Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

The inspiration for Revenge of the Nerds came when aspiring screenwriters, story editor Tim Metcalfe and film executive Miguel Tejada-Flores. Tejada-Flores brought in elements of his nerdy father, a Bolivian immigrant who went to Cal Tech in Pasadena and who frequently discussed some of the most notorious pranks they pulled as students. In that instant, the idea for the movie formed, whereby the computer kids in college strike back at the jocks bullying them using their brains. The term “nerd” was not as common in those days; Metcalfe incorrectly spelled it “n-u-r-d.”

One day, the two friends were splashing around in the swimming pool at the home of MGM’s senior executive of production Peter Bart. Bart also was the president of Lorimar Pictures, where Tejada-Flores was an exec. He asked them if they had any ideas for movies and they mentioned “Revenge of the Nerds”..  Bart liked the idea and told them to present him with a script treatment. When he received it, he felt it was underdeveloped, so he decided to revise it with the person he considered an expert on computer kids and school cliques, his sixteen-year-old daughter Dilys. She provided many ideas but objected to the word “nerd”, as this was considered a derogatory term in those days, but she couldn’t come up with a better word, so it stuck.

As a studio executive, Bart couldn’t produce the film himself, turning it over to Ted Field, a rich heir who had recently left the world of car racing and wanted a youth-oriented movie to kick start his new media company, Interscope Communications. Field came up with the title of “Revenge of the Nerds” after he saw the cover of the July 1982 issue of California magazine. The cover, which depicted a nerd at a computer being fawned over by two beautiful women, was for a Paul Ciotti article about how computer geeks like the founders of Apple were now gaining respect and making millions. This was just when people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were on the cusp of becoming business leaders and the geeks began to inherit the Earth we know today.

Joe Wizan, the new head of production at 20th Century Fox, bought the idea, financing it for $6 million. Peter Bart took a role as an executive producer, which, he claims, paid for Dilys’s way through Stanford University. Wizan sought out a friend of his who had recently left the business to teach at his alma mater, Columbia University, Jeff Kanew. Wizan sent Kanew three scripts for Fox comedies needing directors, a cheerleading camp flick called Gimme an F, the provocative Bachelor Party, and Revenge of the Nerds, a title so tacky that Kanew didn’t want to read it. Kanew had made two serious films before and wondered why he was being offered such raunchy comedies about getting laid and ripping farts, but he wanted to help his friend.

Disappointed by the first two scripts, Kanew read three pages of Revenge of the Nerds before deciding this was the one. In the setup for the characters, he readily saw himself. Like the main characters who felt alienated on the first day of school, Kanew’s suffered from “imposter syndrome” at Columbia University, thinking that no one would accept him, persistently isolating himself in his dorm room. He enjoyed the rest of the script too because of its humanity and positive message. However, other Fox execs weren’t sure about Kanew. They screened his two other movies and thought neither very good.  Wizan had to go to bat for him that Kanew knew comedy and would deliver exactly what they wanted without arguments. Once he got Kanew to agree that he’d make a movie every bit as stupid and shameful as Fox wanted, he got the job.

Best friends Lewis Skolnick and Gilbert Lowe head to Adams College only to find that the jocks that belong to the fraternity called Alpha Beta have taken over the dorms after they burn down their own frat house.  To end their gym accommodations, these nerds determine to join a fraternity but they’re shunned away — because they are nerds.  Since no frat will take them, they decide to start their own.  After they continue to be the target for many pranks initiated by the Alphas, the nerds are pissed and vow revenge.

Kanew sought two young actors for the lead roles. Quintessential nerd character actor Eddie Deezen, who played Eugene in Grease, was Kanew’s first choice for Lewis Skolnick. The studio didn’t think Deezen could open a movie and pushed for Robert Carradine. Carradine bombed his audition because Revenge of the Nerds was not something he wanted to do. As a musician and Triumph motorcycle rider, he didn’t consider himself a nerd. He was more likely to beat up a nerd than be one. Nevertheless, he got a callback. Needing work, Carradine determined he’d try the second time, getting a nerd haircut, glasses, and wardrobe. Kanew rebuffed Carradine as being full of it for saying this was a part he wanted to take but Carradine still took the job.

However, Carradine was plagued with self-doubt and thought they’d fire him for being miscast. He arrived in Tucson two weeks early in his nerd wardrobe to get in the zone. So self-conscious of being mocked as a nerd, it took several days for Carradine to leave the dorm room. When he did, he was surprised no one reacted.  The script mentioned Lewis has a “honking laugh.” On the eve of him delivering that laugh, Carradine had no idea what that sounded like.  Someone gave him the audition tape from James Cromwell, where he performs a similar laugh.  Cromwell subconsciously based it on his wife Anne’s guffaw, and Carradine adopted it for Lewis. Despite his early qualms, the studio loved his performance, and once he saw the dailies his confidence returned.

Anthony Edwards took the role with strong reservations that it would end up becoming a cartoon. Edwards and Carradine decided to see how well in character they were by rushing a fraternity. When the fraternity president looked and them and said, “No way,” they knew they were legit nerds.

Julia Montgomery didn’t know why she was hired, given she had never been a cheerleader and had no knowledge of sororities. She received no guidance on her character. Interestingly, Montgomery, the sorority girl, liked hanging out with the actors who played the nerds (she became intimately close to Curtis Armstong in particular), while Michelle Meyrink, who played the nerdy Judy, much preferred the jocks. Ironically, the jock actors initially saw the nerds as full of self-centered jerks (mostly Robert Carradine; Gibbs says he wished he would have his kicked his butt when he had the chance). Meyrink, who was known to be wild enough to flash the other actors from time to time, beat out the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Joan Cusack, Jami Gertz, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss for the role.

Theatrically trained actor Curtis Armstrong auditioned to play Gilbert not knowing it was already taken by Edwards. When Armstrong’s agent told him they wanted him for another part, he told his friend Bronson Pinchot, who also auditioned but was declined, that he’d accept any role but the disgusting and misogynistic character Booger. Nevertheless, he instantly accepted when Booger was offered because he needed the money. Armstrong tried to change the name, but the writers said the character is based on an old high school buddy named Booger Ballentini who got the nickname by wiping boogers onto a cardboard box underneath the seat of his pickup truck.

Armstrong, who tried to get the belching contest sequence cut, didn’t actually belch. They planned to dub later with someone who could really deliver a juicy one. Armstrong says they couldn’t find an adequate Booger-caliber belch so they poured through animal sound loops and discovered a field recording of two camels mating. They blended the sound of a human belch with the moan of a male camel experiencing orgasm.

Like Armstrong, Timothy Busfield read for Gilbert but didn’t get it. A few weeks later they brought him in for a smaller role as a violin-playing nerd resembling Henry Kissinger named Arnold Lipschultz. However, when the person who handled the props also had that last name, they changed the name to Poindexter. To prepare for the audition, Busfield went into a thrift store and found the thick pair of glasses and ill-fitting suit, parted his hair differently. The casting director, Susan Arnold, couldn’t even recognize him. His audition consisted of dancing to Michael Jackson while reciting the lines meant for Lamar. Kanew offered him the role on the spot.

Actor Larry B. Scott isn’t gay but took the role of Lamar because of a dearth of non-hoodlum black character roles. Flashdance was a hot movie so he attended the audition dressed like Jennifer Beals. Reportedly, he had his share of female companionship during the shoot there, overcompensating on machismo so others would know he wasn’t gay.

For other roles: Ted McGinley was discovered by Kanew on the front of a “Looking Good” calendar depicting the “Men of USC,” sold inside the gift store of the University of Arizona. When Kanew found out he was an actor on “Happy Days”, he called him in to audition. McGinley was too embarrassed to tell others the name of the movie he was in. Matt Salinger was cast because his father was author J.D. Salinger, who wrote one of Kanew’s favorite books, “The Catcher in the Rye.” Donald Gibb, who plays the malicious Ogre, was a stuntman who won the role when they couldn’t find any actors adequate enough for the part. He looked too old for college so they asked him to shave his beard. David Wohl, who plays Dean Ulich, had a backstory in his mind that he and Coach Harris played by John Goodman were secretly lovers.

Kanew felt the script needed polishing, bringing in a new team of writers, Steve Zacharias and Jeff Buhai. Zacharias and Buhai grew up together in Chicago, eventually joining fraternities in college and fighting for civil rights. They saw nerds as representing another group of people who are persecuted for being different. Many of the characters were drawn from people they knew in high school and college – the football coach, the dean, and several of the student characters are patterned after all the colorful people they grew up with. For instance, one friend of Zachariah’s set up decided to start his own fraternity while attending the University of Wisconsin because he couldn’t get into any other fraternities, inviting other nerds to join him. The cast arrived two weeks early to flesh out the characterizations while Buhai and Zaharias made script changes. Over the course of the production, the ensemble grew to enjoy the film.

Revenge of the Nerds was shot in and around the University of Arizona in Tucson. The university gave quick approval because it was a major studio effort. A month prior to the shoot, they suddenly declined to allow their campus for use after someone in the Sorority Council read the raunchy script. The depiction in the script of campus life was deemed unflattering, especially its portrayal of fraternities and sororities. The decision drew media attention and the powers that feared that stopping Nerds from proceeding might jeopardize future Hollywood productions from using the town. The Tucson Film Commission estimated $4 million would go to the local economy, while the university received $10,000 in fees.

A day after the decision to bar the shoot, director Kanew, the producers, and two main stars flew in to discuss the matter with university officials and Greek representatives, convening at a hotel near the airport to continue further discussions without the media spotlight. The film team waived the qualms about the raunch factor stating that much of it was likely to be removed once they go through the process of trying to make it PG-rated. The university reversed its decision after the filmmakers agreed that they would not use their school’s name or mention Tucson, stick to a 15-day schedule, receive feedback from fraternal organizations, and not show any questionable behavior taking place physically on the campus or to disrupt other campus activities.

After two weeks of shooting, the studio wasn’t liking what they were seeing in the dailies. They told Kanew to improve or they’d put in a new director.  Kanew invited the main talent to dinner and told them that they couldn’t rely on their unfunny script. He told the actors to ad-lib personality touches and dialogue that that worked better. For instance, scenes with Booger and Takashi playing cards were unscripted and ad-libbed by the actors.

After the film’s release, UA faculty who dealt with Greek affairs did not care for the unflattering portrayal. One university representative claimed that the film is offensive to every group except Jews.  Not true, as many of the last names denote Jewish ancestry. So many that Gilbert’s last name changed from Pinsky to Lowe because too many nerds sounded Jewish. The university was also not pleased to discover full-frontal nudity. They tried to have it removed but the producers assured them it was only for the European release (it wasn’t). Speaking of full nudity, Donald Gibbs says Carradine would strip naked after a day’s wrap because he said the nerd look wasn’t who he really was.

Some scenes were reshot or excised for time. A prolonged torture sequence when the nerds visit Alpha Beta didn’t garner enough laughs to justify their inclusion (we see the aftermath of tarring and feathering). Another sequence where the Alphas smash up the Tri-Lamb frat and toss Gilbert off the porch had to go due to tonal issues. Also removed was a trip to Las Vegas for a Tri-Lamb convention held in a casino featuring a small role for Michael Lerner playing Gilbert’s prejudiced uncle. A Fox exec thought it made fun of him and removed it for being mean-spirited. One thing that was in the script that was removed along the way is a revelation that Stan, Ted McGinley’s character, is a closeted nerd. His frat brothers walk in on him while he’s studying and he whips off his nerd glasses and hides them. They cut it out but revised that story angle in the third film. A scene of Booger lip-syncing to an Elvis rendition of “America the Beautiful:” never got filmed, though he is still shown dressed as Elvis for the nerd song and dance at the end.

The film met with some mishaps. Drug dealing was witnessed by one of the cops near the shoot, resulting in a bust and several members of the cast and crew were taken away. The cover story was that the first Assistant Director needed to chemically stay awake for night shoots and the purchase of drugs was observed by the cop on set. Most of the cast partook in getting high and partying as much as they could together. Pot and cocaine in abundance, as well as college women. Debauchery was the norm, particularly from John Goodman as well as the visiting Treat Williams, who was nearby doing a movie called Flash Point. Donald Gibbs says he did pretty well with the women living off of Ted McGinley’s leftovers. The on-set doctor had to administer B-12 shots to those who needed a boost to get them through the next day’s shoot.

Fox execs felt positive test screenings in Westwood and Las Vegas were a fluke and after a lackluster preview in Dallas confirmed their hesitancy, they had little confidence in the commercial viability of the film. They decided to cut their losses and put marketing money into Johnny Dangerously later in 1984. For one, they thought that the word “nerds” was a turn-off likely to cut into the film’s appeal. Without bankable stars or a ‘traditionally attractive’ cast, they released it into a small number of theaters. The marketing campaign had the poster’s title resemble National Lampoon’s Vacation to try to garner the same audience looking for a silly R-rated comedy, while Orson Welles did the voiceover for the trailer. However, people went to see the film and its reputation grew, enough for many to take notice. After a month of success, they released it wider, ultimately raking in over $40 million in the US, a surprise smash hit.

Kanew realizes today that some of the humor hasn’t dated well, especially jokes dealing with race and sexuality. Some viewers today are troubled by the rape-by-deception sequence and its persistent objectification of women.  Also, the term “nerd” is no longer derogatory but nerd culture has become dominant, especially in colleges. Kanew says it is a fun movie in the context of its times, though he’s chagrined that this film is his career peak.

Revenge of the Nerds may be a bit juvenile and simplistic in its approach, but far funnier than others that have tried the same formula. It has become the quintessential misfit comeuppance film, delivering the message that those social pariahs that usually get picked on, beat up, and excluded from all the “cool” activities are actually a cool bunch of people themselves, once you get to know them. 

Like the nerds themselves, this film might look dorky and un-hip from the outside, but it is resourceful, clever, and quite likable if you give it a chance.  Good casting and excellent performances (for the type of movie that it is) help immensely.  While not a movie many might call genuinely good, it’s a cult classic worth a look for fans of 80s flicks, dumb comedies that are deceptively smart, or anyone feeling nerdy themselves. 

Qwipster’s rating: B

MPAA Rated: R for language, nudity, sexuality, and drug use
Running Time: 90 min.

Cast: Anthony Edwards, Robert Carradine, Ted McGinley, John Goodman, Curtis Armstrong, Larry B. Scott, Julia Montgomery, Michelle Meyrink, Donald Gibb, Brian Tochi, Bernie Casey, Timothy Busfield, David Wohl, Andrew Cassese, Matt Salinger, James Cromwell
Director: Jeff Kanew
Screenplay: Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai