Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown - Let's Talk - Movies

Episode Transcript
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Jason Connell (04:22:52):
Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's
talk movies. And I'm JasonConnell, on the show. Today I'm
joined by a special guest,Michael Astraea. Mike, thanks
for joining me, era fellowfilmmaker, and we're on the same
soccer team, the beloved lanights. And it's really just a
pleasure to have you on with me.

Michael Estrella (04:23:10):
What's up, Jason, I am so thrilled to be on
board with this

awesome, man, I'm so happy to have you. So today
we're going to be talking aboutFast Times at Ridgemont High, a
movie that's very dear to bothof us. And

growing up in Southern California, this really
strikes a chord with me and hadbeen a while since I'd seen it
and to go back on it just kindof has really some inspiration,
some moments I lived in my life.
And hopefully we can share somestuff on his onboard here and
review it as an adult ratherthan as a teenager. So I'm
looking forward to it.

Me too. And yes, it has a very high rewatch
ability to it. And it's a moviethat you can revisit. Like you
said, when we were teens, somepeople even preteens up into
their adulthood, and I think itstill works. And here we are
talking about a movie from 1982and 2020. So it's pretty, it's
pretty awesome. This movie, as Ijust said, came out in 1982,

(04:24:07):
directed by Amy Heckerling, andit was written by Cameron Crowe,
who went on to become a prettyprolific filmmaker himself. So I
always give the ratings Mike theIMDB and Rotten Tomatoes
ratings, just to give theaudience you know, just a little
bit of fresh these movies are?

Well, to me, it's like the golden tomatoes
here. So whatever the score theygive them, I'm just gonna just
gonna go with it. Knowing thatit's gotten the golden tomatoes
for me.

Well, it's a 7.2 rating on IMDb, which is really
good on IMDb, it's solid, it'shard to hold a super high rating
on there. It's a 78% on RottenTomatoes.

Pretty good, I would say. Very good and very
good for talking about school. Imean, that's a c plus. But hey,
pass or fail, you're passing.

Now 78. It's a better bell curve, seven days a
very good percentage. And thisis a comedy drama. And it came
out August 13 1982. Now, Mike, Idid not see this film in the
theater, I would have been 11years old and not permitted to
do so. But I did see it on TV inthe 80s. How about yourself?

I don't recall ever seeing it at the theater
either. I don't recall the firsttime I ever saw it. But I do
feel like when I did see it. Ifelt like I was living it in
certain ways. So I feel like Isaw it at a pretty young age,
probably closer to

12 years old. Oh, wow. And you were already living
the movie?

Well, I felt like I was just had that kind of
like trying to figure it out asa young kid. You know, puberty
was still a ways off. But you'restill kind of looking at girls
and trying to figure it out. Andbut as a I guess, then 12 year
old, I was just beginning tothink about, oh, what are girls
about? And what is this stuff?
And so some of the things thatyou would see in the movie,
you've right over the head, butat the same time it was

(04:25:53):
scratching the surface of whatyou're about to kind of get
into. So it was kind of luring?

Yeah, we're still we're still asking ourselves
those questions, Mike.
Absolutely daily. And

you know, going back into this, I probably
would have been like, oh, yeah,watch it with some friends just
to kind of have a good time. ButI went back and it really did
kind of make me think okay,well, who are you? Who are you
now? And eventually, I was like,Wow, this script kind of
actually really was pretty good.
And it was pretty cool to noticefrom the female director. I
thought that was pretty cool. Soand we'll probably talk a little
bit more about the soundtrackbecause that really stuck with

(04:26:27):
me.

It's a huge part of the movie. And yes, we'll
definitely get into all aspects.
And and everything else. This isour chance to explore this movie
from head to toe. So the budgetfor this movie, or Mike, do you
want to guess?

Let's just say 3 million.

Not too far off.
Four and a half million, whichhad to be a ton of money in the
early 80s. But four and a halfmillion, and the US gross, which
obviously that tells us if itwas a success or not. Any guess
on

was that 2520 to 25 million.

You were very close again, Mike, almost $28
million. Now, I think that's usgross that those are numbers
coming from IMDB. So I don'tknow how outdated that is. And
it probably doesn't include allthe other ancillary markets now
with streaming, but obviously asuccess. Obviously, there's a
good return on investment there.
And I'm kind of surprised thatit didn't launch a franchise but

(04:27:29):
this might have been predatingAmerican, you know, it was
predating the teen moviefranchise, you know, where
American Pie would pick up anddo many, many versions. But and
I'm glad I'm glad it didn't dothat. So maybe, you know, way
ahead of its time.

Maybe I mean, you know in many ways

it was ahead of its time. So if you're going to
talk about Fast Times atRidgemont High you have to get
into the cast. You look at thismovie now and it's really hard
to believe I could tell you hey,there's X amount of Oscar
winners in that cast and youwould just think really what?
But check this out. You haveSean Penn wins an Oscar for Best
Actor for Mystic River and milk.
Nominated for Best Actor forDead Man Walking Sweet and

(04:28:13):
Lowdown. And I am Sam. Right. Sothere's Sean Penn, Jennifer
Jason Leigh nominated for BestActress in the Hateful Eight you
have Judge Reinhold, who's astaple in the 80s Beverly Hills
Cop. One and two and many otherfilms. You have Phoebe Cates who
did Gremlins Bright Lights, BigCity, also an anniversary party.
You have Ray Walston Rest inpeace, my Favorite Martian, the

(04:28:35):
steam great actor of his time,and now you have Forest
Whitaker, Oscar Best Actor winfor the Last King of Scotland.
He was also in panic room, LeeDaniels, the butler, and Black
Panther. And to round out theOscars. Although he was only an
extra in this movie, NicolasCage, he won an Oscar for Best
Actor and Leaving Las Vegas andit was nominated for Best Actor

(04:28:59):
and adaptation. So just takethat what I gave you. It's an
incredible list of, of supertalented actors who were all
just really beginning when thismovie came out,

I mean, just just to do a story on running
the running history backwards toFast Times it'd be even a story
in itself right to see the lineof where they all ended up and
then run it backwards right intofast times the scene, Nicholas
Cage, you know, playing an extraand barely doesn't have the
music as a line in the movie,but does a bunch of nods and
different things. It's it'squite remarkable. quite remote.

How did this movie propelled Sean Penn
further, he never really touchedhis character again, obviously,
not Jeff Spicoli. But he left amark forever and cinematic
history. And you know, thatprobably opened up the door and
put him on his way he was gonnaget there anyway, because he's
that talented. You know, andForrest Whitaker, he said in the
movie a ton. But every time he'sin the movie is captivating. You

(04:30:01):
know, he's

got Star Power. Each of those characters
is so believable. In that part.
They just were like, they werejust playing themselves. It
really, it really felt likethat, you know, and just like
just being themselves, it reallyfelt comfortable. And, you know,
I don't know how much shedirected them into that
direction, or if that's just howthey were going. But what a crop
of talented actors andactresses.

And that's what I always hear great directors talk
about is like, it's all in thecasting. And if that's true,
they did it here. They cast itwell, and I did their job. And
it was a great script, and gooddirecting great soundtrack. And
there's a reason why this moviestill holds up. It's not just
one thing. It's many, manythings with Nick Cage. Just real

(04:30:45):
quickly to say about him. He wasan extra in this film. He went
on to be in some great films,like I talked about and won an
Oscar nominated for another one.
But it was just the very nextyear he landed the lead and
valley girl. But it was the factthat he was only 17 years old
when he was making this movie,which didn't permit him to take
on the larger role that he wasbeing considered for. And for
those of you film nerds likemyself and Mike and anyone else

(04:31:09):
who's ever joined me on thispodcast in the credits, you'll
see Nicholas Coppola and that'sbecause at that point in time,
he was still using his actualname and he is of course, nephew
to legendary film directorFrancis Ford Coppola.

I mean big ups for him right just sent her I
needed to separate this as muchas he can, you know,

totally so before we jump into the scenes, which
we'd like to go through, beat bybeat of the movie and break it
down. I want to just quickly totouch back on Amy Heckerling.
She went on to direct Johnnydangerously National Lampoon's
European Vacation, and cluelessamong other films. And she got
this movie when David Lynch whowas originally offered the

(04:31:52):
chance to direct turned it down,saying it was a funny script,
but not really his thing. So Amygot the job. And thank goodness
it was her and not to say thatlunch wouldn't have made it
great in his own right. But Ithink it went to the right
person who had the rightsensibility found the adult tone
in the film, and I wouldn't evensay this is the high school

(04:32:14):
movie. I guess you could saythat. Yeah, it's a teenage
movie, but it's teenage moviemade for adults. You know, it's
not just this teenybopper movie.
It's not another Porky's. It hasa lot of sensibility and
character development. And at atime that there weren't a lot of
these movies out there

in 1982, that they're getting away. It's a few
things that you normallywouldn't get away with. Now, in
regard to what's allowable, notallowable PC and stuff like
that, but did they you know, aswe'll discover, as we go along,
or they address some veryserious matters, and at the same
time, you know, cultivated a Ithink a way of looking at life

(04:32:55):
as basic as it can be, and ascomplicated as it can be all in
one.

Absolutely.
Everything Mike is, you know,and filmmaking, Video Production
Music videos, it always startswith the writing. And Cameron
Crowe, he would go on and be avery prolific writer director,
doing movies such as, sayanything singles, Jerry Maguire,
almost famous Vanilla Sky, andmany others. He also would win
an Oscar for Best Screenplay foralmost famous and was nominated

(04:33:23):
for an Oscar for Best Picturefor Jerry Maguire. So, again,
you look at the pieces that madethis great movie, it's no
surprise that we're stilltalking about it. I mean, these
are like, camera crows up therein the echelon of writer
directors. And this is where hereally got is, for the most

(04:33:43):
part, his start,

you always wonder how the writer gets in
the, into the mood or gets theinformation as to what they're
gonna put down there, sometimesthrough experiences and stuff
like that. But as I've learned,and maybe you can shed some
light on how he went aboutgetting his writing materials is
actually pretty cool.

It's amazing, Mike, and it's so amazing. I
kind of was on the fence aboutdo I share this in the
beginning? Or do I put it at theend of the trivia section. And
now that we're talking about it,I think we're gonna put it here
so the audience can hear thisearlier in the podcast. Here it
goes. So the concept for thismovie actually started back in
1979, when Cameron Crowereturned to high school at age

(04:34:28):
22, to observe to infiltrate andto write a book about the high
school experience. So heregistered under an assumed name
with a corp with the cooperationof the principal, who was the
only one to know the secret. Andtwo years later, he had created
a hit book, and titled FastTimes at Ridgemont. High A True

(04:34:51):
Story by Cameron Crowe. Now,Crowe did change the names of
the school and the students, butthe screenplay would go on.
Sorry, the screenplay he wouldgo on to write were loosely
based on the events and thecharacters in his book.

I mean, can we get away with that today? If we
want to go do that kind ofstuff? Really? I mean, that's
brilliant.

It's amazing, Mike. I'm jealous. Really. I'm
totally jealous. It's like,like, Where was he inspired to
do that? That's absolutely,like, after I saw the Breakfast
Club, which I probably saw it amore apt age. That movie
impacted me on a very deep, deepvisceral level. And yeah, I was
like, wow, I was already I wasin high school seeing that

(04:35:34):
movie. So I thought, My gosh,this is fascinating. These
characters, I'm around this, butCameron Crowe had his own
sensibilities, and then in the70s, and decided to go in and
make a book about it. Yeah, hewas like doing incredible
journalism, and almost adocumentary style before people
were doing it. But you know,that he went on to work for
Rolling Stone and became a greatwriter, and almost famous is

(04:35:58):
kind of his biography in a way.
So he was just hardwired for it.
And he had a good idea, Mike,and incredible execution.

I mean, he's 22. And he's thinking like that,
that's, that's the way to do it.
Right? You know, you'rethinking, okay, at what age did
were you mature enough to go,Hey, this is gonna this helmet
approach this. So you know,yeah, hats off to that

very bright guy.
Anyway, he was destined. Somepeople were destined for big
things, and Cameron Crowe wasamong them.

And just imagine what didn't make the
script. You know,

I've never read the book if you read it, but
haven't I'd be interested toread the book now. It's far
enough away. And just to hearsome of the stories that really
happened. That'd be kind offascinating. All right, Mike. So
I took something from trivia,but I think it's nice to throw
it up top. And now we jump intothe scenes of the movie.

How can you not when when you start off with
the Go Go's, and that song justgets you going right off the
first five seconds? 10 seconds.
15 seconds. You're just like,what is this all about already?

Like, you're so right, we open at Ridgemont
mall, aka Sherman Oaks Galleria.
And it's an 80s. Montage andyou're right. To the gogos. What
song of theirs?

Unknown (04:37:15):
We Got the Beat. Yeah.
It's great.

It's as a way for us to well, who doesn't love a
good 80s montage and this moviesgot a lot of them. This is a
great way Mike to open a moviebecause you get to meet the
cast. Although you don't evenknow that the cast yet but
you're focusing on them. You seea little bit of everybody. You
also see lots of denim. It's the80s you see arcades shirtless

(04:37:40):
arcade players, and you just seethe mall. And Mike, are you a
mall rat as a youth did youspend lots of time at the mall?
Did you go to this mall? You

know, I was just far enough outside The LA
county line to not get into themall over here in the Valley,
which, you know, I, you know, Idon't live too far from there
now but as a kid, yes, the mallwas where it's at. And I
remember going to it. It was theplace to be. And I always
remember, at least for us, itwasn't Paris pizzas in Paris

(04:38:10):
pizza in this movie. Oh, yeah,Paris pizza plays a big part of
this movie. For me. It was Bob'sBig Boy eating the melted cheese
off of the cheeseburger wrapper.
That was the biggest thing. So Iget it. Like there's some
association here. And that, youknow, of course, the arcade
games, which was endless.

The arcades are great. And the food court I was
always at the mall to forcertain times in my youth is
like, pretty much we didn't havea car. So you could get dropped
off at the mall and youngstersor preteens or teens could be
entertained for hours. And Iwould go to the south roads mall
or the promenade mall and hangout with my friends, you'd see

(04:38:46):
movies, you could go have foodin the food court, you could
talk to girls, you could be youcould look at girls, you can
hang out your friends. It reallywas just an incredible place.
And I'm sure we bothered. Everyadult and every family that was
there because we're just a bunchof loud kids.

This is why I think this movie just really
resonates with me, because Iremember after the mall, meeting
to girls, and they were youknow, we were probably like 13
ish, and you know, went to 711to get a big goal next to that.
And they were talking with us,and we went in with them. But
when we went out, they went withthe 16 year olds who had cars
and left us hanging.
And so there I was like rat ratthere. I'll take it personally.

(04:39:23):
Yeah, you guys like Ratner inthe parking like, well, what the
hell like I didn't have theright attitude. So it's pretty

nasty guy.
Totally, man. Totally.

Oh my gosh. So yeah, the mall lives on.
Immediately, we

meet Mike Demone, played by Robert Romanos and
Mark Ratner, played by BrianBakker. They're fantastic in the
movie. And they're actually keyplayers in the film as well. But
so Mark works at the movietheater, and Demone is a scalper
if you will I love Mike whenMark's ripping tickets, he says

(04:39:58):
smoking sections upstairs. I donot remember a time there was a
smoking section in the movietheater. Mike, do you?

I don't remember that necessarily. But I
know what happened. You justweren't it was just like this is
the norm. So. So you have tokind of like smile at that or
smirk at that and go oh my gosh,like, really? That's how it was
going.

As if the non smoking sections not infiltrated
by smoke. They're not they'renot smoking sections, not
watching it behind a glasswindow. They're probably
upstairs and maybe smoke rises.
But come on seriously. Like I doremember going on a flight in
the 80s. And there was a smokingsection on a plane. That makes
even less sense.

Well, not all the 80s made sense, right.

That's what we love about them. That's why we
exactly revisiting them. So nowwe're at Perry's pizza, and we
meet 15 year old StaceyHamilton, played by Jennifer
Jason Leigh. And she's at thatpoint now she's interested in
men. And here comes Ron Johnson.
What a name. And she'sinterested. So Linda Barrett

(04:41:02):
played by Phoebe Cates who hasmore experience and she's got a
fiance in Chicago, and she'skind of pushing, encouraging
Stacy to, you know, go talk tohim and kind of this is time for
you to meet guys. Yeah, and

you wonder, okay, this is how girls really
did it, then is this how theyreally did it? You know, we get
we get a real piece from afemale directors perspective, we
see how, okay, this is how itwas going down. And we also see
like, Oh, this is thevulnerability Part Two already
coming up early. Right, youknow, and, and, and you see the
innocence already coming up.

So the just really, to me, again, just
diving into like, really settingup the characters right off the
top and to your point 15 yearold Stacy who lies about her age
and she says she's 19 isinterested in 26 year old Ron.
And this age difference isillegal and is not right. And

(04:42:01):
Ron should do a much better jobof really getting to the bottom
of her age. But you know, so itgoes and we'll revisit Ron here
shortly. So now we cut to allAmerican burger, which is now a
coffee bean on San Vicente andBrentwood. Which now I want to
go visit of course, just justfor the sake of it, but I'm

(04:42:24):
sorry that I have never made itto an all American burger. But
we meet Brad Hamilton. Stacy'sbrother. And this of course is
played by Mr. Judge vinyl, andhe's dating Lisa. And he seems
in charge Mike, you know, I lovehow he just kind of feels
confident and all Americanburger and then he confronts

(04:42:44):
Jeff Spicoli, who is incrediblein this movie, as I talked about
earlier played by Sean Penn, andhe's joined by Eric Stoltz and
Anthony Edwards. So these guyscome in to all American burger
and what do they do first thing?

Well, of course, you're gonna have to
take your shirt off, becausethat's just what you do and
Surf's up.

It's hilarious.
They don't even get in line.
This is not a sit downrestaurant or a waiter comes by
and takes your order. They don'thit him and go to the front,
they just come in, take theshirts off, and sit down and
start talking. It's hilarious.
These guys have their ownagenda. And so here comes Brad.
And he of course, points out theclassic sign, which says, Do you

(04:43:22):
remember what the sign says?

Something like no shirt? No shoes? No, no, no
dice is out. It is not

so good. I love it. It says that and they think
it's hilarious. And, you know,they actually asked and I guess
they put their shirts on. Butyeah, it

actually shows that they kind of respect judge,
you know what I mean? They'relike, Hey, he's gonna judges the
cool dude. He's kind of like themayor of sorts, you know? And,

you know, the mayor of all American
burglaries, senior in highschool, and yeah, you know, and
there's those dynamics at playhere. So, I like it. I liked
that scene. But that's it,because boom, the next shot.
It's time for another montage.
Tom Petty's American girl plays.
And we're at Ridgemont HighSchool, which is Van Nuys High

(04:44:11):
School for most of the movie,was some scenes also shot at
Canoga Park High School, and Ieven read, there might have been
some scenes at Torrance highschool. So they made their way
around the Valley and beyond toto create this.

I mean, how cool is that? If you go to the
schools, these are like, youknow, this movies, kind of old,
but these kids, you know,they're like, oh, yeah, by the
way,

I would be very I would wear that with a badge of
honor. Had I gone to one ofthose high schools? Yeah, it's a
great montage. Like you said,toilet paper, things happen. And
you do see a quick shot of NickCage, or Nicholas Coppola. Yeah.
And then Brad comes rolling in.
And it's classic car. Again, manabout town, Mayor of the high
school. And then you see Demoneand he's working it. He's always

(04:44:51):
working the angle. He's, he'stalking to someone about
scalping tickets. And then yousee a great van roll up and
Mike, take it away.

This is the most epic scene perhaps when
Spicoli and his two buddies justkind of spill out of their
Volkswagen bus with just allkinds of smoke coming out of
their vehicle. And oh, yeah,they just kind of fall out as if
like, hey, you know, we just gotstoned off our asses. And now

(04:45:21):
we're gonna go to school, go toclass. And it's a perfect setup.
And it's a perfect setup. Also,because it it also introduces
another car with character aswe'll find out all these other
all the other talent have aparticular cards that really
relate to who they are. So it'sa pretty, pretty cool scene.

It says it all.
And I think one of them says,Did you hear a bell? I mean,
they're just so stoned. I mean,there's lots of stoner movies to
follow. But this is where itstarted. I can't think of a
stoner movie. I mean, this isn'ta stoner movie, but these
characters existing before this,

and you know, not having never been stoned in
school. To me, it still seemedcool that they were stoned. You
know what I was like? Okay, Imean, think that's just kind of,
oh, they're the cool guys, Iguess. But I do have a story, a
true story, based on one of thewhen I was doing some shoots
here in LA, I always, if I seeguys that are in the later part
of their career, I alwaysusually try and go up to them at

(04:46:21):
some point, usually during lunchor something. I said, Hey, man,
what's the first movie youworked on? Or what's the most
interesting shoot you've had?
And there was a point where oneof the John with the way not
quite, not quite, but one of theTeamsters said, hey, yeah, well,
I worked on Fast Times atRidgemont High and so
automatically, I'm like, Well,what do you know, tell me a
story. So he's like, but hesaid, Yeah, basically, Sean and

(04:46:41):
the team they they were stonewhen they came out on it, that
was all real. That was all real.
So maybe I'm spreading rumors,but this is coming from a
Teamster who worked on the showwho was just being straight
faced about it and said, Hey,and we all know teamsters know
what's

up. Now. I don't doubt it for a second. There are
scenes that I'm going toreference as we get into it,
that his eyes were so bloodshotif he wasn't stone, they did a
damn good job of making his eyesappear to be stone. So you
probably nailed it right there.
Yeah, getting into charactergetting into character and it
was it served him well. Andspeaking of Spicoli I love the
scenes of him and Mr. Hand, Ieven read that Sean Penn was

(04:47:23):
purposely agitating Mr. Hand toplay by Ray Walston. And it
worked. His agitation probablygot to him and it created that
little bit of you know,chemistry they had with one
another. It's just great to seehim. He comes in late Mr. Han
wants nothing to do with thisstoner in his class. He even has
a great line because, as youknow, would you call them

(04:47:45):
Spicoli? isms? Yeah. Yeah, hehas so many great lines in this
movie. In many of them, which Ialso read or ad libbed, So,
kudos to Sean Penn, he brought alot of this character to the
table himself, for sure developthis character himself for sure.
He says, After Mr. Han rips hiscard won't let him in the class.

(04:48:07):
Do you remember what he says?
You dick. It's so good.

As we go into his character deeper and their
relationship and all that, Ithink it's important to note
that the director probably viathe writer Cameron started out
Mr. Han by saying Aloha. And Ithink that's so key that that's
the first thing you hear himsay, Mr. hands into play later,
you will definitely see that andthere's so there's you start as

(04:48:38):
I started going through this,I'm like, Wow, this script
really has meaningful moments.
And the words that will alwaysintertwine later, and then I'll
try and bring these up as we gojust to certain parts of those,
you know, even Aloha. Yeah,right. And even backing up a
little bit at the school, whenthey were all thrown totally
parallel that you'll see acouple featured books that the
director put in there. That maynot everybody may not even be

(04:49:00):
aware of, you know, but there'ssome feature books that carry
some weight, you know, formister hand, it's what truth and
liberty. That's his book, youknow, and then earlier on, they
saw giants John Steinbeck's thepearl, which is a novel novella
about human nature, greed andevil that one of the students is
holding. So you'll just see allthese little pieces that are in

(04:49:21):
there that you may not get thefirst time around. Yeah, that
should go back.

I love looking around what's going on? I no
longer look at the maincharacters. It's like, Oh, tell
I'm spotting Nick Coppola orYeah, the book like you said, I
love things like

even the even in the class, that globe, like,
don't tell anybody this, but Istill have that globe from when
I was a kid. There's a globe andMr. Hands class, there was a
school globe, they held onforever, and I saw that thing
and I'm like, Oh, my God, Idon't throw anything away. I've
that glow from from way back inthe day. And you're just like,
Okay, those are specific thingsthat really resonate.

Well. Mike, I won't tell anybody but you just
told everyone who listen to thispodcast. Well,

okay. Thanks for keeping maybe keeping the
secret

when I invited you on. I don't know if you
understood that a podcast isn'tjust me and you will be shared.
Okay. Sorry, I should have givenyou a full disclaimer. I'm
sorry. That's my Okay. Well, we

can start over. So we're good. Okay, yeah,
reset back to one. We're

good. Lastly, in the scene, as I was saying
earlier, before we got recordedbefore we started recording,
this is the first comedy of thisshow, let's talk movies. And I
realized that a comedy with abunch of different players.
There's a lot of scenes, wherein other movies, we're following
the main characters, you know,beat by beat. So we will have to
speed up some of these and maybelose some scenes just so we

(04:50:39):
don't have a record breakingpodcast and length. But missing
was piccoli is Mike, he'swearing shoes that he would make
iconic to this day. And pleasetell the audience just what
those were. Would it be

something of like black and white checkers on
some amazing vans that everybodyhad at some point?

That is right.
And yes, the slip on vans, thesethings, they raised the bar,
they set the bar. I mean, I hadlots of vans, I still have vans,
I've gone to lace ups, I'vechanged. But any time I see
someone wearing black and whitecheckered, that's all I can
think about is Fast Times atRidgemont. High. What is

it a kind of a phenomenon that like, yeah, I
want to wear the same shoes thatsome stoner wore. It's just, I
mean, it's just phenomenal.
You're like, That guy was cool.
And he's just stoned all thetime. So I want to emulate that.
It's pretty amazing. What

did he do for vans isn't company I mean, I've
never tried to look up thebackstory of that I did when I
was doing some research on riskybusiness, which will definitely
be an upcoming episode on Let'sTalk movies. There's a future
plug. I remember looking up howRay Bans when he wore the Ray
Bans, and the movie salesskyrocketed to Ray Ban, which

(04:51:54):
was also kind of floundering atthe time, but I don't know the
economic impact on vans becausesurely this sent their sales
soaring.

Oh, of course.
Of course. Everybody wants to bethe cool guy or the cool girl.

So now are lunch and more sex doc and sex
pressure from Linda, who's nowteaching Stacy to do what Mike?

You know, I'm gonna just say I don't know what
they're doing here. I'm gonnaleave that one up to you Jason
answer because I don't know forsome reason I don't remember
what they're doing with thecarrots. I think that's what it
was. But you can let us all knowbecause I don't really recall
exactly all Stacy

is a virgin and admits to London the scene that
she's never given a blow job.
And so, Linda shows her how todo it with a carrot. So she
does. Unbeknownst to Staceythere's a table full of horny
teens to the side to see her andand give her a raucous applause

(04:52:52):
when they see her doings, andthat's what you do at that age,
but at the time, I know it's wecan look back and say very
lowbrow. But it wasn't lowbrow.
I listened. I enjoyed thePorky's movies. And I hate to
bring those back up. But theykind of set the stage for that
type of horny teen last movie.
This is not that movie. But ithas these scenes that they're

(04:53:17):
more grounded. And they crossedthat line. And we just hadn't
seen things like this in a movieat this point in time.

Yeah. And I think that's a great point.
They're just bringing up stuffthat really what happened, and
things that kids would discussand things that wouldn't be
discussed with other people. Andyou're just like, Okay, finally,
they're actually talking aboutstuff that's real. And
reflecting that which I thinkwe, I think, most filmmakers,

(04:53:47):
that's why we make film is toget out what's real in and
really get out to push theenvelope and kind of do that
stuff. But this, this is a greatopportunity. Jason, if you're
open to it, I really think thisis a classic example of what I
see as the teacher and thestudent relationship across this
movie. Obviously, there's Mr.
Hand, and Spicoli. Right. That'san obvious type of connection

(04:54:11):
there. There's also Stacey and,and Linda, so she's teaching her
she's trying to learn from here,then you've got Mark Ratner and
Demone. Demone is like theteacher trying to teach Mark
Hey, this is how you do it and,and marks looking up to demand
as to what he's doing. And andso there's a teacher lessor, and
then there's also judge, Judgeis actually he's a student, I'm

(04:54:34):
sorry. Yeah, Brad, is actuallythe student to what I consider
like the system. Like he'slearning from the system and the
systems trying to teach him. Andso as we go farther into this
whole discussion, if we couldjust keep those things and most
people want to keep those thingsin mind, you'll just see like,
wow, there really is somethinggoing on mentorship out in a
way, in a way.

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. It's a good
comparison. We do have thesetandems and that's why this
movie bounces around. Andthere's lots of scenes, because
we're constantly moving all ofthese characters forward. And
you're right there right therelittle tandems and sometimes
they cross over as and we'll getinto certain things, other
characters, developrelationships with different
ones. But those those bondsremain the whole movie. And it's
a very good point. Yeah.

And you see some shifts, the things start to
shift as we go through all theseepisodes. Yeah, pretty cool.

teenage angst kicks in. And that will always
shift things a little bit, justa little bit. Next mark, meet
Stacy in biology class. This isa small little saying, but I
also like when Mr. Vargas comesin, rest in peace, Vincent
chevalley. I always liked thisactor. He was in lots of TV
shows and movies, but he is hehas left us but he's left his

(04:55:47):
mark in this movie. And I likedthat. He's just switched to
sanka. So please forgive himbecause, Mike, I don't know if
you're aware, but sanka isdecaffeinated instant coffee.

These little humorous, little blurbs are just
to me, like the quiet laughter.
I don't even know how to explainit. You're just like, that is
really funny. And you don't haveto laugh out loud about it. It's
great. And I wonder if I wonderif his native one of these. If
they said Mr. Vargas. I wonderif because during that time
circus Vargas like it was acircus. And I wonder if that's

(04:56:21):
how that name came about. I haveno idea. I was just thinking
like, why would they use Vargas?
Because it always has a reason.
Right. So I just wondered, Ihave no idea. But anyway, so I
thought,

and so bam. Now we're at jamones house and he's
giving much to your point. Loveadvice to mark? Who's intestacy.
And so I love this and I likedit. He's kind of coaching him
up. And my I also love the decorand Simone's room. Devo. It's
amazing Evo. Devo car party atthe stop sign you have tattoo

(04:56:56):
you the Rolling Stone album?
It's an amazing MTV inspiredroom

Unknown (04:57:03):
and a small bar.

Oh, yeah, small bar.

Yeah. Like what do you wait hold on a
second. This guy's a small barand he's what's 1716 is pouring
drinks like was a collusionsomething like that. I can't
remember he's born. But But onething I noticed was like, he
actually has a car door as aheadboard or something like
that. It was really weird. I waslike, is that it was like oh, I
have to go back and it wasreally strange because he had a
he had a rim in his car in hisroom.

Even up to the mound, but he

that scene is one of my favorite actually.
Because it's great. It reallyspeaks to like, what it speaks
to demands security, like hisconfidence, but underneath it
his insecurities. And it speaksto like, yes, the trust that rat
has with him. And one of the I'dask you one of the lines into

(04:57:53):
this delivered is unbelievable.
One of them that demanddelivers. I don't know if you
recall basically saying that,like a quote says that the idea
the attitude dictates you don'tcare whether she comes, stays
lays or prays, whatever happens,your toes are still tapping. So
in other words, just get laidand just make it happen. So I
thought like, wow, that's, thatis kind of how teenagers think

(04:58:14):
sometimes, and adults as well,unfortunately, you know, so
absolutely true. And here'shere's, so here, we have one
character, Ratner, who's tryingto look up to this guy. And he's
like, Yeah, and

this is the advice is good.

Because once you try, like 30,000 times your
label to get you're liable toget some egos. That's the
attitude. Oh, my God such,

now that you bring this up, I do find these
two such an unlikely duo. Imean, it works because one is in
they're both insecure, and theyhide it differently. And they're
both outcasts in their own way.
But they also don't make sense.
You know, these two guys, theyreally don't and, and their
relationship is testedthroughout this movie. But yeah,

(04:59:01):
I would more likely see Mark ratRatner mark with like, more
nerdy types, more bookish types.
I don't know how he befriendedDemone, the perceived cool guy,
but it works in the context ofthis film. But I would say it's
probably an unlikely friendship,you

know, life.
You know, I don't know, Jason, Ithink domains kind of the loner.
I don't think anybody takes himseriously. And he's finally got
someone who does. So he

kind of that's probably why it works because he
is alone, or he knows everybody,but he's not close to anybody.
But here's the guy that thisguy's not threatening. So I'll
bring him in as a friend. Butthat's exactly why it works.

Yeah. So So you know, for a comedy. This
actually has some prettydramatic, I think writing in it.

Yeah. And well, in addition to character
development, these are reallyflushed out people characters,
not just your Oh, that guy worksin the movie theater. He's a
nerd. That guy scuffs tickets.
Now, they're, they're a lot morecomplex than that. And that's
what Cameron Crowe really got,right? Yeah, these characters.

(05:00:05):
Yeah, just really amazing. Andyou may not know them, but you
recognize traits, and peoplethat you went to school with, or
you grew up with, and, and maybeeven in yourself. So now we have
Stacey, and she's sneaking out.
And before she does this, I justwant to point out this one quick

(05:00:26):
thing as Stacey is you don'tknow she's laying in bed, her
mother comes in, tucks her in, Ithink she gives her a quick
kiss. And then she exits theexits room. And that mic is the
only time in the entire filmthat we see a parent of one of
our cast members. I mean, later,we hear the moans mother on the

(05:00:48):
phone with Stacy very briefly,but there are no parents
represented in this movie. Soyou know, to your earlier point,
we have these connections andthese mentors, if you will, and
we have enough teachers, but noparents, they didn't even it's
because his house, the father issending in his little brother
Curtis to a wake up Spicoli. Andit's never that that usual

(05:01:13):
confrontation you see in everymovie with teenagers, you know,
it's quite a

unique approach that is rare. It really
is at all. And maybe that's whyit's so effective. Because you
don't you don't ever get in thesituation. say well, what would
the parents think of this? Orwhat would they be doing during
yes, you're like, No, that just

we know what they're gonna do. I think they
Crow and Heckerling had thewherewithal to know what they're
going to say. And we don't needthat. Well, you're gonna go to
college next year. Let's look atthe brochures you those scenes
exist in other movies. I'm gladthey don't exist in this one.

Yeah. And less casts that helps.

Yeah, they I mean, they already had enough
people to develop. So yeah, sojust just to say that really
quickly, her mother leaves shereveals underneath the covers
that she's fully dressed, andshe's sneaking out of the house
to go meet Ron and they had tothe point. And Mike I don't know
if you know where the point isin this movie, and Seino Little

(05:02:12):
League fields, and we play someof our soccer matches not too
far from the sale and next timewe have a game over there. We
might have to go by and justtake a photo of the old Encino
little leagues dugouts. Now wehave Ron and Stacy setting up in
the dugout Mike and this is agroundbreaking sexing

(05:02:37):
accompanied by Jackson browns.
Somebody's baby, which reallyrepresents a loss of innocence.
And right here and now. Stacy islosing her virginity.

Yeah, and I don't know how you can actually
live To know that song and thinkof anything else besides that
scene, once you've you've seenthat happening, and and, yeah,
and just to see this young girlwho just really wants to
experience this so she can talkfrom experience. And this guy
who's just some guy, you know,but to her it's like, and then

(05:03:10):
she goes through this, this act.
And she sees the top of the shesees the interior rooftop and it
says certainNazis. Yeah, just like what
you know, it's just like that'show random things happen
sometimes that it just isn'tthat magnificent? Or maybe it
is, you know, but it entered totouch on that topic with a man

(05:03:33):
who's over age and a girl who'sunderage. And for that to happen
for Sunday probably didn't wantanybody to see that is regard to
viewers. And for others arelike, No, this is real. This
happens. So kudos to thefilmmakers for at least exposing
this.

Absolutely. Yeah, Ron's not a bad guy. He's just a
26 year old stereo salesman whoshould have gotten to the bottom
of her age and then took herword for it, although she
doesn't look 19 And even her at1926 19 you could kind of do an
eye roll, although legal. Butyeah, this crosses a lot of

(05:04:09):
lines. And, I mean, it's, Imean, it's rape is what we're
seeing in a statutory rape, but,but we're doing Stacy's story.
And she was really trying toconnect and live up maybe to
what Linda, her mentor in a way.
She's so experienced, and shekind of wants to experience it.

(05:04:30):
And here she is, you're right,that bam, surf Nazis. She'll
reflect back on her virginity orlosing it. And that's the image
that comes to mind with a lightbulb and a leather jacket and
some dugout in Encino. Andeveryone's got their virginity
stories and this is Stacy's.

Yeah. And I think it's a huge it's something
that's huge in the movie. Butwhat follows after it, you kind
of wonder like, Okay, well, howdo teenagers deal with something
that is, that happens like this.

Yes. So we're at school, and Stacy is sharing
with Linda that she's no longervirgin. And she also tells Linda
that it was painful. And Lindasays, Keep doing it. It gets
better I promise

of right. And as we as we find out as things
go, that Linda is kind ofspeaking from maybe not
necessarily experience, maybeshe's just talking from what she
thinks is like, we don't we justdon't know, yet. We feel like we
know, but we just don't know. Solike, who's really the teacher
here who's really the studentwho's really learning from who,

(05:05:39):
who's being honest about it. Andthen we have one young girl, you
know, Stacy, who's just tryingto figure it out.

What does that same? Do as I do? Not as I say,
so, yeah, she's listening toher. But you're right. We don't
know if Linda is reallyexperienced, or she just wants
you to perceive her asexperienced. Yeah.

And and try to remember back to any
conversations you had as a as ateenager when it came to sex.
And like, you know, like,everyone's trying to figure out
like, Well, yeah, man, like, ofcourse, you know, the girls are
probably like, well, maybe oreven just like, what is the
dialogue that happens?

Well, I think they would put on Fast Times at
Ridgemont High to help themlearn as a parent, if I had
kids, I would cook. But why not?
If your sibling movie, thismovie actually could do some
good things. You could put thison, he could put days to confuse
on Breakfast Club on and it willdefinitely help educate and
enlighten young man,

it's a comedy about serious issues. Kind of a
cool thing.

But it's a comedy drama. Let's let's be fair. No.
And I was not joking aboutputting it on. These could be
conversation starters. Now thismovie is becoming dated.
Although we both agree. And I'msure our listeners and anyone
else in the world would agreethis movie holds up. But movies
can sometimes help thoseconversations happen and this

(05:07:03):
movies dealing with these adultthemes in a very delicate and
earnest way. And yeah, andlisten again back to the cast.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, isincredible on the role of
Stacey. You know, we just takeit for granted. It's so good
because she's that good or badto

start seeing how her characters developing
and getting some confidence andstarting to move out into the
world. Yeah, there's an art forher. Absolutely. Yeah. And you I
think you nailed that there toois like you really believe like
this girl is that innocent? Andthen you kind of see it make a
kind of a turn. So anyway, thethe conversations that are

(05:07:45):
brought up are seriousconversations through comedic
lines. It's great how they justkeep doing that. Over and over
and over.

I love this next scene, not because it's serious
or anything, but just I lovewhen Brad is washing his car, we
have the opening shot of the carstereo, and it's playing the
Ravens raised on the radio. Andthis dolly shot our handheld
shot of him running the spongedown the side of the car. And
it's like, it's magic hour. AndBrad just couldn't be happier.

(05:08:18):
And he just embodies this. It'salmost like a music video of him
washing the car. He's so proud.
You know, a few more payments,and this baby's all mine. You
know, he's got a job. He's got agirlfriend and Brad has never
been happier than in this momentright now. And I just love it.
They just

pretty funny how they had him dance for one
of the segments. It's kind ofquirky, but you just like yeah,
yeah, when you're a teenager,you just do some stupid stuff.
That's because you're so happyabout certain things. So that
was kind of a cool, cool nod.

And the songs perfect raised on the radio,
it's it's perfect. You know,it's, you know, everything to
put it on. But when I put it inthe scene and you know, mixed it
with the visuals, it works. It'sgreat moment. Now Stacy comes
home. So this is the first timeyou've seen them interact when
we know their brother or sister.
Well, maybe we know becausewe've just seen the movie so
many times. But I guess this isthe first time you're seeing

(05:09:09):
them interact. So now theaudience is aware of their
brothers sister. And she goes inand what does she find? waited
inside

the roses the red roses of course. For one Ron
juggle RJ right. But But, butBrad's so cool when she goes
back outside, right? He's likethe coolest cat so

cool. Because Stacey can't keep these this
would be way too many red flagswith the parents who barely
exist in this movie. But shedoesn't want to deal with it
gives him to Brad to get rid ofand so he does. And he in turn,
Reagan smashed his

his girlfriend at the pizza joint. I mean, he's
a pretty smart not that he's apretty smart dude. And and
that's right. So and nobody seesit as like a slime ball. I mean,
I didn't see it as a slime. Iwas like, well, let's put these
to use. You cares about he caresabout his girlfriend, somebody
better get the best out of it.

She does ask him where they really for me and a
white lie in that instance isokay. And the same scene Brad is
now sharing with Arnold this newhire about his plans. I love
that he's another anotherexample of mentorship. He's
training Arnold how to get withthe All American burger way. But

(05:10:31):
he's sharing his plans, how he'sgoing to break up with Lisa. He
just gave her roses. But, youknow, he's a senior and he wants
some freedom. Now we've beentogether for two years. I just
love the fact that he's sharingwith this guy at work. And

this also brings in something that kind of
felt throughout the movie as theimportance of these
relationships, the teacher andstudent, but also the car, the
cars that are in this are big,but the food is such an
unbelievable motif of sorts thatruns through this that is so
humorous when he's talking tohim about you know, hey, my

(05:11:08):
life's pretty good again. He'sflipping a patty and it kind of
falls off. And then what's theguy what's his buddy's name?
He's trying to again tell himthat Arnold Arnold while he's
telling the Arnold you knowthese flipping on life's pretty
good you know and sexmicrophones great and which is
all lies and stuff like that.
Arnold while he's doing all thissmells, the bun, the hamburger
bun. And it's all this littlelike, think simple things that

(05:11:30):
kids would do that just showsyou like, man, they're just
kids, but they're talking aboutthings to them that are like the
ultimate biggest thing in theworld.

We also learn what the secret sauce is that
all Americans. Exactly, exactly,which is 1000 Island dressing.
And then the other one was whatKen Bronco burger. He also
Arnold divulges because he leftBronco burger to come to all
American burger. And it wasmayonnaise and ketchup, which is
very similar to 1000 Island butjust but it that's their loyalty

(05:12:03):
to each other versionintelligencia that ever. They
were sharing secret sauces. Yes,I love it are back at school and
Mr. Hand is handing out testscores. But I love Mike that
he's announcing the scores as hehands them to people. So you're
not gonna hide his class. He'sgonna call out bad grades in
front of me within

like a little shade. A little shame to get
everyone's possibly motivated. Idon't know about that.

Let's assume Mr.
Hand is and he notices becausehe's missing so he sends someone
out to get him and they trickhim into attending by telling
him there's a birthday partywaiting for him which is classic
Spicoli but Mike, I love when hecomes in the room. And he's got
a bagel tucked into his pantsand he's holding his infamous

(05:12:49):
Vance. So he's barefoot. I justlove this. Like this is you
know, this was total Sean Penn.
And by the way, his shirt isunbuttoned and it's just like
bare chest. You could never getaway with this in my high
school. And he's there was fartoo uptight. And by that time,

(05:13:10):
but I just love that this is acoli, he might have been his own
living

and like him.
He's like, what, what, what?
Something?

What's out? Now Mister hand coins the phrase? I
don't know, that's because he'slying to him, puts it on the
chalkboard, which would laterbecome a track by Jimmy Buffett.
It's also in the film and on thesoundtrack of the same name. And
it's also known as Spicolitheme. It's a great song, if

(05:13:42):
you've and I'm not a, I wouldn'tsay I'm a huge Jimmy Buffett fan
by any means. But I've alwaysliked the song because it
doesn't even sound like JimmyBuffett. It's the I don't know,
I don't know which way to go. Idon't know. It's a great song.
And it really is football.

You know, it is his theme song. But it also
is everybody else's, too. It'severybody's it's everybody
else's. Absolutely. It's

any teenager, or most people in the world. You
know, what sometimes we justdon't have absolutely. But
again, you know, self includedmyself, as well. We're

trying to figure it out here, right, like,
as we go through this, but it isa major, I think, I don't think
it'd be plot point. But it's amajor message delivered through
that what's written on the boardand through that song.

Yes, yes. Three Little Words. mean so much. So
now we have a Christmas montageas we've moved into the
holidays. And I love how thiskid is on Santa's lap. And he's
peed on him, which is hilarious.
And we learn Ron has stoppedcalling Stacey. And Linda is
trying to cheer Yeah, it wasbound to happen, Mike, it was

(05:14:52):
bound to happen.

It happens to every young girl. And every
young guy in some form. It seemslike but yeah, what what's the
conversation there? She I thinkLinda starts talking about what
do you want to do? Marry themand then become 50 and have it
and he's he's bald and you havean have some kids or something
like that? I was like, yeah, 50embolic. Man, that's not too far

(05:15:18):
off.

Yeah, yeah, but these are teenagers. 50 to them
is, you know, eons and we'll

see the dynamic again between one of
them trying to teach the otherone at least hold each other's
hands in their own little way asto how to step up. While while
Linda is still struggling withher reality have not been able
to see the guy who keeps leadingher on or her dreams. And
there's some reality that you'resetting in.

Now Charles Jefferson, the infamous Charles
Jefferson is inquiring aboutEarth Wind and Fire tickets
because Demone is a scalper andcan get these tickets but he
doesn't have any right now he'sgoing to keep his eye out for
these tickets, compliments himon his little brother. And you
can kind of see right then andthere. Spicoli comes over and
befriends Charles's youngerbrother, and they go off and

(05:16:08):
play video games. And you cantell the Demone who now he's
talking the most popular personand all of Ridgemont High is
like, whoa, taken aback. It'skind of like a celebrity talking
to Charles Jefferson. In fact,one kid who he's trying to do
business with, who's wearing aLed Zeppelin shirt, which I
love, says, Wow, he actuallygoes to school here. I thought

(05:16:30):
he just flew in for the footballgames. So that just says Charles
Rankin, and they're like aboutCharles like he is a big time
prospect. And everybody knowshim. Now Demone when that when
Charles walks away Demone is nowencouraging mark to go talk to
Stacy

at Paragon here again we see the old Damone
that's supposed to know it alltelling mark is just like a
sponge absorbing all thesethings and not necessarily
believe in all of them but justgetting that curd is building up
a little by little by littleYeah,

yep, I got this credit he goes over you know,
it's kind of awkward looking fora jacket and I'll buy another
one but then gets her number hedoes get her number and I gotta
give him kudos to that. I alsoliked the fact that the customer
before him bought a slice ofpizza for $1.05

That's what I'm talking about right there so
that was probably 99 cent it wasprobably six cents tax way back
then they anything six centsmight have been three think yeah
maybe was six but maybe you'reright case it was nearly a buck.
That's not bad.

But what what

a great like just that scene this kid who
just has nervous kind of tofinally go up and ask the girl
for her number like, do you everremember doing that as a Can't
like oh man, like, is this gonnawork out is like you're, you're
like on an island and you justgot to be with this one person
and there's nothing else in yourmind. And you're just like, am I

(05:18:02):
going to succeed or am I goingto fail. And the way he set it
up with just using the jacketwas just like so or whatever I
got, I can just tried to makethis work. So it's a lovely
seeing.

Now, though, it was really scary moments. And
this was a threshold for Mark tocross over. He had never asked a
girl for her number before. It'sodd. So

now he's probably like, oh, man, Timon is
actually kind of helped me outhere, in a sense, you know, just
getting that kind of

he needed Demone do encourage him and push him up
to that. Yeah, he needed it.
Now, Brad is removing somegraffiti. Which do you want to
say what it says? Well,

it's it's hairy. Rise was still see.

It's a big more areas to see yet another. Yeah,
that's just on the surface. Butwhat's going on is He's
rehearsing his talk, or hisupcoming talk with Lisa in the
mirror, which is really good.
And while this is happening,Arnold comes running. And he's
got to use the restroom andsays, Hey, would you come in to
register for me? And when hecomes out, Mike?

Well, we see a, what we'll find is a
disgruntled customer who isexpecting that they're to get
their money back because theydidn't get the 100% guarantee on
the food, which is a big boldsign. Yeah, that's in the
restaurant.

Yeah, it couldn't be any bigger 100% guarantee and
Brad being

like, the total, you know, guy that does
everything by the book in apillar of the community type of
dude and wants to be totallycorrect within the corporate
world, and do all this stuff hasa you know, wants to go by
protocol. And this, this personwho's eating, there's not going
to have it, by the way, that guythat they cast is spectacular.

(05:19:53):
He's gained his voice and hismannerisms. He's so he's such
the irritable, like, pain in theass customer

that anybody would not want to have just
reached inside the register andget my money back brand. You
know, I just I wasn't so good.
And then Bradley, well, you atemost of it. And I'm gonna have
to get a form here. And yeah,he's clunky. He doesn't want to
break the rules that easilycould just give him but he's
trying

to do the right thing, right. But he's
trying to do the right thing.
He's trying to figure it out onhow to do the right, the

right thing would be to go get his manager and
step away, but he gets mad. Andhe, he loses. He's trying to

handle it himself. Like, as a grown up or
not? I don't know. But yeah, hedoes kind of snap a little bit.

And he can kind of see the people in the
background. They start Oh, youknow, looking up as things
commotion builds. And yeah,that's a great payoff for Brad,
he grew up a lot in that scene.
And yes, he did lose his job.
And I haven't liked behind himnext to the 100%. Guaranteed
sign. There's the employee ofthe month. And it's Brad on,

(05:20:59):
which is great. You're firingBrad, this is our top dog. But
he crossed the line. And this isjust a job. And he's in the
system

and another shot to letter teenagers
confidence, right, as they'rejust trying to figure it out.

So I thought I handled that differently. No,

I've been fired in their life. And what is
that feeling? When you feelfired? You just feel down and
out like the whole world justcrumbled, you know, especially
at a younger age, if you've beenfired for you know, something
like that. And so you see himleads into the pool and some
other things. But

you do see Nicolas Cage and Nicolas Coppola
and the kitchen quick shot tohim. So he's at the school and
he made it in this scene aswell. So he works at all
American. Yeah,

he got his couple of frames in there.

Next we have our only dream sequence in the film.
And Spicoli is having anincredible dream. I mean, Mike,
this is just so textbook'spiccoli. And now he's just I
love the setup is he's talkingto a sportscaster because he's
just been triumphant at asurfing contest. And then these

(05:22:13):
two like swimsuit models next tohim, but I love the fact that
they put Sean Penn like, at alower level. So he's much
shorter than these women who aretowering over him. There's just
something about the stage youknow that it's just so great and

that you know that having grown up in Southern
California, I don't you know, Idon't know if that cuz you knew
student Ayaan was but he was alocal sportscaster in LA. So
that really he was a he's anamazing sports caster. So for
the locals in Los Angeles, Ilike it even hit harder. I mean,
even hit closer because you'relike, oh, yeah, let's make it
even more realistic. Right.
Let's get the real sportscasterin there. So as soon as Oh,

(05:22:49):
okay, awesome. So though otherpeople might thought he's just
an actor, but no, he's actuallya real sportscaster in Los
Angeles.

Well, I thought he was a real sports caster. I
thought for ESPN courses, thispredates ESPN, most likely. But
no, he's fantastic. You know,wells to all tell you, I love
it. And I haven't likenessbecause he's like, once you get
that jacket, and I get what hewants to say, I got to network
and he just wants to continuethe interview. But it's just

(05:23:17):
such a great scene. And I'm soglad to have the presence of
mind to put it in the film.

And so that dream sequence is, you're like,
Well, is he actually this reallyhappening? And they I think they
played it out? Well, you didn'tknow just off the top if that's
what was going on.

Now we see your classic school assembly, which
for the most part, are oftenvery lame and anticlimactic. But
while the assembly is going on,and the cheerleaders are sharing
their disappointment with thestudent body, Brad has lost his
confidence. And it all happenedwith losing his job takes his

(05:23:52):
edge off a little. He's comedown a few rungs. And he's
trying to now Mike reaffirm hislove to Lisa, he's no longer the
guy rehearsing the breakup inthe mirror. He's trying to latch
on to her because he can controlyou know, something, not her but
the relationship, and which iskind of interesting. And just to

(05:24:14):
point out one thing that Lisa,you may or may not know, is
played by Amanda Weiss, and shehad a very similar role and
better off debt. When she playedBeth, who dumped Elaine Meyer,
played by John Hoosac. And totake it further, she played a
different Beth on cheers in1985, and two episodes where she

(05:24:37):
dumped woody played by WoodyHarrelson. She's number Beth,
Beth was the prototypegirlfriend who is going to dump
you. So that sets the stage forwhat happens now

you see, you see just a total table turn
here, right? You see himprepping for one thing in order
to deliver a blow and the nextthing you know, he's basically
been prepping himself to notnecessarily receive the blow he
was going to give. And so sheended up in a nice in the nicest
way possible. Basically says,Hey, I've taken exactly what you

(05:25:12):
what you've been thinking. AndI'm going to actually execute
this before you. So you see himjust beat down even more now.
Yeah,

he can't believe it. He's just like, what? It
always hurts more to be thedumpee than the dumper. But had
he not been knocked down a fewrungs not lost his job. And the
earlier theme. Maybe if shebrought it up first, it would
have been a conversation thatcould have been a very amicable
breakup. But yeah, he takes itas another slight like now the

(05:25:43):
world shifted. And Brad, youknow, the guy who was washing
his car just a few seasons ago,is no longer that bread. He's no
longer there's definitely

a shift right?
As to like his empowerment andhe's no longer the man. He is
now just a guy who's losing it.
You know, wears it on hissleeve.

Hey, Ryan, where are you working? Five Mile
American burger guys come to himto get jobs like Arnold. Guys
probably look up to him. He'sdating Lisa for two years. So
yeah, he's not he's lost both ofthose things his senior year.
And, yeah, Brad's path hasdeviated. What's he going to do?

(05:26:28):
We will soon find out. So nowwe're back at the mall and
Demone gives Mark dating adviceand I love this Mike. I love
this. He uses a Deborah Harrycut out to illustrate his five
point plan. This is a screen onso many levels. A Deborah Harry?

(05:26:51):
absolutely one of my childhoodcrushes. Blondie. Are you
kidding me? He

gives five points here demote, which I love
that name. By the way, Damonegives five points right, to
operate from and the fourth one,I think it's the fourth one that
I always kind of really, I thinkcan stick with anybody. And it
was something to the effect oflike, always make the girl feel
like where you are as important,or the place the place to be.

(05:27:16):
And you'll Oh, well. Yeah,that's so basic. But

Demone was ahead of his time he was he was being
present. And we all struggle andwant to be present and that that
was his way of doing it. I justI'm right here and this is where
I need to be and that is a goodway to go through life. So
demands wisdom wasn't alllowbrow it had some. Some that

is? That is a really good point. I didn't
bring that up. He was present.
And that's super important.
That's really good point.

And his fifth point is also amazing. Which is
whenever you have the chance puton side one of Led Zeppelin
four. This takes us right to Ilike this cut. I love these
cuts, these hard cuts you gofrom that kind of advice to done
Anant stone and we're in thecar, we're already in the car
not gonna knock on the door.
We're already in the car. Markis driving Stacy's next to him.

(05:28:09):
And Led Zeppelin plays on thestereo.

And of course, they're uncomfortable silence
between the two.

And he's got it really loud. So it's not even
just like on it's on to a degreethat is not even a talking
level. But because he's takingthe moans advice in. But one
little trivia thing here, Mike,what's playing is cashmere,
which is not on Led Zeppelin forit's on physical graffiti. But

(05:28:41):
the moans advice is if you havethe chance do this. So for
whatever reason, and I know thereason but Mark didn't have
access to that. So he put onphysical graffiti and cashmere
is an incredible song. But thetrue reason is they just didn't
they couldn't get the rights forLed Zeppelin for

so they must have shot it. God said the lines
and like

it's in the K shot. Line. Yeah. Yeah, could
have said, always put on sideone a physical FET. But no. And
so it's kind of a cool littletidbit. But still works. It's
great sandlot Zeplin. Becauseyou just don't hear Led Zeppelin
and movies very often. And theygo to Burroughs famous Italian

(05:29:26):
restaurant. And Mike. I justlove the way they sit in these
super oversized chairs, and theylook like little kids at the kid
table. It's just so it funded.
It is

such a way of communicating age and the socio
economic being of them. Andthrough a nonverbal type of just
a strict visual, you know, thatjust really says a lot. Those
two chairs says a lot aboutthose two,

Mark discovers that he forgot his wallet sneaks
away to the restroom to callDemone his one buddy. You know
his best buddy. He asked him onwhich mic it also cracked me up
the Demone is home on apotential date night. Could have
been another lady could havebeen set scalping tickets are on
his show. But he's at home andwatching TV in his room. So Mark

(05:30:18):
calls and asked him as a friend,can you Demone ask your mother
to borrow her car, go to myhouse, get my wallet and bring
me my wallet. And so he does itgood friend. Good for

ya it he's nervous as hell, that he's not
gonna be able to pay for payingfor the meal. I don't know if
you've ever been there. You'relike, Oh my God, I've got the
girl of my dreams here. And Idon't have any money to pay for
this. What am I going to

do? And it's interesting, again, not to rely
on parents in this movie. That'swe don't do that. I mean, in
reality mark, well, in this dayand age, you could be on a farm,
you can do so many things. Butyou know, he would think his
first thing would be called haulmom and dad, they'll swing by
keep it low key. But he doesn'tdo that. He calls his buddy to
get him out of a jam. And soyeah, it's interesting that we

(05:31:07):
don't bring parents in. And I'mglad we didn't. But there's a
reason for this becauseeverything is purposeful as in
crows writing, is because whenhe comes Demone meet Stacy.
There's kind of a there's alittle spark there, Mike, I
would say just a hint. Yeah, thegaze is just a loop. Like he's
cool. While she's attractive.
Because he's seen her from afar.

(05:31:30):
She works at Paris pizza, but tosee her out on a date with
market just as he takes a biteof

a squirting.

Yeah. What was Frank? Yeah, he's, he's kind of
a rude guy. I love he acts likehe's there. Oh, you come here.
Oh, yeah, I'm here. Hey, I foundyour wallet. You may want this
so

clunky. It's just he calls him out in front
of in front of the girl whocalls him out. Like like a jerk.
But like, okay, that's kind ofwhat you do with your buddies
anyway, you can dig them.

And so they leave. And he's taking Stacy
home. And conveniently herparents are traveling, they're
away. And she comes in and Mikeshe has him helper, unzip her
blouse or dress. She goes andchanges and puts on like a rope.

Yes, she doesn't mess around anymore. Now
somebody that grew up real fast,suggestive.

That was intentional. It wasn't like I
That's amazing. So but you cantell that. Mark is very
unconvincing. The sandwich. Ithink that

little something that the director did
there with hurt him helping herunzip the back of her blouse,
whatever. It reminded me of, Ibelieve was an ice storm. When
Christina Ricci is in that andthere's a there's a point where
she He, there's another teenagerthere, I think this is correct,
where she bends down orsomething like that, and a

(05:32:58):
little bit of her crack of herrear comes out of there. But
they're longer pant line and akid sees that. And it's those
little things when you're ateenager, you just see that
little something. And then like,your hormones are kind of like
what's going on here. Likethere's something going on it
for something that justcapturing that little moment of
innocence, but curiosity, butyou don't want to be a bad

(05:33:20):
person, but you aren'tinterested in this physical
thing that's happening that youdon't even know how to control
it. Yeah,

it's a great moment you went out and it
definitely happens in thesequence. Yeah, he's never done
this before. He's crossing lotsof lines here. Or he's having a
lot of first. He's never been ona date most likely never got a
girl's number. Never unzipped agirl's blouse or dress and never
been in a probably a girl'shouse under the circumstances.

(05:33:47):
So a lot of firsts for him, it'smoving really fast for him. And
this leads to his, well, his andhers. But for him, it's his
first most likely their firstkiss.

Yeah. And it's, it's, you know, I can't I
love how it's crafted, like,we've watched these, these
movies. And these moments belike perfectly set.

But But of course, it goes too far for a
young mark, and it gets a littletoo. I don't know the hormones
are kicking in. And becauseStacy was definitely inviting
more to happen. And based onlenders advice and experience,
and you know, she's probablyready to have sex at this point

(05:34:28):
in time, not reallyunderstanding it, but ready for
it. And Mark has to get out ofthere. And he makes a beeline
for the door and he's

gone. Yeah.
And you, you kind of want tofeel for him. But you kind of
gotta go, You know what, that'swhat it's like to be a kid.

So now we see Spicoli and Charles Jefferson's
little brother taking Charles'scar out for a drunken spin while
he's out of town.

I mean, there's so many nuggets in this,
but one of the funniest ones,there's two of them. But one of
the funniest ones is whenthey're, they're driving along.
And Spicoli, of course, is likethe cool guy, but he's drunk,
and he's swerving all over theplace. And Jefferson's younger
brother, you know, they're bothhigh, too. He's like, sparkling
that was a red light. And hesays something to the effect of

(05:35:20):
like, but it was like a yellow aminute ago or something. It's
like, you know what he's kind ofright. And that's kind of really
funny. Those lines are pricelesslines that you hear from kids.

So true. And this sequence leads to a pretty good
stunt sequence, actually, thecar going way too fast. So it's
because he loses control. And itkind of leads to I would say,
like a one car accident, thankgoodness, because they probably
could have killed somebody. Itswerved to miss someone and they
go through what appears to belike road work that shut down

(05:35:59):
for the night. And they're goingon the side of the road. And
this car is this is like a sceneout of chips. Like the car goes
airborne. And when it lands,like, you know, this is pre
airbags as well. These two guysare our beloved Spicoli and
Charles Jefferson's youngerbrother could have been killed.

(05:36:22):
But they survived. Andimmediately young Jefferson
knows that this is going tobring the wrath of his brother,
who by the way is thisincredible football star badass.
So what happens Mike give mesome Spicoli isms.

Well, there's a few of them there, but I
Jefferson's younger brothers.
Basically it says, you know,you're my brother's gonna kill
me gonna kill my No my brothers.
And that's because like, why?
What do you mean? And then he'slike, my brother is gonna kill
you or kill us. And then he'slike, Well, what's he gonna do
shit or kill you kill us? He'slike, 30 is gonna shit then he's

(05:37:04):
gonna kill. You just see thiskid is so scared. And it's the
calling because he's so calm oneither so high and talk leads
into like, you know, someridiculous like logic in his
mind. That guy's logic is likeeverything's fixable in my head
because his father is what likea television repairman has old

television repair and it's got an ultimate set of
tools. Yeah, like he's no ideahow to work on a car. But since
there's some sort of tools andyeah, we could solve this.
Hilarious. Yeah, he was reallystoned. I think when he always
the optimist, always theoptimist. Now, I will say and I

(05:37:45):
don't want to spoil it. Whenthey really decided to solve
this problem. They came up withan incredible I mean income
radical solution. But we'll,we'll hold off on that for
right. Yeah, it is. It

is remarkable.

It's a remarkable idea. But the television repair
kit is not going to do it. Thiscar is in bad shape, Mike. Yeah,
not even close now back atschool, and there's yet another
mini montage because its rivalweek. And Ridgemont is set to
play Lincoln. And Mike, I lovethe montage. Everyone's getting

(05:38:18):
ready and things are happening.
And school prides, you know,comes to the forefront, but
there's these pins. And theysay, assassinate Lincoln.

Just straight straight to the historical
reference. Right, right.
historical reference. Perfect.

Yeah. And it's been long enough that you maybe
get away with that. But maybe,maybe not in this day and age,
but hilarious in the 80s, youcould wear that around about a
president who was assassinated,

and I'm so glad that female directed this,
because it I think it gave it adifferent angle as to what what
envelopes were being pushed.
Like, even during that montage.
You know, they're all talkingabout sex, their sex is a topic
and you're this, you know,undeniable, you know, young kids
and all that. But there's a shotof this girl walking with a

(05:39:07):
leakin shirt on, and she comestowards us and she's not wearing
a bra. And it's full, likefrontal of a girl in a shirt.
And you're just like, that was afemale's perspective, like,
Okay, I'm just gonna put it outthere. This is how kids are. And
this is what it's about. And ifthere was just no, right, screw
it, this is what it is. And, youknow, for the guys, and

and what's that say?

Isn't it killing it like that? Yeah.
Right. And so, which is

also right on the nose is like, they took the
historical reference to heart.
But good point on, you know,what you're bringing up? Yeah.
So

I think it's, it helps push the story along as
to just being not from a maleperspective, I think really
helps.

And so not that we had to hold back for long,
because the plan is in place.

So basically, I think, kids get super
creative, right. And they mighthave done this with a party. So
it's these, you know, highschool people have these
parties, and they blame it onsomebody else. If something is
broken within the house, becausethe parents are gone. They say
the dog did it or something likethis. So these guys take this to
the nth degree, right. And theyinstead they park, they pull the
completely demolished car intothe front of the school where

(05:40:19):
everybody's around it. And thenthey've spray painted on this
car, like,

like Ridgemont sucks, and all these things, you
know, degrading their school,and references to Lincoln
Lincoln rules. So yeah, theydidn't shy away from the fact
are they've portrayed it thatway that this was stolen from
the best football player atRidgemont. High in probably the
local area. And Lincoln didthis. And we're proud of it.

Unknown (05:40:47):
What a setup,

what a setup, what a complete setup. And then
forest gets poor suckers losinghis mind when he sees this. And
you can see the blood boiling.
So that wonderful, successfulplan, you see Spicoli and
Charles's brother kind of likesmiled at each other, like,
nailed it. I got away with thisone. Yeah. And now we're at the
football game, which you know,now it's Ridgmont versus

(05:41:12):
Lincoln. And Charles Jeffersonhas the defensive game of the
century, I think, in thisinstance,

yeah, he's pretty amped up and he takes out
all that animosity and anger andtakes it out on the other team.
And it's always fun to see howmovies portray football games
and the tackles and some of thestuff that goes on and and he
just mutilates the other teambut to see the shaking body on
the field that happened he'stackled so it's pretty funny.

(05:41:43):
Pretty funny. I love

this sequence being a huge football fan and
having played football growingup and I just love it so much
and rage about high winds 42 tonothing and he exercises all
those demons still doesn't havea car but I guess insurance

Yeah or no no, he's late you got the car for
free right they bought it forhim like alumni or somebody
bought it for him so he's gonnaget another car. Oh, that's

true. I the donors have probably already
said I think he's even spikingthe ball at the end of the movie
is they're all celebrating whichyou know, and they're carrying
him off it he had the game likeI said of a century so and I
like this movie can just deviateand have the storyline that it's
its own self contained thing butthis will be rounded out this is

(05:42:30):
high school there's lots ofmoving parts and you can't cover
it all. And it's kind of funnyto also see Spicoli and
Charles's brother in the in thestands rushed and they're just
like happy that the plan is evenserve them all more with this
huge brand. Yeah, they feel goodabout this is they feel good.
Behind the Scenes behind thecurtain or orchestrating this

(05:42:53):
win, so yeah, so maybe Spicolihas some sort of future. He, you
know, he's now outside the boxthinker. And who knows what he
could come up with.

I mean, he's got some he's made some pretty
smart decisions like he knowshow to get out of his stuff.

Thank goodness he has fast reflexes to not always
pays off. That wreck could havebeen worse. Had he not had his
cat like reflexes, right? That'sright. Yeah. Yeah. So now we
quickly see Brad, he's got a newjob. And he wears a pirate
costume as he's working atCaptain Hooks, which was in
Northridge by Ah, okay

Northridge.
Got

it long gone. But in Northridge, okay. And so we
just know that that just setsthings up for seeing that's
coming later. But Brad hasjoined the job force and has a
job probably feel a little bitbetter about himself. And, at
least for right now. And so nowwe're back at Stacy's house. And

(05:43:51):
Stacy and Linda are therepoolside when Mark and Simone
poppin which they do in highschool, you know, such as such
as a pool. Let's pop by go for aswim son invited on invited and
somebody's got his pop in Yeah,you know, fill things out. And I
think Linda is just like, she'salso in high school, but you can

(05:44:13):
tell that she's more like acollege girl. She doesn't look
at these guys as her. Yeah,

she's dated or older guys, counterparts.

She dates up. And she doesn't want to have this
tomfoolery. But Demone comes inI like that he pushes mark and
the pool takes his hat off thankgoodness but then shoves him in
the pool and we and I was justteenagers at play. That's all we
got going on here. Until Bradcomes home. Yeah, and I just

(05:44:41):
said he was feeling good abouthimself but I think the pirate
costume and the fact that he issingle so he's not old bread
just yet. I think he's happy hegot a job. But I think he feels
like a fool in this costume. SoBrad comes home doesn't have
Lisa anymore. And the last thingyou want to do Mike when you're
not feeling good about yourselfis to be around others

(05:45:03):
especially hot

other here's.

Well, here's Stacey with Linda now two guys,
he doesn't know they're all goto the same school but Brad's a
senior and he just wants to comehome. He's got some stuff to
work on. And he's just kind ofdejected. I don't know if he's
sad is is dejected. And he'sjust focused on what he needs to
do. And demoed even says, Idon't know if you heard this
line or not. But he's like whosays Taylor? And just a little,

(05:45:29):
just a little shot? Thateveryone else?

I don't recall that line. Okay, that's pretty

off camera has little here. The I think that's
kind of funny.

So little shot. Okay, that's now like that
one.

Mike, this sets up. As many great scenes are in
this movie. This sets out thequintessential scene in this
movie for what it's remembered.

And it's also driven by a great song by a
great Yeah, so basically, Brad'spretty down on pretty down on
himself while the kids are, likeyou said, are out in the pool
area. And he kind of justdecides to go inside. But he
decided to take a little peekoutside to see what's going on
out there. And he actually seesLinda out there in her hot red

(05:46:16):
outfit. And he decides to kindof, I would just say, You mean
bikini Yeah, bikini. So he hedecides to take his imagination
to an interesting place kind ofprivately. And then a major
fantasy sequence begins on thequeue of the cars and the name

(05:46:39):
of the song. Moving a stereo andslow motion comes to life. So
basically, his fantasy starts tohave it in front of his eyes.
And if that fantasy is kind ofblown, blown up, and probably
one of the most embarrassingmoments.

It is amazing that Linda dives into the pool.
And so as she dives in realtime, and you can tell that Brad
is familiar with Linda, evenwhen he was dating Lisa, you
know, he's probably always saidinternally at least maybe to his
friends. Linda is kind of hot.
You know, that definitely wassaid because he's he knows her
right away. She dives in thepool as she comes up. And real

(05:47:20):
life she has watered her ear,but now Brad's fantasies kicked
in. And yes, she slowly walks toBrad with a wonderful song, the
car song going and opens thebikini top to reveal her breast
which again the time Mike forthe time. This is a scene that

(05:47:43):
teenagers and probably oldertalked about. So it was just so
iconic when they played this onTV, these scenes get cut. Yeah,
it was just so groundbreakingyou know they did the edit for
TV. You're only gonna see it ifit was on HBO, the full the full
versions, but she slowly walksto him. She says his name and

(05:48:07):
they're making out and the realestate's he's now gotten out of
the pool water in the year, andsays that you have any cute tips
and oh yeah, they're on therestroom, and then she goes in
the restroom. And yes, to becaught masturbating is a low
point. And to be caughtmasturbating by the person

(05:48:29):
you're masturbating to isprobably more rare. And that
probably is a whole other low, Ishould share the fact that I've
listened to the director'scommentary on this film, and she
does devolves the fact thatJudge Reinhold, unbeknownst to
Phoebe Cates had a dildo in hishands. And when she came in, he

(05:48:52):
turned to show her and so herreaction was real. Like Wilma,
it caught her off guard so muchthat that's why you probably got
some of that incredible facial.
Oh, my gosh, good method actingthere on judges bar.

Wow. Well done. Well done. Class, I guess
all the all the Cinema Secrets.
But yeah, absolutely a classicscene that it's definitely
burned into a lot of people'sminds.

So now we're back to Mr. Hand, who's teaching
class when the pizza guy showsup. Another classic scene. And
back to my earlier point.
Another great idea by SpicoliSpicoli has ordered some pizza,
Mr. Han, and the openingsequence was real big on no
food. And Spicoli has continuedto break that rule when he

(05:49:51):
brought the bagel in. And so heordered this pizza. And this
just pushes Mr. Hand over thetop.

Yeah, way, way over the top. And it just hits
more on that food on them foodmotifs when it happens. And in
those two have a very goodmoment. But I have to say also
the casting of that pizzadelivery guy. The way he was
talking, just had a special,special something about him that

(05:50:21):
really nailed nailed it. Ithought he was great. Cast
whoever he was.

So I'm so glad to bring him up. Because I've
always loved that actor and toresearch him for this episode. I
didn't realize he had passedaway and tailored and grown. And
I also remember him being inbetter off debt. But this actor
Anytime he's in a scene, Mike hetends to steal the scene is not
even happy to be there. But he'shappy to do this because most

(05:50:48):
delivery guys would not take apizza to a classroom. He'll do
it. But he's gonna let you know.
You're putting him out.

Yes, great.
And know the mindset and to knowthe mindset of that person is is
is to know your characters,right? And then that really
helps push this. Yes. So prettygood. So back to Okay, so back
to this classic. Yeah,exchanging my time, your time
and pizza time?

Yeah, that's it.
Learn about Cuba having somefood. And Mr. Han is having none
of it. But I do like Spicoli hisreasoning. You know, he's like,
I've been thinking about thismister hand. And if I'm here and
you're here, isn't this ourtime? Very good logic that makes
Mr. Hand go. You know, allright. You got me there. You got

(05:51:34):
me there. Here's what I'm gonnado. And once you do, Mike,

well, he's basically says what's it's also
my class. So at that point, hethen you know, takes the pizza
from Spicoli it says, All right,so since this is my class, and
it's all our times, it's goingto be all our pizza and
basically shares it with theclass

and speaker his last line, which I didn't say,
which was certainly there'snothing wrong with a little
feast on our time. Yeah, so hegives a pizza out and it's
because he's just kind of besidehimself, just like oh, man, one
upped by Mr. Hand. And I knowyou've talked about food but
with Spicoli to me it's alwaysfashion as well. Yeah, this top

(05:52:17):
he's wearing those becamelegendary in their own right. I
don't even know what you callthat thing. But everybody had
one all this is kind of a punch.
Yeah, it's like a poncho. Yeah.
So now Demone walks Stacy home.
Mike, this is bad news bears.
have no business walking home agirl that your best friend has

(05:52:38):
the hots for True. True. And itdoesn't stop.

Well it's this is a I think it's a very
important part though in theircharacters because it has the
Mon says while the squirrel isStacy's talking says, Hey, my
friend really likes you. And hefeels it and you feel like you
know what? He's actually goodguy. He's going to tell him this
girl like, Hey, look. And thenshe switches it on him. And

(05:53:06):
gullible guys, at whatever ageby an attractive young girl
says, yeah, he's a nice guy. ButI think I like you. And in that
very moment, the shift happenswhere he was a good guy, or at
least trying to be a good guy.
And now he's leaning intoquestionable guy. And she ends
up going with him back to thehouse.

Had they talked and, and Mark shared the fact
that I had a good first day withStacey but not going to call her
he doesn't know what to think.
And they talked it out. Enoughtime has passed, okay. But we're
still in that unquestionabletime, and not cool. But Stacey
is making the moves. She's outexploring her sexuality. And as
far as she knows, she hit aroadblock with Mark. I don't

(05:53:55):
know if they've ever talked thatmuch. But she feels that she
scared him away. And so she'smoved on. And she can do what
she wants. But she's moved on toDemone. And so he mentions the
fact though, do you have anyiced tea, you know, Dimos is so
cool. Because again, wherever heis, is the place to be. And so
whatever someone says is, youknow, act as if so, and this

(05:54:19):
leads to another groundbreakingnudity. And sexing.

I think it's a big point for both the
characters. Because one of hislines comes back and bites him.
And that line was a line earlierthat he talks about, no matter
what happens, as long as it toeskeep tapping. You know what I
mean? And in this scene wherethey are intimate, in the back
pool room, every kid acrossevery nation has either down in

(05:54:53):
the basement, in the back of thecar, wherever you are the
cornfields of wherever. There'sthat place at the

dugout of Encino, Little League, wherever.

And this is the point where we really see
with what is Demone who hereally said he was. And there's
a scene there where his toes aretapping while he's now be he has
socks on right. But whilethey're having sex, right, and I
thought this was like, this isanother great story point that
circled back that the directorcircled back on there was like,

(05:55:24):
yeah, exactly. This is and youmay not know it. Oh, it's a shot
of the feet. Okay, great. Butthat was really telling you the
story of who he was. Yeah,that's good. No, that just
didn't have the experience hethought he did. And then he's
whether guilt sets.

It's also obvious he's not as experienced as Ron
Johnson, RJ is we like to callhim is because this is a very
How do I say? A very quicksexing. Right? I mean, the Stasi
doesn't even know what happened.
And she's like, you know, yeah,I guess the terminology would be
premature ejaculation. Andobviously Demone is not as

(05:55:58):
experienced in these things ishe's led us to

believe I mean, the song doesn't even get
through the first verse. I don'tthink

now. We queued up. Jackson Browne, somebody's
baby. And I like the way it justcuts out. Yes. And as he
finishes, it's a really nice jobthat did that. Yeah. Demone
can't get out of there fastenough.

What do you think it's because he's ashamed
of that? Or is a shame becauseit's his buddy, or both? Or?

Both? Yeah. Like, who's someone who's probably has
a fragile ego, as we all do,especially at this age. He's
crossed lines. He doesn't knowwhat to say. And yeah, you know,
I think it serves the characterbetter that this happened, it
serves the movie better than ithappened. I would like to think
that he could handle thesituation better, even if that
happened. Hey, it's okay. Andhe'd hang around, and they'd

(05:56:48):
have some more tea and they tryit again. But I love the fact
that they wrote it this way. Iprefer this, you know, here's a
guy that we thought was had allthe answers in life. And wow,
that was really good. It wasmuch, you know, and it was more
takeaways this way.

It just showed his immaturity as much as they
seem. Yeah, sure. And it

shows that most people are guarded and they'll
invent people that they want youto believe that they are and,
you know, shielding you fromtheir true self. And yeah, that
was really good. It was good tosee a guy like that. Be
vulnerable

and her as well. I mean, she's tried to
take bigger steps now to try tofigure it out.

Is it me she's like, Ron, stop calling off to
the flowers. Mark kisses me andbales. This guy has sex with me
and is out of here. What am Idoing wrong? Yeah. What is
Stacey Hamilton doing? Yeah, I'm15 and Linda, my friend who's
maybe a couple years old has gotall the answers or what's wrong
with me? Yeah. All that's atplay

and and all valid, relatable thoughts. Yeah.

And they're dealing with adult things.
They're just younger adults. Nowthey have some emotional growth
to happen and their brains willbe full fully formed. But yeah,
they're dealing with real adultthings. I mean, they have jobs
or getting fired. They needmoney for things which we'll get
to some real life situations.
Yeah, there's real consequencesin life, which we also find out.

(05:58:19):
So which we're going to get tovery sad that build us Stacy,
For those keeping score at home,Stacy's now had sex with two
people. And I don't thinkcontraception was used in either
instance. So that's just youknow, that's just remember that
as we move forward in thetimeline, and so now back at

(05:58:40):
school, Demone is giving Staceythe brush off. So this is the
third guy, my that's givingStacey the brush off. And that
goes back to my point a minuteago about well, what's going on?
What am I you know, I'm ascarlet letter on my chest. Why
am I Hamilton's have taken somehits in this movie. And Stacey

(05:59:02):
and Brad are going to, hopefullythey can rise up above it.
That's because they're gettingclose to the third act, and
they're getting close. That'swhy That's why they're good. So
now we're at Captain Hooks. AndBrad has got the legendary
pirate costume on. And his bosssays, Hey, you're gonna go make

(05:59:23):
this delivery to IBM. And soBrad goes to change industry
clothes and he's told to notchange out of street clothes. Be
proud of the uniform go in yourpirates costume. So all right,
So off he goes

against staying loyal to the system
staying loyal to the system as asystem guy. Yeah being true
trying to do do what's right to

I can't get fired again. I work you know, he put a
lot of time and all Americanburger you could tell he moved
up the ranks. Employee of theMonth hiring people probably got
Lisa her job there. Anddefinitely Arnold and probably
others. But as Brad drivesalong, we hear Joe Walsh's
waffle Stop. Good song for thesame. And please tell me what

(06:00:14):
happens. As Brad comes up to ared light.

Well, he's there in his Buick. And a
attractive young lady pulls upnext to him. And you know, he's
vibing he sees her and he thinksthat she's kind of smiling at
him. But he soon finds out thatshe's kind of laughing at him
because of what he's wearing.
And and he doesn't realize thatthat till she speeds off and he
realizes that he's got theridiculous pirate outfit on. So

(06:00:41):
he's really frickin upset andfull of the system. So he rips
off his hat. And again, beatdown on the Hamilton family.
He's got to drive away you knowin his car as a girl races all
the pretty girl races off.

I love it. He starts to eat the food and spit
the food out just you know,showing us the food at Captain
Hooks isn't very good. And thisis Brad making his own stand
like you know what? This isbeneath me all American burger.
I could wear an apron and maybea hat but I'm not just like a
pirate. And he essentiallyquits. I mean, it's not sad or

(06:01:21):
talked about but when you don'tshop at IBM, you throw the food
out the window. You've quit thejob,

ya know, it's kind of like a literal thing to
rights thrown it out the window.
So

yeah, so I was gonna say really quickly. The
female the attractive lady,attractive woman in the car is
played by Nancy Wilson. And shewas in the band Hart, really
well known band from back in theday. And she later married
Cameron Crowe. How about Therewe go. That's pretty amazing in

(06:01:53):
there.

It's all laid in there. Our at

the school track.
And Demone is in full scalpingmode talking about the dream
police not on and I was talkingto a girl about your mama's All
right now that's our I love thathe's putting a hard sell on an
upcoming concert. And this girlis listening to him. And Stacey
comes out. And Mike, this is aheavy adult conversation. I

(06:02:15):
mean, adults can't even I was onvacation sometimes. Yeah. So you
can't and let alone some 15 yearold and however old Demone is I
mean, what's the 16 maybe 17.
So,

so tell us what happened as far as I
remember demonia is talking toanother girl again trying to
sell some tickets and so he'slike business as usual. But
Stacy obviously, littleoccupied, preoccupied with
something that has something onher mind and she kind of
politely demands that he stepstep aside They have a

(06:02:52):
conversation about something onher mind. And she kind of just
puts it straight up as a truegrown up would do. Pry better
than any grown up could possiblydo. She just kind of lays it
straight, that she's she'spregnant, the whole world just
gets a huge rattle. And he showshis true colors and kind of

(06:03:17):
super scared, says some thingsthat are very nice. And she
stands her ground and he lashesout. She stands her ground.

She did a great job in that saying, You're
right. She just said something.
She was so calm. Like that's notfair. Like she didn't they
didn't get in this ridiculousfight. He lashes out. And she
reset him immediately. And thatyeah, that's a wonderful moment.
As tough as this is. It's just,it's done. So I

mean, how much how much more dramatic can you
get? Besides maybe a death? Nowyou're talking about the other
side of it? Is it possible birthlike, wow, in this Drama Comedy
thing there, there's a bunch ofstoners, and then boom, you've
got this. And you're havingthese teenagers really talked
about, but

the way they handled it was so mature. And
that, you know, that's just acredit to the directing and the
acting and the writing.

I mean, in a sense, it's, I thought this was
kind of a sad point to, youknow. Wait.

Well, this is how we find out she's pregnant. We
didn't know before this moment.
So it's just dropped on us righthere. You know, so we're taking
it in like, Oh, wow. Okay. I'mglad that this movie does a very
good job of that, Mike. Itdoesn't tell you over here. And
then you got to remember how Ilike the way it's edited
together. I like the the pacingof it. And it's okay to have

(06:04:46):
some fun over here with Spicoli.
Mr. Han? But yeah, like I say,filmmaking is a lot like
building a house. We've got astrong foundation, and then you
go, you know, do you put this inhere? Does this work with this?
It's good construction. Thismovie is a very well built film.

Yeah. That I think that scene gets to the
heart of how serious life can beat that age, as much as it's
like the time of innocence andcoming of age type stuff. But
it's it also showed you like,No, this can be really, really,
really heavy. And to besensitive to that with kids.

And Timon walks away to knowing he's, you know,
I've got to hold up my end ofthe bargain. I was part of this
and I'm going to do that forher. And so we're now at the
bones house. And he's raisingfunds, essentially, and making
calls. And I like his notesMike, I just I paused it and

(06:05:51):
just took this and because itwas I mean, I've seen it so many
times but prepping for thispodcast. And so it says people
who owe me $50 Rick, Shasta reo.
course because the audienceknows Demone is a scalper. So
$10 Drina Phillips, neck, theneck, I assume. $5 Ratner. Now

(06:06:15):
you can ask my mark, right? Notgood. You give a Scobie? Pay me
back five because I gotta getthat person with the girl. So
no, can't reach out to him. He'snot on the call list right now.
And then there's $20 DavidBrandt clash again the clash.

(06:06:37):
But now just a little tidbit.
David Brandt was Amy Hecker,Ling's ex husband, probably
husband at the time and he's inthe band Reeves nivo and the
Cinch who perform at the dancelater in the movie that's

that's a good note. But I also noticed in the
in the dugout, where she losesher virginity is sprayed hate
the stench is in there if youdidn't notice that though, I
thought was gonna beinteresting.

I saw disco sucks. Yeah, cool. No, I didn't
see the sense Good job. And thenon the expenses column, it says
abortion $75 his portion. Andbelow that I have to question or
bring up it says Rod Stewart $60Question mark as the mom was

(06:07:35):
going to go see Rod Stewart andwe're saving up money but now
that's been question mark.
Because listen, great shows

that puts that puts the mindset there as to
okay, this is what in my lifethis is kind of how they value
and you're like,

Unknown (06:07:49):
wow,

the difference between them Yeah, right.

But roster, we got the question mark, which is
nice. So it's like now I gottado the right thing. Now, this
leads me to this other phase ofthis conversation about the note
taking. And the scene itself isbecause he's on the phone with
Rick, he went right to the guythat owes him 50, which would
definitely get him so close tohis goal. But Rick doesn't have

(06:08:17):
the money. And when Rick doesn'tgive him the money, thing, the
plan starts to implode. I mean,without that 50 He's looking at
30 tops. And again, parentsdon't have a real place in this
universe of this film. And soborrowing money from mom and dad
is not an option. And I love theStevie Nicks song. Sleeping

(06:08:39):
angel is playing. It's a greatsong. And it just takes us from,
you know, the scene of himmaking the calls and trying to
raise the money all the way toStacey at the curb waiting for
the ride from Demone who nevershow

the ride, because he can't show his face.
He can't reality.

I mean, Mikey could have just said called her
and said, I'm having a hard timewith the money. Can I pay you
later? Hey, he knows all aboutIOUs but I'll definitely drive
you. But he just hides in all

it's all about image for Demone. Right? He's
got this image to keep up thathe can't face. Yeah. It's
unfortunate because you want youwant the moon to come through on
this, but he just can't he's notat that level to do so

Stacy does call them bones mother and just
sidebar Stacy's the onlycharacter to have interactions
with any parents, her ownmother, and Mike's mom when she

calls Demone and the mom answers I was
wondering this is maybe farfetched, but she's kind of
picking at plaintiff apples. Andthere's a reason I was like is
this Adam and Eve the apple typeof thing the fruit to I was just
long shot in it but I'm like no,there's a reason why she's
playing with food and it's Applethere's a reason there's gotta

(06:09:53):
be a reason. So I was trying tothink what Anyway, anyway, just
long shot but oh, your eyes ifyou can out there whoever's
listening, but but it's apossibility. Oh, there's

probably some meaning behind that. You know,
some symbolism some absolutethat's a good point. Yeah, the
Adam and Eve they crossed theline here and and they're paying
the price or she is anyway. Andso Timon is not available. His
mother says that he's out in thegarage helping his father. And

(06:10:21):
so Stacey. Then here's Brad,backing out of the driveway and
yells to catch a ride. And soshe says we're going bowling and
he drops her off at Corbin bowl.
And let me just say, Mike, I'vebeen to Corbin bowl. I've bowled
there on a date and had awonderful time. But I knew when
I was there, that fast timesdidn't have a scene there. But

(06:10:45):
it was in the movie. So that waskind of cool for me. So fun
times at Corbin Ville. Iactually made it inside the
bowling alley. Unlike Stacey,who has Brad drives away. What
does she do Mike?

Well, she be lines from the bowling alley and
makes her way into what we'regoing to find out is an
abortion. But she

runs across Ventura Boulevard to get there.
Oh, true. Yeah. So

and her brother sees in the sideview
mirror that what a rearviewmirror that hers his sister has
basically is up to something. So

being a good big brother turns around and goes to
her Stacy's and waits outsidefor her to come out of the
abortion clinic. And she wasactually supposed to have a
ride. And she said she livesshe's like, Oh, no, my rides
downstairs. I didn't know. Andthen they released her. And she
goes outside not knowing howshe's probably going to get home
and there's brat. And he knowswhere she's been. It must say it

(06:11:45):
on the you know, on the front ofthe building. He knows. And it's
a nice moment that he's therefor her when she needs him.

And his world is just crumbled. And he's still
there is like this. My sister. Igot her back. You know?

Yeah. Well, whatever he's dealt with is not
this serious, either. Yeah.

And he's just a loyal brother that you can
look up to. And he's got hestays. He's there as a pillar
for somebody her. And what waswhat I think was very
understanding him understandingwhere she's coming from his when
he said, You know, so who wasit? And she said, and then she
doesn't really answer and hesays, You're not gonna tell me

(06:12:27):
either. And he kind of said,That's okay. Like, he was like,
It's all right. I get it. That'syour he said that. You know,
that's your secret. And that'sfor you to know, I'm just here
for you. Which is, sometimesthat's all we ever need in any
type of heavy situation.

Yeah, no judgment. He just says, Hey, you
hungry? It's food. She needed ashoulder to cry on and that
moment or just embrace someoneand be there for her And, and it
can't always be Linda. You know,sometimes it has to be your
flesh and blood. And this is herbig brother. Doing so. And it's
great. It's great moment. So nowStacy tells Linda, what happened

(06:13:06):
with Demone. And she calls himwhat? Think it's a little prick.
That little prick. You got it,nailed it. And

she kind of goes off. That being the
protector, you know. And so,

yeah, she knows a person if Brad knew it was
Damone. I'm sure he would havedone something to him. But Linda
already knew. But now she knowsDemone let her down. Bailed

if you will.
And she's not one to hold back.

And no, no, Phoebe Cates in this role is a
bit fiery. And again, a greatscene, great editing, great
directing, the way it goes fromthat little prick cut to the
moans house. And on his car, itsays just that,

yeah, comes out, comes out of his apartment
and boom has been tagged righton his Gremlin. Of course. Yes,
he's got a gremlin, which we allknow is not like the car to
have. And then when he actuallyleaves the premises, and drive
to school, he's covered up.
Yeah, with cardboard taped ontohis car where it was written
little prick, which to me was,again, it's such such a nice way

(06:14:22):
of reflecting who he is like, hehas to cover up who he really is
by putting this over it. Butunderneath that he's still that
same person. So as that to me,it was like, Ah, okay, another
layer of how to present him notwashing it off not doing that he
has to cover up who he is.

Yeah. Now we're back at school on we're in the
locker room. And Mark, who nowknows what happened, confronts
Demone. And this is really a bigscene and a tough scene to see.
You know, like you say, theteacher and the student and two
good friends. And now they're onopposite ends over Stacey. And

(06:15:07):
what happens Mike

and well, and Well, Mark, it's pretty cool. He
actually stands up for himself.
He actually stands up himselfand he's very stern and he puts
he puts Damone basically on thespot. Again, I just I always
look into the layers of whywould they use the locker room,
blah, blah, blah. But I wasthinking about this like, okay,
Demone is nearly naked, he isgoing to be revealed for who he

(06:15:30):
is. And that's possibly why theydecided in the locker room. I
don't totally know. But it seemsto make sense. We have
completely stripped you down,man. Now I see who you are. So

close. You can't hide behind the side. Right?
Yeah.

So you know, rat has a conversation with him
very direct about what's goingdown. And this is where some
unfortunate truths are said andrealized. And Mark has to live
with that many heartbreak orbetrayal. And in his pursuit of

(06:16:10):
figuring it out with this girl,

he says some things that are right on the
nose, you know, hey, you know,look like they all make fun of
Demone. And he stands up forhim. And people see demand for
who he is. And Mark is closestto him. couldn't even see the
real Demone until now. Yeah. Andso a lot came out in this
exchange, and they nearly cometo blows. But this is a normal

(06:16:34):
device that we see in movies isthe teacher, our superintendent,
or whoever comes in and breaksit up before ever happens. And
so it's a it's a short scene,but it's a very important thing.
And we don't know where theirfriendship lies, but they got a
lot off their chest and, andMark was right, and I'm very
proud of mark for standing upfor himself. And sometimes

(06:16:58):
relationships need to be tested.
And him saying those things heshouldn't feel guilty about what
he said he needed to say it butsometimes we become better
friends for having these typesof moments in life. But we'll
see. We'll see where this thinggoes. But it's over. We're out.
We've moved on in the movie. Andnow Mr. Vargas, who haven't seen

(06:17:19):
in a while, is doing the annualfield trip which is kind of
mentioned in the earlier sceneand biology class that Arnold
was talking about. They're goingto the hospital. And we get Dr.
Miller, which you may or may notknow, was played by Martin
breast. And Martin breast was apretty prolific filmmaker

(06:17:41):
himself. He did movies likeBeverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run
Scent of a Woman and so manymore. And I love that he plays
this little bit part. And so,Fargas goes in to, I guess, a
cadaver and starts to exploresaid cadaver and pull out body

(06:18:01):
parts to examine them and, andand I even liked the fact that
Spicoli has joined this fieldtrip, even though he's not in
Mr. Vargas, his biology class.

He says, Well, I am today. Yeah.

To my class I am today. It's great. He knows that
they're going to do and, and hewants to be a part of it. And so
I think Vargas even pulls outthe heart. Magali has another
great Spicoli ism,

radical are awesome. What's he say during
when that happens? Oh,

gnarly,

gnarly. It's good. That's good. And while
that's all happening, all thekids are like tripping out on
like this, you know, the heartof this stuff. This comes
literally not too far afterStacy has heard of abortion.
Yeah. And so they're here inthis class scene, discussing
life. And they also saw babiesthat were just born and stuff
like that. So she's getting hitwith this stuff. And you're

(06:18:58):
like, wow, it just isn't, youdon't just get an abortion, it's
all done. You just keep gettinghit with stuff. And you don't
even know where it's going tocome from. I mean, you can only
imagine what you know, as, as amale, it's nearly it's not even
possible to come close to whatit's like to go through that.
No, but to just start to seejust the beginning of what this
young lady may have to face. Andto go from there. was pretty

(06:19:23):
intense. But the Spicoli is thebest during that does definitely
pretty cool.

Well, back to your point with Stacey, though
Mark recognizes that Stacy leftthe room when it got too
intense. And Mark goes and looksafter her, which is nice. You
know, he's trying, and maybe nottrying to get back in there. But
because he's a good guy. And healso knows, not from her. But he
heard through the grapevine.
What happened, and he's stillwilling to stay in there and go,

(06:19:48):
You know what, I'm still goingto try this. That's, that's a
lot for someone to do. Yeah, butI don't think he did it for
points. Mike. I think he did itbecause he's just a genuinely
good guy. Yeah, for sure. Forsure. Wait, which is great to
see you. You need. You don'tneed but you're rooting for
those types of people. And anensemble piece like this,
because not all these peoplehave that. That moral fiber that

(06:20:10):
Mark Ratner has now it's forCallie's house, and we see him
taking a bong hit. And I don'tremember seeing a bong hit in
the movie before this. And I wasyoung, but definitely not a high
school movie, or a teenager. Andthen there's a knock on the

(06:20:32):
door. And it's his littlebrother Curtis, because Spicoli
or Jeff and his and hishousehold has a visitor and who
is it, of course is Mr. Han, Mr.
Han, and this is another one ofthose great moments, great
scenes in the movie. It'll stickwith us. And it's the last time

(06:20:55):
we see Mr. Han and Spicoli inthe movie together. And it's
it's it's so memorable. I lovethis one.

Yeah, and as you go through this you know
he's mr. hands basically tellingtells us that Spicoli is wasted
nearly eight hours of Mr. Handstime and so he's going to get it
back so that they can call it aneven deal pretty much. And so
Spicoli has held back from goingto the last dance where
everybody is until you can kindof go through the history of

(06:21:22):
things. And in this scene, youkind of you begin to see the
teacher become the student andthe student become the teacher
to a certain extent because Ibelieve Mr. Hand learns from
Spicoli

he learns their lingo but yes, goalie gets
what's going on but he presentsit in a very new and fresh way.

Right which brings me back all the way to
the opening scene where thefirst time we see hand he says
aloha to everybody. And what isit that he says to when they in
their final scene and they saygoodbye to each other basically
their

parting words are aloha and aloha Mr. Hand Yeah,
yeah. So but in between thattime period, I gotta say that I
loved the way that Spicoli hisSpicoli ism, breaking down
things in such a fun andcolorful way. But again on point
with his wardrobe, I love splitKohli's Hawaiian shirt with a

(06:22:22):
tie. It just works for him. Allonly spoke Callie could pull
that off.

And you know you go was it the wardrobe
designer was the costumedesigner. Was it the director?

Was it Sean Penn broglio

And how many different guys could it go
through and what you know, justto pick the one he nailed it
nailed it.

Speaking of wardrobe, I also liked mr. hands
hounds tooth jacket, so I gottagive him kudos on that. So A
great scene a very memorablescene, and an end of a wonderful
relationship with Mr. Hand and,and Jeff Spicoli, I love he says
he's going to cruise history.
And he's, you know, acts likehe's going to have to repeat it.

(06:23:07):
And he's like, I think you'llget by Spicoli I just love it,
they have such a fondness foreach other, and they start off
on the wrong foot, but you cantell that they're kind of
kindred spirits in a way.

Absolutely.
And I think this, this is whereit starts to lean in, we start
finding out the characters inthe beginning of the
relationships, we kind of figureout what what has served them
throughout this whole journey,or what has, what they've come
to accept and how they get thevalue in it. At this point, we
start to see that Mr. Hanactually feels valued as a

(06:23:42):
teacher, he feels like he'sfulfilled a role and
responsibility in at leastconnecting with, with Spicoli at
a particular level. So that was,I think his kind of his, his
role in the movie was to findsome value and acceptance in
what he was doing. For thesekids, even if they're all all on

(06:24:04):
dope.

It because he's, he's an older teacher, and the
last, you know, phase of hiscareer. And so he's done with
the youngest generation he's hadto deal with and he's probably
realizing, Man, am I losingtouch with them. And so it's
nice to connect, and realizethat, hey, we're not so
different. And they can kind ofspeak the same language. So I

(06:24:30):
loved it. I really did. And nowwe're at the dance, and Reeves
nivo, and the center performing.
And a great moment here, as wesee Demone and Mark,

do what Mark basically just tells, tells
Demone look at Demone Dude,that's just who you are. I know
how you are. You are this youare that and, and Dimos. Kind of
like, yeah, yeah. But the momentactually gives a an honest
apology, like he's absolutelysorry for what he's done. And I

(06:25:05):
don't maybe this isn't the rightterm, but he kind of mans up and
say, certainly does. So in thatmoment, you see his growth. And
you want to believe that, yes,he has actually become a better
person, at the cost of others.
But his growth, he's he'sreached a milestone in his
development,

you can tell that the relationship meant more to
demand and maybe we realized,you know, he realized what he
did, he was very sincere withhis apology. And he knows that
what Mark had to say wasn'twrong. What he said were all
right about his character. Butyeah, I really liked it, and

(06:25:44):
they buried the hatchet. Andthey were friends. And it meant
something to Demone to get thatfrom Mark. And that was nice.
That was the redemption that Iwanted.

Yeah, and Mark's character elevates at
that level to to be able to dothat. That's not an easy thing
to do as a human.

Now, Mr. Vargas is introducing his wife, Mrs.
Vargas, to some of the students,and she is played by Lana
Clarkson, who was a well knownactress in the 80s and 90s. But
who was tragically murdered byPhil Spector. And 2003.

Oh, I didn't I didn't know that necessarily.
But now I do know that but Ishe'd seemed recognizable to me,
but I didn't know that too. Itactually was. But a that this is
life. This is, you know, this isa lot of people are tied to this

movie. Yeah. This is back to your first favorite
thing in the movie. Someonecomes roaring up late to the
party, because Macaulay was tiedup with Mr. Han. But in the
parking lot, your favoritevehicle arrives

once again, the Volkswagen bus comes up
yellow and orange. And the boysroll out smoke coming out of
court as they roll in. Andthey're kind of late. But
there's significant time thatthere's this body language that
Sean Penn does as it going intothe school gymnasium. These
outside there's some balloonsoutside that lead into there.
And Spicoli instead of as he'swalking in, and these balloons

(06:27:14):
are in his way, he doesn't takehis hand and move the balloons
out of the way. So college justgoes into the balloons and
drifts off him and goes inbecause that's just what he

says it all such as character. Like why

would I move my hands, right? Just flow
through these things, man.

That was great.
It's so great. He was so great.
And this I mean, really, it's,it's worth repeating again and
again and again. He reallyelevates this movie to a whole
new level. Yeah. So Linda breaksup with Doug and a letter. And
so interesting seeing that nowhere comes the T sure who's

(06:27:52):
always been shepherding Staceyand, and now she's at a real
crossroad. And she wants to, orneeds to, or if Doug even
exists, or maybe he alreadydumped her, we don't really
know. It's about as vague as itgets. But we do know that she's
probably moving on in some wayand putting yourself out there.

(06:28:14):
And Stacy's kinda like she'salready run the gamut of like,
Yes, they've been around meetingguys, and, and she's looking for
something more, but it's reallynice to see like, oh, wow, now
I'm looking at you. And you'rethe one kind of falling apart
that needs to be held together.

That scene there, I think just it that was
just like, okay, the trajectoryof, of Lynda has reached its
end. And she has this wholetime, kind of convinced herself
that she was in a relationshipthat she wasn't. And then as
she's trying to teach, she'sactually learning through this
whole process. Then the veryback of it. Linda does all the

(06:28:51):
talking to Stacy and Stacy justgives like, right, okay. And
she, and then Linda comes upwith their own answer. You know,
so she's like, she kind of hadher own self learning process
along the way. But thanks,

she's her rock.
She exaggerated get caught up init. She was unaffected by it.
She's more mature, she's grown,Stacy's really grown a lot. So
she can be her equal now. SoSpicoli is late to the party.
But let me tell you this. Theparty has just begun. He goes
right up on stage and helps theband sing Wooly Bully. I love

(06:29:24):
it. Spicoli is the party andbrings the dance alive. You
know,

what was attractive about that scene was
just to see the students alldancing in their own particular
peculiar. Strange, whatever youwant to call it away. Yeah.
Because it was just expressingthat to me, I get I'm always
looking for symbolism and thatkind of stuff. And maybe it goes
a little too deep or not. Butthey were just being themselves.

(06:29:55):
And that, to me, ultimately, iswhat this movie is about. Just
being yourself and discovery andgetting over fear for it.

I loved it. Yeah.
Yeah. Just just went for it. Itwas good. So dances do they
bring people together. So nowwe're back at the mall, and
Perry's pizza to be precise. SoStacy is talking to Linda. And
she wants a relationship. Shewants romance. She wants
something she hasn't had. She'shad empty sex. She's had an
abortion. She's dealt withimmature guys. So she wants

(06:30:24):
something more. And then whodoes she spot across the mall?

You know, Mark has always been across the mall
where it's not as happening andwhere she's been. It's been
happening. But I think youbrought up something that I
don't want to skip over just toomuch. Because this is a really
big part, I think this is bringsit all back together. And it's
when Linda says, as you weresaying they're at the very in
the final scene in the area. Shesays, Linda, I finally figured
it out. And that's what they'veall been trying to do this whole

(06:30:54):
time is figure it out all thecharacters, right? And she did
say as you were saying, I don'twant sex, anybody can have sex.
I want a relationship. I wantromance, something meaningful.
But so she's in this mindset ofI figured it out. And I thought,
wow, I think that Spicoli kindof figured it out too. Because
like he said, All I need aresome tasty waves cool buzz and
I'm fine. So he figured it outmister hand, Aloha feels his

(06:31:17):
duty has been fulfilled. Hefigured out for college for the
most part. So he feels like he'sfigured it out demands, you
know, accepting who he is. Andhe's learns what it's really
like to be friendship. So he'skind of figured it out. Brad, of
course, you know, we're gonnafind out soon, he's gonna figure
it out as well in a pretty coolscene. And Linda, you know, she

(06:31:38):
she writes this letter, and shekind of figures it out as well.
So, you know, Mark then steps upnow and he's about to figure it
out as well.

Yep. So Stacy looks across the mall and sees
Mark waves out him and thenwaves him over. What sets up a
really nice scene between them.
So I'll let you take it fromhere.

It seems to be something that has been repeated
over and over and over. In themindset of a guy. A cute girl
says a few things says she'savailable a certain standard,
and we just buckle we just buydoesn't matter. We're like,
Okay, we're good. And maybe itworks the other way around, too.

(06:32:23):
But Mark has come along thispath. He's worked hard to stay
tuned with her in in with herand she's, he's kind of trying
to play it off. Like, you know,

she sent your picture on a vacation. Yeah,
he's

like, I'm going to be kind of busy. And
she's like, well, I want you tohold this picture. And it's a
cute picture of her and he kindof he's innocent enough to but
he's, he's like, you know, thebirdies go around his head or
whatever you want to call themgo to the hearts go rounds and
butterflies and fluttering andhe's like you His whole course
just changes. Yep, I think thatI'm probably gonna be able to
give you a call. So it's athrowback to like it's still

(06:33:01):
there for him still wants to bearound her and and

while they're having their exchange the song
so much in love very fitting byTimothy B. Schmidt is playing
and nearly as a perfect song tothis scene with these two
lovebirds, if you will. And it'svery cute. And their
relationships come full circlefrom that first meeting in
biology class to everythingelse, to this point where

(06:33:26):
they're really starting theirjourney

together in the mall, which is what it's all
about. So that's great.

They're mall rats, these two Oh, my God,
there's the phrase mall rats.
Perfect. He he was the firstmall rat framed it up. So now
Brad is at his new job at themighty Mart. And Spicoli comes
in. And Mike, he is obviouslystoned. And this scene, well, he

(06:33:53):
comes

in there, right? He's just trying to pick
out nickels from his pocket andlint and stuff like that to pay
for some goods. And then we'vegot Hamilton there who's like,
you know, kind of like, allrights for calling What's your
deal, you know, once you try andget a job, and that's again,
where he, you know, yes, butSpicoli throws out that line
that I just mentioned about, youknow, the cool waves and all

(06:34:20):
that stuff, and everything'sgonna be just fine. And in that,
you know, again, Hamilton's thecool dude. He's like, alright, I
get it, I get it. And then sortof a call. He asked to use the
bathroom. And he's like, Well,all right, so we sprinkler heads
to the back. And and while thathappens, again, the store is
empty, except for Sean Penn,who's now gone back to the

(06:34:40):
bathroom. But in the meantime, aguy comes in to rob the place

and card comes pulling up. And this guy jumps
out and runs in spray paints.

The camera comes up pulls a gun out on
Hamilton and Hamptons like Whoa.
Yeah, so tense. Yeah, no messingaround there. He's like cheese.
What am I what next? And in themiddle of the robbery as
Hamilton's getting built up andworked up because he's the guys
pressuring him with a gun andknocking stuff over. Spicoli
comes out and kind of distractsthe guy as he because he says,

(06:35:11):
Hey, there's no towels in thebathroom and the guy looks the
robber looks to the side at thatpoint. Hamilton seizes the
moment grabs the hot coffee inthe container, just smart
thinking for Brad, they'll getthe big brain on Brad. He grabs
the hot coffee, does it on theguy's face. Pretty instinctual.
I like that. And then that guy'sgetaway car leaves him right.

cars out of there. I love us. Macaulay says
when Hamilton gets the upperhand. All right, Hamilton
Impreza is excited. And it's gotto move and funny, but he didn't
know what to do. He's justelated that, you know, he just

(06:35:57):
figures it out. He

took he's decided to take charge of of a
situation. Yeah, he took charge.
And that leads

us to the end. I mean, it ends right there. And
then we get, you know, thisgreat oil Blanco song Goodbye,
goodbye, which also literally istelling us it's over. And we get
something, Mike that I don'tremember seeing before this
movie came out either, whichwere like the character recaps.

(06:36:26):
Oh, yeah. Those are amazing. ButBrad's comes on first and he
became, you know, the managersix years later. So Right. Good.
Way to go. Hamilton. All right.
Well done. Indeed. Sir. Demonegets busted scalping tickets.
And now 711 Mr. Vargas, leftsanka and went back to coffee.
And Mark and Stacey are dating,which we kind of figured. But

(06:36:51):
Mike. What have they not

done? Well, they haven't gone to the dugout.
But that's great.

They've showed restraint. And Stacy realizes
that sex is not the end all beall that we sometimes believe it
is. Mr. Hand is convinced.

What Mike?
Well, that everybody's on dope.

So good. He's grading papers, and he's just
shaking his head like, Are youkidding me? All right, Mike, why
don't you take the last one,which is Kohli's send off

Spicoli actually ends up saving Brooke
Shields from drowning somewherewho knows where and then gets
this reward, reward money fordoing it. And of course in great
Spicoli fashion he goes inparties with it by doing what he
decides to hire Van Halen to, Ibelieve play for the party or a

(06:37:50):
birthday party of his No. And sohe ends up blowing all the
money. But of course he wouldbecause he's Macaulay and I bet
you he had a killer time.

It True Spicoli fashion. So now as the credits
roll, of course, we get aclosing up shop montage. And in
the last shot of the movies,back to the Arcade, and we see
the end come up, which a lot ofmovies in the 80s. And maybe
before that, like to put the endand just in case you weren't

(06:38:19):
sure. There, the movie isfinally over. That's it, Mike,
what an incredible movie, wecovered it extensively. I can't
thank you enough for joining meon Let's Talk movies and
exploring Fast Times atRidgemont. High, I mean, you
start to realize there's so manymoving parts. This isn't an
action movie that has a lot tocover a lot of emotion, a lot of

(06:38:43):
character growth, and arcs andrelationships and just a lot to
take in. It's it's so much

so and you know, I've never really gone
this deep into a movie of sorts.
And it's been a a very revealingexperience to really study
something and see if it reallycarries weight. Now as much as
we thought it did, then I thinkthe biggest thing did kind of

(06:39:12):
come up when Stacy that madethat statement is that, you
know, I finally figured it out.

Yeah. And I think it all started with I don't
know, early in the film, tofigure it out, which is great.
They want your characters to endup in a better place in certain
movies in this type of movie.
Yes, you do. And it's wonderfulthat to see all of them succeed
in that way and their personalgrowth. And so I have to get
into this trivia which I endevery show with, if you will,

(06:39:43):
so, but I took one off the top.
When I told you about Cameroncrows and I usually have three
or more. But I already told youtwo of them in the midst of the
podcast. So trivia consists ofjust one last thing here goes.
the MPAA originally granted themovie an X rating. Due to the

(06:40:04):
lovemaking scene between Stacyand Demone, which featured full
frontal male nudity. Heckerlingasked the board, why they can
show naked girls but not nakedguys. And they said, because the
male Oregon is aggressive. Andbecause the picture was the
first major studio film in sometime to be given an X rating,

(06:40:28):
universal agreed to edit thescene allowing the MPAA to
reissue the movie as an AR.
That's crazy. Right, Mike? Imean, you do see nudity in this
movie. I think Jennifer JasonLeigh shows her breast and two
scenes. But that is amazing thatthey had that much of an issue
with Demone having any nudity atall,

Unknown (06:40:51):
I mean,

there's always baby steps, right to get to
something. And as we know, withany kind of restrictions,
there's always some sort ofexcuse that isn't necessarily
fair or balanced out. And as youtry to move into that, it just
takes steps and pressures andmoving forward. But I didn't
wasn't aware of that.

It was a different time. And oh and an x
ray and would have an x raywould have killed this movie.
You can't issue an extra. Imean, Midnight Cowboy did it.
And somehow it worked. And itwon Best Picture. But they
weren't they didn't need boxoffice to build a winner in
those days. I mean, this wouldbe would have been dead out of
the gates. And so I remember onthat director's commentary.

(06:41:35):
Heckerling spoke to that andjust how much of a process that
was and she fought the fight andshe couldn't believe that they
consider the mill Oregonaggressive. But they had to
change it. It didn't hurt themovie any but it's just trivia a
little tidbit a littlesomething, you know. And so
that's all I got. Mike, again, Iwant to thank you for joining

(06:41:59):
me. It's been a true pleasure.
Cut it out without you. And Ihope our audience appreciates
our deep dive in Hey, thanks

for having me on board and I will definitely
do it again on some other movieif you're willing to have me.

Absolutely. So thanks so much for listening.
And please be sure to subscriberate and review the show
wherever you get your podcast.
You can also follow us on socialmedia at let's talk movies, or
check out our other shows atjust curious media.com. So
without further ado, pleaseenjoy Fast Times at Ridgemont
High

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Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown