Once upon a time, when network TV actually mattered, they'd gather all of their stars once a summer and put them in a TV movie. Or they'd grab the cast of Facts of Life and send them to France. It was a big deal to me when I was a kid. And there are kids growing up today that will have no idea how exciting it was knowing a 2 hour TV movie with all of your favorites was about to air. Even better - when stars of the past crossed over with the hottest stars of the present, I was always hooked.



Originally airing on October 16, 1983 on NBC, this film is all about Excelsior Union High School, where Beau Middleton (Anthony Edwards) rules over everyone as class president and quarterback. His father is even offering a $10,000 prize for best teacher, so every single one of them is trying to outdo one another.

J.J. Mathers (Michael J. Fox),however, is one of the few students to stand up to the preps. He's never cared about anything before. That is, until he met Beau's girlfriend, Beth Franklin (one of my first crushes, Nancy McKeon).

This one is packed with so many great stars. There's a super young Crispin Glover two years before Back to the Future, playing a geek. Tony "Wally Cleaver" Dow, Frank "Lumpy Rutherford" Bank and Ken "Eddie Haskell" Osmond from Leave It to Beaver are in this, as are Elinor Donahue from Father Knows Best, Dwayne Hickman, Steve Franken and Bob Denver from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato from Diff'rent Strokes, Crystal Bernard (years before she'd be on Wings and in Slumber Party Massacre 2),Angela Cartwright from Lost in Space and The Danny Thomas Show, Jon Gries (who wasn't just King Vidiot in Joysticks, but also Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, Lazlo in Real Genius, O.D. in TerrorVision and the Werewolf in Monster Squad),Lauri Hendler from Gimme a Break, Barry "Ernie" Livingston from My Three Sons, the last surviving Munchkin (until May 24, 2018) Jerry Maren, David Nelson from Ozzie and Harriet, Cathy Silvers of Happy Days, Tom Villard (you know how much I love to get a Popcorn reference in) and Dawn Wells from Gilligan's Island (but also from The Town that Dreaded Sundown). If you like spotting actors and wondering where you know them from, this is the movie for you.

It was directed by Rod Amateau, who has plenty of TV directing and production credits for shows like Dukes of Hazzard, Supertrain, the Dukes' spin-off Enos, My Mother the Car, a failed TV series pilot for the Kenny Rogers vehicle Six Pack that didn't star Kenny Rogers and The Garbage Pail Kids movie. Mr. Amateau even did stunts in Rebel Without a Cause and Mighty Joe Young.

This was so successful that a one-hour pilot for a regular series was made and aired on May 26, 1984. According to Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson, he was going to be one of the stars of the series but turned down the offer as the material wasn't very good. The network thought he was just playing hardball and upped their offer. This is when he realized how shallow Hollywood is and left town.

It's kind of funny to see Anthony Edwards be the rich villain when he's so well known for being on the other side in Revenge of the Nerds. It's not the greatest movie you've ever seen, but if you're looking for something to make you happy at 2 AM on a drunken Saturday night, it's there on YouTube just waiting to be watched.

what makes this movie so cool is the 2 generations of teen stars. the students are played by the teen stars of the day like Michael j fox, Nancy mckeon and Anthony Edwards, but cast of teachers and parents include Dwayne Hickman, bob Denver and tony Dow.

it's a silly teen romp of cliques and car races, but it's funny and stars everyone. many people went on to be huge stars, so seeing them all here together is so much fun. i first saw this movie at my grandma's house when it ran on cable, and i loved it. i bought it on DVD the first day it came out!

stealing the show of course are crispin glover and Michael zorek as girl crazy nerds Archie and chuckie. it's worth the movie just for them. and to watch the freaks triumph, of course.

I have seen this movie way back in my youth, sometime during the 1980s. I remember the movie's title, but I couldn't remember the actual contents of the movie. And I certainly didn't remember Michael J. Fox was in the movie. So as I stumbled upon the movie here in 2021, of course I jumped at the chance to revisit this 1983 movie.

It should be said that writers Alan Eisenstock and Larry Mintz definitely delivered a movie script that embodied everything about these types of high school comedies that were aimed at the younger audience with "High School U.S.A.", for better or worse. But as it turned out, I must admit that I definitely enjoyed this movie in its entire length.

The storyline is pretty straight forward, where I will actually lean towards going for a stereotypical storyline for a movie such as this. But it hardly mattered, because the story was good, enjoyable and was filled with good characters, and had an abundance of familiar faces on the cast list.

Now, if you grew up watching movies during the 1980s, then you are in for quite a treat here with "High School U.S.A." in terms of the cast assembly. They had so many good talents and familiar faces in this movie. It would be futile to mention them all, but trust me, the movie is crammed with them.

This movie is a very enjoyable one and it is a light-hearted one, so it makes for some very easy viewing. And that makes "High School U.S.A." a movie that everyone can sit down to watch.

I am rating "High School U.S.A." a six out of ten stars. This movie is definitely worth taking the time to watch.