Animal House's Original SNL Cast Plan Was Amazing: Why It Didn't Happen
The seminal 1978 film Animal House is a legendary pioneer of gross-out comedy – but its original Saturday-Night-Live-laced cast would arguably have made the movie even more impressive had it gone through. Following frat houses and freshmen at Faber College in 1962, the loose and wild mega-hit took cinema by storm when it grossed $141 million on just a three-million-dollar budget. Under the National Lampoon brand, Animal House has been credited as the first sophomoric comedy of its kind – paving the way for endless imitations and teen movies in the following decade. But, for all this success, its original SNL cast could have made things even better.
National Lampoon Magazine was an irreverent and often shocking humor publication that was popular with college students throughout the mid-1970s. While SNL has since launched numerous movies, Co-founder Doug Kenny and writer Chris Miller had been kicking ideas back and forth in attempts to put their distinct brand of humor to the screen. The original plotline of Animal House revolved around Charles Manson going to high school and was called Laser Orgy Girls. After the duo brought on writer Harold Ramis to help develop the script, everything began to fall into place. Nine drafts later, they had the story and managed to attract director John Landis (fresh off his first film The Kentucky Fried Movie), as well as producers Matty Simmons and Ivan Reitman. Animal House got the green light at Universal soon after that.
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