Movie Title: Back to School
Release Date: June 13, 1986
Runtime: 96 minutes
Director: Alan Metter
Screenplay Written By: Steven Kampmann, Will Porter, Peter Torokvei, and Harold Ramis
Based On: Original screenplay
Is it a remake?: No
Main Cast:
- Rodney Dangerfield
- Sally Kellerman
- Burt Young
- Keith Gordon
- Robert Downey Jr.
- William Zabka
- Ned Beatty
- Sam Kinison
- Paxton Whitehead
- Adrienne Barbeau
Budget: Approximately $11 million
Box Office:
- Domestic: $91,258,000
- International: Insufficient verified data
- Worldwide: $91,258,000, based on Box Office Mojo and The Numbers current listings, which show domestic as 100% of reported worldwide gross.
Awards:
- American Comedy Award nomination — Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture, Rodney Dangerfield
- BMI Film & TV Award win
- No major Academy Award, Golden Globe, or BAFTA nominations verified from the sources checked.
Short Plot Summary:
Thornton Melon, a loud, wealthy clothing-store mogul, enrolls at Grand Lakes University to encourage his discouraged son Jason to stay in school. Thornton quickly turns campus life upside down with money, parties, hired experts, and nonstop one-liners. As Jason struggles to step out from his father’s shadow, Thornton learns that he cannot simply buy his way through education. The film blends campus comedy, father-son conflict, and Rodney Dangerfield’s insult-comic persona.
Key Quotes:
- “I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover.” — Thornton Melon
- “Bring us a pitcher of beer every seven minutes until somebody passes out. And then bring one every ten minutes.” — Thornton Melon
- “You’re perfect. I thought you were taller.” — Thornton Melon
- “Call me sometime when you have no class.” — Thornton Melon
- “I don’t get no respect.” — Thornton Melon
Trivia
Director:
- Alan Metter directed the film for Orion Pictures, with Paper Clip Productions listed as the production company.
- Harold Ramis was brought in for a rewrite after Rodney Dangerfield felt the premise needed stronger comic framing. Dangerfield later credited Ramis with changing Thornton from a “poor schmo” into a rich man going to college to motivate his son.
- The film’s fictional school, Grand Lakes University, was built from multiple real campuses and locations, rather than one single college.
Cast / Casting:
- Rodney Dangerfield plays Thornton Melon, a self-made businessman who enrolls in college alongside his son.
- Keith Gordon plays Jason Melon, Thornton’s son; Sally Kellerman plays literature professor Diane Turner; Burt Young plays Thornton’s friend/driver Lou; Robert Downey Jr. plays Jason’s roommate Derek.
- Sam Kinison appears as Professor Terguson, whose intense classroom rant became one of the film’s most remembered scenes.
- William Zabka plays Chas, continuing his 1980s run of blond campus/sports antagonist roles after The Karate Kid.
Soundtrack / Score:
- Danny Elfman composed the film’s score.
- Oingo Boingo performs “Dead Man’s Party” in the film, giving the campus-party sequence a strong mid-1980s music-video energy.
- The film also features Rodney Dangerfield performing “Twist and Shout” in a party scene, using his nightclub-comic persona inside the campus setting.
- The music mix helps separate Thornton’s wild outsider energy from the more conventional college-comedy material.
Location:
- AFI notes that Grand Lakes University was created using three college campuses: University of Wisconsin, University of Southern California, and California State University, Los Angeles.
- Production notes reported that the only college Rodney Dangerfield had ever applied to as a young man was the University of Wisconsin; Dangerfield joked, “It took forty years but I finally got here.”
- Thornton’s luxury dorm-room set was built at the historic Laird Studios in Culver City, California.
- Classroom scenes were shot in converted rehearsal halls at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, and diving-meet scenes used the natatorium in California’s City of Industry.
Act 1:
- The opening uses black-and-white New York street imagery transitioning into color suburban imagery to suggest Thornton’s rise from humble beginnings to wealthy businessman.
- Thornton visits Jason at Grand Lakes University and discovers his son is unhappy, socially isolated, and considering dropping out.
- To keep Jason in school, Thornton enrolls as a student himself, immediately disrupting campus norms with money, confidence, and zero academic discipline.
- The setup turns the usual college-movie formula sideways: instead of the kid embarrassing the parent, the parent invades the kid’s college life.
Act 2:
- Thornton builds an absurd fantasy dorm room, hires experts to complete assignments, and becomes wildly popular with students.
- Production designer David L. Snyder asked college students what a fantasy dorm might look like before creating Thornton’s luxury dorm set.
- Jason’s confidence issues deepen as Thornton’s popularity overwhelms his own attempt to fit in.
- The diving subplot pushes Jason to prove himself on his own terms, separate from Thornton’s money and reputation.
Act 3:
- Thornton’s academic shortcuts catch up with him, forcing him to take final exams honestly.
- The finale ties Thornton’s lesson to Jason’s: both have to stop hiding behind insecurity, status, or money.
- The diving competition gives Jason a public victory, while Thornton’s academic test gives the character a comic but sincere redemption arc.
- The film ends by restoring the father-son bond while keeping Thornton’s outrageous personality intact.
Easter Eggs:
- The fictional school name, Grand Lakes University, allowed the production to stitch together several campuses into one movie college.
- Thornton’s “Triple Lindy” dive became the film’s signature physical-comedy gag and one of the most referenced fictional sports moves in 1980s comedy.
- Sam Kinison’s history-class scene plays like a stand-up explosion dropped into a college lecture hall, matching the film’s broader strategy of building set pieces around comic personas.
- Robert Downey Jr.’s Derek is an early example of his sarcastic, eccentric screen energy before his later career-defining roles.
Misc:
- Back to School opened domestically on June 13, 1986 and grossed $8,881,035 its opening weekend.
- Box Office Mojo lists the film’s domestic total at $91,258,000 and running time at 1 hour 36 minutes.
- The Numbers also lists the film’s domestic box office at $91,258,000 and identifies the source as an original screenplay.
- AFI notes that critics generally responded positively to Dangerfield’s performance, even when discussing the film as broad, gag-driven comedy.
- The production later generated multiple lawsuits involving profit participation and claims about screenplay origin; AFI summarizes several of those legal disputes in its production notes.
Sources Cited:
- IMDb: Back to School title, cast, and awards listings.
- Wikipedia: Back to School film entry.
- Box Office Mojo: Back to School box office listing.
- The Numbers: Back to School financial and release details.
- AFI Catalog: Back to School production notes and history.
