Exclusive: National Lampoon star Beverly D’Angelo talks about the original, sadder, sequel story that never got past the planning stages.
National Lampoon’s Vacation star, Beverly D’Angelo reveals idea for a canceled sequel. One of the most iconic, and hilarious, film franchises belongs to the Vacation series. The premise revolves around the Griswold family, particularly patriarch Clark (Chevy Chase) and his wife Ellen (D’Angelo), and their attempts at trying to maintain a perfect family vacation. However, everything that can go wrong ends up doing do, resulting in a string of outlandish situations that drives Clark to the edge of sanity. The ongoing film franchise currently consists of five installments, each one dealing with every type of vacation or trip any family might have.
While speaking exclusively with Screen Rant to discuss Violent Night, Beverly D’Angelo opened up about a scrapped National Lampoon’s Vacation sequel. Unlike the previous films, which all dealt with the tightly-knit Griswold family together, this installment was apparently going to involve a divorce between Clark and Ellen, and a follow-up wedding. Knowing that the film was going to start off with audiences favorite couple not being together certainly sounds depressing, and it appears that D’Angelo and the rest of the production team thought so too. Read D’Angelo’s comments below:
I think the script by Michael [Rosenbaum] and Chris [Sullivan] started with Ellen and Clark outside of a courthouse where they’ve just gotten divorced! But their daughter is getting married, and she’s adamant that they show up in Arizona or wherever she’s living, so they have to go across the country and get back together. And what’s odd is: isn’t that kind of the movie that George Clooney just made? Something like that? We saw it as, “Hey, it’s about Clark and Ellen and that family. Don’t we want to follow their story?” But there’s something about demographics, and I think they didn’t want old people in it or something.
Should A National Lampoon Revival Cater To The Older Demographic?
The Vacation film franchise was born out of a short story from an issue of National Lampoon titled “Vacation ’58”. From there the first film was created and went on to be a massive hit, which was quickly followed up by National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, which is arguably the most popular of them, and Vegas Vacation. A reboot, also simply titled Vacation, starring Ed Helms was produced, but was not well-received compared to the first. A television series titled The Griswolds entered development at HBO Max with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation star, Johnny Galecki, serving as executive producer, though there has yet to be any more updates on it.
While the National Lampoon’s Vacation films have mostly been made for a mature audience, they are rarely seen as such, as the dysfunctional family tends to be a relatable plot element in each one. D’Angelo’s assumption that nobody wanted to see old people in the film is confusing as audiences would most likely relate to the idea of having an elder living with them. Christmas Vacation in particular famously featured the grandparents of both Clark and Ellen visiting, as well as Clark’s Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) and Uncle Lewis (William Hickey), the former of whom became a breakout in the movie due to her senility.
There is honestly no reason for National Lampoon’s Vacation to try and attempt to cater to the older demographic as the films never needed to before. Vacation thrives on the concept of family and how anybody can have a rough time, no matter how hard they try and plan a time of relaxation. It is fortuitous that the producers opted to ditch the divorce storyline in favor of keeping the Griswolds together. While there are currently no new films planned, audiences can still enjoy the original National Lampoon’s Vacation movies streaming on Netflix now.