FILM · 1987
Three O'Clock High
23 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (23)
- #001
Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of Three O'Clock High, but he asked for his name to be removed from the credits, just as he had done two years earlier on another teen comedy, Fandango (1985). Both films would go on to retain strong cult followings.
- #002
Three O'Clock High was a bomb at the box office but later gained fame in the home video market.
- #003
Steven Spielberg, who served as executive producer on Three O'Clock High, had directed the film's star, Casey Siemaszko, in the pilot episode of Amazing Stories (1985) titled "The Mission" [See: The Mission (1985)]. Siemaszko also appeared in Back to the Future (1985), which Spielberg executive produced.
- #004
Casey Siemaszko and Richard Tyson, the lead actors playing high school students in Three O'Clock High, were actually over twenty-five years old when the film was shot and were in fact older than the film's director, Phil Joanou.
- #005
Caitlin O'Heaney's character, Mrs. Farmer, originally had only a single scene in which Jerry seduces and kisses her while serving detention after school. After the film was completed it was test screened, and audiences desperately wanted to know what happened between Jerry and Mrs. Farmer. The producers (including Steven Spielberg) brought O'Heaney and Casey Siemaszko back to shoot the final scene, in which she enters the bookstore and passionately kisses Jerry.
- #006
The score for Three O'Clock High was composed by Tangerine Dream and became the group's ninth soundtrack recording and thirty-first album overall.
- #007
The music playing during the insect film Jerry watches in biology class is the "Out to Sea" theme from Jaws (1975), directed by Three O'Clock High executive producer Steven Spielberg.
- #008
The school in Three O'Clock High was named Weaver High School. It was portrayed by the real-life Ogden High School in Ogden, Utah, USA.
- #009
Three O'Clock High is regarded as a teen version of High Noon (1952), replacing that film's Western setting with a contemporary high school.
- #010
The date of the fight is 20.10.87, a Tuesday that year. The date appears on Jerry's Algebra 2 exam paper as he slides it over for Buddy to see.
- #011
Three O'Clock High was Phil Joanou's first feature-length directing effort.
- #012
While Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) is in Mr. D.'s office, the name "Hugh Conlon III" is written on the board behind him. The film's production coordinator was a man named Hugh Conlon.
- #013
Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a film director, worked on Three O'Clock High as cinematographer and was also billed as a "lighting consultant."
- #014
Ogden High School was later used as a filming location again for another comedy, Drive Me Crazy (1999).
- #015
Actor Kirk Cameron was the second choice for the lead role of Jerry Mitchell.
- #016
Corey Feldman was considered for the role of Jerry Mitchell.
- #017
Voytek Dolinski was the real name of the school disciplinarian at director Phil Joanou's high school.
- #018
Filming took place at Ogden High School in Ogden, Utah. The Art Deco building and auditorium were built in 1937 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In addition to paying a weekly fee to use the school for filming, the production invested a further $80,000 in improvements to the historic building.
- #019
More than 1,800 extras made up of local students from around Ogden, Utah, were used in the thrilling parking lot fight scene. The fight scene was shot over several days in November 1986 in cold weather.
- #020
The film originally opened with a shot of the clock outside the school. Jerry and Brei were introduced in the school store. After a test screening, it was decided that the audience did not connect with Jerry quickly enough. The entire sequence in which Jerry wakes up late, gets ready and goes to school consisted of additional photography shot after principal photography had been completed in Utah.
- #021
When Richard Tyson (Buddy Revell) was cast, he was living in his car.
- #022
Director Phil Joanou rewrote the script substantially. He stated that the original draft was much closer to something in the vein of John Hughes's work and that he felt he could not compete with it. He shifted the tone to be more of a satirical dark comedy. The character Brei was inspired by his younger sister Kathy, whom he described as wise beyond her years.
- #023
The filming of the exciting fight scene took 5 days.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work