Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy Fought to Remove Sexist Scenes in ‘The Breakfast Club’ and Eventually Won!

On March 25, a book will be published by author Kirk Honeycutt titled "John Hughes: A Life in Film." The book will tackle the production and behind-the-scenes of one of the greatest high school film of all time, The Breakfast Club, which turns 30 this year.

According to an article by the author in Variety, the late John Hughes, known for films about teenage angst and high-school life, loved to mock how studio executives usually approached teen pictures.

It was certainly true that Universal's front office couldn't understand the concept behind what became his most famous film, The Breakfast Club. All they understood, he would insist in interviews, was that it was five kids in detention talking for 90 minutes.

After that film, Hughes built an astonishing career encompassing more than 40 film titles, almost entirely comedies aimed at teen or family audiences.

Hughes first screenwriting credit, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, is an attempt to parody both the teen sex comedy and slasher horror films that fell well within the Lampoon tradition (sex and drugs).

So when Hughes came to shoot The Breakfast Club, the ex-Lampooner was still searching for the right tone for his own brand of teen film. During rehearsals in Chicago, his two young actresses, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, joined swiftly by co-producer Michelle Manning, ganged up on him. They strongly objected to the gratuitous female nudity in the screenplay. And the rest as they say, is history!

Hughes films connected because they spoke to teens as if they were adults. He connected with an entire generation in a manner that hasn't been duplicated before or since.