National Lampoon's Vacation/Trivia

• Hey, It's That Guy!: The police officer that pulls the Griswolds after dragging the dog is Deputy Halik from Moving Violations.
  • Cousin Eddie's daughter is a very young Jenna from Thirty Rock.
  • European Vacation is filled with this for European audiences, as the supporting cast was drawn from comic and character actors from each country featured. Just to name a few: British comic actors Mel Smith (the London hotelier), Robbie Coltrane, Maureen Lipman (other guests in the hotel), Ballard Berkeley (the second motorist), and Eric Idle (the injury-prone cyclist), French character performers Didier Pain (the camera thief) and Victor Lanoux (one of Ellen's kidnappers), and German comedy veterans Willy Millowitsch and Erika Wackernagel (the Griswolds' unwitting German hosts).
    • Meanwhile, for American audiences, Pig in a Poke is presented by John Astin and announced by Gary Owens.
  • After Christmas Vacation Rusty will move to California and become a physicist.
• The Other Darrin: While Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo kept reprising their roles as the Griswold parents for the first four films, their kids were played by different actors each time: Anthony Michael Hall, Jason Lively, Johnny Galecki and Ethan Embry played Rusty while Dana Barron, Dana Hill, Juliette Lewis and Marisol Nichols played Audrey. Dana Barron is the only one to return to the role; she plays Audrey in the Cousin Eddie Christmas sequel.
• Technology Marches On: Today, finding out if the park is closed would be as simple as checking its web page, and because of the prevalence of GPS, getting lost driving across the country would be much more difficult.
• What Could Have Been: The destination was originally supposed to be Disneyland, as it was in the short story, but it was rejected since the park is open year-round and thus the ending with John Candy wouldn't have worked.
  • The ending of Vacation was far different where Clark would hold up Roy Walley in his home and force him to sing and dance. Negative test screenings made the filmmakers rewrite the scene.