The Great Outdoors

Episode 145: The Great Outdoors (1988)

Theme: Candy Land – A Month of John Candy
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis kick off Candy Land with The Great Outdoors — the only movie brave enough to say, “What if Vacation, The Boy Who Could Fly, The Revenant, Wall Street, and the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest all met up for a long weekend in Wisconsin?” It’s John Candy vs. nature, Dan Aykroyd vs. humility, and an entire cast vs. exploding steaks, mutant bats, and a bear who’s had an extremely rough grooming experience.

Join your two favorite Northwoods historians as they unpack:

• How John Candy plays maybe the most likable dad in cinema history — big-hearted, goofy, patient, and only mildly traumatized by wildlife.

• Dan Aykroyd’s Roman Craig, who negotiates with everything: restaurants, relatives, children, gravity… everything.

• The legendary Old 96er, a steak so big it should legally count as a supporting character.

• A bat attack sequence that feels like an 80s sitcom crossover with The Lost Boys.

• The bald-headed bear showdown that ends with one of the greatest physical-comedy payoffs in John Candy’s career.

From exploding garbage cans to lightning-struck locals, from Buck’s pointless summer romance to Roman’s Ponzi scheme of shame, Oz and Curtis dig into a movie that isn’t deep, isn’t complicated, but is pure cozy summer fun. John Candy made comfort food for the soul — and this one is a full plate.

Final Verdict

Oz — 96 ounces of beef
Curtis — 67 lightning strikes to the head
Both — Still insisting that yelling “Big bear! Big bear chase me!” should be an acceptable form of communicating danger.