October 1978 - The final installment of our National Lampoon week is from October 1978--a pivotal moment in the history of the Lampoon.This issue was published just mere moments, it seems, before the release of Animal House, which of course would become one of the most popular movies of all time, probably making the name National Lampoon more famous than it ever had been(the movie would have a similar effect on Saturday Night Live, whose ratings almost doubled between its third and fourth seasons).
The cover is by Shary Flenniken, who has been doing the "Funny Pages" strip regular "Trots and Bonnie" for a long while. Inside is the also regular "Nuts" strip by Gahan Wilson, who also does the honors on a piece called "The Greatest Show On Earth", a grim "musical" about war.
This sole comic book feature is "The Deal", written by Jeff Greenfield(who would go on to a successful career as a political pundit on ABC and CNN), and, according to the table of contents, was drawn by Larry Hama, Ralph Reese, Jim Sherman, and Neal Adams:
Like I said, this is sadly the only comic book feature in the book, but this subscription ad did catch my eye:
...yep, that's Animal House star and future Marion Ravenwood Karen Allen doing what looks like a really painful split, all in the attempt to help sell the Lampoon(only an unrelated note--man, do I love the fact that Allen does appear, in at least some form, in the upcoming Indiana Jones movie).
I'm no expert, but I think an argument could be made that Animal House was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to the Lampoon. Best because the movie was a massive success and remains one of the most influential movie comedies of all time, and made the Lampoon an almost household word.
But you can also say worst because Animal House, for all its brilliance, branded National Lampoon as a meaning adolescent, gross-out comedy, light years away from the brilliant political and social commentary the magazine did so well. I can only imagine what people like Michael Gross, Michael O'Donoghue*, Sean Kelly, and Tony Hendra must have thought when they saw something called National Lampoon's Van Wilder playing in multiplexes.
*Yes, I know O'Donoghue is dead. But I assume he's still around somewhere, floating in comedy heaven.
I'm no expert, but I think an argument could be made that Animal House was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to the Lampoon. Best because the movie was a massive success and remains one of the most influential movie comedies of all time, and made the Lampoon an almost household word.
But you can also say worst because Animal House, for all its brilliance, branded National Lampoon as a meaning adolescent, gross-out comedy, light years away from the brilliant political and social commentary the magazine did so well. I can only imagine what people like Michael Gross, Michael O'Donoghue*, Sean Kelly, and Tony Hendra must have thought when they saw something called National Lampoon's Van Wilder playing in multiplexes.
*Yes, I know O'Donoghue is dead. But I assume he's still around somewhere, floating in comedy heaven.
2 comments:
I was a fan of National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live at the time, but not so much of Animal House for the reasons you mentioned. I really hated how all these people suddenly came out of the woodwork as fans of SNL simply because they expected the gross-out humor from Animal House. Unfortunately, SNL played along and I think the 4th season lost a great deal in the process. It was easier for them to write "Two wild and crazy guys" rather than thoughtful political satire.
I think it was around this time that some of the early long-text feature writers like Doug Kenney left and John Hughes came on.
I bought NatLamp pretty regularly from around '72 'til I graduated college in '81--I didn't have Monday's issue, but I remember picking the rest up off the stands. In that time, I went from not always understanding the jokes to thinking that the magazine was too juvenile for me. I guess I went through the same thing with Mad.
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