Back to School is a 1986 American comedy film starring Rodney Dangerfield, Keith Gordon, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Terry Farrell, William Zabka, Ned Beatty, Sam Kinison, Paxton Whitehead, Robert Downey Jr., M. Emmet Walsh, and Adrienne Barbeau.
The plot centers on a wealthy but uneducated father (Dangerfield) who goes to college to show solidarity with his discouraged son Jason (Gordon) and learns that he cannot buy an education or happiness.
[3] Thornton Meloni, a child of Italian immigrants, returns from school one day to his father's tailor shop, bearing a report card with poor grades.
As decades pass, Thornton Anglicizes his surname from Meloni to "Melon" and becomes a self-made corporate giant, with a successful chain of plus-size clothing stores and other business ventures.
On the campus, Thornton learns that the reason for Jason's distant attitude with his father was that he is a C-student, unhappy with college life, and intends to drop out.
He is a towel boy for the diving team instead of a member, was rejected by the fraternities, is antagonized by diver and jock Chas Osborne, and has no friends except for his roommate Derek Lutz.
His displeasure is further exacerbated by Thornton's canny practical experience clashing with Barbay's hypothetical theorizing in class and ivory tower ways.
[4] The producers originally wanted Jim Carrey to play the role of Professor Terguson, but he was later rejected as he was deemed too young for the part.
The site's consensus reads, "Back to School gives Rodney Dangerfield plenty of room to riff—and supports the freewheeling funnyman with enough of a story to keep things interesting between punchlines.
"[9] Nina Darnton wrote in The New York Times that "the film is a good-natured potpourri of gags, funny bits, populist sentiment and anti-intellectualism.
"[10] Roger Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times three-star review described the film as "routine but pleasant", yet elevated by Dangerfield's persona: "This is exactly the sort of plot Marx or Fields could have appeared in.