A father Vs. a son!

CBS announced a surprise with their fall 2010 schedule.  It seems they will be moving the hit The Big Bang Theory to Thursday night opposite Community.

That means that Chevy Chase will be going head to head with his one time “son” Johnny Galecki who costarred with Chase in Christmas Vacation.  Galecki played Rusty Griswold in the 1989 film and you may remember Chase just presented the People’s Choice Award to Galecki and the cast and crew of the CBS hit this past year.

In another bold move it seems that the new William Shatner CBS show will be going up against the Office!

CBS is taking a shot at must see TV.  Will it work?

Check out this for more:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b181780_holy_cbs_makes_big_changes.html?utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=imdb_topstories

Where are they now? Shermer, Illinois

Last week’s “Where are they now?” Walley World post was so popular and we got so many e-mails we are showcasing another Griswold location!

This week we are profiling the Griswold’s home and John Hughes’s fictional town of Shermer, Illinois!

John Hughes fans already know that his films, including the Vacation films are set in the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois a suburb of the Chicago metropolitan area.

The original Griswold House used in National Lampoon’s Vacation was filmed in Chicago, where as, the other Griswold houses used in European, Christmas and Vegas were all filmed on the Warner Brother’s backlot.  As a reference to the Griswold’s home state Chevy Chase wears a black Chicago Bears hat in all four Vacation films.

Shermer, Illinois is home to not only the Griswold’s but the Bueller’s (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), the Baker’s (Sixteen Candles) the gang from the Breakfast Club and many more!  Shermer is said to be based on the hometown of John Hughes, Northbrook, Illinois which was originally named Shermerville.  John Hughes’ high school, Glenbrook North High School and some surrounding High Schools were often used as the high schools in his films including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Shermer also borrows the real life Northbrook zip code 60062

The Breakfast Clubs school interiors and football field were filmed at Hughes High School, Glenbrook North High School which in real life is located on Shermer Rd. in Northbrook Illinois.  The exteriors of the school and Library were filmed at Maine North High School Located in Des Plaines, Illinois.  Maine North High School, Glenbrook North High School, New Trier High School (West Campus), and Niles East High School have all been filmed as Shermer High School.

An ongoing theme in Hughes depiction of Shermer is the contrast of its resident’s wealth.  Films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Career Opportunities and Some Kind Of Wonderful all show rich and poor kids living and attending the same schools, something which Hughes has spoken about when talking about his own experiences growing up in Northbrook, Illinois.

With the death of John Hughes the days of Shermer are gone but are far from forgotten.  With films like Dogma where two characters “Jay and Silent Bob” travel to Illinois looking for Shermer only to find that it is fictional town and shows like NBC’s Community making almost weekly references to the Hughes films and it’s Shermer residents it looks like the dream of Shermer lives on.

Check out these links for more on Shermer:

The official Northbrook Website: http://www.northbrook.il.us/

Pictures from then and now: http://home.xnet.com/~madman/index.html

A complete list of John Hughes films: http://www.riverblue.com/hughes/films.html

Shermer at Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shermer,_Illinois

Griswold house: thanks to Braden

Ferris and sixteen pictures from: http://home.xnet.com/~madman/index.html

Where are they now? Walley World!

I decided to mix things up a bit this time with our "Where are they now" section and include locations!

This week I am featuring Walley World!

The Actual Walley World is represented by both Santa Anita Park and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Santa Anita's large parking lot and blue-tinged fascia serve as the introduction scenes, while Magic Mountain serves all internal-park scenes. The two roller coasters seen in the film (and still operating today) are Revolution, which can be recognized by the vertical loop and Colossus, the double track wooden roller coaster.

"What is that? What is that?  Walley World, Next three exits!

Thanks to Braden for the pictures!

Harold Ramis and Beverly D’Angelo remember John Hughes

These articles are old but I thought somehow relevant with the return of the Griswold’s, The John Hughes Vanity Fair article and NBC’s Community’s recurring Hughes references.


Here we see how Harold Ramis and Beverly D’Angelo remember John Hughes.

Ramis: I read the screenplay. I thought it was very good. And John and I had some meetings, and I guess I probably made some notes, and then Chevy [Chase] and I did a rewrite, which I’m not sure John was happy with [Laughs]. And I didn’t see him much, and then the ending of the film didn’t work at all when we tested it, so I had a notion for a new ending for the film, and John very quickly scripted that.


I ran into him once in Chicago. I moved back there like 12 years ago, and I went to our local multiplex. The usher said, “Hey, John Hughes is in the next theater.” So I walked over and John is standing there in the tunnel [entry hall outside the theater], not going in, but standing where he can see the screen. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I want to see how my trailer plays.” I said, “John, you’ve got 100 million dollars. What do you care how this trailer plays?” [Laughs] And he said, “No, no, I care.” I thought, wow, that’s probably why he was so much more successful than I was—or at least productive. He really did care.

D’angelo: I always considered the Vacation movies a love story. I didn’t think of them as some kind of, you know, film with the fart as a punchline. There was a love story in every one of his movies, and the thing about those Vacation movies is that, he’s truly romantic. He told love stories. In Home Alone, it’s a love story: the parents and the child, ultimately. Boy loses girl, you know what I mean?


Chevy Chase [who played D’Angelo’s husband, Clark Griswold, in the Vacation movies] left Hollywood, too. Chevy left in the late ’80s. Hollywood’s not a place for the heart, unless you’ve got a really, really, really tough exterior. He never sold out. Never. Never. The key is that he considered the age of 12 to 21 sacred and kind of adult but without the power of [adulthood]. Cause that’s what those teenager characters struggled with: was being stuck in an adult world that they didn’t create and how to deal with that.


There aren’t any more Breakfast Clubs, there aren’t any more Ferris Buellers. We’ve gone a different way. John treated his teenage characters like the young adults that they were. They weren’t stupid and they weren’t useless. They powered the engine of his films.

Check out the full articles here:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/08/13/john-hughes-remembered-harold-ramis-director-of-vacation/

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/08/13/john-hughes-remembered-beverly-dangelo-ellen-griswold-in-vacation/

Chevy Chase Vacation short leaked early?

I don't know if this was leaked or if Homeaway.com posted this two days early but here is what looks like the full Hotel Hell Vacation short.

The 30 second ad (which cost 2.5 million by the way) will air during the super bowl's 3rd quarter teasing the short film that was supposed to be available the following day.  

Perhaps Homeaway.com has more planned.

Regardless be sure to check out the site Monday for Griswold planned fun and games.

The short is really funny.  It is a big commercial for Homeaway.com but has some great moments.  

Plus Beverly looks amazing and I got a little teary eyed seeing them together again and in the truckster!

Check out what I think is the full 15 minute short here!

"Ask about The Griswold Super bowl Discount."

Homeaway.com is telling us on some of their properties to "Ask about The Griswold Super bowl Discount."


Can You Believe it? There is a Griswold Super bowl Discount!"


Something’s in the air and it smells like Chevy Chase! News of the new Griswold/HomeAway Vacation super bowel ad is popping up everywhere and people are even saying nice things about Chevy!
The ad will serve as a mock movie trailer for the 15-minute short film “Hotel Hell Vacation,” which will be available on HomeAway.com.

The plot involves Clark surprising Ellen with a romantic second honeymoon before an extended vacation with son Rusty and his brood. Expect plenty of mishaps along the way though – it wouldn’t be a Griswold vacation without them.

Check out these sites for more:
http://tvguidemagazine.com/news/super-bowl-vacation-3917.html
http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/01/31/watch-for-the-griswolds-during-the-super-bowl/

Famous families

You may have noticed the gorgeous painting of the original Griswold’s on our Title.


Well everyone has been asking where I found it.

These paintings were done by an artist named Kirk Demarais who has done several paintings of history’s greatest families. Check out the rest.

Check out his web page:

http://www.kirkdemarais.com/printillustration.htm

www.zazzle.com has Vacation merchandise!

Zazzle.com is a company that allows users to create and sell merchandise of their own design and people have made a ton of Griswold and Wally World stuff!

This stuff can’t be official but until Warner Brothers gets off its rear and gives us some stuff… it works for me!

Check it out!

http://www.zazzle.com/wally+world+gifts

Where are they now?

I am starting a new feature of Griswold World called "Where are they now?"

It's just a way to catch up on the old' Griswold gang and what they are up to now.

The first star is Johnny Galecki.

Johnny Galecki stared as Rusty Griswold in Christmas Vacation.

Since his days as a Griswold, Galecki stared on the hit sitcom "Roseanne" from 1992, its fourth season, until its conclusion in 1997. He stared in several films and now has his own show 'Big Bang Theory' on CBS.

Galecki just reunited with Chevy Chase recently when Chase presented the actor with a People's Choice award in January 2010.