Fast Times

This short lived series was a lame attempt at trying to make money off of a classic film. The cast of this show never lived up to the standard the original cast set with the film. In fact, Dean Cameron's portrayal of Spicolli never came anywhere close to the standard Sean Penn set. The only saving grace of this show was the fact that Ray Walston came aboard to play the part of Mr. Hand. At least he brought a little bit of the charm that made his wickedly funny performance one of the highlights of the film. The same can be said of Vincent Schiavelli as Mr. Vargas. Unfortunately, this show isn't one tenth as funny or as relevant as the film that inspired it.

What is it about High School shows that get them cancelled quickly? Maybe the audience for them are too few. Look at a these:

SQUARE PEGS, FERRIS BUELLER, FAST TIMES, GEEKS AND FREEKS, and MY SO CALLED LIFE.

There are exceptions of course, like FAME and BOSTON PUBLIC. This show was created and directed by Amy Heckering who directed the original "FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH". The actors featured future stars like Courtney Thorn Smith(ALLY McBEAL), Wallace Langham(VERONICA'S CLOSET), and Patrick Dempsey(CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, SWEET HOME ALABAMA). FAST TIMES also had Miss Valley Girl herself, Moon Unit Zappa(who was on her father's Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl" song). My favorite was James Nardini(Brad) who didn't do much after this show :[ The writing was good but not as good as SQUARE PEGS. It was a funny show and I shall enjoy watching my 5 episodes on Video until it breaks.

I was about 14 when this show initially came on the air, and I watched its few episodes religiously. I just saw it again tonight on TV Land and have to admit that I think it held up relatively well (oddly, after 14 years I remembered the exact show I was watching, I think it might have been the very first one). Anyway, the soundtrack ruled, the actors were not too bottom-rate, and the scripts were pretty hip for teenagers in the mid-80s. I don't think that there was really any reason that this show should not have done much better than it did beyond the fact that adults would not be drawn to it, and I think that it had a pretty lame timeslot.

This was no Square Pegs, but it was pretty decent regardless.

I really must comment further on the soundtrack, this must have been one of the first shows to actually play contemporary music (hip, contemporary music at that) on the air. In the age of Buffy, and Beverly Hills 90210 this is not a big deal, but prior to that most shows aimed at teens composed their own music to avoid paying for it, this was NOT a good thing. I always have this image of fat, bald, 50 year olds saying... "man, this is really gonna knock the bobby-socks off those punkers."

It feels like they tried too hard to copy the original movie. Don't get me wrong, they did really well... for example the girls' uniforms matching the originals at the mall...

But I don't think they should have tried to so hard. Also, using the same character names as the movie makes the "imposter" characters play by new actors just feel cheap and fake...

Using the two of the original actors for the Teachers from the movie would have carried by the continuity just find in my opinion, and it should have been about the next year/class of students attending the same high school with similar antics, but using more typical on-the-screenstage sets rather than filming on location, albiet, with probably a much lower budget.

Only ran 7 episodes but I suspect it might have gone on a bit longer if it was filmed entirely on set with a lower budget but an easier to work with location. And more time to do the dialog rather than the wide establishing shots, etc...

Wow, in this day and age of the "postmodern" pop-culture and media, this show (from 1986) WAS actually better written than almost any teen/young adult show on television today. If you want to see where Courtney-Thorne Smith (Melrose Place, Ally McBeal) got her start, check this out! Ever wondered what happened to the Michael J. Fox's girlfriend from the 1st Back To The Future film? Check this out! Obviously this short-lived series was based on the cult classic film "Fast Times At Ridgemont High", which was of course based on the novel by Cameron Crowe. For a mid-80's t.v. show to based on a film with such memorable characters, obviously was a difficult vision to translate to the small screen. It must have been, because CBS pulled the plug on it after airing only 7 episodes in the spring of 1986. Too bad, too. They even got Ray "My Favorite Martian" Walston to reprise his role of Mr. Hand for this t.v. version. 80's buffs will also be interested in the fact that the theme song for the show was done by the classic 80's band Oingo Boingo. Apparently T.V. Land airs this show every so often. Hey, there were only 7 episodes, so it makes for a brief, but enjoyable viewing experience!