So Howard Stern is producing a remake of Rock ’n’ Roll High School, the classic 1979 B-movie starring P.J. Soles as the rebellious Riff Randall, a Ramones-obsessed teen who stages a punk rock coup against the repressive administration of Vince Lombardi High. Apparently Mr. Stern is a huge fan of the original movie—for which the Ramones filmed an actual concert as part of the plot—and has been known to talk about it on his radio show. But wasn’t there already a remake, albeit a forgettable one, of Rock ’n’ Roll High School?
The answer is…sort of.
As some of you may recall, in 1991, Corey Feldman starred in the deliciously atrocious sequel Rock ’n’ Roll High School Forever, which followed a similar plot, except instead of the Ramones we got a fictionalized rock band, fronted by Mr. Feldman’s character, called the Eradicators, and instead of Vince Lombardi High we got Ronald Reagan High. (Although in a nod to its predecessor, the character who played the evil principal and nemesis to all things rock ’n’ roll, Ms. Togar, returned—for some reason with a hook for a hand—as the far more militant and butch Dr. Vadar.) All told, the movie is horrid, but in that “I would totally watch this if I stumbled across it on VH1 on a Saturday afternoon” sort of way.
So it’s up to Mr. Stern to give us the amazing remake that Rock ’n’ Roll High School deserves. Can he do it? Probably not. But! In the meantime, we give you the trailer for Rock ’n’ Roll High School Forever in all of its over-the-top early ’90s glory.
