Critics considered National Lampoon's Animal House to be cheap, terribly plotted, and in bad taste upon its release in the summer of 1978. Nevertheless, the comedy struck a chord with its public and grossed more than $90 million in its first year. The movie's success inspired an entirely new genre of teenage "animal comedy" movies and three television network series and started a craze of toga parties on college campuses nationwide. It also launched the movie career of comedian John Belushi.

Despite the lasting influence of the film, many movie studios agreed with the initial critics and passed on the script. John Landis remembers thinking that he was the last person asked to direct, and only then because everyone else had turned it down. As it was, the studio gave him less than $3 million to make the movie, which afforded him a cast of largely unknown actors and...