Delta House

In the 1970s, no hit film was safe from the clutches of ambitious TV producers. "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" became "Alice," "Private Benjamin" became, um, "Private Benjamin", and let's not even talk about ABC's ill-fated attempt to turn "The Deer Hunter" into a sitcom vehicle for Norman Fell.

In that vein, "Delta House" had the potential to be a worthy follow-up to "Animal House." It reunited much of the cast of the debaucherous 1978 classic as well as many of the original's creative team. Trouble was, "Animal House" was a raunchy R-rated movie, and in 1979, television was so squeaky-clean you couldn't even say the word "pregnant." ABC, land of "Three's Company"'s wacky-till-it-bleeds double-entendres, stuck "Delta House" in an early-evening timeslot worthy of "The Waltons" and surgically excised any trace of the original's humor, leaving the cast with nothing to do but pass around tone-deaf anti-establishment banter that even Dean Wormer would have found square. "Delta House" got promising ratings despite all this, but perhaps sensing the creative impossibility, ABC pulled the plug. The cast and crew deserve a medal for trying, but there was just no way to adapt a screamingly funny R-rated film for broadcast TV in 1979, and thankfully there still isn't. John Belushi's Bluto would have smashed this show to bits on a staircase.

Having played Otter in the series, I can tell you that despite all of our best efforts ABC insisted on programing it in the family hour. Since the humour of Animal House was irreverent and raunchy and the family hour wouldn't allow that, we were in effect, castrated. The producers, writers, and most of the cast were from the original movie and all of our sensibilities were in line with the movie. Unfortunately, ABC's weren't. Nevertheless, we were never out of the top 10, but the Producer, Matty Simmons, who also produced the movie, had enough fights with ABC that it doomed us after 15 episodes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. -Peter Fox (Otter)

CATCHING MAGIC IN a bottle is difficult to do and must rely on luck far more than any skill or artistic talent. To repeat this process seems to be neigh well impossible; especially when any follow-up or sequel is transported to another medium.

WHAT WORKED ON the big screen of the movie houses oft fizzles when it is adapted to the Televisin, especially if it is placed into the thirty minute constraint of episodic Sitcoms.

AS A PRIME example of what we're driving at, we need not look very far back in time. With the success of MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING() at the movie houses, CBS welcomed its video off spring, MY BIG FAT Greek LIFE. It featured many of the same cast members as did the theatrical feature film and was supposed to be the story of the newly wed couple's life after their wedding day.

SO, WHAT HAPPENED may have been a big surprise to the "Bottom Lkiners" at the old network, but it lasted only a paltry 7 episodes.

MUCH IN THE same manner, DELTA HOUSE had many of the same players from the feature, ANIMAL HOUSE (or more properly, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMSAL HOUSE), sans John Belushi as "BlutO". They had the same setting and tried to maintain a sort of continuity with the blockbuster film. They even introduced a younger brother character of the Belushi character as Jim "Blotto" Blutarsky. The fraternity's feud with Dean Wormer continued and everything should have been copasetic, right?

SO, WHAT WE think worked against this DELTA HOUSE spin off was that no matter how they tried, it was not what the public had found to be so attractive to their tastes in the theatrical release. Being on network, broadcast television automatically precluded so many of the "adult" incidents, nudity and language that a movie could get away with.

AND DON'T YOU forget, this was long before all of those daring cable productions that we have grown used to by now.

"National Lampoon's Animal House" was one of those rare films that changed the entire film industry. A huge box-office hit, it spawned dozens (maybe hundreds) of imitations. Naturally, television wanted some of the gravy. In the 1979 TV season, all three U.S. TV networks rushed frat-house sitcoms onto the air. The ones on CBS and NBC were outright crap, and died quickly. 'Delta House', on ABC, was likewise crap, but had the advantage of being the *official* TV version of 'Animal House', due to casting several of the film's actors in their same roles here.

John Belushi, who had starred as 'Bluto' Blutarsky in the film, was (no surprise) unwilling to commit to a weekly sitcom. In this show's one piece of cleverness, a surrogate Bluto was cast in the form of actor Josh Mostel as 'Blotto', Bluto's brother. Josh Mostel is a talented actor: his physical type makes him difficult to cast, but he has a far broader range than his father, the grossly overrated Less-Than-Zero Mostel. (In an interview, Josh Mostel revealed the one and only piece of showbiz wisdom ever imparted to him by his father: 'Just before you go on stage, suck on something red so your tongue will show up.') It would have been intriguing if Belushi had guest-starred in 'Delta House'. Despite his absence, the scriptwriters made running references to his character. In one episode, Blotto announced that he'd received a letter from his brother Bluto, prompting a Delta brother to respond 'I didn't know Bluto could write' and another Delta to riposte 'I didn't know Blotto could read.' We did get to learn a bit more about the characters (and actors) who were carried over from the original movie ... for example, actor Bruce "D-Day" McGill demonstrating his ability to dislocate his joints so that his legs are reversed from hip to ankle!

The most obvious flaw in 'Delta House' was that network television simply could not offer the bawdy humour, drugs references, and obscenity-laced dialogue which had made 'Animal House' so popular. Much as Blotto was a bowdlerised version of Bluto, this sitcom was an antiseptic version of a film which was a hit precisely *because* of its skanky elements. Without any 'Animal House' shenanigans, 'Delta House' fell back on the lowest sitcom humour. A typical gag: in one episode, an attractive co-ed walked through the frat house wearing an army uniform. She went into a room, closed the door, then *immediately* opened the door and came out again wearing a sexy miniskirt and high heels. The laugh track guffawed uproariously, but the unfunny effect was clearly achieved by a very obvious jump cut.

For modern viewers, the single biggest attraction of 'Delta House' is a glimpse of the young Michelle Pfeiffer, early in her career. But Pfeiffer's role on 'Delta House' was extremely small, and she was given nothing to do beyond the standard bimbo bits. Pfeiffer has aged in an interesting way; I find her far sexier the way she is now (as I write this) than as she was at the time of 'Delta House' ... and she's a better actress now, too. The only alumnus of 'Delta House' to graduate with honours is make-up man Michael Blake, who is now the leading authority on the life and career of Lon Chaney. Really, there's nothing much going on here.

Yes I Saw this one year before I'd seen the Movie "Animal House" on HBO & Yes I enjoyed this show very much from what I recall of it.The Ad of which asked "Every wonder whatever happened to those National Lampoon Animals?""They're here at Delta House."The episode in which Blotto Says"Let's give them World War III in action!"Then the soldiers were fooled by the scenery of which was only small toy scenery set ups burning that they saw through their periscopes (or whatever you may call these.)I also was impressed by the general idea of Blotto as a pig,even without having seen Bluto as such first.The Delta House Theme song to open the show was very catchy too.As was the song going to as well as coming back from the commercials "Delta House oh Delta House." while they showed the picture of Blotto & the guys.But my most favorite reminiscence is from my High School's Year Book of The Philomath '79 under To Eat With: it said right side by side John "Bluto" Belushi & Josh "Blotto" Mostel.Even the original cast members that reprise their roles well as Flounder,Otter,etc.did well as I got to see when I had seen them in "Animal House" itself a year later on HBO. Perhaps in some respects this can be appreciated better to those who haven't seen the movie first and of which might be why I do appreciate it better not having seen the Movie until the following year in the Summer.

Truthfully, Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a. "Ste" of Framingham,Ma.USA where I had attended Framingham South High and graduated in 1982.