Released: July 22, 1987

Directed By: Carl Reiner

Written By:  Jeff Franklin, Stuart Birnbaum, David Dashev

Music By: Danny Elfman

Stars: Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley,  Courtney Thorne-Smith, Dean Cameron, Gary Riley, Kelly Jo Minter and a bunch of other actors.

Plot: Freddy the gym teacher has to teach remedial English in summer (high) school, if he wants tenure. As he can only teach gym and his students want fun, emphasis is on “field trips” – until he’s fired unless all his students pass the test.

Taglines:  At Ocean Front High, what do they call a guy who cuts classes, hates homework, and lives for summer vacations? Teacher.

How did this movie do?
Box Office: $36 Million

• The casting of Mark Harmon in the lead major role was the idea of director Carl Reiner. Reiner stated: “We originally discussed having a major comedian for the role. However Mark impressed me very much in the mini-series The Deliberate Stranger (1986) in which he portrayed convicted murderer Ted Bundy. When I saw him being interviewed on a news program, he was so personable and had such a winning smile that it was clear he would be well suited for the role of our gym-coach turned instructor. And he brings surprising depth to the character”.
  
  
• Hundreds of youth were interviewed for the various major student roles. Director Carl Reiner has said: “The actors we picked clearly stood out from the others because they were the best. I never imagined finding a supporting group as good as this. During filming they consistently created over and above what we had given them on the written page”.
  
  
• First big starring role in a cinema movie in an exclusive US-Hollywood production for actress Kirstie Alley.

• 32nd highest-grossing film of 1987
  
  
• In early 2012, Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison Productions signed on for a remake.
  
  
• Carl Reiner arranged for the scene in which the students try to scare off a substitute teacher with blood effects and gory makeup on October 31st so that the actors could wear their costumes and makeup to the Halloween parties they were attending that evening.
  
  
• The same school was used for the filming of The Karate Kid (1984). Oceanfront High was also the same school used in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985).
  
  
• On Shoop’s left hand, you can see that he has injured one of his fingers and it appears to have been smashed. This occurred when Mark Harmon had to actually put out the fire on the couch during the party scene that grew quickly out of control.
  
  
• In the scene where Shoop teaches his students how to write a complaint letter, some of the lyrics to the James Brown song “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” are visible on the blackboard at the front of the classroom. This is left over from a deleted scene in which Shoop diagrams (and sings!) the song for the class.
  
  
• The Hawaiian shirt that Mark Harmon wears is the same exact Duke Kahanamoku model Montgomery Clift wears in the feature film, From Here to Eternity (1953).
  
  
• In a deleted scene, Shoop’s class receives a free shipment of hair care products due to a complaint letter written by one of the students. During the classroom scene just before Shoop’s courthouse appearance, these products can be seen spread out over the desks, with some of the students testing them on their classmates’ hair. This is the reason Larry Kazamias’s hairstyle is different in this scene than in the remainder of the film.
  
  
• The movie is notable for featuring a young Courtney Thorne-Smith who became famous later on, and because of this, now gets third billing on DVD covers for the movie, whereas on original theatrical movie posters this was not the case.
  
  
• When the students take their final exam near the end of the film, the song “Mind Over Matter” plays and is performed by Elizabeth Daily. The song was originally recorded by Debbie Harry (of Blondie), but due to legal conflicts E.G. Daily replaced her on the final soundtrack. However, Blondie’s “Rapture” plays in the background during the strip club scene. Also, the 2004 DVD plays the Debbie Harry version during the test scene on the French language track only.
  
  
• Director Carl Reiner expediently signed-on to do the picture after reading the screenplay by writer Jeff Franklin. Reiner has said: “The script really held my interest and made me laugh”.
  
  
• The music video to “Mind Over Matter”, sung by Elizabeth Daily and heard during the final test scene on the film, is set in the same examination room. It starts with the scream scene (seen in the film) before the start of the test by the character of Chainsaw, who then falls asleep and Daily appears on the front of the class singing. The students dance and join her as their backing instrumentalists/vocalists, intercut with scenes of the film. Courtney Thorne-Smith, Kelly Jo Minter, Dean Cameron, Gary Riley and Richard Steven Horvitz reprise their film roles. Director Carl Reiner also appears on the music video as a disgruntled principal who turns the music off at the end of the video.
  
  
• Film features popular rides that are no longer existent at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA. The parachute ride is seen behind the corkscrew roller coaster the class was riding.
  
  
• Shoop (Mark Harmon) was able to help his student with football because the actor himself had played QB at UCLA in the 1970s. Whose uniform colors were the same as the Sharks.
  
  
• This is the second time Lucy Lee Flippin, the substitute teacher that does not last long, played a teacher to Patrick Labyorteaux (Kevin). On the TV series Little House on the Prairie (1974), Patrick Labyorteaux played Andy Garvey, one of the children of Walnut Grove, while Lucy Lee Flippin played Eliza Jane Wilder who taught the students of Walnut Grove for a couple of years.
  
  
• The type of sun-glasses that Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) wore were red Ray-Bans.
  
  
• Courtney Thorne-Smith and Dean Cameron appeared in Fast Times (1986), a short-lived series based on Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
  
  
• This 1987 movie was the second of two consecutive films directed by comedy director Carl Reiner that featured the word “Summer” in the title. The first had been Reiner’s 1985 pic Summer Rental (1985). Both movies were produced by Paramount Pictures.
  
  
• Mr Shoop appears in a -Diablo Valley College- t-shirt when the class is trying to pursue him back on the beach where they find him. Diablo Valley College or DVC is a community college in Pleasant Hill, east of the San Francisco/Bay Area
  
  
• Dean Cameron and Patrick Labyorteaux would reunite three years later for the Canadian comedy Ski School (1990).
  
  
• Shoop’s (Mark Harmon) dog is named “Wondermutt”.
  
  
• Mark Harmon (Shoop) guest-starred in two season 8 episodes of JAG (1995) that became the pilot for NCIS (2003). Patrick Labyorteaux (Kevin) starred in 208 of the 227 episodes of JAG (1995) and three episodes (as of 2021) of NCIS (2003).
  
  
• Amy Stoch, who played Shoop’s 21-year-old girlfriend Kim he was planning to go to Hawaii with, was actually 28 at the time the movie was filmed.
  
  
• In the scene where the class gets a box of free sunglasses from the Cool Dudes Sunglasses Company, glasses are randomly handed out to the students. Two of the pairs (angular striped and red/white) are also worn by Meshach Taylor’s character, Hollywood in the movie Mannequin (1987).
  
  
• Director Cameo: Carl Reiner – Mr. Dearadorian.