“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?”
Intended
to be a movie of the times, Fast
Times has become American
Graffiti for the eighties and, I suspect, much
of its cult following is down to the nostalgia factor.
It's filmed, of course, around LA.
Ridgemont High is a combination of two valley
schools: Canoga Park High School,
6850 Topanga Canyon Boulevard at Vanowen
Street, and Van Nuys High School,
6535 Cedros Avenue, which has included Robert
Redford and Jane Russell among its pupils, and,
for a short while, Marilyn
Monroe.
The exterior of Ridgemont Mall is Santa
Monica Place Mall, Broadway at Third Street,
Santa Monica (used
also in Terminator 2),
but the interior is the old Sherman Oaks Galleria, 15303 Ventura Boulevard. The
famous galleria, Valley Girl central, seen also in Commando and Chopping Mall,
was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and much has subsequently been remodelled as an open-air galleria.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High location: 'All-American
Burger': San Vicente Boulevard, Brentwood
Perryís Pizza was real and Jennifer
Jason Leigh, in
true Method fashion, took a job here as preparation
for her role.
All American Burger, from which Brad Hamilton
(Judge Reinhold)
gets fired, is now the Coffee
Bean & Tea Leaf, 11698 San Vicente Boulevard
at Barrington Avenue in Brentwood,
west LA.