"Bluto" Blutarksy (John Belushi) and his fellow Deltas lock horns with Dean Wormer in this 1978 comedy classic set in 1962 at fictional Faber College. Toga! Toga!

Otter, Boon, D-Day, Bluto, Stork, Flounder and other drunken misfits shocked the motion picture world in 1978 with one of the surprise hits of the year, director John Landis's raucous, irreverent and downright P-I-G-inspired National Lampoon's Animal House.

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?," the historically-challenged Bluto asked his fellow Delta Tau Chi members in one memorable scene. "Hell, no!"

Animal House Writers

Animal House was the "brainchild" of writers Doug Kenney, Chris Miller and Harold Ramis. Kenney, a 1969 Harvard graduate, had written for the Harvard Lampoon before becoming the first editor-in-chief of the National Lampoon. Miller (Dartmouth, 1962) and Ramis (Washington University in St. Louis, 1966), both of whom worked for the magazine or its productions, had been urged by National Lampoon publisher Matty Simmons to sit down with Kenney and produce a screenplay based on the latter's short stories.

Following an initial meeting over lunch and Bloody Marys, the trio eventually managed to fashion a 100-plus page story treatment which featured such antics as marathon drinking sessions, projectile vomiting and, the piece de resistance, a character doing his impression of an exploding zit.

Armed with the treatment and the National Lampoon's marketing power, Matty Simmons headed west to Hollywood where he met with Nat Tanen of Universal Pictures. Tanen didn't care much for the story idea, but green lighted the production anyway, budgeting the film at $2.7 million.

Filmed at the University of Oregon

As originally planned, Animal House was to be filmed at the University of Missouri in Columbia. After reading the script, however, the school's president had second thoughts and denied permission. Director John Landis and company then approached the University of Oregon in Eugene, whose president, after consulting with student leaders and the Pan Hellenic Council, gave the final go-ahead.

Animal House was filmed in 30 days, from October to November 1977. Interior scenes for Delta House were shot at the Sigma Nu fraternity. The Dr. A.W. Patterson House, a decaying structure built in the 1800s and subsequently demolished in the early 1990s, served as the now-famous exterior.

Is This the Delta House?

The movie begins during Rush Week with two students, Larry "Pinto" Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and Kent "Flounder" Dorfman (Stephen Furst), and their quest to join a fraternity. After being turned down by some of the more respectable houses, the boys are accepted as pledges by Delta House, the most repulsive fraternity on campus.

The sworn enemy of Delta House is Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), the conservative dean of Faber College who's determined to shut down the Deltas for good. He may well accomplish his goal, as Delta House is now on "Double Secret Probation" for a laundry list of infractions.

The Deltas, headed by their affable president Robert Hoover (James Widdoes), remain undeterred, throwing a wild toga party in order to celebrate their impending demise. The boys, led by the smooth-talking Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim Matheson), then embark on a road trip where they pick up some girls at a nearby college and crash the all-black Dexter Lake Club whose headliner that night are Otis Day and the Knights.

Although their charter is eventually revoked, the vengeful Deltas get the last laugh when they crash the town's annual Homecoming Parade. The picture ends in American Graffiti style, with the futures of the main characters flashed on the screen.

Road Trip Legacy

Animal House, which also featured Mark Metcalf (Doug Neidermeyer), Mary Louise Weller (Mandy Pepperidge), Martha Smith (Babs Jansen), Peter Riegert (Boon), James Daughton (Greg Marmalard), Karen Allen (Katy) and Donald Sutherland (Professor Dave Jennings), premiered in New York City on July 27, 1978. Giving the film a surprise thumbs up was Janet Maslin of The New York Times (7/28/78), who called the picture "too cheerfully sleazy to be termed tame."

Animal House grossed $70.826 million in its first year, earning the #3 spot for the top moneymaking films of 1978, bested only by Grease ($96.300 million) and Superman ($82.800 million). The film's true legacy, however, rests not in its impressive box-office numbers, but in its lasting impact on popular culture, where such terms as "food fight," "toga party" and "road trip" live on in decadent immortality.

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son," Dean Wormer counsels.

Hey, it worked in Animal House...