Revenge of the Nerds

Revenge of the Nerds
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeff Kanew
Produced by	Ted Field (producer) Peter Samuelson (producer) Peter Macgregor-Scott (co-producer)
Screenplay by	Jeff Buhai Miguel Tejada-Flores Steve Zacharias
Story by	Tim Metcalfe
Starring	Robert Carradine Anthony Edwards Timothy Busfield Curtis Armstrong Michelle Meyrink Brian Tochi Ted McGinley Bernie Casey John Goodman
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	King Baggot
Editing by	Alan Balsam
Studio	Interscope Communications
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 20, 1984 (1984-07-20)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$60,400,000 (Including rentals)[1]

Revenge of the Nerds is a 1984 comedy film satirizing social life on a college campus. The film stars Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards, with Curtis Armstrong, Ted McGinley, Julia Montgomery, Brian Tochi, Larry B. Scott, Michelle Meyrink, John Goodman, and Donald Gibb. The film was directed by Jeff Kanew.

The film's storyline chronicles of a group of nerds trying to stop harassment by the persecuting jock fraternity, the Alpha Betas. Revenge of the Nerds is #91 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."^[2]

Plot

Best friends and nerds Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) enroll in Adams College to study computer science. The Alpha Betas, a fraternity to which many members of the school's football team belong, carelessly burn down their own house and seize the freshmen dorm for themselves. The college allows the displaced freshmen, living in the gymnasium, to join fraternities or move to other housing. Lewis, Gilbert, and other outcasts who cannot join a fraternity renovate a dilapidated home to serve as their own fraternity house. Also, Gilbert meets a cute but geeky accordion player named Judy.

The Alpha Betas and their associated sorority, the Pi Delta Pis, harass the nerds by throwing a brick through their window. The campus police refuse to get involved, so the nerds appeal to the Greek Council (which handles matters related to the fraternities and sororities on campus). Its president Stan Gable (Ted McGinley), the leader of the Alpha Betas, rejects their complaints as the nerds are not a part of any fraternity. The nerds attempt to join a national fraternity, but all but one reject them. They meet U.N. Jefferson (Bernie Casey), the head of the black fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda (Tri-Lambs). Although Jefferson notes that the applicants are nerds, due to the Tri-Lambs' rules, they receive probationary membership.

The nerds prepare a party and invite Jefferson, but the party is nearly ruined before it starts when the Pi Delta Pis, after promising to be their dates, do not appear. However, thanks to Judy's sorority sisters (the Omega Mus, a sorority consisting largely of overweight or geeky women) and a supply of marijuana, the party is successful. The Alpha Betas and Pis unleash pigs in the nerds' house, then taunt and moon them; Jefferson sees firsthand the harassment the nerds face. The nerds, finally pushed too far, seek revenge. First, they perform a panty raid on the Pi Delta Pi house, using the distraction to drill holes in the ceiling, and mount a large television transmitter on the roof of the sorority house, in order to install view-adjustible video cameras, the transmission of which they can watch and maneuver via remote control on their television, to spy on the sorority girls while they undress. Then, the next day, the nerds sneak into the football team's locker room and put industrial-strength liniment in the players' athletic supporters, resulting in a painful and humiliating football practice. The nerds' ingenuity impresses Jefferson, who officially makes them the Adams College chapter of Lambda Lambda Lambda.

The nerds play before the school in this climactic scene.

However, it does nothing to deter the Alpha Betas, as they continue to harass the nerds. The new Tri-Lambs realize they need to win control of the Greek Council by winning the annual Greek Games during homecoming. They use their intelligence to compete well with the Alpha Betas during the athletic portion of the event, ultimately finishing second. They then use topless photos taken from their Pi Delta cameras to easily win the charity sales and costume events, during which Lewis seduces Stan's girlfriend Betty Childs (Julia Montgomery) by posing as Stan (their costumes were similar, but Stan's included a mask). The nerds' elaborate, computer-driven musical production wins the final event of the Greek Games, and the Lambdas nominate Gilbert to succeed Stan as president of the Greek Council.

The Alpha Betas are enraged, a fact made worse when Betty dumps Stan for Lewis (because he is much better in bed). Their coach (John Goodman) berates them in the locker room, pushing them over the edge, and they vandalize the Tri-Lambs' house. Gilbert attempts to denounce the act at the homecoming pep rally, but Stan and two other Alpha-Betas attack him, and the sadistic Coach Harris turns on the school's dean when he intervenes. The assault is stopped when Jefferson and a group of angry Tri-Lambs from other chapters arrive on the scene. Gilbert makes an inspiring speech about how it feels to be mistreated just for being different, and Lewis invites anyone who has "ever felt stepped on, left out, picked on, put down" to come and join them. Betty, Judy, U.N., and many members of the assembled crowd, whether nerds or not, do so. The Tri-Lambs get the Alpha Beta house until theirs is repaired, while the Alpha Betas must live in the gymnasium. The film ends with the nerds celebrating their victory, accompanied by "We Are the Champions".

Cast

Nerds

• Robert Carradine as Lewis Skolnick, one of two protagonists
• Anthony Edwards as Gilbert Lowe, the other protagonist
• Timothy Busfield as Arnold Poindexter, plays the violin
• Andrew Cassese as Harold Wormser, a 12-year-old forced into college by his parents
• Curtis Armstrong as Dudley "Booger" Dawson, with disgusting personal habits
• Brian Tochi as Takashi Toshiro
• Larry B. Scott as Lamar Latrell
• Michelle Meyrink as Judy, Gilbert's girlfriend

Jocks and their girls

• Ted McGinley as Stan Gable, the film's main antagonist
• Donald Gibb as Frederick W. "The Ogre" Palowaski
• Matt Salinger as Danny Burke, Stan's second-in-command
• Julia Montgomery as Betty Childs, a cheerleader and Stan's girlfriend
• Lisa Welch as Suzy, a cheerleader

Adults

• John Goodman as Coach Harris, nerd-hating coach of the jocks and a major antagonist
• David Wohl as Dean Ulich, nerdy dean of Adams College
• Bernie Casey as U.N. Jefferson, President of the national Lambda-Lambda-Lambda ("Tri-Lamb") fraternity
• James Cromwell as Mr. Skolnick, Lewis Skolnick's father.
• Alice Hirson as Florence 'Flo' Lowe, Gilbert's mother

Production

Exterior scenes such as the arrival of the nerds at college and the fraternity houses were filmed at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. The original Nerds residence, from which they were ousted, was in fact Cochise Hall.^[3] Their subsequent residence was Bear Down Gymnasium.^[4] The original Alpha Beta fraternity house that gets burned down was shot at the Beta Theta Pi house on University Boulevard and the Pi house was the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house.^[5]

Soundtrack

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]

Reception

Revenge of the Nerds was rated moderately well by most critics. Rotten Tomatoes scored it an average of 77% fresh.^[7]

Sequels

Three not-as-successful sequels followed; two of which were television films.

• Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)
• Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation (1992)
• Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (1994)

Influence

Due to the influence of how the nerds started their own fraternity in the movie, several real life chapters of Lambda Lambda Lambda have sprung up in different locations around the United States. The real life fraternity currently has five chapters in Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and Washington.

Television series

The pilot episode of the 1991 attempted series of the same name was mostly a condensed version of the film's events. The only character created for the series was the nerds' resident advisor, P.T. Turner (Richard Gant). The pilot aired on FOX in 1991 to fairly negative reviews. This pilot is available on the "Panty Raid" DVD release.

Home media

On January 3, 2007 Revenge of the Nerds was released as a special edition DVD entitled "Panty Raid Edition" (The special edition name was changed from "The 'We've Got Bush' Edition", with preliminary artwork shown on websites such as The Digital Bits). Special features included: an audio commentary, Making of Documentary, deleted scenes, television pilot, and two theatrical trailers.

Shelved remake

A remake of the original Revenge of the Nerds was slated for release in 2007; however, the project was canceled in 2006 after two weeks of filming.^[8] The cast included Adam Brody (who also co-produced), Dan Byrd, Katie Cassidy, Kristin Cavallari, Jenna Dewan, Chris Marquette, Ryan Pinkston, Efren Ramirez, and Nick Zano. The film was to be directed by Kyle Newman and executive produced by McG. The script was written by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, and Adam F. Goldberg.^[9]

Filming took place in Atlanta, Georgia at Agnes Scott College, the Georgia State Capitol, and Inman Park.^[10] Filming was originally scheduled to take place at Emory College but university officials changed their minds after reading the script.^[11] A story by the Chicago Tribune described the film as too "raunchy" for the campus administration.^[12]

In November 2006, the film was shelved by Fox Atomic. Producers found it difficult to shoot on the smaller Agnes Scott campus, and studio head Peter Rice was disappointed with the dailies.^[8] The remake would have been the first project for the newly created Fox Atomic. 20th Century Fox personnel have stated that it's highly unlikely that a remake will be picked up in the future.^[12]

References

External links

• Revenge of the Nerds at the Internet Movie Database
• Revenge of the Nerds at AllRovi
• Revenge of the Nerds at Box Office Mojo
• Revenge of the Nerds at Rotten Tomatoes
• Revenge of the Nerds at Metacritic
• Revenge of the Nerds on Fast Rewind