# How has Fast Times at Ridgemont High aged? Open Spoilers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 9, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266 "2022-12-09T17:34:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/1 "2022-12-09T17:34:46Z")
All I remember from this film is Sean Penn ordering a pizza to be delivered to his classroom. Out of all the 80s teen comedies, this is the one I remember the least. Anyone seen it recently? How did it age? Embarrassingly cringe or fun humor, some of which may be dated now? > **[Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083929/)** > > Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Directed by Amy Heckerling. With Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus. A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n'... ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/2 "2022-12-09T17:44:31Z")
Well, she gets an abortion in the movie – how often does that happen in mainstream movies these days? Never? Phoebe Cates was meant to be underage in that scene, and I’m not sure depicting an underage character topless would fly now. Actually, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character is also underage and is shown topless. I don’t remember anything particularly cringe, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/3 "2022-12-09T17:47:14Z")
Not cringe, but heavily dependent on 80’s kids and their lifestyle. I’m not sure if young people would relate to it today. But the messages in it are not cringey. There’s teen sex, but it’s displayed as confused and misguided and leads to bad outcomes and regret. The messages in the movie are that casual sex is bad, young men will exploit young women who are ‘easy’, that dating is a minefield, that work can suck for young people but is necessary for success, that education is important and teachers are trying to help even if they do eat the pizza you order in class, that doing drugs is wrong but a lot of fun, that you should lock your bathroom door before wanking, that you can fix anything with an ultimate set of tools and a willingness to blame others and that Ben Stein is so boring it’s funny. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/4 "2022-12-09T17:47:46Z")
“People on 'ludes **should not** drive!” - When was the last time you heard of Quaaludes? The whole mall culture thing is dead, of course. Otherwise the movie holds up fairly well. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/5 "2022-12-09T17:51:09Z")
Too white and heterosexual. That is going to apply to nearly any 1980s movie. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/6 "2022-12-09T17:53:40Z")
I checked out the link and also IMDB on the cast and did not see Diamond Lou Phillips listed. What’s up with that. His pathetic concert ticket scalping character was one of the first things I thought of after Sean Penn. I see Forest Whitaker and Nicholas Cage were in it but don’t really recall their characters, but Diamond Lou, come on? Oh, and I still think of Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool. That ones burned in my memories of all that’s good and right in this world. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/7 "2022-12-09T17:55:02Z")
You mean Robert Romanus? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/8 "2022-12-09T17:55:13Z")
Forest Whitaker was the star football player whose car Spicoli destroyed. I think Nick Cage was one of Spicoli’s van buddies? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/9 "2022-12-09T17:56:08Z")
Ah right, my mix up. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/10 "2022-12-09T17:57:07Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > When was the last time you heard of Quaaludes? Non Bill Cosby related? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/11 "2022-12-09T17:57:43Z")
It certainly aged a lot better than Revenge of the Nerds or most of John Hughes’ milieu. > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Oh, and I still think of Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool. That and Jamie Lee Curtis taking off her top in Trading Places are probably the top 2 most rewound scenes in video history. I seem to remember hearing of complaints from video store workers that the VHS tapes wore out prematurely just in those spots. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/12 "2022-12-09T17:58:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The whole mall culture thing is dead, of course. That was my first thought, too; a lot of the scenes take place in a mall. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/13 "2022-12-09T17:59:40Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > I checked out the link and also IMDB on the cast and did not see Diamond Lou Phillips listed. What’s up with that. His pathetic concert ticket scalping character was one of the first things I thought of after Sean Penn. I see Forest Whitaker and Nicholas Cage were in it but don’t really recall their characters, but Diamond Lou, come on? IMDB is usually pretty thorough with even “uncredited” credits for actors. In 1981-82, when _Fast Times_ would have been filming, Phillips was, according to [his Wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Diamond_Phillips#Early_life), a college student at the University of Texas at Arlington. His first IMDB credit is from 1984 (an uncredited role in a TV movie, _Time Bomb_). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/14 "2022-12-09T18:02:24Z")
Slightly better than [Sex Times at Spring Break High](https://twitter.com/CBThorburn/status/1377696492295761923). ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/15 "2022-12-09T18:02:49Z")
It probably didn’t help that, back then, when you paused a video, I think it basically went back and forth over the same spot, in order to keep an image on screen. So, the wear and tear was probably due to pausing. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/16 "2022-12-09T18:11:04Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > due to pausing. is that what the kids called it back then? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/17 "2022-12-09T18:12:30Z")
Probably paused it while making popcorn or something… ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/18 "2022-12-09T18:18:48Z")
Nobody is getting a pizza delivered to a public high school classroom in this country in 2022, that’s for damned sure. As soon as the delivery driver showed up at the door of the school, unless it was for an adult in the school’s employ, they would be turned away. Gone are the days where anyone could just walk in. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/19 "2022-12-09T18:25:34Z")
Especially a driver who ate all the sausage off the pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266/20 "2022-12-09T18:31:32Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Forest Whitaker was the star football player whose car Spicoli destroyed. I think Nick Cage was one of Spicoli’s van buddies? Nic Cage was a co-worker of Brad’s (Judge Reinhold). Eric Stoltz was one of Spicoli’s crew. Ben Stein was mentioned in the OP, but that’s Ferris Bueller, not this. And yeah, Robert Romanus, not LDP, was the ticket scalper. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-aged-open-spoilers/976266.md?page=2)