The Correct Order To Watch National Lampoon's Vacation Movies

If you like movies about empty-headed dips and their resentful families, then National Lampoon's "Vacation" movies certainly have you covered. Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, is an exemplar — perhaps the Ur-example — of a clueless dad obsessed with fulfilling the typical American suburban dream despite a general lack of wit or competence. Clark claims to be an expert in everything, assuring his family that everything will be fine, and yet he displays no acumen or skill, and his family repeatedly witnesses him fail. We sympathize with Clark, however, as many of his failings are the result of bad luck; Clark isn't very good at traversing the daily onus of trivial nonsense, but the world seems cosmically hellbent on punishing him for his incompetence. 

The "Vacation" movies began their life as a short story called "Vacation '58," written by John Hughes and first published in the celebrated "National Lampoon" magazine in 1979. The opening sentence of that story is a corker: "If Dad hadn't shot Walt Disney in the leg, it would have been our best vacation ever." In 1983, Hughes adapted his story into a screenplay and Harold Ramis directed the first "Vacation" movie. In the ensuing decades, the series has chugged merrily along, producing a few films considered legitimate comedy classics, as well as a few that are so reviled and/or obscure that many "Vacation" fans may not even know of their existence. 

Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo have appeared in six of the seven "Vacation" movies, playing Clark Griswold and his long-suffering wife Ellen. Their kids Rusty and Audrey have notoriously been played by a rotating cast of guest stars. Randy Quaid played Cousin Eddie in four of the films.

Here is the correct order in which to watch the "Vacation" movies.

The "Vacation" movies were released in the following order: 

• "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983)
• "National Lampoon's European Vacation" (1985)
• "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989)
• "Vegas Vacation" (1997)
• "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2" (2003)
• "Hotel Hell Vacation" (2010)
• "Vacation" (2015)

The first two "Vacation" movies are both road trip adventures following a picaresque narrative of varied misadventures. The first film follows the Griswolds' road trip from their home in the suburbs of Chicago to the amusement park Wally World, clearly fashioned after Disneyland but shot at Six Flags Magic Mountain. "European Vacation" takes place in London, Paris, a village in Germany (then West Germany), and Rome. "Christmas Vacation" is the outlier in that the Griwolds stay home for the Holidays, hosting an annoying family and facing recognizable Christmas travails like stringing up Christmas lights. If the world's volume of merchandise is any indicator, "Christmas Vacation" is the most beloved of the series. 

"Vegas Vacation" was lambasted when it was released in theaters, signaling the end of the series in the minds of the public. That didn't stop a nostalgia-bait sequel, "Christmas Vacation 2" from hitting video stores in the early 2000s. That film did not feature Chase or D'Angelo, focusing instead on Randy Quaid's character, Cousin Eddie, and his family. 

"Hotel Hell Vacation" saw the return of Chase and D'Angelo. It was originally envisioned as a commercial for Super Bowl XLIV, a tie-in for the travel website HomeAway (now Vrbo). A 14-minute version of the ad was posted on the HomeAway website. The 2015 "Vacation" was structurally identical to the original "Vacation," but was about the grown-up Rusty (Ed Helms), and included cameos from Chase and D'Angelo, making it a canonical sequel. It's what the industry liked to call a "soft reboot." 

"Vacation" is unique in that it rotated through cast and crew members so frequently. No director returned to the "Vacation" series after helming a single installment. Amy Heckerling directed "European," and Jeremiah Chechik directed "Christmas." John Hughes is the sole credited writer on the 1983 film and on "Christmas," and co-wrote the screenplay for "European" with Robert Klane. The 2015 remake was written and directed by John Patrick Daley and Jonatha Goldstein, the same team behind the recent "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves."

Likewise, no two films share composers, cinematographers, or editors (the first two notwithstanding; they were cut by Pembroke J. Harring). Infamously, even the cast was constantly changing. 

The Griswold son, Rusty, for example, was played variously by Anthony Michael Hall, Jason Lively, Johnny Galecki, Ethan Embrey, Travis Greer, and Ed Helms. The Griswold daughter Audrey, was played by Dana Barron, Dana Hill, Juliette Lewis, Marison Nichols, and Leslie Mann. Audrey was not in "Hotel Hell," although Barron returned to play Audrey for "Christmas Vacation 2." Snarky fans of the series have posited that the Griswold children are in fact Time Lords from "Doctor Who," and they canonically change form frequently. 

Randy Quaid appeared in four of the "Vacation" as did Miriam Flynn, who played Cousin Eddie's wife Catherine. Jane Krakowski played a Griswold cousin named Vicki in the 1983 film, although Vicki was played by Shaye D'Lyn in "Vegas Vacation." 

As one might intuit, the cast and crew changes show that the "Vacation" movies are kind of inconsistent. Some are beloved and others are hated. A marathon of "Vacation" movies is likely a wild ride.