As much as I love the Vacation films, I'm not very excited about the announcement that a new one is in the works. The reason for my lack of enthusiasm is that the film, which may be directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers), is going to focus on Rusty Griswold, not Clark Griswold.

The Vacation franchise has been down a similar road before with disastrous results. I'm speaking of Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure, which came out in 2003. On paper, it sounds like a great idea. Randy Quaid's Cousin Eddie character is responsible for some of the biggest laughs in the Vacation films. Why not give him his own movie? Well, the answer is that Eddie is best in small doses. Without having Chevy Chase's Clark around to play the straight man to Eddie, there's just no humor. I remember making it about 10 minutes in before I turned the movie off.

The lesson is simple: Clark Griswold always needs to be the center of the Vacation universe. Chevy Chase's creation is one of the funniest representations of the average American male ever put on screen. Please don't reduce him to cameo status.