Were you a rich teen in LA in the 80s?

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Yes, that's entirely accurate, but also include that the girls sometimes slept with other girls.

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Danny Bonaduce, who does fit into this category, says in his book, "Random Acts of Badness," that this was very accurate. He said they were all pissed off not because of the accuracy of what was described, but the fact that none of them got any royalties.

If you read Imperial Bedrooms, it starts off with a description of why the movie was changed so much when it was adapted to the big screen.

Not in LA, but NY. Yes, it was accurate but exaggerated. What you don't see in this movie is the leftover "cool" vibe of the '60s and '70s, cool meaning, hip, not hipSTER, knowing good music, a keen/sharp sense of humor, lots of witty banter, and a sense of light-hearted PARTY. This film and many other set in the 80s, even made in the 80s, makes everyone look venal and stupid, and that wasn't the case. Parents "absent" is hilarious to me. Parents weren't "absent," parents were living their adult lives with their adult friends, at their own parties (that generation very much enjoyed cocktail parties etc), doing their own things, taking trips and vacations, and "kids" were regarded more like independent human beings than they are now. There weren't these overly-enmeshed family units. Parents did their stuff, their offspring had their lives, and YET there was more interaction like, dinners together every week night, and the best TV in the house, the one with cable, would be in one room and everyone would watch, and it wasn't like "Oh, let's put on the least offensive children's programming or let Jenny and James watch MTV it was whatever the adults wanted to watch unless the kids could lobby them otherwise. But when the weekend came, from the time you were 14 or so, you were more or less on your own, if you wanted to be. Being a good parent didn't mean crawling up your kids' asses or knowing every goddamned detail about their lives. Kids went to school, fought their battles on their own, had their friends, cut school, smoked pot, popped pills---and MOST wanted NOT to get caught because then they WOULD have parents crawling up their ass---so people weren't like they were in the movie being THAT obviously *beep* up. Also drinking age on the east coast at least was 18 in many states, and 19 in others. And yes there was tons of coke, but most people didn't get into trouble with it because it was too expensive and more of a special occasion type of party fun, tho a special occasion would often materialize most weekends--someone would have some and if you were lucky they would share. I know 3 people got messed up on coke--2 in the small wealthy preppy private liberal arts college I went to; and 1 from high school. One in college was so much like Julian (and looked like RBJr) - I wonder what happened to him--his father owned a major NY sports team--he used and dealt and owed money to shady characters and ended up forging checks. I think he is an investment broker now. A girl who overdid it seemed like someone with mental health issues anyway, and the guy in HS also was a ne'er do well. Wealthy and good looking but always did everything to excess, even as a little kid he was just too much. So, yourlist is accurate. Oh, the boys with boys thing? Don't know about that. I mean, some prep school/boarding school guys sometimes even now,I believe, have some slightly odd aristo-homoerotic thing going on, but not public school guys. And girls with girls? that was later, more '90s. "Promiscuity" wasn't termed that, btw. There was very little AIDS among straight wealthy/uppermiddle people until the late '80s/early 90s, so it was just a matter of sleeping with your friends or people you liked if you felt like it--not grotesque or degrading or guys seducing girls--girls were far more influenced by feminism in a good way, so if they felt like being sexual with someone, they would do so. If you met someone and were connecting you might sleep with them if you both felt like it.

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Is it sad that life is kind of like that now in LA? Within in some circles, obviously not all teenagers are living that kind of life but...yeah I'd say that this film is pretty damn accurate.

-- I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been

I didn't live in L.A. But I can tell you that the big 80's is pretty accurately portrayed in the film. It was a very decadent period of time. The rich were rich and they lived like it. The parenting was not that great because mom was out there earning money just like dad was. To compensate they would buy expensive gifts for the kids which is why so many of us had it so good so to speak. It was a crazy decade. But by 1988 the party was over and we all knew it. AIDS, drugs, stock market crashes, Reagan leaving the White House, crack cocaine, and just plain reality had set in. The bill for all of it came in and we're still paying for it to this day.