie of theday, it's not, it's not a surprise.
And a lot of times, even when theydid include like a, a person of color,

(27:04):
like maybe a black person or an Asianperson or anything like that, a lot of
times these roles would be tokenized.
So it's almost like it's just betterif they're not in there, but at the

Katie (27:17):
percent.

Right.

Katie (27:19):
that exact thing happened in 16 Candles.

Ah.

Katie (27:22):
one Asian character is cartoonish,

They're cartoons.
So sometimes they include, thisespecially happens with Asian characters.
Sometimes they include an Asiancharacter, but it's actually played
by a white person in Yellowface.
And, and it becomes doubly offensivebecause then that actor will play all
the Asian stereotypes and and it woulda lot of times be highly offensive.

(27:46):
And, and it's a token character.
So I, I wasn't like, especiallyduring that time, I wasn't overly
offended or concerned that, you know?
you would have a white director doinga white movie and, and they don't
think to include other people in, intheir movies other than white people.
And some of those, some of thosemovies are my favorite movies,

(28:09):
so I'm not overly offended.
I think the closest that I come toa John Hughes style movie that I
watched when that movie came out isa movie called Better Off Dead With.
John Cusack.

Katie (28:21):
You are right.
It is very up that, up the same alley.
And John Cusack was in speakingof he was in 16 candles.

Oh, John Cusack.

Katie (28:30):
Yeah.

Oh, awesome, awesome.

Katie (28:32):
Mm-hmm.
like him.

yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (28:35):
Without further ado, let's get into National Lampoon's European vacation.
July 26th, 1985.
Yes.
That's 40 years ago now, this one.
PG 13

Yes.

Katie (28:56):
it's the only one of the original three or four movies
that is not R, it's PG 13.

Oh, I didn't realize that.

Katie (29:06):
Mm-hmm.

This is actually the only National
Lampoon movie I've ever seen.

Katie (29:11):
Oh, really?

as a matter of fact, when it came out, I didn't realize
that there was like a, a NationalLampoon one was a Christmas thing,

Katie (29:20):
yep.
You've not

The one

Katie (29:21):
vacation?

Christmas vacation?
I, maybe I did know about it 'causeI'm re remembering The poster.
Was there another one?

Katie (29:27):
The original one that came out in 1983 is just called Vacation.

Okay.
That's the one I didn't know about.

Katie (29:34):
they like road trip

I didn't know about vacation.
I saw National Lampoon a Europeanvacation and I knew about Christmas
vacation, but I never watched it.

Katie (29:46):
I think you'd like it if you like European vacation.
I think you'd like Christmas.

Yeah.
It, it looks like itmight be a lot of fun.

Katie (29:52):
And the first one.
Yeah, you

Yeah.

Katie (29:55):
watch it.

Right,

Katie (29:56):
partially because European vacation, I'm not saying I feel this way,
but critically review wise and partially,I think, 'cause it's PG 13, a lot of
people don't think that European vacationis as good as Christmas or original.

right.

Katie (30:18):
I had a lot of fun revisiting it last night.
I think I'd seen it, butI haven't seen it a lot.
Like I feel like I've seen it like oncebefore and then I revisited it last
night and I had a lot of fun watching it.
So it's

Yeah,

Katie (30:31):
on IMDB.
So you've seen this movie before manytimes or just like once or twice.

probably a, a few times, probably three or four times,
especially when it was on HBO, we, Iwould look at the channel guide and
I would like, Ooh, you know, Europeanvacation's on, lemme go watch that.
Right?
So, so I watched it several timesbut I hadn't seen it since I, you
know, back since the eighties.
I hadn't seen it.

Katie (30:56):
Okay.

I, I always liked that movie.
It was, it was a very fun movie forme growing up, and I was kind of
worried about it when this rewatch,I just rewatched it a couple hours
ago and I was worried because it'slike, is there anything in there
that, that could be problematic?
Because some of these older movies,some of the, the sensibilities are
def definitely different, right?
It was like,

Katie (31:16):
Oh

One of the movies I think.
about all the time is a movie calledRevenge of the Nerds, and, and
that's got some problems in there.

Katie (31:21):
offenders, I

Yeah.
Yeah.
Another one that I like is Once Bitten.
That's one of Jim Carrey's first movies.
And,

Katie (31:28):
if I've seen that.

I, you would probably like it.
I mean, they had they, they had some badjokes about gay people, but about, but
besides that joke, it's a great movie,

Katie (31:43):
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm usually prettygood about being able to kind
of be in the time and place,

right?

Katie (31:52):
it's just like you hear things like that you haven't heard in a long time.
Like the F word,
not fuck, but the other F word.
And

right, right, right, right,

Katie (32:01):
Throw that word
Yeah.
yeah.
So now Harold Ramis directed theoriginal 1983 National Lampoons vacation.
He declined to return as the directorfor this, for the sequel because
he was busy doing Ghostbusters.

That one makes sense.

Katie (32:21):
Yeah.
So Amy Heckerling was the director here.
Do you know her from anything?
Does that name ring a bell though?

That name sounds familiar, but I don't know why.

Katie (32:32):
It's probably because she was also responsible for a lot of
comedy favorites, like Fast Times atRidgemont High, Johnny Dangerously.

Ah.

Katie (32:40):
talking Clueless.
That's Amy Hecker Lane.

Okay.
I covered Johnny Dangerously, sothat's why the name is familiar

Katie (32:47):
Yes.

and I've seen, look who's talking.
I, that's Johnny Dangerously is somuch of one of my favorite movies.

Katie (32:56):
That's Michael Keaton.
Right.

Yeah.
It's Michael Keaton and Iforgot the, the Female Lead.
But it had a lot ofgreat bits in that movie.
It's like one of thebest comedies out there.
Probably an underrated gym.

Katie (33:10):
You know, I don't think I've seen it,

Oh, you gotta, you gotta watch it.

Katie (33:14):
feel like I, I do, I do.
I like Michael Keaton a lot.
is it, does he play like a mobster or

Yeah.
He, he's gotta, because obviouslyDangerously is not his real name.
He when he's a gangster, he introduceshis name as Dangerously and she says,
do you know your last name is an adverb?

Katie (33:34):
That's cute.
Uh
uh

I think her name is Mary Lou Henner.
I think that was the female lead.

Katie (33:44):
she's not, she was in taxi.

Yeah.
Yeah.
She was in taxi.
I'm like 50% sure that that's true.
That, that it was her

Katie (33:53):
either way.

and Yeah.

Katie (33:56):
you know what's interesting is when I was doing the research for
European vacation, I learned some thingslike te, I don't even know if I should
technically include it, because did youknow John Hughes only received nominal
credit for writing and the story?
Because it was, they used his charactersand some of his ideas from the very

(34:17):
first vacation film in this one,but he was not actually directly
involved with European vacation.

And that happens a lot.
Sometimes we gotta do a littledigging to figure out if they
actually did some writing it.
This, I come across this a lot of timeswhen the, when the writers are credited.
If it's a book adaptation, thenthe author's always credited.
Or if it's a original story by likea, a screenwriter, then he'll often

(34:46):
get credits in the sequels becausehe created the characters or whatnot.
So you almost always have to read intoit with what is he getting credit for?
Is he getting credit because he wrotethe story, or is he getting credit
because he made the characters?
So Yeah.
I run into that.
a lot.
I mean, but still, They start,they got the ball rolling,

Katie (35:03):
They did.
They did, I guess.
Yes.
So the screenplay was written by, almostentirely by Robert Klain with some
input from the director, Amy Heckerling.
But Klain was a, was asked to incorporatesome unused elements from the original
script the original films script.
And so therefore, he was creditedor awarded a writing credit by WGA.

right?

Katie (35:26):
ask, who's this?
Robert Klein?
Eh, well, won an Emmy for writingon the TV series Tracy Takes On,
which is Tracy Allman's show.
I never saw that, did you?

I only saw the Tracy Oman show.
I haven't seen her before since then.

Katie (35:44):
Mm-hmm.
He also wrote weekend at Bernie's and
And a

don't know if I've ever seen that one, but it, I
know I was around a group of friendsthat talked about it all the time.
It's like I was around people that talkedabout a lot of John Hughes films and I, I
was just a person that hadn't seen them.

Katie (36:00):
You're, you're just not along.
You're like, yeah.
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (36:05):
Okay.
So this one, the Griswolds wina vacation tour across Europe
where the usual havoc ensues.
That's the description.
If you haven't seen it in 40 years,we of course have Chevy Chase and
Beverly DeAngelo Reprising in theirroles as Clark and El Ellen Griswold.
But Zoe, this is gonna be interestingsince you have not seen the first one.

(36:25):
The kids are different.

Yeah, I heard that The it's like the kids are different.
in every movie.

Katie (36:31):
They are.
And then it, it becomes like a, a bitkind of, because so, the actress who
plays Audrey Griswold in the firstmovie, her name is also Dana, but
Dana Baron and apparently producer,Maddie Simmons already told her that
she would be returning to the role.
But Anthony Michael Hall, who played Rustyin the first film could not be in this

(36:54):
film because he was doing weird science.

Hmm.

Katie (36:57):
And so Heckerling requested instead of just replacing one of them to
replace both kids, so they hired Dana.
They so poor Dana Baron didn't getto reprice her role, but they cast a
different Dana, which is very confusing.
Dana Hill, she is mostly avoice actress for cartoons.

(37:18):
When I looked her up, I didn't, I don't,did you know her from anything else?

No,

Katie (37:24):
Did you know the kid who played Rusty?
Jason Lively?

no, I didn't.
It looks like he's still acting, butI didn't do too much research on him.

Katie (37:35):
Yeah.
I, I mean he did.
I thought he looked familiar, butI didn't know him from anything.
And he's not done like a ton of stuff.
Like he has some credits, afew horror movies that I was
unfamiliar with night of the Creeps.
I haven't seen

Nah, nah,

Katie (37:49):
then

I, I don't do horror too much.

Katie (37:52):
he, yeah, same.
I couldn't remember if you were,'cause I have some podcast friends
that are super into horror.
I couldn't remember if youwere one of 'em or not.

No, no.
Although I have a friend who's gettingme into horror, so I was convinced to
watch sleepaway Camp the other day.
And that is that is a crazy movie.

Katie (38:14):
It sounds like you don't recommend.

I don't know.
It was interesting.
It was crazy.
And it's interesting 'causethere, there are a lot of fun
things that happened in the movie.
And then it had a bizarre resolution.
'cause it's, it's more of a suspensethriller than a straight up horror movie.
And the other thing is that.
You know, the, the thing that makes itcharming is that the acting is really bad.

(38:37):
it is definitely a B movie.

Katie (38:39):
But I'm curious to see what you think about this because something
came to my mind when I was watching thedream sequence where that, 'cause when
they're on the plane, all four familymembers have like a dream sequence.

Yeah,

Katie (38:50):
So Jason Lively, his dream sequence, the way his hair is cut combined
with this white like jumpsuit thing he hason, I got, it Luke Skywalker or Han Solo?
Who's which one is

I,

Katie (39:05):
Harrison Ford, the other one.

oh, that Mark Hamill.

Katie (39:08):
Yeah.
I got vibes like from i've neverseen that movie, but like posters,
like 'cause of his hair, the way

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (39:16):
wear white?

Yeah, Luke Skywalker wears white, but not white leather.

Katie (39:22):
All right.
So just me.
I was like, I got Luke Skywalker vibes

Yeah.
I think?
Luke Skywalker's I guess because Heis such a different character, I,
I didn't get Luke Skywalker vibesbecause Luke is a little bit older.
Luke is 19 and this guy's like 16.
So

Katie (39:40):
But

I didn't get those.
No, I didn't, I didn't get itbecause everybody had that hairstyle

Katie (39:45):
Okay.

and eighties.
So

Katie (39:47):
All right.
Nevermind then.

what, what happens is that the suit throws you off, like they
both wear white, but Griswold is wearingthis white leather it's almost like a.
Military style suit a weirddoublet, double-breasted number.
And Luke wore, it's more like a robe.
It looks like a bathrobe.

Katie (40:08):
Oh, that's

So it's a completely different vibe.

Katie (40:10):
right.
Well, what did you think aboutJohn Aston playing the Pig
in a Post, which is the game

Right, right.
Uh, That's delighted.
Uh, Well, I just recently find out thathe is the father of Sean Aston, who
is from Lord of the Rings played Sam.
We gai.
And I was like, I'm, I wasin shock when I found out.
I only found that outmaybe a few months ago.
So I was newly living with this knowledge.
And then I think when I first sawthe movie, I, I guess I'm not used

(40:43):
to actors taking different roles.
So when I first saw it, Iwas like, oh, there's Gomez.
from the Adams family.

Katie (40:51):
At first I, I got a little nervous there though.
I was like, does he notknow that it's Gomez Adams?

Yeah, he's, he, although I have to say
that he looks really different.
'Cause he's a little bit older.
His hair is, is much differentthan when he was Gomez.
And then he, he acts real different.
It's like, this is clearlya different person.
And he's kind of doingRichard Dawson in Preston.
I'm pretty sure you remember him.

Katie (41:15):
I don't, but I The kissing of the women,

Yeah, Yeah.
Kissing women was Dawson's thing.
Like he hosted family Refute andevery time he greeted the guests, no.
No matter what these women's looked like,he kissed the contestants all of the time.
And so Sean Aston takes
Yeah.
on the mouth?
Yeah, but not, not as what you call it.

(41:38):
So what John Aston did, he, he'sLike, really getting into it.
He's like, almost likewith the, with the mother.
He was a little bit morerespectful, but still way more

Katie (41:50):
much.

it than you should be as a host of a
game show kissing a stranger.
And then when He went on to thedaughter, he obviously went overboard.
So I just,

Katie (41:58):
He was like making out with

yeah.
He was basically makingout with the daughter.
So I was like oh, this guy is a criminal.
This, this dude belongs in jail.

Katie (42:07):
And Clark's just like looking over Hmm, what's, what's

Especially when you look at what's going on in today's news
or if you hear about you'll hear aboutpeople who are in children's shows and
you hear about the, the bad behaviorthat they were involved in, or you

Katie (42:22):
Mm-hmm.

out that you're one of your favorite authors is, is a monster.
So this is, I feel like JohnAston is playing those guys.

Katie (42:32):
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
the, in a post, it was funny,they had to work pig costumes.
Guess while we're on the topic I,what I sort of got the vibe that
they were combining elements ofa number of different game shows.
There were elements of Jeopardy.
There were elements of Yeah.
Family Feud.
Let's make a deal 'cause of the costumesand even a little price is Right.

(42:57):
It was so, I thought that was really fun.

right.

Katie (43:00):
like, let's throw in from all these like old timey game shows.
I liked it.

Well, at the time they weren't old timey.
They were current.
And,

Katie (43:08):
True.
That's

and so what happened is that they combined elements of different
game shows because these were elementsthat people familiar, familiar with.
So I think the main elementthey used was Family Feud.
And so I got The Family Feudand the what do you call it?
The, the price is rightand and let's make a deal.
Say again?

Katie (43:29):
the way the questions were asked was sort of Jeopardy asked though, right?
You pick a

No, not really.
'cause you, you didn't have toanswer in the form of a question
they were Jeopardy asking in a way.
That's how advanced they were, right?
Because, yeah.
no, actually, I'm gonna take that back.
You're Right.
They were just, jeopardy asked 'cause likethey were Jeopardy questions on a family
feud style game show because the Jeopardyquestions were 'cause they were advanced.

(43:54):
Like the only difference is thatyou didn't have to answer in a
form question, but they were askingquestions like about brain surgery.
They were asking about Lewis and Clark.
What was intriguing about the gameshow segment is that None of the
women were listening to their husbandsno, I'm sorry, I got That wrong.
None of the husbands werelistening to their wives.
So for the Grizz walls, they were likethe, the, the whole family was like

(44:16):
We don't, we don't wanna be greedy.
We don't wanna be greedy.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
And he says, I wanna be a pig.
I wanna be a pig.
I wanna go for it.
So that was Griswolds.
And then the other family, the one the,the wife kept wanting to ask about, I
forgot this one particular subject and

Katie (44:32):
cabinet making,

right, right,

Katie (44:34):
making or something.

Because apparently she knows all about it.
But He chose every other subject.
But what she wanted, and it's, it'sfunny how like you just got men who
are totally ignoring their wives.
And the other thing is that sohow the Griswolds accidentally
got the answer right, because sheyelled 'cause the wife yells out.
Clark Aston goes, yeah,

(44:56):
Lewis and Clark, you did itClark from Lewis and Clark.
You, you did it.
You answered the question.
And the other family was so mad.
He was like

Katie (45:03):
that.
They didn't mean it.
That was an accident.
And they're like,

they didn't know it.
She didn't know.

Katie (45:09):
That was, that was a funny touch.
I agree.

Yeah.
Yeah.
That was great.
I love that part.

Katie (45:15):
Closing

remember that part.

Katie (45:17):
Closing out.
John Aston.
Did you know that he is not only stillalive, but still working at the age of 95?

I did not know that.
I did not know.
that.
I thought he surely hadkicked a bucket by now.
What is he on?

Katie (45:31):
had to look it up.
And he has two like upcoming projects

Oh my goodness.

Katie (45:36):
they're in, I guess it said they were in post-production, but he is 95
and he has two projects coming out.

That's amazing.

Katie (45:44):
There's only a few other people that I wanted to point out,
one of which is Audrey's boyfriend

Okay.
I know that guy.

Katie (45:51):
Yeah.
Who's, who's Gizo, what's he known from?

He's from the karate kid.

Katie (45:57):
Mm-hmm.

So, and he's from Ko Kai, obviously, but

Katie (46:02):
William

realize that he's been in other movies, like the only
movie I saw him in Karate Hip, butapparently he's been in at least a
few other movies in that time period.

Katie (46:11):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
But he is most known for playingJohnny in karate Hit and Cobra Kai.
Yeah.

Yeah.

Katie (46:17):
And then I didn't recognize this guy, the gag that when
they're in England, they keeprunning into people like in cars.
And

Oh yeah.
That, that one guy that they,they clipped up when he was on a,
bicycle.

Katie (46:31):
the bicycle guy and he's like, in a cast leader, they keep,
so they totally ruin his bicycleand completely injure this guy.
And that's part of the, I don't knowif it's supposed to be making fun
of trope that the English peopleare just like so polite that they

That ha That has to be it.
That has to, becausehe runs into two cars.
like.
first he runs into one car, then Heruns and he, 'cause he can't get used to
driving on the correct side of the street.

Katie (46:58):
in

And he, he, and then that British person is overly
for polite and then he runs intosomebody else, Like, right after.
And that person is overly polite.
He, the second person gavethem the bumper sticker.
No, the bumper from his carto take home as a souvenir.

Katie (47:12):
that's right.
I forgot about that.

And then the third person is and then he clipped the,
a person on a bicycle, which is the,the most horrible thing that you could
do is hit somebody on, on a bike or apedestrian who's walking and the guy acts.

Katie (47:26):
injured.
This, this person.

Yeah.
Yeah.
He legitimately injured the person.
The dude, they ask him for directionsand he tries to give him the
directions, And all of a sudden bloodstarts squirting out of his arm.

Katie (47:39):
But that guy the bicycle rider.
He doesn't have a name in this, buthe, for whatever reason, the Griswolds
run into him throughout their vacationand they keep injuring him further.
Like he was in a cast in a,a, like a revolving door.
And Clark gets him stuck in therelike, oh, how's the holiday?

(48:02):
You know, stuff like that.
So this person's name is Eric Idol.
Because I, people willprobably get to scream at me.
I am not, I feel like I've seenbits and pieces of Monty Python
movies, but I'm not familiar.
He's a member of the BritishComedy Group, Monty Python.
Did

Oh, okay.
That wouldn't make sense.
That would, that?
would make sense to why he wasfeatured throughout the movie.

Katie (48:24):
Mm-hmm.

when I was watching, when they ran into him the second
time, I thought, oh, this guy must beimportant because they keep featuring him.
But I didn't know who he was either.
I'm like you.
I've only seen bits andpieces of Monte Python.
I never watched I don't knowif I ever watched an entire
show from beginning to end.
I would just kind of,sort of familiar with it.
I'm more of a Benny Hills guy.

Katie (48:46):
I haven't seen Bunny Hill either.
I'm the worst.

Don't worry about it.
It'd be something that is if youwanna watch Benny Hill, you have
to watch public television wherethey would play some British shows.
So I watched Benny Hill, I watched Dr.
Who, and maybe there were a couple othershows that I seen, and then Benny Hill
would come on so late at night thatI couldn't catch like every episode.
But it was one of the, th one of thethings that I, I liked growing up.

Katie (49:15):
I like British tv.
I guess I didn't when I was younger

Right.

Katie (49:20):
it's definitely drier than my child brain could handle.
Probably the last cast memberI wanted to note is the girl
who plays Rusty's girlfriend.
I think they're in Italy,but she's from California.
Do you know who I'm talking about?

Oh, okay.
Yeah.
They were in ili.
I, I don't know who, I knowwho you're talking about?
but I don't know that woman.

Katie (49:41):
Her name is Moon Unit Zappa.
It's

my God.
Okay.
I know the name is Frank Sh.
Frank Zappa's daughter.

Katie (49:50):
Yeah, she was, I saw her when I was in DC actually though
I don't know, a long time ago.

Right.

Katie (49:56):
years ago.
I was there for a pit bull awarenessand she was like the mc of it anyway.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.

nice.
Yeah, I've known the name,but it never knew the person.

Katie (50:09):
Yeah, think she's most famous, like she's an actress and
stuff and she's been in things.
I think she maybe is friends with thedirector 'cause she, I think she's
in some other Amy Heckerling stuff.
But yeah, I, I just know heras Frank's Sam's daughter.
Now Lindsay Buckingham's Holiday Road.
That's where I wanted to particularlytell you though, because the Holiday

(50:30):
Road song, that's like, at the beginning,that is Lindsay Buckingham's song, from
Fleetwood Mac.

Okay.
I'm not that familiarwith Fleetway, the Mac.

Katie (50:40):
well, that's who he is.
Um, But

Okay.
Right,

Katie (50:43):
First one, so they continued that here.
The rest of the musicwas done by Charles Fox.
He composed theme songs for the Love Boatand the theme music to ABC's Wild World
of Sports and the original Monday NightFootball, as well as the Grammy winning

(51:04):
hit song, killing me softly with his song

Oh yeah.

Katie (51:09):
in collaboration with Lori Lieberman and Charles
Fox's longtime writing partner.
Norman Gimble.

Right.

Katie (51:15):
Yeah.
Other movies.
He scored Barella from 1968 and nineto five, classic eighties movie.

Yeah.
Yeah.
He,

Katie (51:24):
maybe.

he definitely wrote some bangers.

Katie (51:28):
Charles Fox.
Yeah.
I've, I've never even heardof him, but yeah, he did.
So despite Jason Lively notreally having a huge career.
was actually nominated for ayoung artist award for this movie.

He did.

Katie (51:41):
million budget and it grossed over $49 million.
So it definitely was a box officesuccess despite it only getting
kind of so, so, critics reviews?

I think that a lot of these middle of the road movies,
they're, they tend to be successful.
That, you know, and having like a, a 6.5,
that's not necessarily bad.
It's a,

Katie (52:09):
I would say a six or above is pretty good.

yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (52:14):
Yeah.

Because there are a lot of movies that are rated
as six on, iMDV that, you know, alot of deals are my favorite movies.

Katie (52:22):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I remember covering weird scienceand it is not known to be one of John
Hughes Ultimates, but it's one ofmy favorites, so it really bugs me
that it doesn't have a higher rating.
I'm like, what's everybody thinking?
It's awesome anyway.

Alonzo Richardson: Yeah, I love that movie. (52:39):
undefined
Oh yeah, that's another moviethat I saw that I grew up with,
that I watched was that one.
Along with the other movie wetalked about the Christmas movie.
So, yeah, I, I loved weird songs.
I don't think of it as a JohnHughes movie, let's put it that way.
And the only reason he made it wasso that he could make his next movie.
'cause he didn't like that movie either.

Katie (52:59):
Yeah.
He, because it came out afterthe Breakfast Club, but he
wrote the breakfast club first,

he wanted to make the Breakfast club.
but he basically had to prove himselflike, you, you do weird science and
we'll give you the Breakfast Club.
So that's basically how that worked out.
And Yeah, I, I loved weird science.
It was, it was pretty cool.

Katie (53:20):
I'm glad you liked it.
Did you like the openingthe credit sequence with the
passport stamp on European

That was very noticeable.
I was, because they don't really doopening credits like that anymore.
A lot of times what they'll do isthey'll save it for the ending credits.
So the ending credits are usuallyreally fancy because they really
want to get the story started.
So, most modern movies now, they,to bring you into the movie,
they'll just a couple of credits.
The star, the director, the producer,and then you're in the movie.

(53:50):
And then later on when you get tothe ending credits, they're fancy.
But in this movie, or even like most,a lot of the movies in, in the eighties
when they wanted to do something fancy,they would do it in the opening credits.
And it was super impressive.
I really liked it.
They, it was so creative.

Katie (54:08):
I thought so too.
you bring up a good point.
They don't do that very much anymore.
And this movie kind of got a it wasbookended by two awesome things.
'cause I really likedthe closing credits too.
Which was like, if youremember the song was.
Back in America, like theycome home now back in America.

(54:28):
And then we just see like still photosof like American landmarks and like
typical scenes and events like baseballhotdog stands, Mount Rushmore bumper to
bumper traffic, the Alamo, the HollywoodSign times Square break dancing, crowded
Beach, Hulk Hogan, like Americana,

Right.

Katie (54:48):
don't know.
So this movie, we got bookends,which I quite enjoyed.

Well, I admit I didn't actually stay for the, the ending credit.
So what happened was, Youknow how like, when you're
watching it on streaming it'll.
It'll zoom out and then you see thethe next thing that's gonna play.

Katie (55:05):
to

Right, right, right,

Katie (55:07):
credits.

right, right,

Katie (55:08):
Am annoyed by that, you know?
Okay.
Well, I've been conditioned to stayuntil the very last minute because
John Hughes a lot of times has.
Post credit scenes,like in Ferris Bueller.

I've been conditioned by superhero movies.

Katie (55:26):
So now you know John Hughes tends to do that too.
Okay.
I feel like there are a few things I'mgonna say For your benefit, and this is
one of them, you're gonna feel cheated.
I have a feeling as a man because inthe first vacation movie it is rated
R, we get a shower scene of BeverlyDeAngelo, just like this movie also has

(55:51):
another Beverly DeAngelo shower scene,there were boobs in the first one.
She showed her boobs.
This one she doesn't.
Do you feel cheated

No, I can always go back and watch.
You know, that's anotherinteresting thing is that.
The studios really felt that they needto get audiences into the theater.
So back then it was the boobs?
They were like, we gotta have a boob shot.
And and there was a lot of Ialmost felt unnecessary nudity.

(56:21):
And even in this one when you had the,a girl took our top off and that was
the, the, the nude scene in this movie.
Yeah.
The German girl, and and it workedbecause I, I think I remember I would
wait for the scene, like I watchedthe whole movie, but this is the
scene that I'm looking forward to.
When, when I was watching it,when I was what, 16 or 17 years?

Katie (56:43):
of course.
'cause she was playing likea 16-year-old too, like she

Yeah.
And, and

Katie (56:48):
mm-hmm.

watching it now, I could tell it was an adult, but like when
I was growing up, it looked like it couldbe a kid, but, they had to use an adult.
So.

Katie (56:59):
PG 13, so.
Also, I guess the firstone has a ton of f words.
Clark gets really pissy aboutsomething and he like, he's
like, fucky, fuck, fuck, fuck.
You know?
And then Beverly DeAngelotwice has a topless

right,

Katie (57:16):
in the first one.
But this one she's in a towel and shedoes a little burlesque show for Clark.
Like reminiscent of something she didin college as he's videotaping her
and so that's what we get this time.
But you know what I noticed whileshe was doing her burlesque show?
'cause they're in their bathroom,their very 1980s bathroom.

right.

Katie (57:37):
You know what I noticed?

Pink toilet paper,

Katie (57:41):
How did you know?

Alonzo Richardson: because I noticed it too. (57:42):
undefined

Katie (57:45):
Do you

I looked.

Katie (57:45):
completely forgot about the time when you could buy pink,
blue, green, and maybe even yellow.
Like toilet paper and Kleenex.

Yeah.
I looked at that, I waslike, oh, they don't.
do that anymore.

Katie (57:58):
they don't.
I totally forgot about that.

yeah, they, they used to do I don't, I don't
think they even do designs anymore.
They used to do either designs,like color designs on their toilet
paper or they would be weird colors.
But people, there are some peoplethat's like allergic to that.
At least they're sensitive to that.

Katie (58:16):
dye in it, I

Right, right.
They're sensitive.
Yeah.
they're sensitive to that dye.
So I, maybe they the toilet papercompanies got too many complaints
and stopped making them, but Yeah,I, I, when I saw that, that was
definitely an eye-opening thingthat happened in that scene.

Katie (58:35):
Oddly enough.
That's what I noticed in that scene.
And she's being very wastefulwith the toilet paper, you know?

Yeah.
Yeah.
That, that's part of the her act though.
She, she had to incorporate It

Katie (58:46):
It was I had a question for you.
When they're on the plane going toEurope rusty is shown wearing what
I thought looked like a stethoscope.
What was that?

Those weren't his headphones.

Katie (59:03):
At first, that's what I thought they were too, but he takes the
stethoscope thing off and puts on hisWalkman headphones at a, at some point.

They might be the the planes version of
headphones or listening apparatus.
That's what I'm thinking.
The plane still had I think they hadradio stations or something on the plane.
Wiley wasn't paying that much attentionto I I, so I don't remember seeing that.
But that's the only thing Icould think of that it could be.
is that he was probably listeningto something that they was playing

(59:33):
through the plane's audio system.

Katie (59:36):
I never, I didn't fly until the nineties, so I, I was never
on a plane in the eighties and Iliterally thought it was like a
stethoscope is what it looked like.
So listeners let me knowwhat the heck that thing was.

Yeah.
that, that's what I'm thinking becauseyou couldn't, you couldn't bring your own
headphones and plug it into the plane.
Jack, the plane had it, it's a proprietaryconnection, so you had to use the
plane's headphones in order to listento anything that's coming in through
the Plane's entertainment system.
But then he used his own headphonesto listen to his own music.

(01:00:07):
And So
that was that's why he.
Took the Steth stethoscope thingoff and put his own headphones in
so he could listen to his Walkman.
or whatever it was.
And the other thing is that

Katie (01:00:17):
Walkman.

Alonzo Richardson (01:00:18):
I don't know if, Oh, I remember now, like nowadays,
he may have been looking at a movie.
'cause nowadays e each passengerhave their own screen, so there's
a screen in the back of the seatso you can watch your own movie.

Katie (01:00:34):
the

In the old days, everybody watched the same
movie and so the movie was playingat The front of the, plane.

Katie (01:00:41):
right.

may have been watching a movie.

Katie (01:00:44):
You're right.
I bet you're right.
Yeah.
There was like a screen at thefront of the, I don't know,

the cabin.

Katie (01:00:50):
or something.
Yeah.

Yeah.

Katie (01:00:51):
interesting.
Yeah, you're probably right.
I very much took note of Audrey'sdream sequence in particular because
her boyfriend says what did, whata what a lovely boyfriend, he says
before they leave, because she says,oh, I'm, I don't wanna go to Europe.
They, all they have isfattening food there.
And her boyfriend's like,yeah, Audre eats too much.

(01:01:13):
And I like her thin.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Katie (01:01:15):
her dream is about excessively, like insanely eating
all this food and like blowing up,

Right.
I mean, not just that, but she's beingserved by this, these proper British wait
staff, and they keep bringing her plate,and she doesn't even finish the plate.
She, she eats as much as she can.
Then they'll take that plate away, andthen they'll have, bring in another
plate and she'll eat a, as much asshe can, and then they'll take that
plate away and it's like they, she'sjust, compulsively eating, and then

(01:01:44):
she starts to expand and, and expand.
And it is like, even as her bodyis expanding before her, she
continues to stuff her face.
And that, that's a fear that she has.
I mean, I think some of that is, you know,has something to do with the comments
that her boyfriend makes and she'sobsessed over his, her boyfriend, but
at the same time, she's self-consciousabout eating and her, her body type.

(01:02:09):
And so that, that is a fearthat she, she can't stop eating.
And so that's that.
I feel like that dream is apropos.

Katie (01:02:19):
I feel like I would have that dream.
I like food so much.
She is obsessed with her boyfriendbecause we see the second they
arrive in their London hotel room,she puts up posters size picture and
all these photos of this boyfriend.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (01:02:33):
size photo of your boyfriend?

Yeah.
She had so many pictures of her boyfriend.
That's crazy.

Katie (01:02:41):
Also, when they first arrive in London, they're getting out of the cab and
, they're unaware of their surroundingsand they're getting their luggage and
stuff out, and they had like poles ofsomething they were knocking people over

Right, right.

Katie (01:02:59):
That?

I couldn't tell you.
I wouldn't know.
It was like, what in theheck are they taking with.
them when this vacation?

Katie (01:03:06):
who brings a guitar on

Did they have a guitar?

Katie (01:03:09):
Yes, there was a guitar.
I'm like, what?
What are you doing?

Because they did have a bunch of suitcases that I didn't notice
the shape of the cases all that much.
The thing that I paid attention to wasthat they're trying to get out of the cab
and this dude is trying to help them, buthe's getting whacked by all the members
of the family, particularly the father.
He's, he's just whacking thisdude with all of these suitcases.

Katie (01:03:36):
So their accommodations are a little less than what they thought
they were gonna be, to say the least.
And I was curious if you've everstayed in a hotel where you had to
share a bathroom with other guests.

thankfully not.
I feel like that's moreof a hostile than a hotel.
But no, it, that's, that's definitelynot fair because in a hostile, you're
actually sharing an entire room

Katie (01:04:01):
like

a bunch of other people.
So it's not fair, but it's toohostile ish if I gotta share a
bathroom with everybody on that floor.
And then they didn't lock the door.
That was the shocking part.
I mean, I could see them sharing thebathroom with everybody on the floor, but
why would you have a tub where it takestime to wash yourself in a tub, right.

(01:04:23):
Instead of just a shower.
You would think that if you had a bathroomthat you had to share with the whole
floor, you would have a shower insteadof a tub, and then you would have at
least a couple of showers, not justthat one little bathroom, but I guess
That's how they make 'em over there.
And then they didn't.

Katie (01:04:38):
how hotels are there.

Yeah.
And then,

Katie (01:04:40):
don't

then they didn't.

Katie (01:04:41):
like that floor or

And then she didn't lock the door.
So that was you kind of, youkind of asking to be disturbed
if you don't lock the door,

Katie (01:04:49):
They both, and apparently the, the room doors apparently
didn't have numbers on them.
So both spouses mistakenly getinvolved with someone else, which is,
you know, made to play for hilarity.
You see it coming,

right?

Katie (01:05:05):
I couldn't get over what kind of a sociopath Ellen is for taking
a bubble bath in a public bathroom.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (01:05:15):
what are you doing, Ellen?
How could you possibly relax, let alonethis is not cl a nice hotel, clearly.
Like it can't, Ugh, ugh.
No,

I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that she's a social class.
I would say that she's clueless,like she's kind of clueless, right?
So she's not really.

Katie (01:05:35):
monster though.
Who does that?

She's she's ditzy about it.
But what what was funnier was when ClarkLi Clark had went into the wrong room
and he, it's weird that he would thinkhe would go into the room and think
that the woman in the room is his wifewhen he just left her in the bathroom.

Katie (01:05:54):
Good point.
He

that's kind of weird.

Katie (01:05:57):
That's

Like, Did you, how did you miss your wife?
It was like, I could see it takingyou a long time to find your room, but
I, I can't see you missing your wifecoming out of the bathroom and walking
down the hallway to get into the room.
But somehow he does that.
He, he goes in, he, yeah, he thinks that,

Katie (01:06:15):
a mistake.

know what's funny is that I almost thought that when he
got into the bed that it was a man.
I think I thought that thatwas gonna be the reveal.

Katie (01:06:22):
Me too.

That would've been funny.
But as it turned out, it was a womanand she didn't wanna let him go.
And that was funny.

Katie (01:06:30):
Yeah.
Did she even start liketouching him down there?
'cause he was like,

Well, she,

Katie (01:06:36):
like.

locked his legs with her legs because he's like, could you,
could you unlock your legs from mine?
And she's like, no.

Katie (01:06:43):
then, I feel like he was like, no, no, that's not necessary.
Or
I was like, what's she doing?

Yeah.
She probably started grabbing them andhe is like, could you, could you go?
No, no, no.
That was funny.
That was a laugh out loud moment.

Katie (01:07:01):
That's the kind of movie this slapstick and screwball nature of
it, which I'm not usually into, butI just let myself go for these kind
of movies and I thought it was fun.

Yeah.
Yeah,

Katie (01:07:10):
like them getting stuck in the roundabout and I didn't see coming that
you know, you see them keep going around.
Oh, there's Big Ben.
Oh there's Big Ben.

yeah.

Katie (01:07:19):
But then it gets dark

Yeah.

Katie (01:07:21):
in their for hours.

They were there in that traffic circle all day.
It's one of my favorite parts.
It's, it Is the part that Imost remember about this movie.
When I think about this movie,I think about that part because
especially now that they've startedinstalling traffic circles in
America, I say start installing,like they haven't been working in it?
for the past 20 years,

Katie (01:07:40):
Mm-hmm.
They're more common now

Yeah.
they're way more common now.
But man, dude, that's my fearof getting stuck in a circle.

Katie (01:07:50):
There's one not far from my house that I still don't like
'cause it's a double circle.
It's

Yeah.

Katie (01:07:55):
and I'm like, I dunno how to get to,

Well, actually to, to tell you the truth, in Washington
DC they've had traffic circlessince the beginning of the city.
So, you know, I actually, I've actuallybeen dealing with traffic circles.
My entire life.
But the difference is, is that in DCit's like they're super complicated.
Like some of the trafficcircles got double lanes.
There are stoplightswithin the traffic circle.
There's a lot of times there'sstoplights just to get into the circle.

(01:08:20):
So there, there weird and complex.
It's not like the purpose of like mostEuropean traffic circles is that there is
no lights that you merge into the trafficcircle and then you go around to the, the
street that you need and you merge out.
But so there, it's weird to havetraffic lights in a, in a traffic
circle, but that's how they do it.

(01:08:41):
in dc

Katie (01:08:43):
Nobody would let Clark merge.
He

Yeah.
Yeah.
Nobody would let 'em merge.

Katie (01:08:46):
yeah.
I did see the Stonehenge thingcoming though, because at first I
was like, wow, he's, they're parkedimmediately next to Stonehenge
and then we've seen Clark be a terribledriver throughout their London vacay.
And then you know, Stonehengetopples like dominoes.

right, somebody thought it was funny.
I think that the thing that makes it funnyis when he says, yep, it's been here for
2000 years and we were here to see it.
We were here to experience and it'llbe here for the next generation.
And then he backs into it, and thendrives all completely oblivious
that he knocked over Stonehenge.
But not that I believe that a, acar, like a 2000 pound car could

(01:09:33):
knock over like a 4,000 pound stone.
I don't know how heavy those stoneswere, but I don't think that that car
had enough momentum or weight to beable to knock over all of Stonehedge.
It takes a certain amount of suspension,of disbelief to laugh at that.

Katie (01:09:49):
well be, yeah, it's for, I mean, a hundred percent because only so much
of it is protruding from the ground.
It wouldn't actually toppleanyway, but it's national lampoons,
so.
that was London, Paris.
Did you enjoy the French tropes?
The,

The, the funny thing is how rude that the natives
were to the, their visitors and howthey were cursing at the Griswolds
in, in French, so that was funny.

Katie (01:10:19):
really uppity, the waiter and then the microwave food?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They, they were just the food wasn'tas fancy as they were led to believe,
but everything was like fancier.
Like they, when, when they got toFrance, they had a fancier hotel,
a proper hotel I would call it.

Katie (01:10:37):
Yes.
Yes.

And was it, was it France where they stole
their video camera got stolen.

Katie (01:10:43):
Yes.

Oh my.

Katie (01:10:45):
it's all these tropes, like the French people are rude,
they're uppity, steal your shit.

He's carrying this gigantic camera.
And I was like, oh my God.
That's how we reached the role back then.

Katie (01:10:56):
Camcorders we're huge.

Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and he, he is like by thetime that I got around to if I
wanted to get a camcorder, they,they were much smaller like before
cell phones, but, and still using,

Katie (01:11:11):
of your

yeah, yeah.
Still, yeah.
You, you still used like a physicalrecording medium to record 'em and
say, 'cause they had smaller tapes andI think what he was using used full
size VHS tapes or something like that.

Katie (01:11:25):
Oh,

But

Katie (01:11:25):
You have to rust it on your shoulder.

Yeah.
Yeah.
So he had something thatwas absolutely gigantic.
it was weird to how he wasusing it because he was kind
of using it as a camera.
Like he just wanted to get thefamily together just to pose
for a, a, a motion picture.
So that was weird.

Katie (01:11:47):
It was weird.
And then we see it coming.
'cause the guy is like, ohyeah, get in the fountain.
Take your shoes off.
Get in the fountain.
We're like, uhoh.

Yeah.
That sounds that's a crazything to ask somebody to do.
'cause I would've likeNo, no, I'm not, no.
I don't want to be adventurous.
No, I, I vote nay.

Katie (01:12:06):
Gimme my camera back.
Now have you been to Paris

No, I haven't been to anywhere in Europe.

Katie (01:12:14):
in

stopped at, on, on my way to being deployed to Iraq and
well, actually was Kuwait and then Iraq.
We stopped at, I wanna say

Alonzo Richardson-2 (01:12:24):
Dublin,

Katie (01:12:25):
Oh, nice.

Yeah.
But we only got to see the airport.

Katie (01:12:29):
Oh yeah, no, that, that kind of sucks.
But thank you for your service.

yeah.
Thanks.
It was like a 20 minute stopover, soI, I didn't get to see France, Germany,
or any of the interesting countries.

Katie (01:12:44):
I have actually been to all of these places except Germany,
but it was a very long time ago.
But reason I asked is because well,a couple things,, nothing is crowded.
They're just able topull up to a Stonehenge.
There's no crowds around.
They're about to go to the Louv, whichis like this ginormous museum and they're

(01:13:06):
like, oh, it closes in 15 minutes.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (01:13:09):
Whatcha you gonna see the gift shop?
You know,

it's a horrible way to try to visit a museum.

Katie (01:13:13):
And then when they're on the Eiffel Tower, this is another
thing that I'm gonna have to clueyou in on, because you need this
information from the first movie.
They're on top of the Eiffel Tower, andthere's like hardly any people there,
which is also that's not a thing.
And there's these group of people.
So Rusty's always trying toget a girl everywhere he goes.
He sees this group of women, and Idon't know if it was like a couple

(01:13:35):
sisters and their mom, and themom is holding a dachshund, right?
And we're sort of like, worried.
We're like, Ooh, I don't knowthis, you're holding this dog, like
right by the railing to, you know,on the top of the Eiffel Tower.
And the reason we're nervous isbecause in the first movie, though, a
dog dies because Rusty, or not RustyClark ties it to the back of the car

(01:14:03):
while they're like packing things up.
Forgets that he tied the dog backthere and they start driving and
this dog is dragged to death.

Oh

Katie (01:14:13):
Morbid and dark, right?

Yeah.

Katie (01:14:16):
So a dog dies in the first movie.
So we're set up here for oh shit,what's gonna happen to this dachshund?
And then we even see Clark andRusty go over to them and they're
wearing these berets that are dumb,

Yeah.

Katie (01:14:29):
and we're like, uhoh, something's gonna happen.
Something's gonna happen.
They're gonna knock into this lady.
Or, that's kind of what I'm thinking.
Somehow this dog is gonna be pushed over.
No, no.
Clark is like, screw the beret,throws it over and the dog thinks
it's a Frisbee, jumps after it.
And, and we're like, Ohno, the dog's gonna die.

(01:14:50):
But we are saved in this PG 13 movie.
The dog lands in like a lake or a pond orwhatever, and the dog is fine, thank God.
But.

remember there being a waterway near the Eiffel Tower.

Katie (01:15:01):
Yeah, I, I, good point.
I don't,

never

Katie (01:15:04):
either, but you know, maybe

but they didn't want to kill another

Katie (01:15:09):
they didn't.
Yeah.
So we were, we were saved.
I wonder if that was feedbackfrom the first movie that people
were like, don't kill dogs, Jesus.

Yeah.
That was well actually the funny thingabout the per the Berets is like he got,
Clark got Berets for all of his family andhe decided to use the power of the vote to
make sure that everybody wore a beret andthey had Berets with their names on it.
And yes, they did look silly.
I don't think they, they wore 'emwrong, at least for, for civilians,

(01:15:40):
it kind of reminded me of whenI was serving for a few years,
they had in the Army wear beret.
They decided that that wouldbe part of your regular uniform

Katie (01:15:49):
it's cool looking.
I love the the military Berets.

and, and I like the way that it's torn and
it's the funny thing is that.
used to be just the special forcesor the special units that wore beret.
but then somebody was like, Iwant everybody to wear beret.
So everybody had to do it.
And they looked neat,they, they were painted.
'cause you had to shape themin a very particular way.

Katie (01:16:14):
Mm.

And that involved a lot of work to get it to look just right.
So you had to shape'em a a particular way.
And they were hot.
They were hot and itchy.

Katie (01:16:24):
Oh, and they're worn kind of.
lower and to the side or something.
The military style.

yeah.
And, and that shape isnot natural to the beret.
You have to force it to

Katie (01:16:34):
Mm-hmm.

it takes a lot of water and drying and,
and it is a whole process.

Katie (01:16:40):
I didn't realize that.
Well, it is a hot look, I will saymovies with 'cause I know nothing about
the military, but like I'm picturinglike Jean Claude Van Damm in a movie

Yeah.

Katie (01:16:50):
with a beret on.
Anyway.
Yeah,

well what, what you notice is that the
military berets in a lot of moviesthat they're not well shaped.

Katie (01:16:59):
You're right.

They're just, sometimes they're just kind of thrown
on top of somebody's head, and sometimesit's like they make an effort to shape
it, but it's not shaped like a sharply.

Katie (01:17:09):
It's not proper.

they could have did a better job.

Katie (01:17:12):
And, and only somebody in the military would know that

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (01:17:16):
probably.

I'm cursed with the knowledge.

Katie (01:17:18):
I like it.
That's good knowledge though.
So yeah, I think it's here in Paristoo, that Audrey's shitty boyfriend
dumps her, which she's better off withwithout Zappa, whatever his name is.
Oh, but they have a super sweetcar in Paris, that orange car.
Do you know what that was?
I'm not a car person.
That's an awesome car.

No, I'm not familiar with European cars.

Katie (01:17:44):
Alright, anybody tell me what's the orange car that they drive?
It's, it's really it's like a hot car.
It doesn't really look like afamily car, but I really liked it.
And then they take that, theydrive to Germany next and they're
gonna meet relatives that they'venever met, I guess before.
And more mistaken identity happens here.

(01:18:05):
I just cannot imagine like the,the griswolds don't know 'cause
they, they don't speak German.
They go to the wrong house.
But the German people arejust like, yeah, cool.
We see them at dinner and I'm like, wow.
They're having like dinner with themand everything and then we see them.
There's, they spend thenight with the wrong people.

The, the entire time.
It's weird that they'venever exchanged photographs.
that they've never mailed, know,pictures of themselves and they
kind of, so happy and boisterous is,it's almost like they bombard, they,
they love bomb the German family.
So it's almost like they have no choicebut to be good hosts to these strangers.

Katie (01:18:49):
Good point.
Yeah.
they do.
You're right.
They give them no.
Yeah.
it seems like that.
Yeah.
But then later they'relike, who the hell was that?

Yeah.

Katie (01:18:58):
you let these people spend the night in your home?
Wow.

And they're none the wiser.
They thought they just hadthis fantastic experience.

Katie (01:19:05):
Yeah, they'll go home and write letters, like thanking them,
sending them a card, like thankingthem for the visit, and then they'll
What?
Yeah, we should get a, weshould get that sequel.

They're just gonna be telling all their friends one time
these strangers, these Americans cameand they barge into our home and they
were so nice and friendly and we let'em sleep in a couple of our spare
bedrooms then, and then they left.
And, and they were good people,but we have no idea who they were.

Katie (01:19:34):
when they go to Italy, they just happen to jump their,
their car in Germany gets stuckin like an old timey passage way.
Like that's like stone and they the

arch

Katie (01:19:46):
Yeah, but

and I remember that part.
It was like, dad, we're gonna get stuck.
He's like, I know this car.
And it does indeed get stuck

Katie (01:19:56):
they have to.
leave their luggage behind.
And it just so happens though, thatthere's a train station right there
that they run to and they just sohappen to jump as they're being
chased because like they're atthis German festival and somehow.
Again, accidentally, Clark starts a brawl.
And so now he's being chased throughthe town and they jump just in time

(01:20:17):
onto this train on their way toItaly, and it happens to be the Right.
train to the right place.
And now we're in Rome.
Wouldn't, you know, it

Yeah.
A a a lot of fortunatecoincidences with it.
It works.
It's, it's so funny.
The, the weird thing is that the reasonthey're being chased is because they
were in a dance, like a dance show andthat the performers just ask random
people to join the little dance thing.

Katie (01:20:45):
gets like, a,

if you don't know how to dance, we,
we'll, you just follow us along.
And it's like,
Griswold is gonna go up and, and he wentand bought the German, the weird German
outfits that it, that they were wearing.
I guess you would call 'emlike traditional or more what's
the word I'm looking for?
Were

Katie (01:21:04):
like the folksy.

Alonzo Richardson-2: stereotypical German outfits. (01:21:06):
undefined
So he, he guested his get upand he's enjoying the show.
And then these performerson the show is join us.
And so they pull him upto join him in the dance.
And then while they're dancing, they'rebumping into each other because he
doesn't know what the dance moves

Katie (01:21:22):
Mm-hmm.

and he is accidentally hitting them.
And then they're hitting him back.
And the next thing you know,it turns into a full on brawl.
And so now they gotta runaway from these German guys.
The performers.
Because they start, everybody startsfighting at this party, so they
get chased and that's when they getstuck and that's when they end up
in fortuitously end up in the train.

Katie (01:21:41):
Ooh, good word, fortuitously.

to go.

Katie (01:21:43):
This is true also, when I was watching it, I was like, oh,
that looks like a fun time though.
That German festival, becausethere were, I love bread.
There were those big soft pretzelsand so many humongous steins of beer.
I'm like, that looks like a good time.
They end up in Rome and, don't knowwhy I was not able to follow the
scheme of the thieves because, oh,PS because they lost their luggage.

(01:22:09):
They don't have any money, sothey, when they get to Rome,
they're like, oh, that's okay.
We'll go to the cashier's checkplace and get more, I don't know,
cashier's, cashier's check as a thing.
I personally have neverused cashier's checks.
I don't think, like it's so old

Yeah.
Yeah,

Katie (01:22:26):
a thing.

You know what's funny is that when I first joined the
military, that's how they used to pay us.
Well, they didn't pay us in cashier'scheck, but they paid us in such a way
that we would exchange our money forcashier's check, because at the time,
that was the best way to use our money.

Katie (01:22:44):
I.

it's it's not like we were overseas or anything that was just.
The, the, the process.
And so he used, I used a lot of, and thiswas only in basic training, but I used a
lot of cashier's check in basic training

Katie (01:22:56):
I don't really understand.
It's supposed to be more secure, buthow, like, how is that better than

theoretically speaking, if somebody were to steal
your cashier's check, you stillhave something like the receipts.
That's why he said.
They were mentioning the stubs.
So you have the, thereceipts for the checks

Katie (01:23:14):
Oh.

they're just like regular checks where you have to

Katie (01:23:16):
Mm-hmm.

Alonzo Richardson-2: order to pay for stuff. (01:23:17):
undefined
So you have the res when youtear off the the check, you
still have the stub of the check.
So you can take that and say that, youknow, we were, these were stolen from
us and we just trying to get reimbursedfor the checks that were stolen.
And the Stubbs were proof that you had.
Purchase the check.
And that's why they were supposedto be secure because you had, you

(01:23:39):
could prove that that you bought the,the cashier's check and you can get
reimbursed for the money that was lost.

Katie (01:23:47):
Couldn't I just write a cashier's check, not write in the stub and
claim, just show them blank stubs.

I don't know exactly how it

Katie (01:23:56):
I know, I'm, I, I don't get this as this, this as a, as a thing.

yeah, yeah,

Katie (01:24:01):
yeah.

I guess that there was a way that they could tell

Katie (01:24:04):
Mm-hmm.

the stub was spent or not.
I, I, I don't know the mechanicsof it, but that, that's the

Katie (01:24:10):
Yeah.

that you had proof that you bought the cashiers check and if
they're stolen, you can get reimbursed.
I remember that all the, allcommercials we were going over
the commercials early in the show.
So we were talkingabout, so one of 'em was

Katie (01:24:23):
American Express

for cashier's check and it, they were highly
recommended for when you were

Katie (01:24:28):
traveling Yeah.
I remember that.
I mean, I remember my parents using them.
And I used to work at a bank, andI, I still remember being confused.
Like in college I worked at abank and every once in a blue moon
someone would come in and be like,I need some cashier's checks.
And I'm like, what?
Why?
But anyway,

I meant that they were going somewhere.

Katie (01:24:48):
yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I, speaking of Europe, I'm going toGreece pretty soon, and so I had to go to
a bank for, I never go to a bank, but Iordered euros, so I had to go pick them up
Instead of cashier's checks.
I just got some cash.

You just got regular

Katie (01:25:06):
regular cash

the

Katie (01:25:07):
and my credit card.

Uh uh, and they make it easier 'cause you don't have to figure
out a bunch of different currencies.
It's one currency that you have to worryabout unless you're going to England
and you have to worry about their

Katie (01:25:20):
Mm-hmm.

it.
an incredible benefit that decided

Katie (01:25:26):
The Euros.
yeah, I agree.

go to one currency.
That's amazing.

Katie (01:25:30):
It is.

Alonzo Richardson-2: achievement in a thousand years. (01:25:31):
undefined

Katie (01:25:34):
Maybe.
Yeah.
because can you imagine like goingfrom state to state in the US
and having a different currency.
It's

Yeah.
And it used to be that way.

Katie (01:25:44):
in the States,

Yes.
It

Katie (01:25:46):
what

In the earlier prob probably when there were colonies.
And then in the earlierparts, you know, after

Katie (01:25:54):
that does?
That would make sense.

to

Katie (01:25:57):
Yeah.

States, every state had their own, or every
territory had their own currency.
And I don't know howthe exchange rates work,

Katie (01:26:05):
Oh, wow.
I can't, well, that does make sense.
I don't know why I didn't know that.
Thanks Mr.
History, buff,

But soon after the, the country was formed, I think I,
I don't know when exactly it happened,but they changed to a national currency.

Katie (01:26:18):
Okay.
Well, so Katie's dumb and she doesn'tknow the deal with cashier's checks, but
also the robbers at this cashier's checkplace, they stow away the manager in the
car that they give to the Griswolds Right,
in, in the trunk, they put themanager in the trunk and the
griswolds are none the wiser.

(01:26:39):
They go about their Italian vacation,and then later the, the thief comes back
and he's trying to get Ellen's purseaway from her to get the key again.

right.
To get the car with the bank manager.
And I don't, I don't even know.

Katie (01:26:58):
Like, why did they, why?
I was very confused by that.
I think I'm missing something.
Like why would you give thema car with him in it if you
wanted the car with him in it?
Or if you wanted that guy.

to get rid of him, or if you wanted to.
'cause that's basicallywhat you're trying to do.
You're trying to get, 'cause theydidn't want to kill the dude.
So the, the next, next thing todo is to, to get rid of him so
that they can keep their money.
So I'm not exactly sure why.
There must have been another reason whythey needed him, but I thought they got
their money, so why would they need him?

(01:27:32):
So you're, I'm just as

Katie (01:27:34):
Okay.
Yeah.
I was like, I don't understand why hecomes back to try and get the car back.
I don't know.
I was very confused by that.
So then he kidnaps Ellen, right.

Yeah, well see.
She goes willingly and then later on hekidnaps her, and then, then her husband
has to come and, and rescue her and, andeventually the rest of the family joins
them in order to rescue her from thisdude, because, you know, when he pulls
out the gun then, then it's kidnapping.

Katie (01:28:03):
Yes.
Up until that it's just fun and games.
But it, I mean, that was kind of the,you know, there's always a little
bit of heartfelt family ness tothese movies and that's kind of it.
'Cause Clark and Ellen had just gottenin an argument over her nude scene
being on the video tape that Clarkpromised her that he deleted that.

nudity, but apparently some hanky
panky as they used to say.

Katie (01:28:28):
Yeah, And keeping, oh my God, I haven't heard that in so long.

Yeah,

Katie (01:28:32):
right.

some, some dude got a hold of that video and,
and made an entire film of it.

Katie (01:28:37):
Well, the guy in France stole the video camera.
That footage was on there.
He told her that he haddeleted it, but he didn't.
And then he's like, shit that got stolen.
She ends up on a billboardfor porn or something.

Definitely, 'cause it was a, it was a movie poster.
It was a movie poster for a

Katie (01:28:55):
Oh.

I forgot the name of the movie.
Something about wet Woman in,wet Wife in Bathroom or something

Katie (01:29:01):
was That what it was

movie.
So, they, they made a whole productionout of her little burlesque act and then
the actor making love with her husband.
So all of that was caught on video.

Katie (01:29:14):
Mm-hmm.
It was.
That's very typical ofthis kind of a movie.
So then they, you know,oh, they're all happy now.
Everybody's together.
They saved the day.
They go back home on the plane.
And they were in firstclass, weren't they?
On the way home somehow,

I, I don't know if they were in first class.
They were really close to the,where the pilots they were.

Katie (01:29:39):
which would mean an, and it was only like two seats, or, I don't know.
It seemed like it was first class.
I, I could be wrong, but yes.
The last gag is Clark is looking forthe bathroom and he busts the door
open and it's actually the cockpit.
And as they're dissenting into New YorkCity, they clip the Statue of Liberty.

(01:30:00):
That's like the last you know,mayhem that the Griswolds do,
and now they're back home.

Yeah.
Yeah.
The, the last bit ishitting the statue of Li

Katie (01:30:12):
Mm-hmm.

So, not necessarily one of the funniest parts of the
movie, but it, they, it's like theyneeded to figure out how to end it, so
that's, that's what they decided on.

Katie (01:30:22):
Good point.
They were like, what'sone last gag we could do?
Did you know that?
So Griswold in all of these, likethe Griswolds, the original Griswolds
is spelled, g-R-I-S-W-O-L-D.
But in this movie we see on thegame show we see it with an A.

Oh,

Katie (01:30:47):
So it's spelled differently in this movie than in the
rest of the series A versus O.

Well, I, I'm probably one of the worst spellers
out there working today, so I couldn'tI, I couldn't recognize words that
are spelled correctly and incorrectlyor words with alternate spelling.
I, I get it all wrongmost of the time, so.

Katie (01:31:15):
This is one of my biggest pet peeves in movies, is seriously,
you can't get your own character'sname spelled Right, This, this is
the sequel to a very famous movie,and you're spelling the name wrong.
That was probably just anoversight on the game show.
Like you see the, like onthe Family Feud, you know, is
their last name, the Griswolds.
This happened in Rocky Balboa too.

(01:31:35):
Polly's Pauly Panino is is his name.
And the sixth movie in the series.
They're shown at a press conferenceor something with his, like a, his
name on a sign and it says Panina.
And I'm like, what are you doing?
How are you gettingthis name spelled wrong?

(01:31:56):
And, nobody caught that.
This, that drives me nuts.

Yeah.

Katie (01:32:00):
Sorry.

This movie, they could probably
write it off as a gag, but in

Katie (01:32:04):
True.

movie, you know, probably no excuse for it, but it's
like, it's something where somebody hadwritten it down so could see somebody
not getting a name, and just, and himnot noticing that it's not spelled right.
'cause he is not looking at the designto see if it's spelled correctly.
He's just at a press conferenceto answer questions or whatever.
So.

(01:32:25):
And Rocky is, is like less of anexcuse for it, but it is it's some
of the details people don't pay.
It's like.

Katie (01:32:32):
That's somebody's job, right?

It's like a, a me, a medieval show like Game of Thrones
and somebody has a Starbucks cup,

Katie (01:32:39):
Yeah, yeah,

have to go back and digitally erase the

Katie (01:32:43):
yeah.
Oh, that kind of stuff drives me nuts.

even probably one of the stage hands had had brought to
the set and, and you know, not paying

Katie (01:32:51):
Mm-hmm.

the scene.

Katie (01:32:52):
Yep.

you know, accidents happen, I guess.

Katie (01:32:57):
Yeah, I know.
I understand how it can happen,but the fact that nobody
catches it drives me nuts.

Or they caught it and it was like, well, it's too late now.
It's already shot,
and it's like it would cost us

Katie (01:33:09):
Yeah,

of thousands of dollars to try to fix it.

Katie (01:33:11):
true.
Some trivia, in addition to the namechange is that Eric Idol, the guy who
plays the bicyclist that they keepseeing he and Chevy Chase became friends
after the filming of this movie andthey had planned, they started working
on a screenplay for a follow-up calledNational Lampoon's Australian Vacation.

(01:33:36):
And, they had some gags plannedout, including some shark related
ones, but I, guess they abandonedthe project shortly after.
They couldn't come up with a whole movie.
But I would like to see theAustralian vacation movie.

Yeah,

Katie (01:33:49):
I think that would be fun.

why they couldn't come up with a bunch of gags for
Australia, because that is, you canhave so much fun with how dangerous

Katie (01:33:58):
It's rife.
Yeah.

everything there is designed to kill

Katie (01:34:03):
Mm-hmm.

all the animals are deadly, all the plants are poisonous.
can have a lot of fun with that.

Katie (01:34:09):
I agree.
It's like National Lampoonsmeets Crocodile Dundee.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Katie (01:34:15):
That's what they should have done.
Not surprisingly.
So I don't know if you're aware ornot that Chevy Chase is notoriously,
hard to work with and kind of a dick.

Yeah.

Katie (01:34:25):
don't know if you're aware of that.

Yeah, I've heard he's problematic

Katie (01:34:29):
Yeah.
So he and Amy Hecker,Heckerling, the director, really
did not get along so much.
So that one report said thatshe refused to step on set
unless she had a plane ticket.
Like to New York readyto leave at any time.
She wanted, if she gotso fed up , with Chevy,

you know, it's funny, I thought that he was like that in his old
age, but apparently he's always like that.
And then I think like even him and.
Some members of the SaturdayNight Live cast didn't get along.
I think maybe him and billMurray didn't get along.
I don't know,

Katie (01:35:05):
yes, you're right.
They didn't 'cause he's also kind of ahard to , they're both just very strong.
Yeah.
So they, I can see thatbeing a disaster waiting.

both weird

Katie (01:35:16):
Yeah,

ways.

Katie (01:35:17):
for sure.
Let's see what else.
Oh, you probably did not noticetheir t-shirts that said Wally World.
They sev

that.

Katie (01:35:26):
the several of the cast member or the family were wearing
them throughout the movie.

Yeah.

Katie (01:35:31):
Well, that's where, that was the ultimate destination in the first film.

Oh, okay.

Katie (01:35:37):
So it was, it was fun for us to see that carry through, that they were wearing
their touristy t-shirts from Wally World.
Mm-hmm.

Alonzo Richardson-2: I saw the Wally world. (01:35:46):
undefined
I didn't know what the reference wasbecause when I think of Wally World, I
think people are referencing Walmart.
That's, that's what it's referred to.
That's Wally world today.

Katie (01:35:57):
Yes,

But back in the day, it was a fictional amusement park.

Katie (01:36:00):
it was.
Mm-hmm.
You have to go back and watch the original

Yes.

Katie (01:36:04):
One of the best parts of the other originals is Cousin Eddie, which
you're missing out on in this movie.
But yeah, he doesn't appear it's theonly of the original four I think.
Is he in Vegas?
Yeah.
Cousin Eddie, who's quite acharacter played by Randy Quaid,

Oh,

Katie (01:36:27):
the less famous Quaid brother.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So you gotta, I feel like, Ifeel like I'm selling hard.
The other ones Christmas especiallyand the original vacation.

you're saying Randy Quaid was in
vacation and Christmas vacation

Katie (01:36:44):
Yes.

and he wasn't in this one.

Katie (01:36:47):
Correct.
Mm-hmm.
He plays Cousin Eddie,
he's quite a character.
He's probably one of the best parts.
Yeah.

in real life, he's kind of a character, so he,
he doesn't, he doesn't stop, he

Katie (01:37:01):
The,

off with him.

Katie (01:37:02):
that tracks I, I, that doesn't surprise me at all.

If it's anything like the character he
played and what's that movie?
It's that bowling movie Kingpin.

Katie (01:37:13):
Yeah.
I forget.

kingpin, I know that I'm going to enjoy

Katie (01:37:16):
You're gonna enjoy it.
I'll just, I guarantee it.
For Randy Culo,

yeah,
yeah.

Katie (01:37:22):
The other thing I, I kind of forgot about this, but in
1985 it was still West Germany.
That's where they went.
There was still West and East Germany.

Right.

Katie (01:37:36):
That's wild.
'cause then I was reading there, theykept referencing it shows like on the
Wikipedia, I think it shows like allthe different locations that they,
they go to, which was fun for me'cause I've been to on most of them.
But then they did say that scenessupposedly taking place in West
Germany were actually shot in a Germanspeaking part of Italy called Brixton.

that's fascinating.
It's fascinating that there's aGerman speaking part of Italy.

Katie (01:38:01):
I know, right?
Well I suppose we have like littleItaly's here, you know, there's a little,

speaking Italian.
It's, it's like people who happento well, I guess maybe they are,

Katie (01:38:13):
the old people maybe, but Yeah, yeah.

is not like you walk in there and all of a sudden
you can't understand what people are

Katie (01:38:19):
Good point.

say that it's a German speaking part of ili, I'm
imagining that when you go into thatarea, there's no Italian whatsoever.

Katie (01:38:29):
Yeah.
Wild man.
Yeah.
Well, I certainly enjoyedthis like more than I thought.
'cause I, I guess I didn't have really anyexpectations that had been so long since
I'd seen this and I really enjoyed it.
Plus it's like a little vacation yourself.
We get to travel to Europe with themand see all the sites, so that was fun.

Yeah.

Katie (01:38:51):
be the crown jewel of the vacation movies, but I, I found it awesome.
Like a good little postcard, shall wesay from 1985, Zoe, what, what are your
final thoughts about European vacation?

Yeah, I still enjoyed this movie.
It was still fun to watch eeven after all of these years.
uh, I brought back some memoriesof just being at home, watching HBO
playing hooky from school or something.

Katie (01:39:22):
I didn't have HBO when I was a kid, so

Yeah, that's, that's how I watched it.
I always found this.
Movie amusing and, and Iwas thoroughly amused again.
So yeah, it was fun.

Katie (01:39:35):
I can't thank you enough for joining me to talk
about this I guess lesser.
John Hughes didn't have sucha huge part in it, but it's
part of his character Canon.
I loved it.
I always loved talking nostalgia withyou, Zoe, please remind us where we can
find you and what we can look forward to.
200th episode.
You gonna tease what it is

Yeah, actually we, talked about the 200 episode a little bit.
You brought up a certaincharacter that wore white.

Katie (01:40:07):
really.
Okay.
Okay.
That's a good tease.

my 200 episode will be in Star Wars

Katie (01:40:15):
Very nice.

' Alonzo Richardson-2 (01:40:16):
cause you mentioned Luke Skywalker
and so I'm excited about that.
Also and I mentioned earlierthat my next episode is going
to be and Ted's bogus journey.
I've been on a kind of ajourney of comedic sci-fi films

Katie (01:40:32):
Okay.

either comedic sci-fi or just kind of quirky sci-fi.
So I had ly, like justrecently I've done Armageddon,

Katie (01:40:39):
Mm-hmm.

is kind of a quirky action thriller.
And then did, was that one?
I did.
Oh, so this is something, this isgonna be the strangest movie and
that you may have heard people talkabout it's the Adventures of Buck Ru
Bonsai across the eighth dimension.
So

Katie (01:40:56):
I've definitely heard of the movie, but I've not seen it,

I'm honestly, it is hard to recommend, but at the,
and even when, like when I watchedit, 'cause I had never watched
a movie from beginning to end.
Usually when I'm doing the movies onmy show, it's movies that I've seen
before because I grew up with them andI'm basically reviewing my favorite

Katie (01:41:17):
Mm-hmm.

this one was just a movie that I was fascinated with
never watched the whole thing through.
And it has, I guess now it would beconsidered an All star cast because
it, it had John Lithgow, Peter Weller,

Katie (01:41:32):
Oh

Lloyd

Katie (01:41:34):
really?
Oh my God.

and know, and Christopher Lloyd is
really the star of this movie.
Like he plays the main villain.
It's a alien invasion story.
So the Buckaroo Bonsai hasto stop these alien from.
And, you know, invading Earth,that, that's his whole mission.
And it's, weirdly complex.

(01:41:56):
It is.
Got some weird humor in it.
'cause it's built as a sci-fi comedy.
Most of it I didn't find funny.
They

Katie (01:42:02):
Oh.

was just, weird stuff that was happening.
Like all the aliens have thefirst name John, and there's one
character named John Big Butte.
And.
And he, and that's the oneplayed by Christopher Lloyd.
And so just it, it is just a,

Katie (01:42:22):
Does he have a big bt?

to recommend because it's, yeah, well, his name,
he wants people to call him big bt,but people keep calling them Big

Katie (01:42:30):
Mm-hmm.

big Booty, do this, do that.
And then he'll get upset andhe say It's big bta, big bt.
To me, that was the funniest part.
Him getting upset over people not sayinghis name the way he wanted it pronounced.

Katie (01:42:44):
It sounds Space balls esque, sort of.

yeah, it's baseball's esque.
So, it's hard to recommend, but I enjoyed

Katie (01:42:51):
Okay.

So I put it that way.

Katie (01:42:53):
Alright.
From what year?
What year is That one?

That is.
I wanna say it is like19 84, 85, something like

Katie (01:43:02):
Yeah,

It's

Katie (01:43:03):
our sweet spot here.

eighties.
It's the early Peter Willer, Ithink it was before he did Robocop.

Katie (01:43:09):
Okay.

yeah, that, I think that's the movie where
people know him from before Robocop.
And then that's where the phrase, well,well, most people got familiar with
the phrase, you go, there you are.
That's what people got familiarwith that phrase, the movie didn't
originate that idea or that phrase,but that's the movie that people

(01:43:32):
most associate with that phrase.
I

Katie (01:43:34):
I've literally never heard that before.
I feel like, but i'm weird.
But either way, it sounds like you've gotsome fun episodes already out and some
super fun episodes just about to come out.
So everyone go check out Zoe onBack Look Cinema Podcast cast.

Yeah, you can find that@backlogcinema.com.

Katie (01:43:55):
And thank you for joining us on this trip down memory lane.
Now go write me a review and meet menext time for another retro adventure.
And until next time.
Be kind, rewind.

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National Lampoon's European Vacation | S2E14

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}National Lampoon's European Vacation | S2E14