Vacation Fun

National Lampoon's Vacation, sometimes referred to as simply Vacation, is a 1983 American comedy road film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut with special appearances by Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach, Eugene Levy, and Frank McRae. It tells the story of the Griswold family on a cross-country trip to an amusement park and various locations as accidents and mishaps occur along the way. The screenplay was written by John Hughes on the basis of his short story "Vacation '58", which appeared in National Lampoon. National Lampoon's Vacation was released by Warner Bros. on July 29, 1983. The film was a box-office hit, earning more than $60 million in the U.S. alone with an estimated budget of $15 million. As a result of its success, five sequels have been produced: European Vacation (1985), Christmas Vacation (1989), Vegas Vacation (1997), Christmas Vacation 2 (2003), and Vacation (2015). In 2000, readers of Total Film voted it the 46th greatest comedy film of all time.