National Lampoon's Vacation Trivia

It looks like the bartender who unloads a shotgun at Clarke in the western bar is Spencer from "King of Queens"

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster actually started life as a Ford Country Squire station wagon. Noticable changes included the addition of a second grille and headlight assembly to the front, a second set of taillights, changing the styling of the rear windows, adding the gold crown logos everywhere, all that fancy wood trim and yes your eyes don't deceive you, those are green wall tyres! My favorite is the hefty garbage bag for an airbag. The Griswald's wagon at the begining of the movie that gets crushed is a early 70's Olds Vista Cruiser, which was unique because of the glass observation window over the rear seat. "If you think you hate it now, wait till you drive it."

The car salesman is played by Eugene Levy, who later starred in "Splash" and more recently in both "American Pie" films.

One of the first 'supermodel's' Christie Brinkley made her movie debut as the mysterious, flirtatious blonde in red Ferrari (See Pics).

The screenplay was written by top 80's director John Hughes, who also brought us such gems as "The Breakfast Club", "Pretty In Pink", "Sixteen Candles, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" & "Weird Science".

Staple John Hughes actor Anthony Michael Hall, who was to go on to appear in most of John Hughes's movies throughout the 80's makes an very young appearance as Griswold's son Rusty.

The Redneck cousin girl who gives the daughter the joint is Jane Krakowski from the hit TV show Ally McBeal.

Pay close attention. In the beginning of the movie, when the Griswold's set off, you get an aerial view of the station wagon on the Freeway in Chicago and you see the Green Family Truckster taking an exit ramp. Now in the opening credits of the TV Show "Married With Children" you see the same freeway with the Griswold's Family truckster taking the exit ramp, it seems that the Married With Children producers used that scene as part of their intro. credits!

More from Married with Children... When you first see the truckster on the highway in Vacation, for a few seconds, you will see a fountain. This is the same one from the beginning of Married with Children. It looks like the producers really liked that movie a lot!

The exterior Griswald house at the beginning of the movie looked a lot like the exterior of the Ferris Buellers Day off House.

The obscure video game machine and its controllers that the kids are using before (and during) Clark's outlining of the family trip are from the short-lived Bally Astrocade.

I have a vague recollection of seeing a Swedish film on PBS that seemed to follow the story line of "Vacation". I think the tile translated as "At least the weather was good". But I have never been able to find any reference to it. Can anyone help?

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