The original ending in which the Griswolds hold Roy Walley and his family hostage in their home was re-created as part of the ending to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085995/trivia
The Big Dipper (US) or Plough (UK) is an asterism consisting of the seven brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a bowl or body and three define a handle or head.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper
The constellations, as described in Greek mythology, were mostly god-favoured heroes and beasts who received a place amongst the stars as a memorial of their deeds. They were regarded as semi-divine spirits--living, conscious entities which strode across the heavens. The main sources of Greek star myths were the lost astronomical poems of Hesiod and Pherecydes and later works by Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Aratus and Hyginus.
http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/star-myths.html
In the DVD commentary, Chevy Chase mentions that the scene in which Rusty puts his feet up on top of the driver's seat was originally not in the script, but the producers liked it, so it was kept in the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085995/trivia
Sheriff Lobo's the corrupt sheriff from Orly County who appeared in several episodes during the first season of B.J. and the Bear (1978), as B.J.'s occasional nemesis. He now stars in his ... See full summary ».
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078564/
Book XVIII of Homer's Iliad mentions it as the Bear, which men also call the Wain. In Latin, these seven stars were known as the Seven Oxen (septentriones, from septem triōnēs). Triōnēs is a hapax legomenon, occurring only in a single passage by Varro, where he glosses it as meaning plough oxen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper
User Reviews. B.J. and The Bear,another nostaglic look at the trucking craze that swept the mid-70's. Synopsis: A trucker and his pet monkey travel the highways of America,getting into various adventures and misadventures along the way within the watchful eyes of the very pesky and law-abinding county sheriff.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078564/
In the DVD commentary, director Harold Ramis mentions that for the scene in which the Family Truckster jumps into the air, several of the crew members had made bets against 2nd unit director Dick Ziker that he couldn't jump the car more than 50 feet (even drawing lines in the sand to measure the distance).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085995/trivia
STAR MYTHS. The Greek word for constellations was katasterismoi. Of these, the twelve signs whose paths intersect with the dawn rising of the sun were known as zodiakos (the zodiac) or zodiakos kyrklos (circle of small animals).
http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/star-myths.html
The 1998 film Deep Impact featured a spacecraft named Messiah which utilized the Orion drive and appears to be a variant of nuclear detonation propulsion. In the film the drive is credited to Russia. The novel Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008) features an alien interstellar ship that includes a nuclear pulse drive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
which star drives the bear
Sheriff Lobo is a star who drives the bear. The star Sheriff Lobo drives the bear. Sheriff Lobo drives the bear.