What Teenagers Really Watch

During Cameron’s research for Fast Times, he was approached by TV Guide to document how teenagers felt about TV. In this story published back in January, 1982 he interviews various “Ridgemont” graduates for their thoughts. Among the interesting observations: the popularity of Leave It to Beaver (also glimpsed in the ending sequence of Vanilla Sky), the lack of “real” television, comments from Ellen Russell (who worked at a doughnut shop and must have partially inspired Lea Thompson’s character in The Wild Life) and his Hawaii Five-O obsessed geometry teacher (Mr. Hand).