Hard Ticket to Ho-Ho-Home Video: True or False Trivia: Christmas Vacation

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One of the fascinating pieces of trivia below is true*, the other is false. Do YOU know which is which?

Christmas Vacation (1989)

1) The Griswolds’ neighbor’s house is the same house Murtaugh and his family lived in all the “Lethal Weapon” movies. The houses on this street are on the Warner Brothers Studios back lot.

Mac Murtagh

2) The cat electrocution scene was shot dozens of times, but first-time director Jeremiah Chechik just wasn’t satisfied and thought it appeared too fake on film. Randy Quaid then suggested that Chechik use some of the stray cats that were then following Quaid everywhere he went. Chechik found that when a live cat was electrocuted, the effect was made more believable by approximately 18%. After 23 takes, Chechik was finally contented. “Yeah, it turned out ok, but the main reason I stopped shooting takes is because we simply ran out of cats,” Chechik admitted in a 2009 interview. To appease the ASPCA officials present on set, the fried felines were served to the actors who played Cousin Eddie’s starving children, as Chechik explained to them that this is what their poor characters would actually eat for Christmas dinner.

Christmas Vacation fried cat

*true trivia courtesy of IMDB.com

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