Crash Course 1988

Crash Course follows a group of high schoolers in a driver’s education class, many taking the course for the second or third time. The recently divorced, anxious teacher, Larry Pearl, is already walking a thin line with the football-obsessed Principal Ray Walston, who is under pressure from the district superintendent to raise driver’s education completion rates or risk losing the school’s prized football program. To shake things up, the principal and his ambitious assistant, Abner Fraser, hire an outside driver’s education instructor with a fearsome reputation, Edna Savage, who quickly takes control of the class.

The story centers on the students and their evolving dynamics with their teachers and one another. Rico is the loner with a small circle of friends, while Chadley Bennett IV is the bookish nerd who longs to be cool and to catch Vanessa Crawford’s eye. Vanessa Crawford is the friendly, attractive girl who once had to fake her mother’s signature on a driver’s education permission slip, with her mother, Beth Crawford, looming in the background. Kichi is the hip-hop-tinged, quick-witted student who often spits rhymes and flirts with Maria Abeja, the wealthy foreign girl who jokingly insists that the right-of-way belongs to “my father’s limo.” J.J. Maslanski is the football-eligible student who must pass his English exam to stay eligible, while Alice Santini is the tomboy whose father runs the concrete company Santini & Son, specifically Ed Konner, Dick Butkus.

As the semester unfolds, the class’s driving skills and personal connections begin to improve. The students form friendships both inside and outside the classroom, and Edna’s leadership starts to reshape the group. Meanwhile, Abner, acting as Principal while Paulson is away, keeps a watchful eye on everyone and makes periodic calls to the superintendent in a bid to undermine Paulson’s authority. Edna, who initially meets Larry with some frost, starts to see him in a new light, and Larry grows more assertive and confident—a change that Edna finds increasingly attractive.

Just as things seem to be turning a corner for the class and for their home lives, a serious accident involving Chadley Bennett IV, Vanessa Crawford, and the trusted driver’s education car pulls the group closer together. The event acts as a catalyst, forcing each character to confront who they are and what they want from one another. In the aftermath, the entire class appears to have found a sense of self and belonging, and the story culminates with everyone passing the course. In a closing turn, Larry and Edna begin a romantic relationship, setting the stage for new beginnings beyond the classroom.