How to write an 80's style comedy-drama ... for a modern day audiencE

I'm curious to what traits lots of classic 80's comedy-dramas have because I want to write a movie. And maybe once I start taking ADD meds (after I go back and see my doctor next week) I will be able to finally sit down and do something creative.

So what are some characteristics of 80's comedy dramas?

1. Molly Ringwald.

I can't find the original post, but I think it was Gear who pointed out that in many 80's movies theres a black dude who's on the side of the good (white) guys, and then there's an evil black dude, and in the end of the movie the evil black guy goes to the good black guy, and says something like "Hey, brother", trying to evoke racial solidarity, but the good black guy just responds "I'm not your brother!", and walks off with the white guys.

― Tuomas, 26. maaliskuuta 2007 16:09 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Still can't find the original post...

I could make something funny out of that, good idea

goofy sidekick/neighbor/dubiously platonic bff of opposite sex

Why the hell would you write an 80s style comedy-drama? And what IS an 80s style comedy-drama?

http://jonnyrosemont.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/the-breakfast-club-thumb-400x493.jpg

non?

The first "80s style comedy dramas" that came to my mind were Soul Brother and Risky Business... Now that I think of it, they're both about yuppie-ish young men who want to go to a good university to make it big in life, but in order to do that they have to do something unusual, which provides the comedy. And also, while taking that unusual course, they get to know people on the other side of the class barrier, and by the end they hook up with a definitely non-yuppie, lower-class girl.

Was the idea of a romance between a rich guy (usually a yuppie) and a poor girl, which follows from the rich guy going to the "other side of the tracks" due to some odd circumstances, a common theme in 80s Hollywood comedy? The same thing happens in Trading Places, Coming to America, Life Stinks, probably other movies too.

In fact, there are probably a lot of 80s comedies where the basic idea is "yuppie goes slumming". After Hours is a good example, and there's a yuppie/poor girl romance in Pretty in Pink too.

Whereas by the 90s these "other side of the tracks" comedies change their focus to poor guys/girls entering the world of the bourgeoise.

I can already sense ILX's 34452nd reenactment of Sartre's No Exit taking shape on this thread.

Ferris Bueler's Day Off, Better Off Dead, Heaven Help Us, Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds, Real Genius and Mannequin. Basically when I said Comedy-Drama I meant 80's comedies that aren't like Leslie Nielsen films (like Airplane and The Naked Gun). I was considering movies like Animal House and Old School as comedy-dramas when I made this thread.
(okay maybe a lot of movies I mentioned are just comedies).

I appreciate ideas on how to write an 90's style comedy too.

*80's style comedy too (not just comedy-dramas)

in the 80s cyborgs came from the future to kill you. in the 90s they came to protect you.