Transcript

Intro Clip

May I help you? Uh, yes. This is not the best breakfast I ever ate, and I'd like my money back. Uh, okay. I believe you have to fill out a form for that. Uh, no, I'd like my money back now. I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way. You see, I have to fill out a form, and, well, you ate most of it already, so— You see that sign? It says 100% guaranteed. You know what the meaning of guarantee is? Do they teach you that here? Sir, if you just wait a minute— Look, just put your little hand back in the cash register and give me my $2.75 back, please, Brad. Sir, if you just give me a minute, I'll find the forms. I'll take care of everything. I don't have a minute. You've made me late enough. I am so tired of dealing with incompetence. It says 100% guaranteed, you moron. Mister, if you don't shut up, I'm. Gonna kick 100% of your ass.

Steve

It's Two Dads, One Movie. It's the podcast where two middle-aged dads sit around and shoot the shit about the movies of the '80s and '90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Paulo and Nic Briana. Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Two Dads, One Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we are continuing our journey that we are calling Two Dads, Two Decades by looking at 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Oh yeah, this is one that I picked for us, and basically my history with Fast Times I think I probably originally saw it in high school. This feels like a night over at a buddy's house, it gets put on kind of thing. I'm not 100% sure. It's a movie that just kind of began to exist in my understanding of the world sometime in high school. Definitely not something that I would have seen much before that. You know, fantastic soundtrack. It's obviously the place where, you know, we get just collectively humanity got our first real good look at people like Judge Reinhold and Sean Penn and a few other actors and actresses who would go on to have, you know, at least middling to good careers. Like, like, you know, not a ton of superstars coming out of this outside of Penn, obviously a huge star, but all the others that were in this, you know, as major characters and especially.

Nic

Over the course of the next like decade, decade and a half, like they.

Steve

Got a lot of work. Yeah. I mean, between this and Gremlins, a lot of my, a lot of my life was taken up by Phoebe Cates in my head for a certain amount of time. Certainly this movie, core memory, uh, when it comes to her, which we'll get into. But yeah. So what about you, Nic? What about your, what's your history with Fast Times?

Nic

I think the same thing. I think I probably saw this freshman, sophomore year of high school and actually remember watching this several times with our mutual classmate, one of my best friends to this day, Matt Jones, one of your drama buds. And I remember watching this over at Matt's house. We had the VHS and yeah, this just fascinated us. I mean, first of all, as a teen to have a movie with some good nudity and all that stuff, right? That gets you excited. But also just this portrayal of like the cool guy and the nerd and the fucking big man on campus and all these different— the stoner guy and all these archetypes from this movie I thought were cool, especially at that time where you're kind of like comparing like who's Spicoli at our high school, Jefferson at our high school and everything. Yeah. So yeah. And I did, you know, probably watched it a couple of times through then in college. I've seen it a bunch, but not in a long time. So it was interesting to see this through a 2026 now.

Steve

Yeah, absolutely. It's actually funny that you mentioned— you brought up our old buddy Matt Jones, because he came up in conversation with my kids recently. We were talking, my kids and I, about theater in high school, and I played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol our senior year, and Mr. Jones was my Bob Cratchit. So that was very nice. Funny how that pops.

Nic

I think I definitely went to a production.

Steve

You probably did. We did about 5 or 6 shows that week. Yeah, I'm sure you made it to at least one of them. Cool. Yeah. So I mean, let's jump into the facts on Fast Times at Ridgemont High. You know, let's Yeah, there's no reason to delay any further. The movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it came out on August 13th, 1982 with an R rating and a running time of 90 minutes. Directed by, in her directorial debut, Amy Heckerling. This is the second movie in a row we've done with a debut director. That's right. Because last week we talked about Thief, Michael Mann's debut. And Amy Heckerling, of course, responsible not just for this movie, which so encapsulates coming of age, for Southern California Gen X teens would go on, I think about 13 years after this, to do the exact same thing for millennial teens with Clueless. Yes. Which is very funny to me that the same person had both those movies on her resume. Written by Cameron Crowe, his first produced screenplay, by the way, based on the book that he himself wrote, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story. Apparently he went undercover as a high school student in the late '70s, early '80s. I remember The book was written probably in the late '70s, but in Southern California and kind of the things that happened in this movie and that he wrote about in his book, he claims either really happened or were stories he was told or based on characters, actual people that he met. Crazy. The names have been changed to protect the guilty, of course.

Nic

Crazy that you could just do that. I mean, that's like a federal offense now, right? Like you try to go undercover as a high school student.

Steve

It's like, it's almost like, I wonder if the movie Never Been Kissed was somehow based on Cameron Crowe. This movie stars Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Judge Reinhold. Scores: Rotten Tomatoes 78%, actually a bit lower than I— I was a bit surprised that I thought it would have been higher. And IMDb of 7.1, also kind of.

Nic

Lower than I thought it would be.

Steve

Yeah, a little bit lower.

Nic

Both lower than the previous movie, Thief.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Which, which after the discussion, I mean, see what we think about that. Yeah.

Steve

And we got two thumbs down from the curmudgeons Siskel and Ebert who don't like movies.

Nic

Get off my lawn. If this was Fast Times at like Decatur Illinois High or something like like that, they would love it.

Steve

Exactly, right, exactly. Yes, the Fast Times at Shermer High. Yeah, the movie was nominated for a 1983 WGA, that's the Writers Guild of America, WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. And I always think it's kind of funny, it is an adapted screenplay. Crowe wrote the book first, then adapted it for the screen. Yeah. But I still think it's funny, if you wrote the book, shouldn't you get original screenplay credit for it? Right. Like, it obviously doesn't work that way, but I think it's funny. No other major nominations or awards to speak of, except it was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2005. So that is cool.

Nic

On a $4.5 million— movie was added to the National Sex Offender Registry for.

Steve

Some of its scenes. Absolutely true. On a budget of $4.5 million, it pulled in $27.1 million for about 6 times what it cost in the box office. So it was absolutely clearly a hit movie at the box office. This definitely struck a chord with people and, you know, was big and I think has survived that. We'll see how we think about it as we walk through it. But yeah, very cool.

Nic

All right, Steve, you want to— you want to start us off?

Steve

Sure. Yeah. Very first thing we get right off the bat It's just, this soundtrack is amazing. Great. The music is so good. There were some original songs written for the movie. One in particular that became a massive hit, Jackson Browne's She's Got to Be Somebody's Baby, was originally written for Fast Times and is obviously a huge song. But every song on the soundtrack slaps. Every one of them slaps. These are all hits. It's just so much fun to watch a movie with really engaging music that doesn't take you out of the story. Okay, so we start off with a mall This is the kind of opening shots of the movie are all within the mall. This is Sherman Oaks Galleria. Absolutely. We saw it in Commando. We saw it in Terminator 2. And it was used in several other movies of the era. So it is possible that we will see Sherman Oaks Galleria appearing again on another episode of 2000 Movies someday.

Nic

But for now, Sherman Oaks Galleria is actually a character in this movie. That's right.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

Like when New York City is a character. Exactly.

Steve

Or San Francisco isn't in Pacific Heights. Yeah.

Nic

But this is great. I mean, this scene, it's just really— it just takes you back and like showing the different activities going on at the mall. And it's the students with their kind of like after-school jobs and all these different things.

Steve

And it's summer right now, actually.

Nic

We find out.

Steve

Okay, so it is summer jobs.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

But they're all high school students or going to be in high school. Exactly. So, yeah, I love it. It definitely takes you back to a mall that actually has stuff in it. Yeah. Our mall has like an abandoned Sears and the DMV.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

Which is such a fall from grace, it's unbelievable.

Steve

I think the last few times I've gone to, we're talking, might as well tell, but we're talking about Stone Ridge Mall in Pleasanton, California. That's the mall local to Nic and I. And I think the last time I went in there, it was because I needed to pick something up for my wife from Lush. And that was the closest Lush storefront. Yeah. The Apple Store, I guess, is closer to Walnut Creek. So yeah, but there's like nothing there.

Nic

No, not at all. And it's all those specialty stores that should only last during Christmas, like the calendar and sassy oven mitt store, but then it's just there year round 'cause there's nothing to fill the spot.

Steve

The store, the mall has a store that sells nothing but pearl jewelry. Not nothing but jewelry, nothing but pearl jewelry. Like why?

Nic

Anyway, this was the old— might come in here.

Steve

Yeah, there you go. But this is old school mall. This is '80s, '90s mall culture.

Nic

Thriving.

Steve

Yeah, thriving, full of kids, full of teenagers, full of activity. You got the food court going, you got the movie theater, which, you know, our kind of local mall Stone Ridge never did, but Sun Valley up in Concord had a movie theater back in the day. And that was always kind of a neat thing, I think, to have a mall with a movie theater. Totally.

Nic

'Cause you could spend like a whole day there. Like as a kid, it was a place you could legitimately go get get dropped off at 10 and get picked up at 4 PM. And you have like a full day. You got the food court, got the movie theater, all that stuff. Yeah, great place to go hang.

Steve

My friends, uh, uh, growing up, uh, guys, you know, like, like Greg and Kevin, these guys that we went to high school with, we would all stand on a bus stop, you know, in San Ramon waiting to go down. And we would just— it was a half-hour drive to the mall. We would get at that bus stop at like 9 AM on a summer Saturday or whatever, go to the mall. We'd be there all day. We didn't have a movie theater, but we had an arcade and we had like all the shops and the McDonald's and the Sbarro. I mean, what else you gotta have?

Nic

Dude, it was great.

Steve

So yeah, great opening sequence, great like, you know, thing. We're introduced to a handful of characters, uh, real quick, nothing that's really telling us much about them, but we see like Mark Ratner has taken tickets at the, at the, uh, movie theater. We see Linda and Stacy, uh, working— I think it's Perry's Pizza Palace— I mean, they're working at the pizza restaurant, all this stuff. And of course one of our main guys, Mike DeMone, is kind of talking to people, and it looks like, you know, he's, he's doing a little dealing here and there. He's Mike DeMone, he's doing some dealing.

Nic

He's the ticket scalper. Exactly. Which I think is a— it's a fun, interesting thing to him to do because he easily could have just been like the weed dealer.

Steve

Yeah, exactly.

Nic

But, but I think it, it, it makes it more fun that he's scalping tickets.

Steve

100%. And, and it's a thing that really, you know, if you, you know, I don't know how it— this far back, I obviously don't know exactly how getting tickets worked, but like in the '90s, you have to like go and like line up at like the Ticketmaster thing. Yeah, this is all before Ticketmaster. So it's got to be that he went down to whatever local venue is in their town and every day just buys up a bunch of tickets Yeah, right. For whatever he's got to do it for. Yeah, something, you know, he takes orders from people when, like, when Earth, Wind Fire come around, Jefferson needs 2 tickets or whatever, right? All that stuff. One thing I noticed here, the kids that are asking Damone for tickets and trying to buy, I think, Van Halen tickets off of him, I think it is. And he quotes them $20 apiece. They say those were $12.50. It's like, yeah, kid, that's how it fucking works. Yeah, he's got to make a business.

Nic

You're making a business here. Unfortunately, not a dated aspect of this movie. No, that part is still charges on tickets.

Steve

Yeah, but an almost 50% markup. Yeah. I noticed one of the young, one of the young gentlemen buying Van Halen tickets wearing the t-shirt of your alma mater, I believe, UCSB.

Nic

I thought that was fun.

Steve

All right, UCSB Gauchos t-shirt. So another indicator that we are in Southern California. Yeah.

Nic

But yeah, so we have where Judge Reinhold works. We're showing his job, which is not at the mall. No, it's a separate fast food place called All-American Burger. Yes. And into that restaurant, you know, we see Sean Penn's character, Jeff Spicoli. I think Eric Stoltz also stole his buddy Anthony Edwards and Anthony Edwards. Okay. So like you said, people who had a lot of star power several years later, and when they walk in, it's really funny because Spicoli immediately takes his shirt off.

Steve

They all do.

Nic

All three of them, as they walk in the door, like they're on in the car and stuff.

Steve

And Spicoli's already barefoot too. He's already barefoot. He walks in, they all pull their shirts off and they're all smoking cigarettes. This is the '80s. You can smoke inside. That was one thing I noticed. Mark, when he's giving people— taking people's tickets to the theater, he's telling them smoking's upstairs. Smoking upstairs.

Nic

It's like, what?

Steve

What do you mean smoking's upstairs?

Nic

How weird. It is so crazy to think about that. And this is LA. This would be like the center in the future of like where it started to become illegal.

Steve

Yeah, absolutely. One of the earlier spots.

Nic

Yeah, where that was— you go away. Uh, but this line always killed me when Spicoli and his buds are sitting there at the table and they're trying to figure out how much money do they have. And one guy pulls out a dollar, he goes, I've got uno dinero. And then Spicoli pulls out a nickel, he's like, Uno de Nicolay.

Steve

They don't have much money, but, uh, Brad Hamilton, uh, Judge Reinhold's character, has to come over and basically tell him, guys, you gotta— you came in here, you had shirts on when you came in. Yeah, what does that sign say? And they all— I love the way that they do this— they say it in unison. They go, no shirt, no shoes, no dice. It's so funny.

Nic

Yeah, when he comes up and he's like, you had shirts on when you came in here, and, uh, Spicoli goes.

Steve

Something happened to him, happened to him, man. Like, oh God, he's so funny. And like Sean Penn— I mean, obviously we all know the actor Sean Penn would become— well, I mean, he is, but, but we would come to recognize over time the actor Sean Penn is. I wonder if you went back to 1982, people watching this movie, how much they felt like, is the guy playing Jeff Spicoli just a stoner idiot himself? Yeah, sort of a Jay Muse kind of thing, right? You know, James Allen Bob kind of Or is this a fantastic actor putting on some great performance and making great choices? And we all know now. Totally great actor making great choices.

Nic

But yeah, did they spot back then that like 45 years later this guy will be nominated for an Academy Award? You know, that he'll have a career that spans decades.

Steve

It's, you know, from no shirt, no shoes, no dice to— is that my daughter in there? Yes. Is that my daughter in there? Sorry. All right, anyway, so, uh, we cut over to Linda and Stacy hanging out at the pizza parlor back, and they're talking about, uh, I don't, you know, like whatever. There's these cute guys walking in, and this guy walks in and they both kind of notice him. Well, now Linda, we hear, has got a boyfriend away at college, Doug, so she's not interested.

Nic

Canadian girlfriend that is a model situation.

Steve

Yeah, exactly. Uh, he's the college man, he's not a high school boy, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Um, and some of the other waitresses are kind of like, oh, he's super cute. I'm going to go serve him. We go, no, that's Stacy's section. And they say she's not even in high school yet. Now here's the thing. Most kids, and maybe this was different back then, but I felt like most kids would be turning 15 during their freshman year of high school, which would probably make her 14 years old then. Yeah. If you're not in high school yet, you're like 14. That's what I was saying. Now we later hear that she's actually 15. I don't know how the math quite works.

Nic

It might be one of those. Middle school, 7th through 9th. Like, I've been in school districts like that before where high school starts at 10th, 11th, 12th. So because I was thinking that same thing, because I was like, that's kind of too young to even be working.

Steve

Full time at a restaurant and everything in the summer.

Nic

Yeah. Yeah. But that does not make it any better because we find out that this.

Steve

Guy, Ron Johnson, is 26, 26, 11 years older than she is. But she— but he asks right off the bat, like, you, you look like you might still be in high school is the way he puts it, which is like, nice try, pedophile. But she says, oh, yeah, you know, no, I graduated. I'm 19. Or whatever like that. So it's immediately she's lying about her age. It's like not a great idea, just kind of dangerous and stupid. Don't do that. But he likes what he sees. He asks for a pizza and a Coke and your phone number. Yeah, right. All right. I'll give it to him. Kind of smooth. If it was done to an adult woman, that would have been smooth.

Nic

But this is right. Right. The asking for the phone number. I mean, needing it written by somebody else on a piece of paper. Yeah, that's kind of a lost art. I do like that rather than let's tap our phones together or you text me and then I'll have your number.

Steve

It's not as— Yeah, yeah.

Nic

Right. It's not quite the same. And this is, I think, where we first get the, the Jackson Browne. Yes.

Steve

She's Got to Be Somebody's Babe.

Nic

So it's a really good song. I will say, though, this song shows up twice in the movie at least. Yeah. And there's another song that shows up twice, but none of the other songs do. Yeah, that's always a little weird to me. It feels like it would have been an opportunity to put another song into the film.

Steve

I mean, the Jackson Browne song was written for the movie.

Nic

Sure. It has to get more screen time.

Steve

They want to get the most they can out of it, I think. Is kind of part of that.

Nic

But, uh, because that Raised on the Radio song shows up twice. Yeah, Raised on the Radio. Okay. Yeah, so I just noticed that because I was like, damn, this is a loaded movie. So when, uh, Stacy has this date coming up, right, and she's talking to Linda— yes, Phoebe Cates. Yeah. And they're at the lunch table and she's kind of like, I'm a little nervous about this. I got this date coming up with this older guy, I don't know what to do. And they get into talking about like blowjobs, right? And she's demonstrating because they have a.

Steve

Whole bag of like full-size— like like they're fucking reindeer.

Nic

There haven't been full-size carrots at a school in forever. Like, they were outlawed. Like, baby carrots at most, right? So she's kind of demonstrating, like, how to give a blowjob on a carrot. Kind of a famous scene. Well, there's a table of, like, horny boys watching who all, like, erupt into applause at the end of the, uh, scene.

Steve

So one thing I noticed too, when we got some of the establishing shots around the school, I think immediately before that, everybody's carrying those P-Cheese, uh, folders. Oh yeah, everybody's got the yellow and with the brown, you know, the— oh my God, really took me back.

Nic

Did you ever have the folder where it was like a replica of a baseball card? Like I had a couple that were a replica of like an '89 Topps Jose Canseco.

Steve

Jose Canseco, 100%. Oh man. Absolutely.

Nic

Absolutely.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Can I carry my business stuff around? Why can't my client folders be that? I don't know. I own— I'm in charge of that. I can do that. I might do that.

Steve

I keep all of my precious tax documents year over year in a Trapper Keeper. So every different folder is marked with a different year.

Nic

So yeah, that's the one that has Mr. T and Knight Rider on it.

Steve

That's the good— the outside of the Trapper Keeper isn't good, but the folders look look like the blue and purple and red, like, you know, they look like the old ones or whatever. Yeah. So, um, no, my actual Trapper Keeper— that's the outside of the Trapper Keeper— that has Game Boy games in it because, you know, that's who I am. Um, we get to the— we're at the parking lot at one point in the, uh, school, and Forest Whitaker's character, uh, Charles Jefferson, shows up. And they make— uh, Damone is— Mike Damone is the scalper, right? He's talking to some other kids about a show they want to buy from or whatever, and he starts bragging on how he knows Jefferson. Oh yeah, this, you know, uh, like a booster bought that for him to just play, you know, for playing football, whatever. Like, I was there when he picked it up. I mean, he's trying to like really play like he really knows this.

Nic

Yeah. And he has this like new Firebird.

Steve

This cool— yeah, it's really cool looking car. And, uh, and, you know, so he goes, hey Charles, how's it going? And he's like, so your cars, you do— you're taking good care of it? Like, whole thing goes, don't fuck with it. Yeah, he's just— he's like, he does not know this.

Nic

No. And then walks away. And then he kind of turns back to the other kids. I, I like DeMone's like unshakable dork confidence.

Steve

Oh well, it's very unshakable. It gets badly shaken later.

Nic

But, but the, the, um, let's see, the facade of his unshakable dork. The machismo. It's very Anthony Michael Hall in like Weird Science. It's kind of like the super nerd, the king of the nerds. Like, I'm still not cool, but I know how to be cooler or take.

Steve

Advantage of these like dorkier guys. Yeah, I mean, you get, you get later, later on, and it's very Jonah Hill in Superbad too, kind of a lot of ways that kind of attitude. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we also are then introduced to, uh, Mr. Hand. We get into U.S. history class. He like locks the doors, the bell rings or whatever. And, and we see this is an interesting class too, because we see that Jeff Spicoli is there, although he is a senior, we learn. And Stacy is— Stacy Hamilton's in it too. We know she just started high school. So it's a little interesting is that I guess it's just because Spicoli is a remedial student. Right. And is taking younger classes. But yeah, so Mr. Hand is sort of like telling everybody about the course program or— and he hands out the sheets and we, you know, that they're on the old school Ditto machines because everybody smells them. Yes. And I was like, yes, I remember for us it was more like elementary school, but like smelling the Dittos.

Nic

Yeah, but that's something from this that I feel like would definitely have to be explained.

Steve

Yes, today. Oh my God.

Nic

Yes, because you get the warmth in.

Steve

That and that— oh, is that just unmistakable? It doesn't smell like anything else.

Nic

Like, uh, yeah, so, uh, Mr. Hand is a hard-ass played by Ray Walston from TV's My Favorite Martian. Oh really? Yeah, he was my favorite Martian in that old, uh, TV show. Um, so Spicoli, yeah, of course he comes to class late after he just finished explaining why I have rules and nobody comes in late. Yeah, and just the way Spicoli is so cluelessly standing there, the teacher's talking to him and then he's just like, hey, I know that dude, just like pointing to a guy in the class, like being surprised to recognize somebody at his own high school that he's been.

Steve

At for 4 years. Oh my God, it's really bad. Oh man, um, we get, uh, a little bit of— so, so then there's a brief moment, I think in biology class, where, um, they're learning about, uh they're going to have to dissect things or whatever. And the biology teacher is a very crazy looking, strange guy played by Vincent Schiavelli, who, you know, he's always looked.

Nic

Very distinct, like, you know what I mean? Sunken in eyes, very tall, kind of like Frankenstein posture and everything.

Steve

And he is like 6'3" or 6'4", big guy too. But they learn a little bit about this stuff. And this is the class that Mark Ratner, who works at the movie theater, and Stacy Hamilton have together. And Mark is like immediately like kind of smitten with Stacy. And clearly, you know, into her, like, whatever.

Nic

When he's— because he kind of— when he's working at the movie theater, he can look across and see her at the pizza place. So he's had his eyes on her probably all summer, and now she's at.

Steve

The same school as him, in his biology class. It was like, oh yeah, this is cool, you know. So, so, um, we see him chatting with his buddy Mike Damone, like, probably, I guess, maybe after the first day of school. They're like at Damone's house and hanging out in his room, and he's kind of like, oh Mike, like, I— there's this girl and she's just my type, and all this stuff. And, you know, Damone's doing the whole It's all about attitude, right? You gotta, you gotta have attitude, you know? And he's just like, it's all this bullshit.

Nic

Everywhere you go, you get to act like that's the place to be. Like his little speech.

Steve

Oh my God.

Nic

And it is. And it— but like, it's true to a certain degree, but don't use it to manipulate people. Yeah. Like, you will have a better day if you leave your house with the idea of like, things are going to go good today. Like, yeah, I'm— have a good approach to the day. But he's like using it in a manipulative way, I think.

Steve

And I don't know. No, I agree with that. DeMone is a proto-pickup artist. He is.

Nic

He is the precursor.

Steve

Mystery DeMone. Yeah.

Nic

He needs a fur hat and a boa.

Steve

It's bad. But I will say some of his little pieces of advice are actually very good. I do think the idea of wherever you are on your date, act like it's the best place to be. I think that is a generally good attitude. But like, you know, 'Never let a girl know how much you like her.' Like, that shit is so fucking tired. Like, knock that shit off, you know?

Nic

'Never let her order for herself.' I mean, here's what— gentlemanly thing to.

Steve

Do— and sometimes find out what she wants, then order for her. And I'm kind of like, all right, I could— look, I'm not saying you have to do that, but that doesn't seem bad to me. Like, you know, as long as you actually let her choose. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I can see that being like— and again, this is also 40-something years ago, you know? But, but yeah.

Nic

Oh my God. Hey, I'll have the lobster Thermidor and she'll have the tap water. Um, okay, so Stacy, uh, is on her date, right? So we have different types of guys here, and she's there with Ron Johnson, who has suggested the location of their date. Why don't we go to The Point, which I expected in LA to at least be some kind of like overlook, right? Some vista point where they can look down at the city, the lights are there, they're in a cinema-friendly convertible.

Steve

But no, none of that, none of that at all. They go to what looks like a derelict Little League field, like, that probably isn't even in use anymore.

Nic

Like, it's like if there was a montage about, like, an inner city neighborhood, like, coming back, this is how the baseball field would start before they start.

Steve

Fixing it up and making it playable. Before Keanu Reeves gets there to, like, help his little league team out. Yeah, yeah. This is also, uh, uh, very much like— I swear to God, I saw that exact dugout in, like, two different Dateline documentaries. I'm not sure which two. I'm pretty sure Bad shit went down in that dugout, and bad shit goes down in that dugout for Stacy because it's really bad. I mean, he like gets out of the car, bringing the blanket with him, going straight into the dugout. I mean, there is no delay. It is one final check of, you really 19? Yeah, I'm really 19. Fucking 15 years old, dude. But yeah, she— and you know, there's a lot of what Heckerling shoots in the scene. I don't know anything about her personal history, but I have to feel like there was some element of this taken from her own experience, both in the way Jennifer Jason Leigh reacts to the physical feeling of losing her virginity, having sex for the first time. It's obviously very uncomfortable for her, whatever. But then the way that she shoots the ceiling, the things that she's actually seeing from her perspective, is very dissociative and like very— like she's just trying.

Nic

To get through this because she's not showing like Ron Johnson satisfaction. He's not— exactly, he's not a party to this.

Steve

No, he is ancillary in a lot of ways to Jennifer, to, to Stacy's experience. He is just the penis. Like, he— she wanted to lose her virginity. She was tired of like like not ever having had done this and have this be a, a fact of her life is that she's never done this. She believes, for one reason or another, as a lot of kids around that age do, that this is what they have to do. I think this is thankfully less of a thing in current generations, right?

Nic

But we were feeling like you're behind if you haven't hit certain milestones by certain ages.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

Especially when you have friends who are, A, older than you. Yes. And B, fucking lying to you. You're right. So she doesn't know that. So she's like feeling that pressure.

Steve

Her brother lies about his experience. I mean, everybody lies about— Damone lies. Everybody lies. And Stacy believes all So then she is actually trying to accomplish these things that she believes everybody around her has already done. But I really, really love the way that Amy Heckerling shoots this scene and makes us feel the discomfort and the sort of uncertainty that Stacy must be feeling, right? It's very interesting. Not being a woman, not having gone through that experience, you know, of a first time in that kind of way, I don't know for sure that this is, like, relevant to women in general, but it feels like that. And having been a— you know, coming from a woman director, feels very intentional.

Nic

I really like it. Yeah. And I, and I think especially because a lot of what we look at in a movie from this time frame is like, is it— does it hold up? Is it like, is it too much to have to explain about the way things were? But this is not filmed in an exploitative way. So you're, you're— I think you're taking it the same way now as you would have been supposed to take it in 1982.

Steve

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a great point. It's definitely, it's interesting. I think it adds a little purpose to the scene that, you know, possibly a male gaze director, you know, whatever, like somebody looking at it from a man's perspective wouldn't have been able to bring to it. And again, just also looking back at the fact that this was 1982, I don't know the exact numbers on female directors of Hollywood films to this point, but it was minimal. Oh, for sure. Super tiny. So, so, you know, to have a woman do this and have this scene be part of this movie, I think is really great and fantastic. Fantastic. So, um, however, it is for the character kind of an awful experience. Terrible. Yeah, yeah, she's not enjoying it. She doesn't enjoy it. And she very quickly is telling Linda, um, afterwards that, that it wasn't great, like that it hurt like hell.

Nic

Yeah. And it was like this dream that she had.

Steve

Yeah, exactly. It wasn't what she had expected.

Nic

Um, and she gets— and she gets back home, uh, basically to find— or maybe her brother finds it first— is like a dozen roses or two dozen red roses, right, with a tag that says has, you know, Ron Johnson, memories of your— memories of you. And this paints Ron Johnson to me, and I think this is accurate, is he's the kind of guy that has like a standard gift that he sends to women after he has sex with them. That's like, like Tony Soprano would have a certain like piece of jewelry that he'd give to all of his ladies or whatever, kind of a parting gift or whatever.

Steve

So I disagree. Yeah, I think that the red roses and the memories of you, he's directly referencing the fact that she lost her virginity. Humanity, that she would have bled on him. I think that that's what— and that's one of the reasons that he then.

Nic

Doesn'T call him being like a sinister, like, asshole.

Steve

Just kind of like, yeah, kind of like, like, essentially I think what he's saying is, you lied to me about— you didn't tell me you were a virgin, so which means I think you lied to me about your age. I, you know, I'm gonna send this. Yeah, as like a kind of a fuck you, but also kind of a gift. Like, but like, there's an element— the whole memories of you thing is too weird of a message to me. Oh, interesting. So I took the red roses to.

Nic

And maybe I'm completely saying you were 19.

Steve

It's the only memory I have, right? And maybe I'm completely out of left field and making that up, but that's— I felt like there was a symbolism there, like the red roses and, and losing her virginity. But, but maybe not. If Amy Heckerling, if you're listening, or.

Nic

Cameron Crowe, if you're listening— well, Amy Heckerling, Michael Mann told her about the podcast after last week, so now Amy's listening.

Steve

Amy, uh, let us know.

Nic

Just shoot us an email.

Steve

The show@2des1movie.com. Anyway, I do. Yeah, but, but regardless Thankfully, Ron Johnson does not come back. We don't get any more Ron Johnson in this movie. We don't need him. Let's focus on the actual, like, kids, the high school kids. That's much more interesting. But, you know, for Stacy, the reality is, you know, she's no longer a virgin. She's now crossed this path or whatever. This gateway through her life is now behind her. We get to a part where we're at All-American Burger and Brad is talking to— he's gotten his buddy who wanted a job at All-American Burger. He's at some other burger bar and he doesn't like it. He got him a job there, so he's kind of showing his buddy like how to do stuff like flip burgers and talking a big game about how he's going to break up with his girlfriend Lisa because, you know, hey, she's great in bed, but, you know, I've.

Nic

Seen too much going for me to be tied down to one person.

Steve

I got— look at this. I got this great burger flipping job. Yeah, I got a car I owe a couple more payments on and then it's mine.

Nic

The cruising vessel.

Steve

The cruising car.

Nic

Fucking weird.

Steve

Which is like— now, to be fair, did you have a car in high school?— I did.— Did.

Nic

It have a nickname? Um, no, my cars were too shitty for nicknames.

Steve

Oh no, we had shitty cars too. Greg Nielsen had a like 1985 or '86 Buick LeSabre. It was like maroon, all maroon cloth interior. We called it the Land Cruiser. Nice. And then I had a 1981 Honda Accord in like light blue with like sunspots all over. '81 Accord. Real small, really old Accord. We called it the Escape Honda.

Nic

So they had nicknames. I like that.

Steve

I like that.

Nic

I had an 80— my first car was an '82 Datsun 280Z. Oh, sporty. It had sporty— worst decision for first car. Had so many problems. New, had a lot of options and stuff, but I bought it for $925. Oh my god.

Steve

Wow.

Nic

And so it had all these like options that would kick in, but like the radio didn't work and the heat didn't work and had 250,000 miles on it. It was a terrible idea. Was smashed up on the sides. So yeah, it was kind of like.

Steve

—Didn'T need a nickname.

Nic

I was like, I don't want to think about it enough to give it a nickname. Fair enough. Okay, so, so Brad and Lisa, right, are kind of bickering back and forth too. So as he's telling his buddy about like, oh, this is what I'm going to do, and then his girlfriend's bickering, but he's like, he's not leaning into this being like, oh, this is my way out of the relationship. Perfect. He's like immediately like, oh no, it's okay.

Steve

We're good. We're good. And he's also still trying to sleep with her apparently. Like, you haven't because he says like, we've been together 2 years. Like, why aren't we doing that?

Nic

And she's like, I'm not going to talk about it. Talking about how good she is.

Steve

Right, exactly. Yeah, all these kids lie about this stuff, right? And, and she's like, I don't want to— I'm not going to talk to you about having sex or not having sex with you at work. Are you crazy? Like, yes. He's like, what do you want to talk— I mean, it's just Brad's a whining punk. He reminds me of Ross Geller.

Nic

And I don't know, dude, totally. He has that. Yeah, he has that essence to him. Um, Mr. Hand, uh, is, is back in school and we're kind of like— he's handing out the tests And I always hated this shit. And this is a good— it's a good stereotype of the teacher who's saying the grade out loud as they're handing it to everybody.

Steve

Gotta be a HIPAA violation.

Nic

Oh, terrible, right? It's the worst. So, you know, C, D, F, F-, F-. Like, he's like, what are you people, on dope? So his thing is he thinks everybody's on dope, right?

Steve

And given his interactions with Jeff Spicoli, he's not wrong 100% of the time. Yeah, because Some of the time he's talking to Jeff Spicoli, who clearly is on dope at every moment. So absolutely. We, we have hit ahead a little bit to Christmas time. We get a little montage at the mall of like Christmas time.

Nic

A lot of Christmas, more than Rocky IV.

Steve

That's actually true. Good point. Yeah. And we even get— I love getting the Santa who gets peed on with the little kid sitting on his lap. He's like, oh, goddamn it. Like, you know, kind of thing. Very funny. And then I also love there's this this, um, moment here because we've got, uh, Damone and, and Mark Ratner, Rat, at the mall together.

Nic

And Damone's wearing the keyboard scarf.

Steve

I love the keyboard scarf so much. So good.

Nic

Such a great scarf. I wrote Damone keyboard scarf down. That's an important part of this. Um, I also like this line. So he's kind of telling him, hey, go up and talk to Stacy, like, just go start a conversation, right? And, uh, and he goes, uh, he's in his, like, tuxedo from the theater, right? And Damone says, hey, you got to ace that jacket. So he takes his jacket. I love ace that jacket. That's a great one.

Steve

That's really good. Damone's a total and complete piece of shit, as we'll get into later. But there are elements of him that aren't like— there's, there's pieces of his attitude and stuff that I'm like, man, actually, like, harnessed to positivity, this would actually be— he'd be a motivational speaker, right? I mean, like, there's elements of what.

Nic

He tells Rat that is like pretty good advice. Totally. And I mean, I do feel like that's why there's redemption available for Demone. Yeah, later in the film, you know. Yeah, so, so Mark goes up to Stacy and he's like, he tells her, I lost my jacket, what do you do with the jackets you find there? And she's like, we keep them until you come back, here's the lost and found. And it's like not even a full moving box-sized box, and Mark's just like, nah, it'd take too long to go through that, I'll just grab a new one.

Steve

There's like 5 jackets in that box, maybe 5 jackets, it's It's such a weird— because he didn't give a shot. I mean, we know he just wanted a chance to talk to her, um.

Nic

But I love it popping into his head is like the cool thing for me to say is like, whatever, dude, I got a ton of jackets, what.

Steve

Do I need a jacket for? I think what he's more saying is like, I'll just go buy him the one. I got a good job. Yeah, I'm a kid with money, I'll go buy a jacket. Yeah, it's all good. Um, but he also, uh, does get her number. He asks for her number, um, he's actually fairly smoothly— I thought it was really, really good actually when he actually does finally ask for the number.

Nic

Yeah, he wasn't stammering, he was being nice and polite to her. I mean, he was very at least making himself worth a shot, right, to this girl by not, you know, being.

Steve

Too aggressive or anything, like non-threatening. No, that's— and, you know, obviously non-threatening to his detriment later, but, but that's a good guy. Like, like, we can definitely, we can definitely say Mark Ratner is a good guy.

Nic

Um, okay, yeah, so that quickly we're back at All-American Burger, and this is an important scene, but the very beginning of this scene, yeah, is, uh, Brad Judge Reinhold is cleaning a profanity off the mirror. Yeah, in the bathroom said blank big hairy pussy. Whatever the first blank is, is what he's erasing first. I gotta say, if you're working at a restaurant right now, there's profanity and there's also non-profanity words. You gotta prioritize getting pussy off there and then maybe get hairy off there. So it would just say great big.

Steve

And then have some smudges. I think it was eat. I think it was— is the indicator— eat big hairy pussy. Okay, original graffiti. So, so So even that, right? Eat certainly can stay. It's a restaurant. Whatever comes after, that's the important part.

Nic

Yeah, yeah. I will say, if it said great, it would, it would end the same as eat. So, um, but yeah, I always thought that was funny that he's just like, why the, the main bad part is still up there.

Steve

Yeah. And then his buddy, I think Albert, who he got, uh, the job there at a Mall of America Burger Fork, runs in and has to use the bathroom. He's like, dude, can you cover me on the, on the register? I gotta use the bathroom. I gotta, I gotta go. He's like, oh, okay, sure.

Nic

So he goes out And he's not a registered guy.

Steve

No, he's a burger. He's a cook in the back. He does— he usually flips burgers, although I'm sure there's at least some cross-training. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I actually never worked in fast food. I worked in retail. But, you know, we did— no, you know, there wasn't like I only worked the videos or the music. Like, we definitely moved all over and did whatever. So, yeah. So he goes up and immediately there's this like dude in like a business suit who's like bringing up a 80, 90% finished plate of breakfast and goes, I'd like my money back. It says 100% guaranteed breakfast. It wasn't the best breakfast I ever had. Which is like super shitty and dumb. And Brad's stammering a little and stumbling, but he is trying to say like, there's a process. Like, I can't just give you money out of the till. There's like a form to fill out. Let me get the form. And the guy's like, no, fuck you. I want my $2.75. Like, give it to me. He doesn't say fuck you because he doesn't swear at him initially. But like, he's like, no, like, like, give me my money back. It says, you know, you know what guaranteed means, moron, or whatever. And that's when like Brad has been looking at the thing. He goes, mister, if you don't shut up, I'm going to kick 100% of your ass. Yes. Just not as intimidating as I think.

Nic

No, it was very Ross Geller, like the way that he delivered that. That's how he would do that. He was swimming it up.

Intro Clip

Yeah.

Nic

And, and you know what? He dealt with that very poorly. Very poor. It's the restaurant's money, not your money. You could have refunded the guy.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

Whatever. The guy was being unreasonable. As a business, don't put some vague promise like 100% guaranteed breakfast because people.

Steve

Will interpret that differently. Differently. Yeah. And, and so the manager, the assistant manager comes out and the guy says, hey, your, your employee just threatened me, physically threatened me and used profanity. And he's like, Brad, is that true? He's going, well, the guy called me a moron or whatever. He's like, you're fired. So immediately that's it, Brad is fired at All-American Burger. He yells back towards the bathroom, I.

Nic

Hope you had a nice shit.

Steve

Yeah, yeah. Because he really didn't want to be on the register there. And, and yeah, so, so Brad has been shitcanned. He now, now no longer has quite as many things going for him as he did moments before, right? He's still got the car, he's still got the girl.

Nic

He does not have a job. And, and he's leaning now back into, okay, well, I get to lock this girlfriend down because I just lost my job. So he's kind of pleading to her.

Steve

Yeah, they're at like a pep rally.

Nic

It's cool now. Yeah, like, we have to stay together. I do like at the pep rally, the, the Spirit Girls or the cheerleaders, the way that they're talking. It's just those characters are very funny where they're like, I don't like being.

Steve

Called a spirit bunny, it's such a put-down. Also, are there only two cheerleaders? I don't know, it seemed like that's it.

Nic

Like, it's very interesting. Um, um, so yeah, so Brad's basically saying, hey, I think it's important that we're together. Like, I really need you right now. Yeah. And she's like, oh, you know, I think we owe it to ourselves to be free. Basically gives him the exact speech that he was telling his friend.

Steve

I'm a senior now.

Nic

Yes, exactly.

Steve

So Brad's not loving it right now. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so yeah, he's dumped and now we, we go to, uh, I think Mark and Lisa, or excuse me, Mark and Stacy are going to have a.

Nic

Date together at a sit-down knockwurst restaurant.

Steve

So we're getting there because first Mark DeMond, or Mike DeMond tells him, he's like, he's like, when it comes down to it, Rhett, when you get in the car, you always put on side one Led Zeppelin. For. And so of course that's what's playing, you know, it's at the beginning of his Black Dog or what song is, whatever. But it's like, that's what's playing, uh, uh, in the car when they're going, and really loudly too. They're having to kind of shout to each other totally over the music. But you know, of course Damone said this is what you do, so, so you better do it, man. Better do it. Um, and then yeah, they go to this like German restaurant basically, right? And they are sitting in the most comically enormous chairs. They look like like 5-year-olds.

Nic

They look— and this is— it's that Lily Tomlin character where she would sit.

Steve

In the giant— the giant chair. Yeah. And it's clear this is an indicator. So, you know, taking a step back for a moment, the only two characters in this movie that, as far as I can tell, are at all main characters who like never lie about their maturity pretty much are Mark and Stacy, right? Because all the things Stacy says she's done, we've seen her do, right? She admits to never having done X, Y, and Z until we see that she's done But like almost everybody from Brad to Linda, you know, Damone, everybody except maybe Spicoli, they're lying to somebody about something that they're doing. These two are kind of the most innocent in a sense when they're together. So putting them in these enormous chairs that are much larger than any of the chairs in the restaurant. Yeah. All the chairs in the restaurant look the same, but they are not sat in the same. So either they've— I think what they did was they maybe had the same chairs and then took the cushions off the seats. So they're like low. Yeah. It's, I think, very, you know, deliberately giving us this childlike feel. Between Rat and Stacy and making us feel that they are more innocent than their compatriots and, you know, less corrupted by, you know, the sort of like.

Nic

Goings-On of teenage America at this point. Yeah, I get that. I get that. Uh, it's just— it's such a funny location because I couldn't think of where I'd go to sit down for some knockwurst around here. Uh, I will also say, next time we're making this movie and we need a blowjob demonstration scene, let's go knockwurst restaurant instead of, uh, Carrots at the Lunch Table.

Steve

Would have been more accurate, I guess. Yeah, that's true. Um, So yeah, so they, they go to order food and that is when Mark realizes he does not have his wallet with him. He left it at home, which first of all, dude, should not be driving without your license on you.

Nic

Mark Ratner, that's not cool.

Steve

In a borrowed car. In a borrowed car. Exactly. Not your car, your sister's older sister's car. And so he goes to the payphone because of course it's 1982. That's what you have to do. He goes to payphone, he calls Demone, and Demone is sitting at home doing nothing.

Nic

Watching TV, eating something, drinking milk out of the carton, something, watching Leave It to Beaver.

Steve

And he basically asked me, he's like, hey dude, can you like borrow your, I don't know, brother's or sister's, your whatever he says, your brother's car or your sister's car, drive over to my house, get my wallet and bring it to me at this restaurant, please. Like, I got it, you know. And it's like, I'm kind of busy here, right? Like, yeah, like really, dude, just be a dick about it. But he agrees to. Damone, generally speaking, is a good friend of Mark, and he does, and he, and he brings it. And then I thought But you know, like watching this, even again, I've seen it so many times. I thought to myself, oh yeah, I bet he like slips him the wallet. Same thing. Yes. Cause he does a little like handshake. I thought, oh, the wallet's in there. No, he's like, hey, I found your wallet. I thought you might want it back. And like tosses it on the table. Like, what is that? Not dude.

Nic

Like, that's not helpful. It's great. And he broke up the kind of tension of Mark and Stacy at the date where he's waiting for his wallet to arrive and they keep like ordering refills on their Cokes and stuff. They've clearly been there forever. Yeah.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So yeah, it was funny because Mike DeMone, Mr. Smooth, is decidedly unsubtle with the water. And, you know, knowing what happens a little later, was that him being like, you know, I don't like that Mark has this chick. Like, I sound like I do, but I don't have any chicks. Maybe I'll try to sabotage him a little bit.

Steve

Could be. I think, I think anything related specifically to Stacy that happens later is more spur of the moment. But yeah, maybe just in general, he's just like jealous that he's not the one on a date. That's very, very possible. Yeah, I like that.

Nic

Like, it's interesting. And I, and I like Damone picking something off the table and popping it in his mouth. That's a good cool guy move, is you just walk up to someone who's eating and grab something with your fingers.

Steve

Off their plate and pop it in your mouth. To be fair, he was pretty convinced they were done at this point, given.

Nic

Why he was there. But that gives you something cool to do. That's true. That's true. So let's see. They— okay, so, so Stacy now takes Mark back.

Steve

Well, yes, so Mark drives Stacy home. Well, no, no, no, Mark is driving his sister's car. She needs a ride home. So he's driving her home. Apparently somebody broke into his sister's car and stole her tape deck. They mentioned in conversation— I'm so— I can't believe it. He goes, yeah, I can't believe that happened in front of such a nice restaurant. Somebody has stolen Mark's sister's tape deck out of her car. That sucks. And Stacy invites Mark in, says, my parents are gone, I think she tells him, or or maybe that's later, whatever, like, or they won't be home till later. Do you want to come in? Um, and so they're, they're really cute together. She decides to get— should she get changed is what she says. Yeah, she basically just like puts on a robe, which is like, okay, massive sign number one, Mark, that she's into you, right?

Nic

Help me with my dress. I mean, that's— yeah, she's rolling out the red carpet.

Steve

I know, I, I had to marry a woman before she asked me to help her with her dress, you know what I mean? So Um, but yeah, he is so crazy awkward. But he, you know, they start making out and then he freaks out basically and is like, oh, you know what, I gotta go. Like, it's clear he just— he's not comfortable with it, he's not ready for it, and he just wants out. And the downside of it is that it makes Stacy think he doesn't like her at all, right? And that's the bummer of it, is that, you know, he's just not ready for this. He's not ready for it and he doesn't he's not gonna do it, and he just freaks out. And all he can think to do.

Nic

Is say, I gotta go, or whatever. And my sister's really weird about her car, which is like, you already blew that one, buddy. So her tape deck is gone, so you could show up 2 hours late and she's still gonna be mad, more mad about the thing that happened. But yeah, it also kind of seemed like Mark might have prematurely ejaculated.

Steve

But possible. I don't think we get enough indication that's going on.

Nic

But yeah, it wasn't— he didn't make the face. But, but when they sit down on her bed and she's like like, what do you want to do? I gotta give advice to anybody listening. You gotta have an answer. Yeah, chambered for that. Because her next thing is, well, you don't have an answer, do you want to look at old photo albums?

Steve

Which sounds like a fucking nightmare. I would also say, if you find yourself in a place where an age-appropriate, uh, uh, partner of your desired gender is sitting with you, they have asked you to help them undress, they have now put on a robe, you are sitting on their bed in their bedroom, and they ask you, what do you want to do? All I'll say is, if you do want to kiss that person that is all the active consent you need, right? You have active consent. You should, you should go ahead and feel free to kiss that person. That's all I'll say about that. That really— she could not have done more. She really did. Jumping on him, which she almost did when she reaches for the, for the photo album. She has like reach over his body, like over his lap. Like he couldn't have gotten more positive signal that this is okay and what she wants.

Nic

Dude, this was down the middle of the plate, hanging curveball for him, and he kept the bat on on his shoulder.

Steve

Yeah, um, he hit himself in the head with the bat.

Nic

Yeah, that's right. Oh man. Uh, we get, uh, now we've got Spicoli driving Jefferson's car with Jefferson's little brother, who's like Spicoli's bud, which I think is a fun, you know, weird dynamic, frankly. Seems like, you know, Spicoli clearly is several years older than this, but just mentally, I like video games at the arcade, I like smoking weed, I like hanging out with this guy, like they're bros. House. Yeah, he's not trying to get at Jefferson for anything.

Steve

He's just like, this is my bud. Yeah, 100%, just enjoying. So they're smoking pot, he's drinking a beer, and they're driving the— was it like a Firebird, right? You know, driving it around town and kind of crazy, a little bit of crazy driving. Yeah. And Jefferson's little brother is kind of like, man, you better be careful, this is my brother's car. Like, he's gonna— he's gonna— don't mess up my brother's car. Sure enough, they crash into like the scaffolding on like a business that's maybe being painted or built or something. It's a very interesting situation, almost like a construction site. Yeah, right.

Nic

They crash into— where where did that.

Steve

Ramp come from type situation? Seriously, it like flies up and they're okay, but when they come to a stop and like there's cinder blocks just all over the hood of the car because of whatever they slammed into, a cinder block wall. I love this. Spicoli's like, dude, I can fix it. And I think his excuse or his explanation is that his dad's a lawnmower repairman. Is that what he said?

Nic

It was something like that.

Steve

My dad's got a whole bunch of tools. Like, I can do it. You can't fix this car, Spicoli. And he's I got an idea and.

Nic

It'S a brilliant idea. I think it's the best thing he.

Steve

Could have done, right? I don't think Spicoli's smart enough to come up with this. Yeah. And yet here we are. They put the car in the front of the school and they spray paint like Lincoln rules or like, you know, kill Ridgemont, Ridgemont sucks, whatever. Right.

Nic

Because it's their rival school and they have the game coming up. They've been doing this rally and all this stuff building to it. Lincoln High. So it's the perfect way to like motivate our guy and pass the blame.

Steve

In a believable way. Yeah.

Nic

Yes. Um, it quickly— there's a scene where it shows Damone and he's standing by his locker. Inside his locker he has like several ties hanging. Yeah. And like a full Devo poster on the inside door, and then a bottle of Hennessy.

Steve

I really love his locker setup, dude. It's nice. Yeah, that's part of the whole sequence. It's clearly like game day. It's the morning of the game against Lincoln. Yeah, we know Jeff— we know Charles Jefferson is super pissed about stuff, and all the people— kids are wearing shirts that either say Kill Lincoln or Assassinate Lincoln. I like it.

Nic

I do dig that.

Steve

It's really good. I feel like if your rival is Lincoln High, assassinate Lincoln, uh, be the Booth the world deserves, something like that, you know what I mean? Like, whatever, you know, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? You know, something along those lines. I feel like that's a big thumbs.

Nic

Up for me, uh, leaning into that for sure. And it works like crazy. Uh, we get a very, uh, non, you know, probably accurate sports-wise football scene, but it's just showing it's fun. Uh, Jefferson going through and injuring every.

Steve

Other player on the other team. He's clearly like the linebacker whatever, right, on the defense, and just, and just, you know, doing amazing like toe taps before the snap and then just diving.

Nic

Over the offensive line. Everyone has these like terrified looks on their face.

Steve

Well, they pull at least 2 or 3 kids from the Lincoln side off on stretchers. Yes. Like, I mean, it really— he is just absolutely like causing true havoc here on the football field. And we get the score at the end and it says 42 to nothing, Richmond beats Lincoln.

Nic

And his moves are like He just leapfrogs the entire offensive and defensive line and then grabs like 2 guys by the head and like Arnold in True Lies with the dogs, like, stay. His moves are good.

Steve

His moves are good. Oh, it's killer. This is, you know, I think that when there was some kid said something about Jefferson and he said, does he actually go here? I thought they just flew him in for football games or whatever. This guy is like clearly like legendary.

Nic

Totally.

Steve

Totally.

Nic

But yeah, um, so Lisa and Stacy.

Steve

Are hanging out by the pool here.

Nic

At Stacy and Brad's house. Uh, and again, I mean, I guess nice year-round, like if it was Southern.

Steve

California and yeah, they got some good weather. We get the whole school year in this movie and time passes like fairly quickly. It is a little interesting, like, but there's some still in football season. The weirdness is if it's Christmas time, it had already been Christmas time And yeah, it should be colder unless we, unless we skip way ahead after the football game. Yeah, it's a little hard to tell.

Nic

But this is, again, I mean, this is something that you can't really get too tied down on with this movie because it is just a series of.

Steve

Little— this is also, I think, the first time we see Brad at his new job or from his new job, right? So he's gotten a new job at Captain Hook's Fish and Chips. Yes, with the pirate costume and everything. So he's got his second job of the movie. And he come, you know, because basically what happens here, right? Yeah, Linda and, uh, um, uh, Stacy are hanging out doing like a Cosmo quiz or whatever about, you know, what's your love life like or whatever. And, and she's answering about her and.

Nic

Doug, which— and again, you know, Linda, everything that she says about her boyfriend is totally something that she read elsewhere that she's relaying as her own story.

Steve

Or whatever, you know. And, and she said, uh, Stacy asks her, do you, do you climax every time with Doug? And she goes, oh yeah.

Nic

I think number one way to tell she's lying.

Steve

Yes, exactly. Ask any woman on the planet, she would know. Oh my God. If you don't know, it's just because you haven't yet. That's pretty much why you don't know. Um, but yeah, so then, uh, Rat and Damone show up. Uh, Damone drives them over there and is like, you know, look— and here's, here's this moment is where Damone is being a real homie. He's being— he's trying to get Rat back on the, back on the horse, you know? And it's like, hey, look, you like this girl. 'You had kind of a weird encounter. Let's go. They'll invite us in. We'll have a good time. Like, we'll get back on, on the horse here.'.

Nic

And so they're hanging out, and when he walks up to the fence, I love the way Damone says this, where he just— they look over the fence, he goes, 'Hey, we came to help you.

Steve

With your math homework.' So they, they let them in. And, you know, I love too, Linda's immediately like just nonplussed about these high school boys jumping in the pool and splashing.

Nic

That's not— would be less interested in it. It's not what men do. Absolutely. Um, she has the, the look of someone who's like Vegas and someone who's brought their kids down to the hotel pool, where she's like, this is not.

Steve

What this is for. Even better, she looks like someone who is at— in Vegas for a business conference and happens to be at the pool and is pissed off that the day club is happening around her. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of even— you know what I mean? So Brad comes home wearing his, you know, Captain Hook's fish and chips pirate costume, and, uh, you know, he sees them all and says, oh, your mom and dad know your friends are over, and like, whatever. So he heads and, you know, he says hi to Linda, but he heads inside And this is where we get the, you know, one of the most iconic scenes in the movie. Certainly a core memory for me. But, you know, Brad daydreams about Linda diving into the pool and coming up.

Nic

Out of the pool.

Steve

And very Christmas Vacation. Yeah, there's definitely a— you know, I feel like there's the Christmas Vacation sequence that Clark daydreams is very much a reference to this. And, you know, she takes her top off and, you know, Brad, you know how cute I always thought you were or whatever. And he daydreams about them making out. Out while she's got her top off.

Nic

And we have this great song, this, uh, Living in Stereo or Moving in Stereo by the Cars, which is just an excellent song playing in the background. And it's really impossible if you're familiar with this movie to separate that song from this scene.

Steve

Yes, absolutely. It is, it is 100% just completely tied to the song and to the— yeah, Moving in Stereo, uh, is tied to this moment in so many ways. Um, but But, you know, Linda dives in, and then we get Brad's daydream, and we notice Brad is in the bathroom with a view out to the pool, and, and he is rubbing one out, basically. He's taking care of himself because Lisa dumped him, so he's got nobody. And now Linda's out there, who's in, in his class. She's a senior like he is. They've known each other a long time. Probably, frankly, how Linda met Stacy was probably through Brad. You'd have to figure some kind of a school event or something, you know.

Nic

Um, why else would Stacy— unless she.

Steve

Just met her from work. That's true. I guess it could have just been work. Yeah, but either way, she's known Brad a long time time. Um, he— she dives into the pool and comes up and immediately is like, I've got water in my ear, I need a Q-tip, which is like, it never happened to me. Yeah, I don't know what that's all about. Uh, Brad does not know how to lock bathroom doors, it would appear. Uh, there's not a bathroom built in a house in California since the 1940s that didn't have locks on the doors.

Nic

Like, dude, insane. And if I am— if I'm jacking it and I know that there's like other people on the premises, my head is on a swivel. Like, I am the most vigilant person alive, man. The doors are locked. The masturbation is like the fourth thing I'm worrying about because number one is OPSEC, you know. I'm just like, I gotta make sure I'm covered here. Yeah.

Steve

So yeah, terrible job by Brad. Brad with the Hegseth-level OPSEC on his, uh, on his little covert action. Um, so she of course walks into the bathroom and, and, you know, doesn't even like react. Her reaction to him whacking it is interesting to me because she kind of does this like— and this is an audio medium so you're not gonna see me, but she cringes a little or like goes, "Ooh, sorry." Like, ooh, like Jerry Lewis pulling at his collar kind of thing almost. And then it's like, I think she still grabs the Q-tips or something, but she doesn't leave right away. And he goes, "Oh, oh, sorry." You know, whatever. And it's just like, yeah, that's, I'm not under any impression Brad ever would've had a chance with Linda, but if there had been a chance, it is now gone.

Nic

You don't come back from that. That was it there. I mean, that is a really tough.

Steve

One to come back from. Uh, lock the door, Brad, lock the door.

Nic

But what a scene. I mean, that's one of those scenes from this movie that everyone can not identify with that it's happened to them, but it just relate to that fear and that, that feeling and stuff.

Steve

Because even if it's never happened to you, you've been in a position, at least as a guy, at some point in your youth where you were afraid it might happen to you. Yeah. Or you, or you were worried it.

Nic

Could happen to you. Dude, 100%. And just the feeling of being in proximity to this person you have a crazy crush on and just being like, oh my God, I can't believe they're at my house or whatever. Like she'd probably been there before, but he's really like, oh, I'm getting every look I can in this world. Yeah, so now we're kind of back in class. I think we're in Mr. Hands' class here. And great feature of this school is you can get a pizza delivered directly to the classroom.

Steve

Well, I mean, look back, I mean, nowadays, right? You can't go on a school campus without checking in at the front desk. Everything's, you know, fenced off, whatever, you know, pretty much all those changes started happening since the late '90s when Columbine and everything else. So I think, yeah, campuses were just kind of like, they were just, you just walked onto campus if you needed to do something there. Yeah. Right. During the year. And this is, you know, again, being a California school, it was probably very open, you know, whatever. And sure enough, Jeff Spicoli has ordered a pizza, extra cheese with sausage is the order. And one Taylor Negron is the delivery boy from Mr. Pizza Guy. He's been in a ton of stuff.

Nic

I love Taylor. Like he's listed. And I don't know what he is in IMDb, but I'm pretty sure in the credits of the movie, it's listed.

Steve

As Taylor Negron, himself.

Nic

Oh really? I don't understand.

Intro Clip

Weird.

Nic

Yeah, it was really weird because, yeah, that guy's— he's such a recognizable guy.

Steve

Um, yeah, I mean, he's just been in a thousand things and, you know, until he passed, uh, tragically about 10 years ago, far too young. Um, yeah, like, that's interesting. I'll have to look and see if I can find some reference to that because that would be— that would be weird, right? He clearly played a delivery pizza boy or pizza delivery boy. Like, yeah. Um, but anyway, the point being, he brings the pizza. Yeah. And, you know, Spicoli makes a reasonably good argument to Mr. Hand. He goes, you know, Mr. Hand, I've been thinking about this If you're here and I'm here, doesn't that make this our time? There's nothing wrong with a little feast on our time. And Mr. Hand agrees. That's very good, Mr. Spicoli. And so he gets the pizza out and he starts calling up students to like take a slice. And it looks like pretty damn good pizza.

Nic

I actually really solid and big slices. I mean, you're bold to take a.

Steve

Full slice there, but it's in my heart. If you've ever been to a Pizza My Heart, they do slices that big. I like that. So Damone sees Stacy after school. She, she's— they're leaving school and basically like chatting a bit, whatever, I think. And then, and then Stacy's like, ah yeah, I gotta walk home. And he's like, oh yeah, okay, I'll walk with you, whatever. And he's starting to say, you know, Mark really likes you, you know, he's like, he's a really nice guy, he's really into you. Yeah. And she goes, yeah, no, Mark's, Mark's sweet, he's a really sweet guy, but I don't like Mark, I like you. Which again, this is like— I feel like if everybody at this age was this forward, there would be a lot less confusion of being a teenager. She is very clear about what she wants and, and, and And look, Mike still should have said, yeah, okay, but my buddy likes you, so I can't do anything, whatever.

Nic

But it's like, I have to have a conversation with him.

Steve

I can't move on this right now. Yeah, something like that. But there is an element of me that's kind of like, she's a, you know, autonomous acting unit within this threesome relationship, whatever it is, this friendship or this knowledge base for these three humans. Like she has her own autonomy. She's decided she doesn't, she's not interested in Mark. Sure. So who is Mark to be mad at Damone? For acting on Stacy's interest in him when Stacy has no interest in Mark. Like, there's an element of that. Yeah, it's like Stacy can decide who the fuck she wants to see or.

Nic

Be with or whatever. I think eventually— but I think Damone, especially because he's been so involved in this relationship, kind of— yeah, needs to at least tell Mark, hey dude, this.

Steve

Is what she told me. 100%. It's still— he still should have backed off. But you know, there is a part— I feel like— I think the point I'm trying to make is like, when I was like 20, I felt much more strongly that like, you know, fuck Damone, like he shouldn't do that. And watching it through this time, I went, yeah, but you know what, That's what Stacy wants.

Nic

Yeah, I mean, DeMone didn't force himself. He didn't misrepresent anything other than just.

Steve

Being his normal, like, bullshit self, right? I mean, he's always flossing like that, like kind of trying to be whatever.

Nic

But he's still that guy. Yep. Um, yeah, so Stacy, you know, hey, uh, you want to go in the swimming pool? He says, no, it must be nice having a pool.

Steve

No, but this is the thing. So the one thing he does do when he— they get to her house and they stop, and he— what he should have done at this point is say, oh, I see you at school tomorrow, and like leave. Instead he goes goes, got any iced tea? So he's inviting him, you know, he's opening up the idea of him coming in. So that's the point to me where Damone crosses the line. Yeah, between him and Mark. What happens after that is just between him and Stacy. But like, he did not need to go into that house.

Nic

He could have just said— he put himself in there.

Steve

He put himself— exactly. So that's where he kind of betrayed his buddy, was even just asking to come in, just because it opens the door, it, it, it, it shows her his interest, right? Yeah. Uh, and that's when he goes, yeah, like, somebody— it must be nice to have a pool you could use anytime you want. And she's like, hey, I'll get changed in the pool. And she's got the weirdest bathing suit. Both, both the times that she's in the pool in this movie, it's like a bathing suit bottom and then just like a tank top. Like, she doesn't wear like a normal bathing suit at like any point in this movie, which is very odd to me.

Nic

But especially because she is like naked in parts of the movie, so it's.

Steve

Not a modesty concern. No, it's not a modesty thing. And, and the character lives in a home with a pool, so clearly goes in the pool a lot. Probably has— needing a bathing suit, surprising. Exactly right.

Nic

Not caught by surprise there. Uh, so she gets changed and then she tells Damone, okay, Brad's got a bunch of stuff in the changing house, the little pool house area. Yeah. And then immediately gets it on with him. Yeah. And it does not last long. Damone lasts maybe longer than Mark did, depending on how— what you believe about what happened earlier. Uh, Stacy, I guess, just has this effect.

Steve

I mean, well, I also feel this is probably Damone's first time.

Nic

Oh dude, totally. Guys this age, I mean, yeah, that would have been Um, so yeah, Damone, uh, finishes extremely fast, gets out of there. No pleasure for her, no enjoyment. It did not go the way that she had hoped, especially with him bailing.

Steve

Out of there immediately. Yeah, exactly. And, and that's one of the shittier things he does is the immediate, like, I gotta go, I gotta get out of here kind of thing. It's just like extra, extra shitty.

Nic

Uh, it's funny how the guilt though—.

Steve

That'S classic post-nut clarity for Damone there. Yeah, he's guilty, feeling guilty, feeling embarrassed about finishing too fast. Yep. Feeling guilty about what he's done to his buddy arc, all feeling all kinds of terrible shit, but like reacts to it in also a bad way and kind of doubles down on it being a shitty move. And that sucks, but, but there you go. So he really is a really quite a dick to her, but I think it's mostly embarrassment. Um, we cut to, uh, Brad Hamilton now at Captain Hook's fish and chips shop. Yes. And he is asked by his— well, I guess there's an interaction first with a couple customers who are like like they're twins, very odd-looking twins, talking about, is any of your fish not fried?

Nic

Or yes, like nothing on the menu.

Steve

Can you say blemish? You really want me to eat fried food? Like, whatever. They both decide not to eat there, but it's like, all right guys, you walked into the place, like, right?

Nic

You know what it is? It's called Captain Hook's Fish and Chips.

Steve

Like, we're not burying the lead here. This is not a health food store, you know what I mean? And then Brad is told by his manager, uh, that he needs to go make a delivery of like 20 fish and chips boxes or whatever to this like business, IBM, I think. And so, um, he's like, okay. So he goes into the back to change out of his uniform because it's this really crazy looking, you know, dude.

Nic

Theme park, huge, like novelty-sized hat. Like, it's crazy. It's like a Three Amigos costume almost.

Steve

Yes, with a pirate hat. And he says, it's uncomfortable, I was taking it off, I'm going to exchange my street clothes to do the delivery. And the guy's like, dude, this is a very like, uh, Mike Judge in Office Space. Chachki is like, you know, people come here for the, for the atmosphere and the attitude. He's like, you Hey, a big part of the Captain Hook's appeal is this uniform. You know that, like, kind of thing. And so he's like, you want me to put it back on? He goes, yes, I do. And so he puts it back on, he gets into the car to drive the stuff over, and for whatever reason, he's already pissed and, you know, he hates it, but he like goes to like try some. He like eats some of the food basically, which is what I just assume every like Uber Eats or, you know, DoorDash person does at some places, you know.

Nic

Yeah, that's why you only have like.

Steve

4 chicken nuggets when it gets to your house. Yeah, I didn't think McDonald's made a 9-piece. What happens here? Yeah. Um, but it doesn't taste good and he like gets mad about it and it like gets— and he like throws it out the way. He ends up dumping the hat and all the food like out the window.

Nic

Well, because he pulls up next to this chick that he's kind of trying to flirt with at the light. He doesn't— he forgets he's wearing the uniform. So he's kind of just like, I'm still Brad, like a single successful guy mode. And then she laughs at him and he's just kind of like, ah, fuck this entire thing. So yeah, throws the uniform, throws all the food out the window.

Steve

He's done with that job. We don't see him technically quit that job, but that is Brad quitting that job.

Nic

Exactly.

Steve

For sure. And, um, so then next thing we're at the— we're at the back of the school, but like the track, the football field, sort of outdoors. And Damone is trying to sell cheap trick tickets to this girl who's like, isn't that kid stuff?

Nic

And he's like doing like the dream police stuff. Surrender, surrender. Um, and, and Stacy has been kind of trying to like catch up to Damone a couple times already, like, hey, I need to talk to you. Oh, hey, uh, yeah, I'll talk talk to you later, I'm busy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so yeah, she interrupts, uh, his important sale of cheap trick tickets to tell him that I'm pregnant and there.

Steve

Wasn'T anybody else, right? So his initial reaction is the standard douchebag reaction. How do you know? How do you even know it's me? You know, kind of thing. He's like, I haven't been with anybody else. Like, which again, at this point it has been many, many months since she was with Ron, right? So it's like, yeah, that would have— if it was him, it already would have happened kind of thing. So she's right, this This is who it is. And she says, like, there's a good line here where she's like, it's $150 at the free clinic. He goes, doesn't sound free to me. It's like, yeah, good point. It's not. But there's no money needed to go into the clinic, I guess is more the idea.

Nic

But he agrees to— The free admission clinic.

Steve

Yeah, exactly. Free admission clinic. Exactly. But he agrees to pay half, $75, and give her a ride. So he agrees. All right. So here goes on a ride. And I'm like, hey, man, compared to like 18 years of raising a child, Well, yeah, that's a pretty good deal if that's what you're going to do.

Nic

Like, consider yourself lucky. Yeah, there are many more than one ride involved in raising a child. So at least the ride ledger tips in your favor there. Yeah. This— okay, so now to me, we've got— we have Damone. He's got to come up with the $75. He doesn't have $75. Right. And there's a scene of him like going through and making phone calls for people that owe him for the different tickets. Yeah. And I had to pause it so that I could write down what is on his little ledger because it really cracked me up. Good. To me, this is the funniest joke in the whole movie. So he's got two columns on this paper. He's got people who owe me and then expenses. Okay. So people who owe me on the left, $50, Rick Shasta, REO Speedwagon, $10, Deana Phillips, The Knack, $5, Ratner, $20, David Brandt, The Clash. And then on the expenses on the other side, he has abortion, $75, and then it says says, Rod Stewart, $60, question mark. I think that's the best joke in.

Steve

The entire movie, to be able to.

Nic

Get those— having his expense ledger where.

Steve

He'S trying to figure this out.

Nic

He sees him running the business. I hope I can make it to.

Steve

Rod Stewart after I take care of this baby thing. Oh my God. So yeah, so, and his buddy he's calling is just like, dude, I don't have the money. I can get it for you Thursday. And he's like, no, I need it tonight. Like, he's like, I don't have— can't give you what I don't have. Yeah. He's like, fine, I'll take it from you Thursday or whatever. Because I would have got him— I mean, $50 would have got him most of the way there, you know. But, uh, but then, you know, we cut to watching Stacy stand on the curb outside her house waiting for Damone to show up like he agreed to, and nothing, nothing.

Nic

And so she— and he can't borrow it from Ratner, who would be like maybe the main source, because that's the one guy who can't know, maybe other than his parents, right, or the other.

Steve

People that would have the money potentially. Exactly, that's the point, is the people that— yeah, the people he could rely on for the money are people he desperately does not want to know that he's he needs it for this, right? Um, so Stacy's waiting for him. Stacy, you know, he does not arrive. She goes back in the house to call him, and he gets— she gets, uh, Damone's mother, who says, you know, she said, there's Mike there, I need to talk to him. This is Stacy. Well, let me check. And he says, uh, Stacy, he says he's in the garage helping his dad. And it's like, this says so many things, right? First off, it says yes, he's there. Yeah, so he is actively ignoring your call. Second, the mom doesn't even know for sure that he is in the garage helping his dad. It's just what he said he's doing, so who knows what he's actually doing, right? It is super, super shitty. Um, Stacy hears Brad's car start up, so she heads out and basically flags him down and is like, hey, can I— I need a ride. I need a ride to a bowling alley. Yeah, right. And, you know, and so yeah, Brad's like, of course I'll give you a ride to the bowling alley, no big deal. But then he drops her off, she goes kind of towards the bowling alley door, and he drives off, and then she runs across the —this gets— the clinic is across the street from the bowling alley, and he sees her.

Nic

She doesn't give it enough time. I gotta say, you have to at least fake go actually into the place you're going, 90 seconds, and then dip across the street.

Steve

Yeah, like 90 seconds would have been plenty, but she takes 9 seconds and.

Nic

It'S enough for Brad to see her in the rearview. That's right. Yeah. Um, yeah, so she, you know, goes in and has it done. And I mean, it's very kind of matter-of-fact in this movie. There's not a lot of like trauma associated other than the fact that she was kind of abandoned by this guy who was supposed to help her get it. But the actual procedure Again, very casual, kind of like an airplane where there's the fake— the voices at the airport talking back and forth and it's just like, it's just a procedure.

Steve

There's nothing wrong.

Nic

It's like, I'm really kind of pro-abortion more than you think for it still being like an issue 45 years later.

Steve

And here's the thing, though, this was so close to Roe v. Wade, right, that I think this was relatively new still. And I feel like that the anti-abortion rhetoric in the country really ramped up more in like the early '90s. With the Newt Gingrich Congress and the Contract with America and Fox News and all that kind of stuff really came, you know, about 10 years after this movie is when it really ramped back up.

Nic

Yeah, that was more like the religious right.

Steve

Yeah, so I feel like at this stage it's like, yeah, this is a thing that is available to you as an option now and wasn't 10 years ago, right? And so that it is an interesting take on it and really inappropriate one. It's a medical procedure. If it's done in a medical facility by medical professionals, there is no real reason So yeah, they're not making me afraid of it or something.

Nic

Yeah, there's not a lot of like hysterics attached to anything that happens in this movie. It's all very matter of fact. So yeah, I, I think this is like well handled, especially when it's 45 years old. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, Damone, you know, doesn't show up and, you know, she tells Lisa that he didn't show up, or Linda. Yeah. And, and they write prick. They spray paint prick on the side of his car, which he very conveniently just covers with a box of cardboard, which I love.

Steve

I would have done that. Duct tape, baby. But then on his locker as well, it's Little Prick.

Nic

Yes, is written all over his locker. And everyone knows which locker is his because he's walking through the hallway, people.

Steve

Are kind of giggling at him. I never would have known a random person's locker.

Nic

No, unless maybe, hey, that's the locker where I go get cheap trick tickets from.

Steve

That's a good point.

Nic

That's your Hennessy locker.

Steve

Yes. Yeah, this is where we go to get our Hennessy during pep rally. Hennessy shot. Gotta get my Henny before PE. Um, so yeah, so Linda really does a number on Damone and gets everybody basically hating him and, you know, and everything. Um, I think our next thing is we're back to, back to biology class, but on a field trip. We're at, uh, um, I believe the name of the hospital is Hancock Hospital, not Hancock like, like Herbie or, or whatever, but Hancock.

Nic

Okay, I noticed that too. Thank you for, for for seeing that. And I just wonder, is that the makers of the movie just throwing a little extra in there? We want to make sure it's definitely.

Steve

Not a real hospital. That's maybe that. Maybe I feel more like that, where it's kind of like, well, we feel confident there is no hospital called this, so let's call it that because it sounds like a hospital name. But basically it's Mr. Vargas, uh, uh, you know, doing the whole, um, you know, they talked about that early in the movie, like a final exam that involved going to a hospital and like, like, you know, seeing where he actually pulls organs out and all this stuff. And the kids were all getting freaked out by that idea. And that's apparently exactly what this is. This is a cadaver who sold their body to science for $25 or something like that, is what he says. And they've broken open the chest plate to like, you know, take a look inside. And I love Spicoli when he like pulls the heart out, he goes, oh, gnarly!

Nic

Like, he's so— and he showed up that he's not in that class when, uh, Mr. Vargas Mr. Vargas is like, are you in this class? He's like, I am today.

Steve

I am today. Like, oh my God. And then I thought this was weird though, as Mr. Vargas is pulling, you know, pointing at organs within this human body, goes, these are the human lungs, this is the human heart. I'm like, what other fucking lungs or heart would it be? Yeah, yeah.

Nic

Human, like, how dumb is that? Like, it makes him seem like more of an alien to have to say human before something.

Steve

I was taught to laugh by my overlords before.

Nic

I came here. Hahaha. Um, so Rat has, uh, he's confronted Damone here. Yes, the locker room. Yeah. Um, I gotta say, it's shown him in this a couple times. Ratner, as much as we love Damone's piano key scarf, which is one of the best things, Ratner's Popeye iron-on t-shirt is one of the most dogshit pieces of clothing I've ever seen on cinema. It's terrible, and he's wearing it at least twice in this movie. That's why he should get no pussy. That's why it's justified what happened happens to him. Oh my God. Um, but of course, yeah, so he confronts Demone for being a piece of shit, and Demone kind of tough-guys through it.

Steve

He doesn't let— he doubles down on the piece of shit. Yeah, he's just like, oh, you know, she, she forced herself on me, or whatever he says, and it's all fucking bullshit. Like, sort of like, I did you a favor, right? Right, Mark, you don't want to deal with that girl. I did you a favor. And it's all bullshit. Uh, and they almost get a fight. It gets broken up by the gym teacher, I guess, right? He says, not gym. Um, but you know, and I love Demoni's like going, I woke up in such a good mood, what.

Nic

The hell happened? Like, um, we get a couple more little montages. So it's final exam, it's the end of the school year, right? And it shows like different ways that the students are cheating on their tests. Like they have the answers on the inside of their sunglasses or written on their shoes and everything. So I, I always like to see that.

Steve

I always love the girl, one of the, they mentioned, you know, 3 different girls of the school have like cultivated the Pat Benatar look, right? You know, and one One of those girls has like a bunch of notes written on her thigh, so she like hikes up her skirt. I'm like, ah, I can appreciate that. Like, I would have, you know, I.

Nic

Would, I would have been cheating off of that crew.

Steve

Yeah, seriously, whatever. That class, good lord. Uh, and then a bunch of people were cheating off of Mark. So Mark's in class and he's— and like a couple people are cheating off of him, and then other people are cheating off the people cheating off Mark. Yeah, because they know, well, that guy's cheating off that guy, and that's the smart kid.

Nic

He's the vector for the creative, the correct answer.

Steve

Patient zero for the cheating scandal at Ridgemont High Um, but yeah, and then it's, uh, it's, it's, you know, final dance night. Yeah, basically party, big last night of the year. And, uh, Jeff Spicoli is on the phone with one of his stoner buds, the Eric Stoltz, the redhead guy, and he's like, so, you know, you ready to go to the dance? Whatever. He goes, yeah, man, I'm gonna be— I'm so high. He goes, well, how high are you? And he goes, listen— he like hits his head with the shoe and he goes, what was that? My skull! And I don't— I gotta be honest.

Nic

It'S funny, but I don't get it. Like, no, I don't either. Yeah, like, listen to how hollow my head sounds or something. But it's funny. So he's obviously excited. This is it for him and he's done with school. That's right. Uh, but you know, Mr. Hand, uh, shows up at his house. His brother comes into his room like.

Steve

Yo, there's someone here for you, Jeff.

Nic

He's like, you know how to knock.

Steve

You little piece of shit. Like, you know, dude, Curtis, I don't hear you unless you knock.

Nic

It's just kind of funny. And Spicoli's room, he's got, of course, like the Playboy pictures and all the—.

Steve

Just covered them Naked ladies everywhere, over the place. Um, really ridiculous, frankly. Like, there's the sheer amount of nudity on that boy's walls. Like, this is still a, you know, a child. Maybe he's 18 by the end of the school year, but like, this is.

Nic

A young guy, like someone who's very unparented, right?

Steve

100%. He's lightly parented.

Nic

Latchkey kid for sure. Totally, totally. And Mr. Hand shows up, and this is kind of a— is a good scene of him saying like, well, Mr. Spicoli, I calculated you've wasted this many of my minutes this year. I'm here to take that time back. He's like, oh no, I really want to go to the dance. And you know, he's not there that long, but gets through and then sees Spicoli actually understanding in his stoner way, like, the root of what he was trying to teach in the class.

Steve

So he allows him to go. It was actually interesting. I do like that there's a really nice, um, resolution between Spicoli and Hand on this. And, and you know, I think it's, you know, Hand even kind of says like, oh well, you know, you'll have to take my class again. He's like, no, I'm out of here. I'm graduating, whatever. He goes, oh, I don't know, will you, will you pass? He goes, oh, you're not gonna flunk me. And he goes, no, Mr. Spicoli, like, I think you did just enough to get by. Yeah, you know, kind of thing. Which is like, first of all, that man does not want that, does not want Spicoli in his class next year.

Nic

Screw that. That becomes a calculation as a teacher, right?

Steve

100% has to. It has to come into the, to the idea between is this an F or a D minus? Yeah, because if it's a D minus, I'm still making a point and they can go. Totally. No.

Nic

Child left behind.

Steve

Go. So we get to the dance and I love that there's a live band at the dance. Yeah. And I didn't really think about it a whole lot before this because there's other movies we've seen with live bands at dances in the '80s, right? I mean, Back to the Future has a whole subplot around, you know, auditioning for the dance and stuff. Not even in the '50s. I mean, the one in the '80s, right? And I didn't think about it, but like the first dance, the first school dance I ever remember having was in 8th grade because in middle school, I don't think we did 6th or 7th grade dances. We had an 8th grade dance. Charlotte Woods. Charlotte Woods. Yeah. At the end of, at the end of the school year. And it was a DJ. It was definitely a DJ. There was no live band or whatever. And then all our high school dances, every single one of them was DJs.

Nic

As far as I can remember.

Steve

Never had a band.

Nic

Maybe a senior prom was different. I think I went to a few weddings in the '80s that had bands.

Steve

Yeah, that would make sense. Like a wedding singer situation. Like, yeah, yeah. But like, I don't remember. We never had school live bands at school dances. But then I thought about it, like, they— how would they have done DJs back then? There were no— there were no digital.

Nic

Everything was analog records. So I mean, you bring your— so.

Steve

You'D have to like— but then you'd actually have to like have like— how many people in the early '80s before really rap took off could DJ that way with vinyl and like, and like, and like go into one thing or another? You have to sit there the amount of time between songs, right? Like put on a new record and find the right spot.

Nic

Like there's no way. The portable DJ situation was much worse. Yeah, if you had like a spot set up, you have a nightclub club. I've got my records. I know where everything's at. That's nice and easy. Sure. But yeah, the band made a lot more sense back then. And it's much more film-friendly to have a band.

Steve

It's much more interesting for a movie, 100%. But it just made me think about it. I'm like, yeah, by the time, you know, because that 8th grade dance, it would have been like, what, 1994, give or take? Yeah. By then CDs were ubiquitous. So all the DJs just had CDs that they, right, you know, had a mic there. They lined them up in order and like the next 2 songs are on these CDs and they could do them, you know, and there could be no delay basically between songs. Songs.

Nic

But if you had two turntables, you could do that.

Steve

You could, you could. But I think I have a feeling the number of people that could pull that off in 1982 were pretty few, right? That was not a common skill back then.

Nic

So yeah, but yeah, this is kind of a fun scene. And this is almost like everyone forgetting their differences to a certain degree, coming together a bit. Like, Damone's there and he has a talk with Rad about like, hey, they make up, like, you know, they make up and stuff. And then they're all kind of enjoying their time together. So it's a great way for the school year to end. Like whatever we've been through these last— right, this last year, here we are, the last day, let's enjoy it. And there's not really like tension during this scene.

Steve

Well, the only person really not enjoying their night, of course, is Linda. So Linda is talking about— to Stacy in the bathroom, she's talking about how Doug is not going to make it to her graduation. She's written a strongly worded letter and says, you know, Doug, this is not how a relationship between two adults goes. If, you know, you think that I'm being immature, but you know, you're the one acting childish, all this kind of stuff. And, um, and I love because she goes She goes, "There's this one." And she's like choking back tears. And she goes, "There's this one, or I have another version where I call him an asshole." And she's like, "No, no, no, this is better. This sounds more." And Linda goes, "More mature?" She's like, "Yeah, more mature." And it's like the idea of being mature is so important to Linda, right? Paramount over everything else. But she is having a very bad night because her boyfriend Doug is not coming to graduation. Oh man. 'Cause he's apparently at college in Chicago.

Nic

I think they said. Doug is just a Ron Johnson that lives in a different state. Yeah. Like, um, yeah, so, so that's too bad. And, you know, Stacy, um, let's see, so she's having that conversation with her, and I think now we're back kind of— it's summer break, we're back at.

Steve

The mall, everyone's got their summer jobs. Exactly. So Linda and Stacy are working at Perry's Pizza Palace or whatever again. She even says, another summer at Perry's, I don't know if I could do this, you know, kind of thing. Ratner's working over at the, uh, at the movie theater, and Stacy sees him and like waves him over. Yeah. And he And multiple times the dude points at himself, goes, me?

Nic

Me? And she goes, yeah, 'cause nobody close—.

Steve

There'S not a crowd near him. He looks behind himself, sees no one, and still goes, me? Are you sure? Me? Like, motherfucker, move your ass over there. So he does come over.

Nic

Um, and if you've helped someone with their dress before and they point remotely.

Steve

In your direction, they probably mean you. It seems likely. Um, so I don't remember exactly what they talk about other than that, like, you know, he— she basically, like, wants him to call her, like, basically, right?

Nic

I mean, that's— she gives him a— she got her picture, her school picture, whatever. She gives him her picture with her.

Steve

Phone number on the back. Picture, it's such a cute thing. And then she actually leans up and gives him a quick peck on the lips. Yes. Uh, before heading off to work. And again, they're, they're the cutest. Like, like, Stacy and Mark, you know, I hope they— I hope they got married, you know, someday.

Nic

They're an adorable— seems like a very sweet kid and, like, uh, sincere and everything like that. Um, so I think the, the final scene we have here in the movie is we've got Brad who's at his job, which now he's working at like a 7-Eleven.

Steve

Mighty Mart is what it's called on the outside. But yeah, it's basically a convenience store. Yeah. Yeah. And she doesn't have to wear a crappy uniform for now. Just kind of an overshirt, you know, a work shirt over like a t-shirt. And that's it. Nobody cares.

Nic

Right. That's right. And I'm by myself here. I don't have a boss like breathing down my neck. Like I'm in charge here. Yeah. And Spicoli, of course, walks through the door and Spicoli is, you know, buying something and pulling crumbled bills and change and everything. He seems like he can never get his shit together. Together. I will say Mark Ratner's Popeye shirt, worst shirt I've ever seen in cinema. Spicoli's Colt.45, so absolute top of the line. I love this thing.

Steve

So good. I love this. You realize what he bought though? It was a can of Kern's Nectar.

Nic

That's what he really— oh, that's hella funny. I used to think that was such a treat.

Steve

Yeah, the Kern's Nectar seemed fancy in.

Nic

The way that like, uh, uh, Vionetta, right, seemed fancy.

Steve

Totally.

Nic

100%. 100%. Dude. Um, yeah, and he's kind of, uh, Brad's given Spicoli— because I think they were the same year, probably same graduate class— it's just like, Spicoli, like, when are you— how do you do this? Like, when are you gonna get your life together or whatever? And Spicoli gives a little speech. He's like, all I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine, right? And then he goes to use the bathroom.

Steve

Good attitude. So, which says like, you know, washroom for employees only, but he asks, you know, can I use your bathroom? Oh sure, go head. Yeah. At which point a car kind of screams up to the, to the convenience store, really, really quickly drives up. Guy runs in with a gun and it's just immediately to Brad, like, you know, I've been casing— give me the money out of the safe. I've been casing this place. I know you got a safe, like all this stuff. And Brad's like, look, look, I just started here. I gotta remember the process. Like, I don't remember how you guys yell at him and knocking shit over. And I love this actor. I don't know the actor's name, but he played Mikey Tandino in Beverly Hills Cop. So he's the friend of Axel Foley. Who steals the bearer bonds and goes to Detroit and gets killed or whatever. So he's kind of the— he is the inciting incident of Beverly Hills Cop. Hell yeah. Um, but yeah, so he's doing this stuff and this is when, uh, Spicoli comes back out of the bathroom and distracting the, the robber and he points the gun that way and then Brad like, you know, whips, uh, like the coffee pot coffee at him, burning his face, the hot coffee in his face, jumps over the counter, grabs the gun and like points it at him.

Nic

It's just like, all right, yeah, he's walking out of the bathroom and he sees all this happen. Um, so Brad gets some redemption. He finally takes control of a place he's working at, you know, and is able to, uh, to be a little bit of a hero. And somebody saw it.

Steve

Yeah, which is the most important part of that behavior. That's a good point. Well, and then it's— so we get a little like, uh, I don't know if you've ever been big on watching, um, the Real Housewives franchise I've never seen any. Yes, we watch them religiously, my wife and I. Uh, and at the end of every season they give you this little like blurb that like looks very much like this movie. It's like, you know, so-and-so is now like working on a book or like whatever little thing about what they're doing.

Nic

I always love that at the end.

Steve

Of a film, by the way. Yeah, and so they do the whole thing here where it's like, you know, Brad was made manager of Mighty Mart like a month later or something like that, which is like, you know, great. We get a little thing I know that mentioned that Linda is now going to school in Riverside and living with.

Nic

Her abnormal psych professor.

Steve

Yes, I like that detail. Perfect. Yep. And the one from Mark and Stacy is they are having a torrid love affair and still haven't gone all the way yet. Yeah. Yeah. So good.

Nic

But that's Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Steve

That is Fast Times, man. This is good stuff. Yeah, I'll go ahead and give my rating first. I really, I really enjoyed this movie. I don't think there are parts of it that definitely don't hold up. There are parts of it that are maybe a little just kind of, not even heavy-handed, but like maybe a little obvious at times. But it's a good movie. It's a good coming-of-age movie. It's, you know, an interesting set of characters that we kind of enjoy spending an hour and a half with. The movie's not long. It jumps from kind of vignette to vignette in a way that can keep you from ever getting bored. Like it's not, there's not like a lot of just chit-chat that kind of happens. It's very fast moving. And it's still very relevant. A lot of the, you know, a lot of the details of stuff are different today than they were then, but a lot of the underlying sort of shit teenagers go through, like a lot of that is still relevant and still the same. I really enjoyed the movie. I guess it's Amy Heckerling's debut, Cameron Crowe's writing debut. So many actors and actresses that, you know, we kind of grew to love after this movie and later stuff. I am a 3.5 out of 5 on Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It's a good, solid movie. I still enjoy it. It, um, didn't blow me away or, you know, make me go like, oh, I can't, I gotta watch this again right away. It's like, I'll probably watch this again 5 or 10 years from now and that'll be, that'll be fine with me, you know. Yeah, I think so. But yeah, 3.5 out of 5 is my take. What's your take on Fast Times?

Nic

Yeah, I think I'm probably, uh, pretty similar to you. I, I like the movie and I, I guess I'll say I like the characters and thinking about the characters more than I liked watching what they were actually doing. Like, I think they, they do a good job of taking these different types of high schoolers that you're familiar with. Yeah. Um, and, and I think these characters are interesting, but nothing that much happens true during the film. And also, as like something that I remember as more of a comedy, there's not that much that was really funny. That's true. Um, but it is an enjoyable watch. It is 90 minutes, which is, you know, half hour less than Thief. Um, and it, and it ended with someone trying to get into a safe, you know. So there you go, very similar film. Um, but yeah, This was a breeze. I enjoy it. I think I'm probably good. Yeah. Every 5 years, 10 years or so with this. Yeah. This is a 3 out of 5 for me. It's solid. It's an enjoyable movie. You'll smile. I don't really laugh out loud. Comedy doesn't age that well, but I think it set the tone for a lot. And like you said, the first time we're seeing a lot of these actors that were a big part of our cinematic and television lives for the next 20 years.

Steve

Very true. All right. 6.5 out of 10 on Fast Times at Ridgemont High is the official rating from the two dads. We have more movies ahead of us. We are marching down the calendar in Two Dads, Two Decades, and our next stop is 1983.

Nic

So Nic, what movie from 1983 are we watching? Yeah, so 1983, a lot of, a lot of great choices, but I reached into my own personal nostalgia for this one. As I talked about, like, there weren't a lot of movies that were a big part of my life when I was younger. Yeah, but this is one that I definitely was, and I know that we had rented it several times when I was a kid. It's the one my dad wanted to make sure to show us and things that— and I haven't seen this in 10+ years. Nice. Uh, 1983, we're gonna visit our old pal Rick Moranis, one of the best. Absolutely. Uh, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, a great comedic duo. And we're gonna spend some time in Canada with Strange Brew. And I will say that, uh, this new movie also features, uh, Max von Sydow.

Steve

Oh, Max von Sydow.

Nic

Yeah, I think it's one of the best actors we've ever had. So it's very interesting that he shows up in such a goofy-ass movie. Yeah, but I remember this being super.

Steve

Fun and I can't wait to chat about it. I love it. Bob and Doug McKenzie, let's go hang out with those guys for a little bit. I think it's great. I also have not seen it in at least 10 years, I think, maybe even longer. But yeah, I mean, how do you not remember a loser and stuff? I mean, it's very permeated through like the humor of the friends I grew up with. Them, you know, obviously the SCTV connection with Moranis and Thomas. I think a lot of the creative crew behind it, you know, this was the same group of people that gave us John Candy and Bill Murray, right? And Harold Ramis and like all this kind of stuff, you know, so there's just all these people are intertwined together. I can't wait. That's going to be a fantastic watch. That's a wrap. So if you like what you hear, and we hope you do, please consider heading over to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a 5-star review. It really helps new folks find the show. Be sure to check out our website at twodads1movie.com. 2dads1movie.com. That's the number 2 and the number 1. There you can explore the movies we've covered, sign up for our newsletter, The Rewind, and even get sneak previews of upcoming episodes. We'd also love it if you followed us on Instagram @2dads1movie. Once again, this has been Fast Times at Ridgemont High, another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve, and I'm Nic. Thank you so much for listening, and.

Nic

We will catch you next week.

Steve

Thanks, everyone.