97 Fun Facts About Caddyshack

President Obama's 2014 tribute to Harold Ramis hoped he had received what, borrowing a Caddyshack line?

Total consciousness is the deathbed reward Murray's greenskeeper boasts of in a caddying yarn Murray improvised, as he did most of his lines; Obama's statement closed with it.

Caddyshack was the directorial debut of its co-writer, who went on to direct which 1993 comedy?

Groundhog Day went to Bill Murray only after Ramis's first choice, Tom Hanks, passed, and later said audiences would sit waiting for a nice guy like him to turn good.

What is the name of the exclusive country club where Caddyshack is set?

Bushwood returns in Caddyshack II, where a developer the club turned away buys majority control and turns it into a gaudy mini-golf park.

Which teenage caddie is Caddyshack's protagonist, chasing the club's caddie scholarship?

Danny Noonan nearly went to Mickey Rourke, one of two finalists the filmmakers weighed, before Michael O'Keefe won the part.

Who plays Ty Webb, the easygoing playboy golfer?

Chevy Chase plays Ty Webb and was the only star who came back for Caddyshack II, in what amounted to a glorified cameo.

Rodney Dangerfield plays which loud nouveau-riche property developer?

Rodney Dangerfield plays Al Czervik, a part Ramis first leaned toward giving Don Rickles before Dangerfield's run on The Tonight Show won him over.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show actor plays Caddyshack's pompous Judge Elihu Smails?

Ted Knight plays Judge Smails; Caddyshack II, made after his death in 1986, handed a Smails-style snob to Robert Stack instead.

What is the name of Bill Murray's gopher-obsessed greenskeeper?

Carl Spackler began as a small part, but the writers kept adding scenes for the greenskeeper during the shoot as Murray riffed his way through them.

What does Caddyshack's greenskeeper plant around the course in his final attempt to kill the gopher?

Plastic explosives, molded into little animals, blow up the course, and the tremors tip the final putt into the cup while the gopher survives.

In Bill Murray's improvised Caddyshack monologue, he fantasises about winning which tournament?

The Masters is the title Murray's greenskeeper imagines winning while lopping flower heads, a speech he improvised and nailed in one or two takes.

Why was the Caddyshack scene where a ball hits the greenskeeper's shack added late?

Two stars had never shared a shot, so Murray and the actor playing Ty Webb worked the scene out over lunch and shot it that night, despite old friction between them.

What Zen golf advice does Ty Webb give his young caddie in Caddyshack?

Be the ball caps Ty's Zen pitch, and that mystical streak was co-writer Douglas Kenney's contribution, drawn from his fascination with Zen Buddhism.

One of Caddyshack's stars has said the film isn't really about golf but about what instead?

Class, snobs versus slobs, is how that star framed it, and the club comedy grew out of Brian Doyle-Murray and his brother Bill's days as caddies.

Why did Ramis choose a Davie, Florida, course for Caddyshack's golf scenes?

It had no palm trees, so it could pass for the Midwest, though Ramis also admitted they took it by default after nicer clubs refused to shut down for a film.

An incoming pilot at which airport reported Caddyshack's climactic explosions, thinking a plane had crashed?

Fort Lauderdale's airport sat near the course, whose owners had not approved the fireballs and, the story goes, were lured to an off-site meeting while the crew set them off.

Caddyshack's Fourth of July dinner-dance scene was filmed at a resort in which Florida city?

Boca Raton's grand hotel and club hosted the dance, but not everything was shot in Florida: the club's entrance gates are Bel-Air's West Gate in Los Angeles.

Which storm delayed Caddyshack's eleven-week autumn 1979 shoot?

Hurricane David, which struck Florida's east coast in early September 1979, interrupted the eleven-week shoot in South Florida.

What is the name of Kenny Loggins's theme song for Caddyshack?

I'm Alright was written after Loggins had watched a rough cut of the film, and it returns at the end when the gopher dances.

Which rock singer can be heard singing the bridge on Kenny Loggins's theme song for Caddyshack?

Eddie Money sang the bridge, yet in 2014 he complained that Loggins had never given him credit for it.

What did Harold Ramis jokingly call Caddyshack, his $6 million debut as a director?

A scholarship to film school is how Ramis summed it up, because he had never directed before and later admitted he had no clue what he was doing.

How did critics receive Caddyshack on release?

Mixed reviews greeted it, though Roger Ebert wrote that to the degree it was anybody's movie, it was Rodney Dangerfield's.

Which sports network described Caddyshack as 'perhaps the funniest sports movie ever made'?

ESPN called Caddyshack 'perhaps the funniest sports movie ever made', a verdict that helped cement its cult standing among golfers.

Who plays Caddyshack's Lacey Underall, Judge Smails's oversexed niece?

Cindy Morgan objected when a Playboy photographer was booked to shoot her during filming, and in the end the pictorial never took place.

Why could Caddyshack's Lacey Underall actress barely see on the diving board?

She was legally blind without contact lenses, which she couldn't wear for the pool scene, so she had to climb the ladder to the board blind.

In Caddyshack's improvised rub-down scene, Lacey's genuine 'You're crazy!' came because Ty Webb did what?

Ty doused her back with oil on purpose and off-script, and his comeback to her outburst, that they said the same about Son of Sam, stayed in the film.

What is the name of Caddyshack's Irish club waitress, the caddie hero's girlfriend?

Maggie O'Hooligan soon has a rival, because Judge Smails's niece Lacey seduces her boyfriend right after the Judge's boat christening falls apart.

Who is Judge Smails's regular golf partner in Caddyshack's climactic match?

Dr. Beeper is the partner Dangerfield's developer dubs Frankenputz when he turns a one-on-one challenge into a team match for twice the money.

Caddyshack's Judge Smails lectures a young caddie that he has sentenced boys younger than him to what?

The gas chamber is the Judge's boast, and he adds that he didn't want to do it but felt he owed it to them.

Asked how he measures himself against other golfers, since he doesn't keep score, what does Caddyshack's Ty Webb answer?

By height is Ty's deadpan reply to Judge Smails, who then brags he's no slouch himself and is told he's a tremendous slouch.

For which film did Caddyshack's Michael O'Keefe earn a supporting-actor Oscar nomination?

The Great Santini earned O'Keefe that nomination as the son of a Marine pilot who, competitive even at backyard basketball, bounces the ball off the boy's head.

Which Caddyshack character is played by co-writer Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray's older brother?

Lou Loomis, the caddy boss, takes bets over the phone, and he has hiked the caddies' price of a Coke because he's been losing at the track.

Co-writer Douglas Kenney, who co-founded National Lampoon, died weeks after the film's release; how?

He had become deeply depressed by the reviews; Ramis joked the film was 'a six-million-dollar scholarship to film school'.

Douglas Kenney had earlier co-written which 1978 hit comedy with the future Caddyshack director?

Animal House's ladies' man Otter was written with a future Caddyshack star in mind, but he turned the part down to make another comedy, so Tim Matheson got it.

Which effects company built Caddyshack's gopher puppet and staged its lightning strike?

Apogee, John Dykstra's firm, supplied the gopher, and its puppeteer worked it while lying underneath a wagon planted with real sod and dirt.

When an angry member confronts Judge Smails over his thrown putter, what does Caddyshack's caddie hero do?

He takes the blame, saying he should have warned the Judge his grips were worn, and Smails just scolds him to be more careful next time.

Caddyshack's doddering old golfing couple, the Havercamps, were based on whom?

Real members of Indian Hill Club inspired them, because the writers built many of the film's characters from golfers they had caddied for as teenagers.

Which world figure, name-checked in Caddyshack's caddying story, did Bret Baier ask in 2016 if he had seen the film?

The Dalai Lama told Baier he hadn't seen it, and years before, Tibetans puzzled by the speech told Harold Ramis their leader doesn't play golf, which Ramis readily granted.

Which candy bar, mistaken for something worse, clears Caddyshack's club pool on Caddy Day?

A Baby Ruth sets off the stampede, which the director staged as a spoof of the beach attack in Jaws, with the floating bar playing the shark.

Which Borscht Belt comedian replaced Rodney Dangerfield as the lead of Caddyshack II?

Jackie Mason took over the lead, but the sequel was panned, with the Los Angeles Times asking whether there had ever been a worse sequel.

Who directed Caddyshack II?

Allan Arkush took the job, and when he told producer Jon Peters he doubted the new lead would connect, Peters told him not to turn a go picture into a development deal.

Which word completes the subtitle of Chris Nashawaty's 2018 Caddyshack book, 'The Making of a Hollywood ___ Story'?

Cinderella echoes the greenskeeper's improvised fantasy while he lops the heads off flowers, calling himself a Cinderella story who came out of nowhere.

Where did Bill Murray and his brothers open a Caddyshack-themed restaurant in 2001?

World Golf Village, Florida, is home to the original, which outlasted the later Caddyshack branches in Myrtle Beach and Orlando that have since closed.

Caddyshack star Rodney Dangerfield was born with which name?

Jacob Cohen became Jack Roy, but he quit comedy to sell aluminum siding for years before returning to the stage and adopting Rodney Dangerfield.

Caddyshack star Bill Murray worked as a caddy in his teens to pay for what?

Jesuit high school tuition was what his caddying paid for, and the film echoes it when the caddie hero's father tells him to put his pay in the college fund.

What does Caddyshack's Judge Smails snap at his grandson, who keeps demanding food?

You'll get nothing and like it! is his reply after the boy switches from a hamburger to a cheeseburger, then demands a hot dog and a milkshake.

How does Caddyshack's brash developer try to force a draw?

He feigns injury after his own ball hits him, but he's told his team forfeits unless a substitute plays, so his partner drafts the caddie hero instead.

Which comedian played Caddyshack II's mercenary Captain Tom Everett, filling Bill Murray's slot?

Dan Aykroyd's mercenary ends up with a poisoned arrow in his own backside and asks Ty Webb to suck out the poison.

What did Rodney Dangerfield keep asking Caddyshack's Lacey Underall actress during filming?

Am I OK? he kept asking her, insecure even as his initially small part kept expanding into a scene-stealing role.

What name is Judge Smails's new sloop christened with in Caddyshack's yacht club scene?

The Flying Wasp is the name Mrs. Smails blesses it with, but the developer's huge motor yacht crashes the ceremony and ends up destroying the Judge's new boat.

In Caddyshack, Ty Webb quotes the Zen philosopher Basho as saying a doughnut with no hole is what?

A Danish is the punchline as Ty urges the caddie hero not to be obsessed with his desires, and he deadpans afterward that Basho was a funny guy.

On which TV show was Bill Murray working while being repeatedly recalled to shoot extra Caddyshack scenes?

Saturday Night Live kept Murray based in New York, and for all the recalls to film more scenes, he spent only six days with the production.

Which golfer battled a gopher, Caddyshack-style, in an American Express commercial?

Tiger Woods played the greenskeeper in the 2004 spot, which, unlike the film, ends happily, with the gopher finally caught.

Mocking an ugly hat in Caddyshack, what does Dangerfield's developer say you get when you buy one?

A bowl of soup comes free with a hat like that, he cracks, but then he sees Judge Smails wearing the same hat and adds that it looks good on you, though.

Which Caddyshack actor said he had never seen cocaine before he got to the set?

Peter Berkrot, who played the caddie Angie, said it, and the film's young lead called his time in South Florida a permanent party.

Roger Ebert wrote that once shooting began on Caddyshack, there was too much of what?

Freedom, too much of it, let the film wander off in all directions, and Ebert added that its central characters are never really involved in the same action.

What did Harold Ramis say about Caddyshack in 2009?

'I can barely watch it' was how Ramis put it, because all he saw were compromises, such as a golf movie in which nobody but Michael O'Keefe could swing a club.

Which veteran actor plays Caddyshack's Bishop Pickering, struck by lightning mid-round?

Henry Wilcoxon plays the Bishop, who keeps playing through the storm on the greenskeeper's advice, sure the Lord would never disrupt the best game of his life.

Caddyshack's candy-bar panic in the club pool is a parody of which 1970s blockbuster?

Jaws was the model: trade papers called the stampede out of the pool a send-up of its shark-attack scene, and the film even plays John Williams's theme.

What had Bill Murray and his Ty Webb co-star done backstage in 1978, before Caddyshack?

Come to blows is the short version: the trade press was calling their brawl legendary a year later, when Caddyshack put them together again for the first time.

Caddyshack's Judge Smails actor had a bit part as a police guard in which Hitchcock thriller?

Psycho ends with him guarding the room where Norman Bates sits wrapped in a blanket, twenty years before he played the pompous judge.

Caddyshack's gopher effects chief had already won an Oscar for which space film?

Star Wars made John Dykstra's name, and Harold Ramis called him in when editing showed that more of the puppet could plug holes in the story.

Caddyshack introduces Ty Webb as a golfer so intuitive that he can play a perfect shot while doing what?

Wearing a blindfold, he plays a perfect shot and then tells his young caddie to stop worrying and get in touch with the force in the universe.

Caddyshack director Harold Ramis later played which bespectacled Ghostbuster alongside Bill Murray?

Egon Spengler was partly his own invention: Ramis co-wrote Ghostbusters as well as acting in it, just as he had co-written his golf comedy.

Which film did Bill Murray make instead of returning for Caddyshack II?

Scrooged won out, and he later asked why fans could not just be happy to have seen the original, several of whose players had since died.

How does Rodney Dangerfield's developer wreck Judge Smails's new sloop in Caddyshack?

Drops an anchor through it: he roars up in a far bigger cruiser, scattering the other boats, and the anchor goes straight through the deck.

Fans of which university copy Caddyshack's dancing gopher at games, a nod to their mascot Goldy?

Minnesota crowds are urged to imitate the puppet's closing jig, a ritual that suits teams nicknamed the Gophers.

Which painful Caddyshack gag had really happened to Harold Ramis on a public nine-hole course?

A golf ball to the groin, the fate of Judge Smails on screen, befell Ramis during what he said was only the second round he ever played.

Rodney Dangerfield, Caddyshack's loudmouth developer, built his stand-up act on never getting what?

Respect, or the lack of it, even named his 1980 record, which won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album just as the golf film made him a movie star.

Which summer-camp comedy was Harold Ramis's first film with Bill Murray, a year before Caddyshack?

Meatballs gave Murray his first starring role, and Ramis's script began a partnership that ran on into army and ghost-hunting comedies.

Refused membership in Caddyshack, what does Rodney Dangerfield's developer say he would rather do with the club?

Buy it, he says, and the slanging match that follows ends with him proposing a two-against-two round for $20,000.

Which Journey single plays briefly in Caddyshack and appears on its soundtrack album?

Any Way You Want It had been a single for only five months when the film opened, and the soundtrack album sets it beside four Kenny Loggins songs.

In his improvised tournament fantasy, Caddyshack's Bill Murray swings a grass whip at what?

Flowers lose their heads one by one; the speech grew from two lines of stage direction and a note from Harold Ramis to play it like a child.

Harold Ramis later co-wrote which campus comedy as a vehicle for Caddyshack's Rodney Dangerfield?

Back to School did well enough that its director was lined up to reunite with the comic for Caddyshack II, until the star pulled out.

Caddyshack grew out of Brian Doyle-Murray's teenage summers caddying at a club in which state?

Illinois it was: he carried bags at a club in suburban Winnetka, and the regulars he met there became the film's eccentrics.

Caddyshack's Judge Smails actor began starring as cartoonist Henry Rush in which sitcom that same year?

Too Close for Comfort became his last big role, and the golf comedy turned out to be the final film he ever made.

Caddyshack's score came from Johnny Mandel, who had written the famous theme of which earlier film?

M*A*S*H opens with his song, which the TV series kept as its theme; his cues for the golf comedy carry titles like The Big Bang.

Caddyshack executive producer Jon Peters came to Hollywood from which trade, where he met Barbra Streisand?

Hairdressing led him from a Rodeo Drive salon to designing a wig for Streisand, then to producing her remake of A Star Is Born.

What does Caddyshack's greenskeeper first send down the gopher's tunnel, before turning to a rifle?

Water from a hose is his opening move, but the gopher slips away and geysers burst up all over the course.

Caddyshack carried an R certificate; which family-friendlier label did critics fault for taming Caddyshack II?

Rated PG, the sequel could not go near the drug and sex jokes of the first film, and the critical consensus calls it handicapped by the label.

Which Tribune critic gave Caddyshack three stars, judging it funny about half the time it tries?

Gene Siskel was kinder than his TV sparring partner, who gave it two and a half and felt its three comics were acting in different films.

Hoping to impress Judge Smails, what does Caddyshack's teenage caddie falsely claim he hopes to become?

A lawyer, he says, but the judge brushes off his hints about paying for college and keeps his mind on the vulgar newcomer heckling him.

Caddyshack helped set off a run of similar comedies known by which label?

Slobs vs. snobs sums up the plot: a loud self-made outsider and the caddies on one side, the founders of an exclusive club on the other.

Scott Colomby, the rival caddie Tony in Caddyshack, went on to which teen sex comedy and its two sequels?

Porky's shrugged off bad notices to gross more than $100 million in America, well over double the golf comedy's gross.

Caddyshack co-writer Brian Doyle-Murray played arcade tycoon Noah Vanderhoff in which 1992 comedy?

Wayne's World was one of dozens of character parts for a writer whose own screen debut came in the golf comedy he had helped to script.

Caddyshack II's rap number Jack Fresh won which mock prize for Worst Original Song?

A Golden Raspberry went to the song and another to the film's bungling mercenary, two wins from four nominations that included Worst Picture.

In Caddyshack II, what does the snubbed developer turn the country club into after buying a controlling stake?

An amusement park of gaudy trick holes is his revenge, made possible by buying out the one returning character from the original.

Which Unsolved Mysteries host played the club's snobbish president, Chandler Young, in Caddyshack II?

Robert Stack took the slot the pompous judge had filled in the original, whose actor had died two years before the sequel reached cinemas.

What pet name does Caddyshack's Judge Smails give the trusty old putter he uses on the final green?

Billy Baroo sinks his last putt, leaving the young substitute to hole out with the stakes at $80,000.

Who plays Caddyshack producer Douglas Kenney in the Netflix biopic A Futile and Stupid Gesture?

Will Forte plays him from the founding of his humour magazine to the golf comedy, with Martin Mull narrating as an older version who never existed.

Rodney Dangerfield earned $35,000 for Caddyshack; roughly how much did he demand to make the sequel?

$7 million was the price, $5 million of it up front, and the studio said yes before he walked out a month ahead of filming.

In Caddyshack, why is the club's caddie scholarship suddenly open again at the start of summer?

The last winner died of a severe anxiety attack at summer school, news that is announced in the caddie shack like a job vacancy.

Which voice actor, the original Fred in Scooby-Doo, supplied the gopher's noises in Caddyshack II?

Frank Welker gave the animatronic rodent its voice, and Industrial Light and Magic took over the creature effects for the sequel.

Caddyshack producer and co-writer Douglas Kenney slipped himself into the film in which tiny role?

A dinner guest at the loud developer's table was the only part taken by the man who produced the film and helped to write it.

In which European country was Caddyshack an early hit, after its distributor cut 20 minutes to spotlight Bill Murray?

Denmark was the only place outside the United States where the film caught on at first, helped by a cut that made it a Murray vehicle.

Who actually performed Lacey Underall's dive into the club pool in Caddyshack?

A professional diver took the plunge; the actress went only as far as the board, guided up the ladder by the crew.

Caddyshack's Lacey Underall actress played both Lora and Yori in which early-1980s science-fiction film?

Tron cast her as a programmer and as that woman's alter ego inside the machine, in a film that pioneered large-scale computer-generated imagery.

In Caddyshack, Lacey Underall takes the teenage caddie home to bed while her uncle is busy with what?

Launching his boat keeps the judge away only briefly: he comes home, finds the pair together and chases the boy out with a golf club.