Open Culture:

You’ve probably seen one, or at least a parody of one, somewhere along the way–formulaic and harmless surf’n’fun films sold to teens, set in a world with very few adults, and most probably starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello as the central will-they-or-won’t-they romantic couple. These weren’t troubled juvenile delinquents like ones played by Marlon Brando or James Dean–these were squeaky clean kids. These weren’t movies about teens like John Hughes films, he points out, but they were sold to teens.

Anyone else remember these movies? As a kid, I loved watching them but I saw one a few years ago and started to watch it out of nostalgia before I realized, they are really quite awful.