20 facts you might not know about 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'

These days, Cameron Crowe is known as the director of films such as “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous.” However, as “Almost Famous” alludes to, Crowe got his start as a precocious journalist. He went undercover at Claremont High School in San Diego, California for a book called “Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story.” When the book was adapted, Crowe would handle the screenplay himself.

Amy Heckerling was an NYU and AFI graduate with nothing but a short film to her name (fitting about a young woman looking to lose her virginity before turning 20), when Universal signed her to a deal to direct a feature. While looking through scripts she found “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and chose it for her debut film. Later, Heckerling would also direct a seminal ‘90s high-school movie: “Clueless.”

While undercover, Crowe became friends with a student named Andy Rathbone, who served as the inspiration for the character Mark Ratner. In adulthood, Rathbone has been quite the successful writer. After a stint in the world of magazines, the writer went on to author dozens of books about computer, including several computer books in the “For Dummies” series.

Judge Reinhold plays the role of Brad Hamilton, who greatly prefers for somebody to knock, but other names were considered. That includes future Oscar winner Tom Hanks. At this point Hanks was still a couple years removed from “Splash” and was still, at best, “That guy from ‘Bosom Buddies’” to most.

Unlike Hanks, Jodie Foster was already a known name, having been a child actor. She was considered for Stacy Hamilton, but did not end up in the role, which instead went to Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Justine Bateman turned down the part of Linda Barrett, which went to Phoebe Cates. She took the role in “Family Ties” instead, which worked out fine for her. Meanwhile, Matthew Broderick turned down playing Jeff Spicoli. He turned out just fine as well.

Heckerling was walking past the people waiting outside the casting office when Sean Penn, who was sitting on the floor, looked up at her. She found his intensity overwhelming and decided to cast him as Spicoli. Heckerling indicated that other actors had auditioned better, but Penn had the energy she wanted.

Martin Brest had dated Heckerling, and they were still friends. Heckerling cast him in a small role. A couple years later, he would direct “Beverly Hills Cop.” Meanwhile, around the time of “Fast Times” Crowe and Nancy Wilson of Heart had begun dating, and they would eventually get married. She’s in the film as well in the role “Beautiful Girl in Car.” She’s the one who laughs at Brad’s fast-food uniform.

A lot of future stars and notable actors had early roles in “Fast Times.” Forrest Whitaker and Anthony Edwards weren’t debuting, but they were far from known names. Also, Eric Stoltz did indeed make his film debut in this movie.

“Brad’s Bud” doesn’t even have a name. He’s just a guy who worked with Brad at All-American Burger. That character is played by Nicolas Coppola. He was making his acting debut as well. After this film he would change his name for professional purposes. You now know him as Nicholas Cage.

Mr. Hand’s battles with Spicoli are a delight, and Ray Walston was one of the most-famous faces in the cast at the time. He had costarred in “My Favorite Martian” as the titular Martian. Prior to that, he had actually won a Tony, and in the ‘90s he took home two Emmys for “Picket Fences.”

Leigh was an Angeleno from a Hollywood family, and the film set in the San Fernando Valley shot locally. Backer, though, was from New York and a struggling young actor. Leigh’s family let Backer stay with them for free so that he could save some money while filming.

If we were talking about, say, “Milk,” the idea of Penn going method would track, given his general vibe. However, it’s a little surprising that Penn took a serious, method approach to his laidback stoner character. The actor would only answer to his character’s name. Speaking of method, apparently marijuana smoking in the van before the prom by Spicoli and company was real as well.

There is a Bruce Springsteen bumper sticker in the car, but there’s another connection to the music legend in the movie. Dina the cheerleader is played by Pamela Springsteen, Bruce’s younger sister. She didn’t do much acting, but she did end up playing the killer in two “Sleepaway Camp” sequels. By the way, after meeting on this film, Penn and Springsteen were briefly engaged.

Ridgemont High is portrayed by Van Nuys High School, a high school in the actual San Fernando Valley. Their mascot is the wolves, and that’s also the mascot of Ridgemont High.

Heckerling, by her own admission, was “one of those obnoxious teenagers that thought that the music I liked was great and everything else sucked.” This sensibility colored the “Fast Times” soundtrack. The producers wanted bands like the Eagles. Heckerling wanted “edgy” ‘80s musicians that high school kids might actually like. She was able to fight to include bands like Oingo Boingo on the soundtrack, but also had to in turn compromise with the producers. We don’t necessarily know what songs were the compromises, but four separate Eagles members have solo songs on the soundtrack.

At first, “Fast Times” was given a limited release with minimal advertising. Heckerling has said that she believes Universal did not have much faith in the film. However, it made back half of its $5 million budget that first weekend, and Universal gave it a full-scale release. The word of mouth spread, and the film made $27.1 million domestically alone.

After the success of the film, a TV adaptation went into production. Simply called “Fast Times,” it featured the same characters, but the only actors who returned were Walston as Mr. Hand and Vincent Schiavelli as Mr. Vargas. Heckerling also directed and co-write three episode. Alas, the TV show wasn’t all that successful. It only lasted seven episodes.

The popularity of “Fast Times” has not waned much. In 2000, AFI called it the 87th-best comedy of all time. Bravo also put it 15th on its list of the top comedy movies, and “Entertainment Weekly” called it the second-best high school movie ever.

Brad has, um, certain carnal interests in Linda. A couple years later, Reinhold and Cates would both appear in “Gremlins.” Once again, Reinhold’s character is interested in Cates’, though this time things turn out a bit less awkward.