It seemed to be his personal punchline; a device he used a lot in conversation (prompting people to almost always ask him the fundamental question, Is this a bit?). Kenney had a small role in Animal House as Delta fraternity brother "Stork," with only two lines of dialogue. National Lampoon became an industry, spawning a record ("Radio Dinner"), a weekly radio show ("National Lampoon Radio Hour") and an off-Broadway stage show ("National Lampoon's Lemmings"). Let us be our own source of pride and approval. This magazine, founded by Kenney and his fellow Harvard alumni Henry Beard and Robert Hoffman, was a spin-off from the East of Eden (1955) Douglas Clark Francis Kenney (December 10, 1946 - August 27, 1980) was an American comedy writer of magazine, novels, radio, TV and film who co-founded the magazine National Lampoon in 1970. On August 27, 1980, Kenney fell off the Hanapepe Lookout, a cliff where he had supposedly gone hiking, and his body was discovered a few days later. Doug felt they weren't promoting the movie correctly. "Doug probably fell while he was looking for a place to jump," quipped Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the 1978 hit movie . Bunkers of it. When Caddyshack opened to negative reviews in July 1980, Kenney became deeply depressed, although Ramis joked that the film was "a six-million-dollar scholarship to film school." "He'd say, 'You know, I just got so tired.' . His maternal grandparents, Anthony Karczewski and Victoria Lesniak, were Polish. Help. The National Lampoon high school yearbook parody contains a full-page "In Memorium" to a senior who died. His death was classified as accidental by Kauai police. WhenChevy left to go back to work, Kenneys girlfriend, actress Kathryn Walker, came to keep him company. Caddyshack is very much the product of Boomers, directed by Harold Ramis (born 1944), written by Douglas Kenney (born 1946) and Brian Doyle-Murray (1945), with unforgettable contributions from . Ultimately, his constant need to seek approval from his parents (and ultimately the world) made the comedy community lose someone who would've made more great films and written more ground-breaking articles and books. Some are quick to realise that they may have made a mistake and change course. His second movie would be "Caddyshack." ". Kenney attended Gilmour Academy which is located in Gates Mills Ohio. He was married to Alexandra Appleton Garcia-Mata. The plot dissolved into a series of routines. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Maybe he didn't fall. Writer: National Lampoon's Animal House. Ive met countless individuals who went into engineering or medicine. He even referred to both of them as "mom and dad" during his stay. Kenney's generosity was on display when Murray showed up on the set of "Caddyshack" and asked if another brother, John, could get a few days' work as an extra. in. Or the club's best player, supercool Zen playboy Ty Webb, who is constantly spouting meaningless psychobabble? There was some concern from the studio. F mer information om hur vi anvnder dina personuppgifter i vr Integritetspolicy och Cookiepolicy. THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED, TRANSMITTED, CACHED OR OTHERWISE USED, EXCEPT WITH THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF DISCOVERY GOLF, INC. 2023 DISCOVERY GOLF, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. '80s Comedy at Its Best . at work at National Lampoon magazine in the 1970s Born December 10, 1946(1946 12 10) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. Died August 27, 1980 Copyright 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. And he said, 'Ahh, but I thought I was going to make you wealthy.' Doug Kenney grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, the middle child in a middle-class home. $26.99 Flatiron Books Today, Caddyshack is a beloved cinematic institution - even among non-putters - and a . "The National Lampoon," Carney wrote, "was the first full-blown appearance of non-Jewish humor in years -- not anti-Semitic, just non-Jewish. But the fact that coke fiend Doug Kenney was the producer of Caddyshack turned those checks and balances into a joke. They need the Bolivian Marching Powder." The final nail in Kenneys metaphorical coffin was the aftermath of his final film She did, however, speak to a reporter for an in-depth profile published by Esquire in 1981, the year following Kenney's death. Build Systems. I was on the balcony. So he goes out to see my cowboy boots, and it looks like I had jumped out of my boots. Made for $3 million and written by Kenney, Harold Ramis, and Chris Miller, the film exploded, taking in over $140 million. If this comment's score falls below a certain number, this submission will be automatically removed. A young man with shoulder-length blond hair and wire-rim glasses walks into a Porsche dealership in Mid-town Manhattan. How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed . Theories abounded. It would seem strange to an Indian audience, and even to me before Id seen the biopic, why Im waxing eloquent about and eulogising a man who has had no relevance to Indian culture or comedy. Kenney threw the manuscript out his office window after a negative review from Beard. The thought of suicide is a great source of comfort; with it a calm passage is to be made across many a bad night. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, National Lampoon lampoons wild and crazy guy death. We hadn't had such a good time. When his parents referred to his comedy as crude, Kenney bought them a Cadillac. Anyone else would have slowed down. By age 33, he was dead. Yes, Chevy Chases smirk, Steve Martins meta-comedy (comedy that comments on comedy), and Bill Murrays winking takes on show biz hip and cheesy lounge singers were a long way from Leave it to Beaver. I Remember Mama (1948), The African Queen (1951) Beyond the grief, Kenney felt he'd always be the family's also-ran, the one who never quite measured up. In the background of the Bushwood Club dinner party scene, Kenney is visible chopping out a line of cocaine for the female guest next to him. Bright Lights, Big City (1984). But he had kindness, intelligence and charm, and he learned how to be popular by making people laugh. At a press conference the day after the movie's first screening, Kenney showed . "We also found," Chevy Chase told Rolling Stone magazine, "written on the back of a hotel receipt, a bunch of random thoughts that included the reasons why he loved Kathryn. The sports comedy Caddyshack is a cult classic appreciated by comedy nerds and golfing dads alike. "He was a pretty delicate mechanism," she says, haltingly. The site is marked with a modest stone that lists his name and years of life. National Lampoons tribute to him was an editorial by Matty Simmons and a cartoon of a sign next to the edge of a cliff with the inscription, Doug Kenney Slipped Here.. The film, starring Will Forte as a young Kenney, employs a trope not usually seen in biopics, presenting a future Kenney as the narrator (played by Martin Mull), had he lived to this day. He wore this badge of chagrin proudly though, mentioning it on a number of occasions when introducing himself to people. Caddyshack was supposed to actually focus on the caddys. National Lampoon lampoons wild and crazy guy death. The concept for "Caddyshack" was sold as "Animal House" on a golf course "Animal House" being a still-fresh blockbuster co-written by Ramis and Doug Kenney. "We had this dreamy idea of doing a magazine, but I don't think we really had a clue what was involved," says Beard. Several months later, Fisher told Kenney he had to let his wife and Simmons know where he was. "That's good . But the sex-and-drug-laden script was a bit too racy to be set in high school, so they brought in Lampoon's resident collegiate expert, Chris Miller, and set the thing in a college frat house instead. 4. It was while bartending at the Drafthouse that I developed a solid criterion for judging a comedy scene. As his parents looked on . It's about Doug Kenney and they don't shy away from the drugs that were on this set. He spent most of the 1970s in Manhattan, where he co-founded the Lampoon. At a press conference for the . We have migrated to a new commenting platform. We see him and Miller, as Hardbar, in the same shot during the escapade. Chevy Chase, as philosophical golf ace Ty Webb, asks Caddyshack's youthful hero, Danny Noonan ( Michael O'Keefe ). Caddyshack - (Movie Clip) Be The Ball. Kenney died on August 27, 1980, aged 33, after falling from a 35-foot cliff in Hawaii. Kenney liked to joke about death. When Caddyshack opened to negative reviews in July 1980, Kenney became deeply depressed, though Ramis joked that the film was "a six-million-dollar scholarship to film school." At a press conference, Kenney verbally abused reporters and then fell into a drunken stupor. ", Kenney made some calls during his time alone there. Its not worth your mental health. So, he suggested to Beard they create a mainstream, professional, worldwide, syndicated version of the magazine. Now a Netflix original film starring Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson, and Emmy Rossum. Its not worth your sanity. "It wasn't like Doug.". The makers of A Futile and Stupid Gesture might have wondered if that title would be the verdict on their biopic of Doug Kenney, the National Lampoon co-founder and co-writer of Animal House.His . Lacey Underall, Judge Smails' zesty blond niece (played by Cindy Morgan), was patterned after a wealthy, unattainable beauty who was a guest at Kenney's club one summer. Just like Carl Spackler and his imagined victory at the Masters, "Caddyshack" was the surprise cult comedy no one saw coming. Du kan ndra dina val nr som helst genom att beska dina integritetskontroller. As in"All might come clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Found the internet! He called Chase, too, and asked him to come back to Hawaii. Beard (who was originally set on attending law school before co-founding the magazine) and Hoffman (who returned to Harvard to attend business school) cashed out on Lets channel his remarkable talent and creativity. It was a precursor to todays Alamo Drafthouse. He shows off the door sign from "National Lampoon Radio Hour," which Kenney had once stolen and presented to him as a gift. Everybody who sees it enjoys it immensely.' Or he'd pretend he'd been shot. The climactic chaos in the parade-breaks-down scenes of Animal House are right out of Chaplin. One movie producer compared Kenneys spontaneous comic mind to a genius playing jazz. When Caddyshack opened to negative reviews in July 1980, Kenney became deeply depressed, though Ramis joked that the film was "a six-million-dollar scholarship to film school." At a press conference, Kenney verbally abused reporters and then fell into a drunken stupor. He went on to write, produce and perform in the influential comedies Animal House and Caddyshack before his sudden death at the age of 33. . Kenneys life is an example for a number of young Indians today, ones who dream of a career in creativity, who work tirelessly and struggle to make this happen, who spend possibly their entire lives trying to please their parents and cause unnecessary harm to themselves in the process. Ramis still wishes they had marketed a plastic "Caddyshack" pool toy that looked like a Baby Ruth. Things deteriorated. This is the first-ever biography of Kenney--the heart and soul of National Lampoonreconstructing the history of that . It sold three million copies. He recalls Kenney snoozing behind a wall while Chase was filming the improvised rub-down scene with the Lacey Underall character. Kenney's solution: "[Screw] it, let's make him a production assistant." So by the time Doyle-Murray met Kenney, he had a bagful of caddie tales. Great-grandson of James Buchanans vice president John C. Breckinridge, Beard grew up at the Westbury Hotel in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Ramis pitched a social comedy about the American Nazi Party marching in Skokie, Ill. Peters hooked them up with Mike Medavoy of Orion Pictures, who shot down those ideas. The pair began compiling their ideas in New York, wandering into coffee shops and bars and jotting down ideas on napkins. Released in 1980, the crude, vulgarity-laced film launched Harold Ramis's directorial career and pulled Bill Murray into the spotlight. One was to Brian Doyle-Murray. At a press conference the day after the movie's first screening, Kenney showed . He stares ahead, then recalls the first time he met Doug Kenney. Caddyshack behind the scenes also had plenty of dark drama and tragedy though. "He was more likely to mock sadness. ", In July 1971, 15 months after the magazine's first issue and less than a year after his marriage to Alex Garcia-Mata, a woman he had known in college, Kenney ran away. I think he was out of it, and he had less and less keeping him tied." By Gabrielle Bruney Published: Dec 23, 2017. Doug's rage was, except maybe to get back at those S.O.B.'s from Chagrin Falls Later, at the National Lampoon, Kenney and colleague P.J. Biography. Ramis went later, as did Fisher. He leans his head on the steering wheel, runs his fingers through his hair and starts doing Kenney's hand mannerisms, recalling his constant movement and his slightly forward-leaning walk. Klicka p Hantera instllningar fr mer information och fr att hantera dina val. with his super-cool English professor, played by Donald Sutherland. Doug Kenney (class of '68) had a decidedly different background. He was 32 years old. Bill Murray, playing a masochist going to sadistic dentist Steve Martin in Little Shop of Horrors would empty the kitchen. As for Spackler, the rustic greenkeeper, Kenney knew exactly who he wanted: Bill Murray. From left are file photos showing Chevy Chase in 1986, Rodney Dangerfield in 2002 and Ted Knight in 1981. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material. Kenney was editor-in-chief from 1970 to 1972, senior editor from 1973 to 1974 and editor from 1975 to 1976. Beard nodded, and Kenney dropped it in the wastebasket. Flatiron books, 2018. Doug Kenney was a small-town kid from a place in Ohio called Chagrin Falls, a place aptly named for what he felt consistently in the last few years of his short life. "Caddyshack," which revolves around the scholarship aspirations of teenaged caddy Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe) at snobby Bushwood Country Club, is ranked the No. "Caddyshack," the film that sparked countless oft-repeated quotes, most of them made up on . Genom att klicka p Godknn alla godknner du att Yahoo och vra partner behandlar din personliga information och anvnder tekniker som cookies fr att visa personliga annonser och innehll, mta annonser och innehll, f information om mlgruppen och utveckla produkter. The biopic is about an American phenomenon from the 70s I have found to be fairly unknown to most Indians the rise and fall of a man and his satirical magazine that grew to become a nationwide sensation. Suicide Letters to Santa. But they got so much good stuff from things everyone else improvised that cut almost the entire script. The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Favourites on top: On ICC women Twenty20 World Cup, EPFO starts accepting joint options for higher pension, Higher pension | Eligible EPFO members can apply till May 3, Exit polls predict hung house in Meghalaya, NDPP-BJP win in Nagaland and emergence of Tipra Motha as kingmaker in Tripura, Russia-China, West divide may raise tensions at G20, Stocks that will see action on February 28, 2023. He's wearing torn jeans, basketball shoes and his old high school jacket, and he's staring at a red 911 Targa. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts . Would have loved to see what he would have made had his life not ended so early. "National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody" is a comic masterpiece. National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook, National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook Parody, Regolian (segment "Captain Sternn") (voice). They were writing for their generation, they were writing about sex and drugs, and they didn't care if their parents didn't get it. "Every day," Danny replies without batting an eyelash. A Futile and Stupid Gesture . Part of his grace was in not destroying you. The Making of documentary is better than the movie itself. They hung out. Mark Judge is a writer and filmmaker in Washington, D.C. Stay informed and enjoy the latest writings of the University Bookman by joining our email list. While police ruled the death as accidental, quite a few suspect it was intentional, given the glaring sign of warning in front of the lookout. Named after a book by the same name, A Futile and Stupid Gesture will chronicle the life of Doug Kenney, one of the founders of the National Lampoon comedy dynasty. "The whole National Lampoon sensibility and approach to comedy was so different from the previous generation's -- the Bob Hopes and Dick Van Dykes and Buddy Hacketts. The person in the picture is Doug Kenney. He'd leave and come back sheepishly and stand there like a little boy or a puppy. When the magazine was sold in 1975 Kenney pocketed $2.8-million and went to Hollywood. "My image of him is the astronaut hanging by a cord in outer space," says Fisher. "I said, 'It is a hit in my book. He did this as a showoff exercise. Thats where we would be wrong. Warner Bros. Ted Knight brought life to Judge Smails and Chevy Chase played Ty Webb in the 1980 comedy . There was no happily ever after. Kenney's close friend Chevy Chase took him to Kauai, Hawaii, hoping the relaxing environment would help him, but had to leave to return to work. Yet many SNL skits could have appeared in earlier eras. "We were lovers, but not in a homosexual sense," says Chase from his home outside New York City, where a large photo of Kenney hangs on the office wall. Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story A month after "Caddyshack" opened, to lukewarm reviews, Kenney's body was found at the bottom of the Hanapepe Lookout in Hawaii. Beard later said the book simply made no sense and was all over the place. But it was groundbreaking in its own way, and it's still much better than any other golf movie before or since (most of which make the mistake of taking the game seriously). . Lampoon s success after five years of its conception and moved on with their lives. The final film was quite different than the one Kenney, Doyle-Murray and Ramis had envisioned. These guys are golf course stereotypes elevated to comic absurdity. "So I wondered if he had left one last, incredibly strange joke. After the incident at the Caddyshack press conference, it became apparent that Kenney had a substance abuse problem. "He had gone from being the center of things, and then suddenly he was more or less a hired hand on somebody else's movie. The yearbook of the "C Estes Kefauver Memorial High School" of "Dacron, Ohio," includes Kenney's A Futile and Stupid Gesture , which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24 this year and, two days later, released on Netflix. His death was ruled an accident, but it is widely believed he committed suicide. That's an auspicious start in of itself, but he wasn't happy. His co-writer joked that he "probably fell while looking for a . Everything changed after 'Animal House.' (Meatballs and Stripes, the two films that Bill Murray starred in before and after Caddyshack, remain superior efforts; his 1993 comedy Groundhog Day is a masterpiece.) But Beard tells a different story: "What he was trying to do was capture this global inanity of the American experience," he says. Kenney was unlucky not to realise that. He may have gone there with suicidal thoughts, decided against it and fallen anyway. The full title of Karp's book . The ending relies on the most tired of Hollywood tropes, a big explosion. Kenney and Beard joined forces with Simmons and a business guy, Harvard buddy Rob Hoffman, to create a new magazine. It also constantly breaks the fourth wall, in Kenneys own irreverent way, even to ridicule inaccuracies in its own story and portrayals. Kenney also had a small role in Caddyshack as a dinner guest of Al Czervik. He went on to write, produce and perform in the influential comedies Animal House and Caddyshack before his sudden death at the age of 33 . Another of these writers was Henry Beard, with whom Kenney frequently collaborated, and who became a lifelong friend. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Upvote this comment if this is a Movie Detail. But before Chase could leave Los Angeles, he got a call that his friend was missing. Book was great by the way if youre a Caddyshack fan! Chevy was preparing to return when he got a phone call that his friend was missing. The explosion was reported at the nearby Fort Lauderdale airport by an incoming pilot, who suspected a plane had crashed. As casting began to fall into place, the movie needed a star -- or stars. Douglas Clark Francis Kenney (December 10, 1946 - August 27, 1980) was an American comedy writer of magazine, novels, radio, TV, and film who co-founded the magazine National Lampoon in 1970. Vi, Yahoo, r en del av Yahoos varumrkesfamilj. "Newspapers and magazines at the time were so stuffy and rigid," says Prager. He had smoked grass and used acid and cocaine in Manhattan but in L.A. his drug use spiralled out of control. O'Rourke created an entire high school on paper, perfectly mimicking the photos, the language and the naivet of the time. They swam. They need to be fed. Lets not make one of our friends say that we possibly died while looking for a place to jump, like Harold Ramis did of his friend. I remember I once barked at a waiter or waitress, and Doug gave me a lecture on my behavior. From the volcanic cliff edge there are terrific views of a lush, tropical valley that proved to be an excellent setting for the filming of parts of "Jurassic Park.". Maybe in that one bright, shining moment, he flew. (Link to clip in comments) The Boro became the Bethesda Theater in 1939, and in the early eighties the Bethesda transformed into the Cinema n Drafthouse, its interior reconfigured with a round tables and a kitchen that served pub food. The days were long, and Kenney's partying continued. If the kitchen staff left their posts to watch a scene, it was funny. Around that time a new countercultural comedy show, Saturday Night Live, launched. If a musician has perfect pitch, Kenney had perfect ear. They spent a couple of weeks at Vic Braden's tennis camp in California, and then each took a room at the Hyatt Regency in Maui. Three years later, the movie he would co-write, "National Lampoon's Animal House," would become the biggest grossing comedy in history and spawn a whole new cinematic genre. Kenney produced and wrote Caddyshack with Brian Doyle-Murray and Harold Ramis. Here are 10 behind-the-scenes facts about the movie. This is the first-ever biography of Kenney--the heart and soul of National Lampoon--reconstructing the history of that . (In 1975, Lorne Michaels hired O'Donoghue to be the head writer on a new show he was doing for NBC, and the rest is still coming to us live from New York on Saturday night.). From the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Caddyshack is the subject of a beautifully written and even historically important book. Chris Miller paid homage by naming the main character in his 1996 film Multiplicity "Doug Kinney.". Life With Father (1947) There are holes in their boots and they are hungry. Chase and Walker went to retrieve the body, and they visited the site, too. Kenney remained on staff until 1977, when he left the magazine to co-write the screenplay to National Lampoon's Animal House, with Chris Miller and Harold Ramis. Much of the humor in "Caddyshack" is generated by Rodney Dangerfield's over-the-top performance as the boorish Al Czervik. "He was very good at concealing his pain," says Ramis, sitting on a leather couch on the second floor of his Ocean Pictures office in Highland Park, Ill. His close friend Chevy Chase figured Kenneyneeded to get away from Hollywood and took him to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Kenney may have fallen -- it was a slippery overlook and a place where it was easy to mistake a crumbling precipice for solid ground. Then he ran away again -- this disappearance resulting in a months-long stay in a tent on Martha's Vineyard. Or the ultimate crass loudmouth (and loud dresser) Al Czervik, whose huge golf bag contains a built-in sound system, mini-TV, phone and beer tap? The appeal of "Caddyshack" lies in its magnificent cast of characters, and the way they clash with each other at the fictional Bushwood Country Club, a place that's riddled with the usual petty disputes and social conventions that can be found at any archetypal golf club. He's talking excitedly about his new Scotty Cameron putter. One of his favorite epigrams was, "You have to roll with the bullets. The movie came out to bad reviews, even Kenney hated it. Three days earlier, on a fine Polynesian afternoon, the man from Chagrin Falls had parked his rented Jeep along the road by the Hanapepe Lookout, walked past the sign that warned of the nearby cliff edge, and plunged 40 feet to his death. They did a hugely popular high school yearbook parody, a radio program, and The Lemmings, a satire of Woodstock. I think it was Steve Martin who credits his propensity for bad trips on psychadelics for saving him from the cocaine "scourge" (his word) of the 80's. His paternal grandparents, Daniel J. Kenney and Eleanor Agnes (Noonan), were of Irish origin. The pathologist who did the autopsy said it was likely Kenney died on impact because his ribs were broken and his skull fractured. Of course there was tons of coke involved! "Animal House" swiftly followed -- Kenney originally partnered with Ramis to write "Laser Orgy Girls," based on the idea of Charles Manson in high school. When Universal bought the script to Animal House a bright young director, John Landis, was brought in to direct. Doug Kenney, founder of Nat'l Lampoon, and Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes were both from Chagrin Falls, OH . While vacationing in Hawaii in 1980, the National Lampoon magazine co-founder and OG of snark walked. Soon after, he, Beard and fellow Harvard alumnus Robert Hoffman began work on founding the humor magazine National Lampoon. Supposedly producer Doug Kenney thought she was the best looking of the girls who auditioned. He didn't live to see his $8 million "failure" take in almost $40 million at the box office, or hear its lines of dialogue become part of the American lexicon. After the shoot, Kenney, Ramis and Doyle-Murray returned to Los Angeles to edit all the antic footage down to the 99 minutes that comprise the finished movie. "He spent too much time thinking over his shots. Read about it in the book Caddyshack: The making of a Hollywood Cinderella story and then went back and watched that part again. Caddyshack is a golf flick that teed off in unremarkable fashion some 40 years ago, disappointing critics and underwhelming at the box office. He didn't have enough to do, and he was on a downward spiral.". Where does it lead people whose creativity can influence generations to come? Concerned, friends began asking Kenney to seek professional help, but by that time he was out of control, joking about previous suicide attempts, driving recklessly and using increasing amounts of cocaine. They played tennis. The Drafthouse had begun as the Boro, a beautiful art deco movie space designed in 1938 by Dean of American Theatre Architects John Eberson. Kenney lived in Chagrin Falls from 1958 to 1964 and attended Gilmour Academy, a Catholic prep high school for boys in nearby Gates Mills, Ohio. Alcohol, pot and cocaine were around for the taking. The photo is a head shot of a striking young man in a tux with piercing eyes and a crew cut. The part Kenney chose to play himself was Stork, the weirdo nerd. Gathering some of the great funnymen of the '70s -- Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Rodney Dangerfield -- the 1980 film Caddyshack may be the most quotable comedy ever. "When I saw his office, I realized he must be pretty important. The book was adapted into the 2018 Netflix feature film A Futile and Stupid Gesture, which stars comedian Will Forte as Kenney and is narrated by the actor Martin Mull, who plays a fictional 70-year-old version of Kenney who had survived into old age. Following the unprecedented success of National Lampoon's Animal House, writers Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney decided to tell a similar . Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material. Kenney co-wrote the hit movie comedies Animal House (1978, starring John Belushi) and Caddyshack (1980, with Bill Murray and Chevy Chase). Kenney had made it. "It brought people in -- made them feel comfortable." At the Lampoon, Kenney spent long hours in the magazine's headquarters, a 1909 castle complete with turreted tower and leaded-glass windows. He has just sold his stake in it for millions. "He was very damaged by the amount of drugs he had done. His death was classified as accidental by Kauai police. 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