FILM 1942: BEVERLY HILLS COP

FILM 1942: BEVERLY HILLS COP

TRIVIA: Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, and Judge Reinhold improvised most of their comic lines. Literally hundreds of takes were ruined by cast members, actors, or the director laughing during shooting. During the "super-cops" monologue, Ashton is pinching his face hard and looking down in apparent frustration. He is actually laughing. Reinhold put his hand in his pocket and pinched his thigh really hard, trying to prevent himself from laughing.

Axel Foley's T-shirt is from Mumford, a real-life Detroit-area school one of the filmmakers attended. When the film came out, the school got orders for the shirts from customers all over the world.

During his tirade at the Beverly Palms Hotel, Axel pretends to be writing an article called "Michael Jackson: Sitting on Top of the World" for Rolling Stone magazine. In real life, Playboy ran an article called "Eddie Murphy: Sitting on Top of the World."

According to Steven Berkoff in a UK newspaper interview, Sylvester Stallone quit the film because of disagreements about the orange juice for his trailer.

Damon Wayans' film debut.

Trying to find Foley and Rosewood, the LAPD use a "satellite tracking system" At the time it was, made up to advance the plot. It was invented later, an ancestor of the modern-day Global Positioning System (GPS). 

Included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: (Martin Brest): the clerk who checks Axel out of the hotel at the end of the movie.

Film 802: Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Trivia: Nicolas Cage was originally considered for the role of Brad Hamilton, but after his audition the studio thought his performance was too dark and the role went, instead, to Judge Reinhold. Additionally, Cage was 17 at the time and could not work as many hours as actors over 18.

Alternate, sanitized takes of several scenes were filmed for use on broadcast television.

Nicolas Cage appears under the name Nicolas Coppola for the first and only time.

Andy Rathbone was the student that Cameron Crowe based Mark "Rat" Ratner on. He became famous in his own right for writing many of the "for Dummies" help books series

David Lynch was originally offered the chance to direct before Amy Heckerling was chosen. He turned it down saying it was a funny script, but not really his thing.

Near the beginning of the movie, right after Mr. Hand sends Spicoli to the front office for being late to class, Mr. Hand passes out the class schedule of quizzes. After the paper is passed out, the students put the page up to their noses and deeply inhale. This was a popular school ritual of the '60s, '70s and early '80s as photocopying machines were very expensive, so spirit duplicators were used. The spirit duplicators used a colored wax as the "ink" and a noxious solvent as a transfer agent to impress the ink on the paper. These solvents sometimes took a long time to dry, hence the students' use of these solvents as a short-term "high".

Jennifer Jason Leigh's real life father (Vic Morrow) died in a helicopter accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie about three weeks before the US release of Fast Times.

During a July 2008 interview with the Orange County Register about Pineapple Express, the interviewer told Seth Rogen and 'James Franco' that he prepared for the interview by watching the classic stoner comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High the night before. When he asked Rogen and Franco if they prepared likewise before making Pineapple Express, Franco said he prepared by making out with Spicoli (a reference to his having shot Milk, in which he and Sean Penn play lovers).

The late actress Lana Clarkson appears as Mr. Vargas's wife in the high school dance scene. Clarkson was the woman murdered by music producer Phil Spector on February 2, 2003.

In the scene where Brad is driving in his pirate costume, the girl in the convertible who laughs at him is Nancy Wilson, guitar player for the band Heart and the then girlfriend, later wife, of 'Cameron Crowe'.