John Hughes

From Ad Man…

On the surface, John Hughes seemed like a wholly normal dude, a happily married ad man from the Chicago area. But this deceptive middle-aged exterior masked a core of wild humor and teen angst. While he was working in advertising, Hughes was also writing humor pieces, making a little extra cash on the side. Eventually, his hobby morphed into a full-time gig, and Hughes became one of the guiding spirits of National Lampoon Magazine.

Springing up from his humor writing roots, in the early '80s Hughes wrote the scripts for National Lampoon's Class Reunion and the Michael Keaton comedy Mr. Mom. The entire series of National Lampoon's Vacation movies (starring Chevy Chase) were actually spawned by a story Hughes wrote for the Lampoon entitled "Vacation '58," which he then adapted into the first Vacation movie.

After toiling in the writing mills for a number of years, Hughes finally got into the director's chair with Sixteen Candles, a comedy he also wrote, featuring future Breakfast Club actors Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall. It was a fairly big hit, justifying Hughes's directorial ability. (Today, it's also uber-problematic. Lots of critics have called it racist; for example, it features a Chinese character named "Long Duk Dong" and a gong sounds every time someone says his name. Yiiikes.)

…To Teen Movie Maestro

In Sixteen Candles, Hughes wrote a teen movie that was mainly a zany comedy. With The Breakfast Club, he created more of a comedy-drama. It's consistently funny, but also has a message about getting along and not judging people and all that nice stuff.

As a writer, Hughes followed that classic staple of all college creative writing classes: Write What You Know. It's good advice. Consequently, Hughes's movies tend to be set in and around Chicago, particularly in the wealthier suburbs. That's definitely true in The Breakfast Club's case, since the movie takes place in the (fictitious) suburb of Shermer, Illinois.

The Breakfast Club is probably Hughes's masterpiece as a writer. He would go on to pen other hit teen movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty in Pink, along with non-teen movies like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and Home Alone (both massive hits). But while those movies are superbly entertaining, they don't feel quite as personal as The Breakfast Club. John Hughes managed to bare his soul and the hidden teen angst he'd been carrying around for twenty-seven extra years… and make a pile of money in the process. Not a bad deal.