Useless Movie Trivia
Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Memorable Quotes

Jeff Spicoli: What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?

Trivia

Nicolas Cage was originally considered for the role of Brad Hamilton, but after his audition the studio thought his performance was too dark and the role went, instead, to Judge Reinhold. Additionally, Cage was 17 at the time and could not work as many hours as actors over 18.

Alternate, sanitized takes of several scenes were filmed for use on broadcast television.

The role of Mr. Hand was originally offered to Fred Gwynne who turned it down due to his objections over the tone of the sexual content in the film.

The mascot of Ridgemont High is the wolf, which is the same mascot of Van Nuys High School, where most of the school scenes were shot.

The book Arnold's holding while betting on the football game is "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke.

Stacy works at Perry's Pizza. Jennifer Jason Leigh actually worked at Perry's Pizza for a month after she got the role of Stacy Hamilton but before filming began.

During shooting of the film, Sean Penn got so into character that he only answered as Spicoli. In fact, the door on his dressing room was labeled "Spicoli" instead of "Sean Penn".

For his masturbation scene, Judge Reinhold brought a large dildo to work with, unbeknown to the rest of the cast. Phoebe Cates look of horror and disgust is very real.

Sean Penn improvised during his takes and tried to find ways to aggravate actor Ray Walston, who played Mr. Hand, even off camera. He also did things to get genuinely startled reactions from the extras who played his classmates through unexpected improvisations.

The scenes in the mall were shot during the night from when the mall closed at 9:30 to when it opened at 9. The two kids who Ramone scalps the tickets to, were under 18 and due to labor laws couldn't film past certain hours, so they only had a 10-minute window to shoot their scenes.

Near the beginning of the movie, right after Mr. Hand sends Spicoli to the front office for being late to class, Mr. Hand passes out the class schedule of quizzes. After the paper is passed out, the students put the page up to their noses and deeply inhale. This was a popular school ritual of the '60s, '70s and early '80s as photocopying machines were very expensive, so spirit duplicators were used. The spirit duplicators used a colored wax as the "ink" and a noxious solvent as a transfer agent to impress the ink on the paper. These solvents sometimes took a long time to dry, hence the students' use of these solvents as a short-term "high".

Brad Hamilton's light-blue car is a 1960 Buick LeSabre.

Brad's job, requiring him to wear a pirate costume (which he hates), may have inspired a series of commercials for a credit report service where the spokesman is identically dressed, running as of 2008.

Ralph Macchio was asked for a role, but he demanded a salary the director couldn't afford.

The late actress Lana Clarkson appears as Mr. Vargas's wife in the high school dance scene. Clarkson was the woman murdered by music producer Phil Spector on February 2, 2003.

Damone's locker was # 671.

The book Arnold is reading while attending the pep rally is "The Catcher In The Rye" by J.D. Salinger.

The book Arnold is holding while talking to Brad about working at All-American Burger is "2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke.

In the scene where Brad is driving in his pirate costume, the girl in the convertible who laughs at him is Nancy Wilson, guitar player for the band Heart and the then girlfriend, later wife, of 'Cameron Crowe'.

Goofs

During the football game scene, it appears as if Ridgemont is celebrating an end-of-game victory, yet the scoreboard shows that it is only the second quarter.

In The Credits

Before the credits roll, brief scenes of the characters are shown listing what happened to them following the events of the movie.

"The End" appears on a video arcade game screen. The game is Atari's Missle Command (once all the player's cities have been destroyed).

Box Office Info For The USA

Budget: $4,500,000

Gross: $27,092,880

Filming Dates: 10 November 1981 - 28 December 1981

Filming Locations

24124 Welby Way, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA (Brad and Stacy's house)
Barone's Famous Italian Restaurant - 13726 Oxnard Street at Mammoth Avenue, Van Nuys, California, USA
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA
Canoga Park High School - 6850 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA (Ridgemont High School)
Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA
Chatsworth Street, Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (beautiful girl in car scene)
Clark Community Center - 4747 New York Avenue, La Crescenta, California, USA
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf - 11698 San Vicente Boulevard, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA (All American Burger)
Encino Little League Fields, 5120 Hayvenhurst Avenue, Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA (the point)
Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
La Crescenta, California, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA
Morningside Hospital - 8711 S. Harvard Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA (hospital interiors)
Santa Monica Place - 4th Street & Broadway, Santa Monica, California, USA (exteriors: Ridgemont Mall)
Santa Monica, California, USA
Sherman Oaks Galleria - 15301 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, USA (interiors: Ridgemont Mall)
Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, USA
Van Nuys High School - 6535 Cedros Avenue, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA (Ridgemont High School)
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA