For the 17th anniversary of this site's inception (March 1998), I thought it might be fun to share 1 out of the 4 screenplays I wrote after finishing my MBA back in 1996, as I was looking for a job, a life and a future for myself (btw, if you want to read a more comprehensive "look back" at the site's inception and all, CLICK HERE for that article from last year which includes all of the different versions of the site over the years). This script was the funnest of all to write because it was basically just my brother and I spitballin' jokes in my bedroom for a few months (located in the garage of my parents' house — yes, the same place that I started JoBlo.com only two short years later), after which I sat down and wrote a basic "high school" script around it.
And even though I tried to get some of my scripts turned into movies, this was all before the "internetz" and so a schmuck like myself, living in Montreal Canada, and having absolutely zero connections in Hollywood or a way to get in touch with the people, I still tried to send out many a query letter to many a production company (CLICK HERE to see one of those query letters – a real physical letter, kids!!), only to be turned down by every single one of them (granted, 98% of them said that we needed to submit our screenplay via an agent, but hey…at least I tried!) — although it was pretty cool to receive this SASE back from John Landis. My brother and I actually considered it a "victory" of sorts because he was one of our favorite directors back in the day. Note how he corrected our self-deprecating joke as well.
Hey, at least we got John Landis' autograph out of it! 🙂
And speaking of which, this screenplay entitled "SKOOL!" was written purely from our love of the ZAZ movies, which for those not in the know, were "goofy comedies" written/directed by the amazing team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. And if those names don't mean anything to you, maybe their films like TOP SECRET!, AIRPLANE! and the NAKED GUN series might ring a bell. Of course, our script surely sucks monkey nuts compared to their awesomeness, but there are a few hundred jokes in there, and reading it again today, I did actually still laugh at a number of them, so hopefully some of you might get a jolly out of it as well. Please do not go in with high expectations but if you're looking for some laughs (and even though some of the screenplay is dated, it actually holds up pretty well on the whole), this might be a good way to kill an hour or so this afternoon. It's a "stupid comedy" though so you best be in that mood going in, i.e. The school's founder motto is "For those about to rock…I salute you!".
These random cheerleaders have nothing to do with our script but hey…the movie's about high school, these girls are cheerleaders…go with it!
And if everything lines up perfectly in the universe and one of our comedic heroes above actually reads it as well, our lives will make sense once more. Here's the "plot"…
It's the last day of high school for two best buds: Jonnie and Taz. Jonnie spends his day trying to get the luscious Suzie to be his date for the big prom that day, while Taz exhausts every possible trick in the book (and beyond) to pass his final Algebra exam and graduate with the others. Wackiness ensues and the plot ends with a surprising twist!
The screenplay is copyrighted, so please don't try to do anything nasty with it, but if you are interested in simply reading it (or just printing it out and using the paper to start a bonfire at the beach or something), you can do so RIGHT HERE! Enjoy! Please!
