Summer School was the movie that made flunking out look like fun.

Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) is a relaxed, fun-loving gym teacher who is looking forward to spend his summer in Hawaii until he’s assigned to spend the summer teaching remedial English in summer school.  (His girlfriend goes to Hawaii without him.)  Freddy’s not happy about giving up his summer and he’s prepared to just spend his days taking his students to the beach, the amusement park, and the zoo.  But when he finds out that he’s going to lose his job unless his students pass the big test at the end of the summer, he gets serious and discovers what teaching is supposed to be all about.

When I was growing up, Summer School seemed to be on television all the time.  If it wasn’t on HBO, it was on one of the local stations, usually right before summer began.  The summer school kids seemed to be having too much fun for kids stuck in school.  I don’t think my classmates in Baltimore would have been as happy about losing their summer as the students in this film.  Everyone who has seen this film remembers Dave and Chainsaw (Gary Riley and Dean Cameron) making jokes and showing everyone The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  They also remember Anna-Maria (Fabiana Udenio), the Italian exchange student who took summer school to work on her English.  They remember Freddy letting one of his students move in with him, which doesn’t seem like a good idea even if she was played by Courtney Thorne-Smith.  Myself, I remember Robin Bishop, the teacher next door, who was played by an extremely sexy Kirstie Alley.  (This was one of the many 80s films in which Kirstie Alley made being uptight seem sexy.)  Of course, Robin was dating the snobbish principal who was trying to get Freddy Shoop fired.

I’m not going to sit here and say that Summer School is a great film.  It’s a dumb comedy with an uplifting message about what a good teacher can accomplish.  However, Summer School is a very likable film, an enjoyable 80s teen romp that suggests summer school was the place to be in the late 80s.  Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, and all the students give good performances.  How many future horror nerds were inspired by Dave and Chainsaw?  Legendary nice guy Carl Reiner directed and the movie itself is amiable and amusing enough to be watchable.