KnockBack, Episode 63: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Patreon)

Hey bud! Way back in 1981, Rolling Stone journalist Cameron Crowe wrote and published a book chronicling his time spent undercover at a Southern California high school. It was called Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and it's something of a collector's item today, having never even been republished since. Indeed, it would have no doubt become an obscure (albeit interesting) piece of early-'80s trivia, save for one thing: It shares its name (and some of its characters and plot) with a tremendously well-regarded film. Fast Times (as the movie is commonly referred) is a seminal teen flick from an era where that term hadn't really been defined yet. It stars young actors in believable, yet archetypal roles, provided near-unheard of amounts of candor and realism in its dialogue and situations, and -- perhaps most importantly -- introduced the world to the majesty of Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli.  So listen in to our conversation that's longer than the film itself, and perhaps you, too, can answer the immortal question: "Where did you get this jacket?!"