The Breakfast Club Formula
The film has been reworked and woven into many television show storylines. Creators have frequently used The Breakfast Club as a point of reference for the viewer, twisting it to fit the needs of their show. This familiarity has the effect of making the audience feel nostalgic.
For example Season 3, Episode 2 of the Nickelodeon Show Victorious is titled “The Breakfast Bunch”. This episode of Victorious stands alone, meaning that it has no connection to the episodes before and after it. Usually, Victorious episodes build onto each other or at least have some connection with other episodes. “The Breakfast Bunch” episode doesn’t do either of those things. This episode imitates the events of The Breakfast Club almost exactly. It starts with the cast singing “Don’t You Forget About Me” and still shots of the vacant school - this is also how the film starts. Then the cast meets at school and heads to the library for Saturday detention, a classic reference that immediately tells the audience that this episode is based on the infamous The Breakfast Club.
Throughout the half hour broadcast, Victorious follows the framework and storyline of the film, meanwhile throwing in new jokes and adding their own flavour. For example, instead of shaking the dandruff out of her hair and onto her drawing like Allison Sheedy did in the movie, the character Cat Valentine pours glitter instead. Also, whilst in the movie the gang goes to Bender’s locker to get weed, in the show it’s Tacos they retrieve from Tori’s locker. During this part, they remix the montage from the movie where the teens are running through the halls trying to get back to the library before the principal.
The ‘share circle’ that allowed the kids to realize they all had similar problems in the movie was turned into a satirical conversation designed for laughs in the series. The episode concludes with another rendition of “Don’t You Forget About Me” and a person in a panda costume giving the main character, Tori, a balloon. The letter that the ‘bunch’ wrote to the vice principal is read in voiceover and Tori accidentally lets go of the balloon. Her effort to grab it back is the freeze frame at the end that mirrors Judd Nelson’s fist pump. Victorious remixed this film in a very comedic way. They took every classic scene and memorable line and transformed it into their own, adapting it to fit the personalities and struggles of the characters.
The whole episode seemed to almost be a parody of the film. The cast is a bunch of teenagers who go to school together. The writers decided to give the audience a familiar framework, but this wasn’t just the Victorious cast mimicking The Breakfast Club. This episode remixed portions of the movie to a ridiculous extent, pulling the viewer in and leaving them wondering which aspect of the film will be confronted next and how. Knowing where the story is going gives the audience a degree of comfort, meanwhile using the world and characters of Victorious makes it novel, and their own.
The Goldbergs is a television sitcom that takes place in the 1980s. The protagonist, Adam, points out how the situations that the characters find themselves in are like the plot of the movie. The first episode in Season 4 is titled, “The Breakfast Club”. It opens with the youngest son wanting to reinvent himself like Bender from the movie, and then shifts to a still of the entire Goldberg family dressed and posed like the iconic movie poster. Instantly, the viewer is drawn in by the mirroring of the family into the movie characters.
Throughout the episode, Adam Goldberg continues to point out things that remind him of the movie. For example in the lunchroom when he’s trying to find a place to sit he rattles off cliques: the jocks, the stoners, the nerds, and the popular kids. These cliques correlate to the character groups in the film. Furthermore, the writers tie in the common thread of Beverly Goldberg, the mother, being a ‘smother’ in this episode. The kids get in a fight with their mom in the lunchroom and all end up with Saturday detention. Sounds familiar.
During this scene, Adam acknowledges the obvious parallels to the movie. From Barry the older
brother climbing through the ceiling, to Erica, the older sister, shaking the dandruff from her hair, to Adam turning on music so they can all do the dance sequence, these iconic scenes mimic The Breakfast Club. There are even some dialogue references too, notably as Barry ironically reminds us; “This isn’t a John Hughes movie dude.”
The kids are all tasked with an essay to write about how much they appreciate their mom and eventually they all sit in a circle of trust. In this portion of the movie all the students share their secrets and become closer. The Goldberg kids talk about how annoying their mom is but also how much they love and appreciate her. The show ends with the Simple Minds version of “Don’t You Forget About Me” and Adam reading his essay out loud. The final scene depicts Adam fist pumping and freezing. Beverly then comes in and ruins his Bender moment. Clearly, this episode follows The Breakfast Club formula, making it obvious throughout that they’re trying to remix the movie.
The movie is a classic and creates a comfortable and relatable environment for the viewer. With the movie taking place in high school detention, this uses a familiar story and twists it to fit the teen characters of a television story. Instead of simply telling a story about a group of people who get in trouble, writers can manipulate their characters to fit the themes and dialogue of the movie while also keeping them in the universe of their own shows. It’s kind of an easy way out to have a successful episode.