Nashawaty (Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger -Corman, King of the B Movie) provides a thorough look at the 1980 golfing comedy classic and the sex, drugs, and Kenny Loggins soundtrack that drove its making. Starting in the mid-1960s, Nashawaty traces Caddyshack's genealogy starting with writers from the Harvard Lampoon forming National Lampoon magazine, the shift in emphasis from writing to acting with National Lampoon's radio show and albums, the loss of talent to higher-profile gigs on Saturday Night Live, and finally, National Lampoon regaining importance with the wildly successful film Animal House. By the time Caddyshack is given the green light (roughly 100 pages in), the reader has a comprehensive knowledge of the 1970s New York comedy scene. Among the book's large cast of characters (Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Rodney Dangerfield), Doug Kenney stands out as the central, tragic figure-a boy genius who helped launch National Lampoon and who cowrote and produced Caddyshack but died -mysteriously shortly after its release. -VERDICT Casual readers will be better served by skipping the first half of this book and diving into the pot- and cocaine-fueled high jinks, cast and crew memories, and Hollywood drama collected here.-Terry Bosky, Madison, WI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The critics didn't like it much. It didn't have much in the way of stars, with Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield as the headliners. It had a first-time director, a script that went through a multitude of iterations, and a costar, Bill Murray, who would go off-script whenever the mood struck. And it was about golf. It should have been a disaster, but Caddyshack (1980) became not just a cult fave but also a comedy classic. Film-critic Nashawaty's chronicle of the creation of the film goes back to the offices of the Harvard Lampoon in the mid-1960s, where Caddyshack's primary writer, Douglas Kenney, was the magazine's editor, and tracks the rise of satirical comedy and its practitioners, following the careers of the stars and creators of a movie that wasn't made for critics and mainstream audiences but, rather, for baby boomers, lovers of cutting-edge comedy and the new, edgy style of filmmaking. Nashawaty's prose is lively, and his exhaustive research is bolstered by interviews with many of the film's principle players, including the famously elusive Murray. A wonderful celebration of a passionately loved film.--Pitt, David Copyright 2018 Booklist

Entertainment Weekly film critic Nashawaty (Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses) tackles the rocky production and eventual success of the raucous 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack. The story of Caddyshack, Nashawaty shows, was very much that of its producer/cowriter Douglas Kenney, who died in an accident at age 35 soon after the film's release. A one-time Harvard Lampoon writer who subsequently helped found the spin-off National Lampoon, Kenney crossed paths with members of Chicago's Second City improv troupe and of the fledgling Saturday Night Live in the mid-'70s, resulting in the blockbuster film Animal House. As a follow-up, Caddyshack was expected to be a surefire hit, but competing egos, the inexperience of first-time director Harold Ramis, and ample drug use plagued the filming from the beginning. In Nashawaty's hilarious depiction, the production is shown to have been utter chaos, albeit with some creative genius tossed in-notably from star Bill Murray, who turned his throwaway groundskeeper role into Caddyshack's signature character. Moreover, the film's fans may be surprised to learn that upon its completion, both Kenney and the film's distributor, Warner Brothers, were convinced that it would be a flop. Nashawaty's book provides both an entertaining showbiz chronicle and, by the conclusion, an unexpectedly moving tribute to Kenney's short life and lasting comic legacy. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary Agency. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.