45 Fun Facts About Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Who directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in her feature-film debut?

Amy Heckerling had made only student films when producer Art Linson showed her the script; she pushed to set even more of the story in the mall, and later returned to high school with Clueless.

Fast Times writer Cameron Crowe based his later film Almost Famous on his teenage years writing for which magazine?

Rolling Stone made Crowe its youngest-ever contributor and sent him on tour with the Allman Brothers at 16; a few years later he went back to school undercover for the book behind Fast Times.

In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, what does Spicoli have delivered to himself during Mr. Hand's class?

A pizza: the delivery man who strolls into Mr. Hand's lesson is comedian Taylor Negron, who reprised the bit years later in the film Vamps.

Who plays the perpetually stoned surfer Jeff Spicoli?

Sean Penn plays Spicoli in only his second film, after the 1981 military-school drama Taps, and the character's surfer slang helped popularise the word 'dude'.

What subject does Mr. Hand, Spicoli's nemesis, teach?

History is Mr. Hand's subject, and he gets his revenge on the night of the last dance by turning up at Spicoli's house to deliver a lengthy private lecture.

Who plays Mr. Hand?

Ray Walston, TV's My Favorite Martian, took the part after Fred Gwynne turned it down over the script's 'nasty stuff', and played Mr. Hand again in the 1986 TV spin-off.

Who plays 15-year-old Stacy Hamilton?

Jennifer Jason Leigh, then 19, prepared to play Stacy by rereading her own high-school diaries and letters; she later earned an Oscar nomination for The Hateful Eight.

Which actress plays Linda Barrett, Stacy's worldly best friend?

Phoebe Cates plays Linda in her second film, after Paradise; the part was first offered to Justine Bateman, who turned it down to star in the sitcom Family Ties.

Who plays Brad Hamilton, Stacy's older brother?

Judge Reinhold plays Brad; Nicolas Cage auditioned for the role but, at 17, was judged too young and got a bit part instead.

Who plays the smooth-talking ticket scalper Mike Damone?

Robert Romanus plays Damone, the scalper whose 'attitude' lessons to Rat end with him ditching Stacy after their encounter in the pool house.

Who plays Mark 'Rat' Ratner, the shy usher who falls for Stacy?

Brian Backer plays Rat; the character was modelled on Andy Rathbone, a student Crowe befriended undercover who later wrote Windows For Dummies.

Where does Stacy work at the mall?

Stacy works at Perry's Pizza in the Ridgemont Mall, across from the cinema where Rat ushers, which is how he keeps running into her.

Where is Brad Hamilton working at the start of Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

Brad starts the film as a senior fry cook at All-American Burger, until a shouting match with a customer demanding a refund gets him fired.

What is Brad dressed as at the job he quits over mockery of his uniform?

A pirate, for Captain Hook Fish & Chips; Cameron Crowe's future wife Nancy Wilson has a cameo as the girl in a car who laughs at it.

Which real band did Nancy Wilson, who cameos as the 'Beautiful Girl in Car', belong to?

Nancy Wilson was Heart's guitarist alongside her sister Ann; she married Cameron Crowe in 1986 and later scored his films Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.

Under what name was the future Leaving Las Vegas star credited in his feature debut as Brad's co-worker?

Nicolas Cage was billed as Nicolas Coppola, his birth name, and changed it soon after to escape comparisons with his uncle Francis Ford Coppola.

Which future Oscar winner plays star football player Charles Jefferson?

Forest Whitaker, who plays Charles Jefferson, had gone to college on a football scholarship before a back injury turned him to music and acting; he later won the Best Actor Oscar for The Last King of Scotland.

What kind of car belonging to Charles Jefferson does Spicoli wreck?

A Camaro: Spicoli wrecks it while driving Jefferson's younger brother to a party, then makes it look as if fans of a rival school did the damage.

Which rival school does Ridgemont rout after Spicoli pins the car wreck on its fans?

Lincoln High takes the blame for the wrecked car, and a furious Jefferson takes it out on Lincoln's players in a 42-0 rout.

What is the name of the science teacher, played by Vincent Schiavelli, who swears off coffee?

Mr. Vargas is the biology teacher; the closing captions say he switched back to coffee, and Schiavelli reprised the role in the 1986 TV series.

Who is the 26-year-old stereo salesman Stacy lies about her age to date?

Ron Johnson, a 26-year-old stereo salesman, takes 15-year-old Stacy to 'the Point' after she claims to be 19, then sends flowers and vanishes.

Where does Stacy lose her virginity to the stereo salesman?

A baseball dugout is where the salesman takes Stacy on their date; he sends flowers the next day and then disappears, and the pool house comes later, with Damone.

What word does Linda spray-paint on Damone's car and locker after learning how he treated Stacy?

Linda sprays 'Prick' across Damone's car and locker after he fails to pay his share for Stacy's clinic visit; Rat then confronts him in the locker room.

Brad's final job, where he foils an armed robbery, is at which store?

Brad's third job is at the Mi-T-Mart, where he scalds a robber with hot coffee after Spicoli wanders in as a distraction; the postscript makes him manager.

According to the closing captions, whose concert tickets got Damone busted for scalping?

The closing caption says Damone was arrested for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and ended up working at a 7-Eleven.

The postscript says Spicoli blows a reward on hiring which band to play his birthday party?

Van Halen got it all: the closing captions say Spicoli earned the money by saving a drowning celebrity, then spent the lot on a single night's entertainment.

Which celebrity does the postscript say Spicoli rescued from drowning?

The closing captions say Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning and earned a reward, which he promptly blew on a party band.

Which Cars song plays over the famous pool fantasy scene despite being left off the soundtrack album?

'Moving in Stereo', from The Cars' 1978 debut album, was never released as a single in the US, yet its use in this scene made it famous.

Which Go-Go's song is the opening theme of Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

'We Got the Beat' plays over the opening sequence, yet the Go-Go's hit was left off the soundtrack album, which carries their song 'Speeding' instead.

Which Jackson Browne single from the Fast Times soundtrack reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100?

'Somebody's Baby', written with Danny Kortchmar for the film, became the highest-charting single of Jackson Browne's career and his last top-ten hit.

Which rock singer recorded the title track of Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

Sammy Hagar wrote and sang 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' for the soundtrack as a solo act; within three years he was fronting one of America's biggest rock bands.

Fast Times producer Irving Azoff was the personal manager of which band, four of whose members appear on the soundtrack?

The Eagles' Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Don Felder and Timothy B. Schmit each contributed a solo track, and the director later said one of the producers had insisted on such 1970s acts.

What rating did the MPAA initially give Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

X was the first verdict, over a long sex scene and brief male nudity; the director shortened the scene and re-cropped the shot to win the R needed for release.

At which real San Diego school did Fast Times writer Cameron Crowe go undercover as a student?

Clairemont High School took Crowe in as a senior at 22; reliving the senior year he never had, he made friends there and turned what he saw into his 1981 book.

Under what alias did Fast Times writer Cameron Crowe enroll for his undercover senior year?

Dave Cameron was the name he gave, turning his own first name into a surname; he had the idea at 22 and won a book contract from Simon & Schuster before going back to class.

Which famous exes read Stacy's brother and best friend at a 2020 Fast Times reading?

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston read Brad and Linda in the online charity event and played the film's pool fantasy scene opposite each other, with Morgan Freeman narrating.

Which director did studio executives recommend for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, only for him to pass?

David Lynch, fresh from The Elephant Man, met Crowe and liked the idea but passed; the job went instead to a director who had made only student films.

At which real shopping centre were the mall scenes of Fast Times at Ridgemont High filmed after hours?

The Sherman Oaks Galleria, filmed after closing time, was one of the teen hangouts behind Frank and Moon Zappa's 1982 hit 'Valley Girl'; it also appears in the film Valley Girl and in Commando.

Which real Los Angeles-area campus stood in for the school in Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

Van Nuys High School in the San Fernando Valley doubled as Ridgemont, whose wolf mascot is the real school's own; filming began in November 1981 and lasted eight weeks.

Which future ER star plays one of Spicoli's stoner buddies in Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

Anthony Edwards plays one stoner bud years before ER; the other is Eric Stoltz in his first film, who says Crowe then promised him a part in every movie he made.

In 2005, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was chosen for which roster of films to be preserved?

The National Film Registry is the Library of Congress's list of culturally significant films; Fast Times joined in 2005, though Universal, doubting its prospects, had given it only a limited release in 1982.

Which future star played Mike Damone in the short-lived 1986 TV series Fast Times?

Patrick Dempsey played Damone in the CBS spin-off, which ran for only seven episodes; his film breakout, Can't Buy Me Love, came a year later.

Which critic called Fast Times at Ridgemont High a 'scuz-pit of a movie' on its release?

Roger Ebert panned it in 1982 as a 'scuz-pit of a movie', though he later championed Crowe's own films such as Almost Famous.

Made for about $4.5 million, Fast Times at Ridgemont High earned roughly how much in US cinemas in 1982?

$27 million was the US take, six times the budget; Universal opened it in just 498 theatres and widened the release only after word of mouth brought audiences back for repeat viewings.

Which album's side one does Damone advise Rat to play when making out?

Damone's advice to Rat is to 'put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV'; Rat instead plays 'Kashmir', which is on Physical Graffiti.