J.J. Pearce alumni relive high school via TV Land’s new show

by Catherine Cuellar

DALLAS — In John Hughes' 1985 movie The Breakfast Club, otherwise dissimilar high school characters who meet in detention are labeled a brain, a jock, a princess, a criminal, and a basket case.

To watch the series premiere of TV Land's High School Reunion, which unites members from the Class of 1987 at Richardson ISD's J.J. Pearce High School, Pegasus News endeavored to find alumni who weren't friends with each other. Unfortunately (ahem) distinguished alumni Jessica Simpson, Julie Cypher, and Roseanne Barr's biological daughter Brandi Brown didn't respond to our invitation, so instead we found a few local Pegasus News users who remember the '80s.

• a Mensch, '88: Dave painted a Yellow Submarine music-themed mural in one of the Pearce stairwells, which misspelled "Art Garfunkle."
• a Black Girl, '79: Lorri, one of Pearce's precious few minority students in her day, grew up so close to campus you can see her house in some of the TV show's B-roll footage.
• a Girl Net Door, '92: Suzy and I carpooled to Junior Symphony Ball and were on the Pearce yearbook staff together, where I was
• an Editor, '92: Same same.

In the series premiere, Pearce is characterized as “a typical Texas high school,” and “a big school with a small town feel,” where “everyone knew everyone's business.”

We quickly get to know the business of about a dozen alumni who are reduced to stereotypes – the spoiled girl, the jock, the lesbian, the pipsqueak, the popular girl – and so on.

And just as quickly we learn about the baggage they've brought to their reunion (which was filmed not in Dallas but Hawaii).

Our Girl Next Door said, “The spoiled girl was every girl at our high school, except for us."

Among other TV characters, the jock's wife died young. The lesbian is separated from her girlfriend of five years and “bicurious.” The pipsqueak is suddenly attractive to women who ignored him 20 years ago, while the popular girl has been married and divorced four times since graduation.

The device to force interaction is cheesily called a hall pass, bestowed upon individual members of the group, requiring one-on-one away time with a classmate. The popular girl got first choice (just like in real high school!) and deigned to shine her light on the pipsqueak, even spoon-feeding him in the course of their date.

Our Mensch was totally grossed out. “It's like being in a nursing home.”

And our Black Girl noted that the show's popular girl still uses hairspray (probably White Rain), which is most obvious when she tosses her hair while flirting with the pipsqueak.

From next week's scenes, we can see the train wreck augmented with the addition of new grossly oversimplified classmate caricatures.

The experience was best summarized by our Girl Next Door: “They're all regressing. It's kind of sad. I feel sick.”

Sure, it's contrived, but Hawaii looks lovely — and nobody is getting voted off this island.

Lest we sound all catty, there was one redeeming quality — the soundtrack, featuring Depeche Mode, INXS, and Echo & the Bunnymen.

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