The following year brought “Caddyshack,” a raucous underdog sports comedy set in the laid-back world of golf. That’s why young people kept returning to the movie all summer. Released during the summer of 1979, “Meatballs” was the sleeper hit that more than held its own against such major releases as “ Alien,” “Rocky II,” and “ Escape from Alcatraz.” The movie was thin on character and plot, little more than a series of loosely strung together gags involving hot-dog eating contests and relay races, with Murray as the coolest camp counselor ever. This was evident with the surprise success of “Meatballs,” a quickie cheap Canadian production designed to showcase Murray. Unlike, say, Steve Martin’s absurdist-deconstructionist style of comedy, Murray’s too-cool-for-school approach is what made him so appealing to both aging middle-class Boomers who were nostalgic for their raising-hell youth and their always-questioning Gen-X kids. He let you in on the joke of show business, but Murray wasn’t as alienating. Like Kaufman, Murray let you in on the fact that you were watching a live show. Murray was a more accessible Andy Kaufman, the “SNL” guest performer who seemed to revel in making audiences find the joke. But on “Saturday Night Live, ” he made it a point not to play “characters.” Instead, no matter what the sketch started out as, the moment Murray appeared you knew it was going to go off into a completely different direction. He looks as if he could play heavies or hulking dim-witted sidekicks. Surprisingly big and with a seemingly permanent smirk on his face, Bill Murray was never a conventional film star. But at the center of it all is Bill Murray, acting as a kind of detached Zen master of comedy, a character who was inside and outside the story at the same time. Co-star and co-screenwriter Harold Ramis co-wrote “Animal House” and made his directorial debut with “ Caddyshack.” Second City alums John Candy and Joe Flaherty have key supporting roles. Director Ivan Reitman was a co-producer on “Animal House” and directed Murray in his first movie “Meatballs” (1979). While not an official entry in the National Lampoon franchise, there is enough talent involved that it more or less qualifies as a stealth addition to the canon. Recounting the adventures of a bunch of smart-alecky, thirtysomething post-hippie types who find a sense of purpose by enlisting in the US Army, “Stripes” now plays like a poker-faced endorsement of a sentiment that climaxed 1960s at dinner-table arguments between long-haired, pot-smoking, Establishment-mocking sons and their World War II generation fathers. Released in 1981, six months after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, “Stripes” was sold to the studio as “Animal House Joins the Army.” (Actually, it was originally conceived as a vehicle for Cheech & Chong.) The movie exemplifies how the counterculture went mainstream, defanging itself for fame and fortune, and happily joining the establishment it once lived to tear down. And the one movie that could rival “Animal House” for its lasting cultural influence is the anarchic service comedy “ Stripes.” But the one performer from “Saturday Night Live” who best epitomizes both the anti-Establishment ethos of the counterculture and ushered in the cool, detached irony of the next generation was Bill Murray. “Animal House” became a cultural touchstone for the way it brought the fringe world of fraternities into the mainstream. And John Belushi, the combustible wild man of “SNL,” gave his most memorable performance in the John Landis-directed “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (1978). Chase would find his biggest movie success with the National Lampoon-endorsed “ Vacation” franchise. Early breakout stars from “Saturday Night Live” include Chevy Chase, a whip-smart mimic who quickly left the show for Hollywood.
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