In our weekly seriesAnatomy of a Nude Scene, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sexscenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Joyce Hyser becomes an icon of 1980s cinema, with a little help from HBO and VHS, in Just One of the Guys!
While the teen sex comedy wasn't invented in the 80s, it's hard to argue that the 80s weren't the golden age for that subgenre. The explosion which happened in the wake of Porky's reverberated throughout the decade before more or less going dormant in the 1990s—only to be revived once more thanks to American Pie. The other substantial aid in the subgenre's increased popularity in the 1980s was the initiation of the PG-13 rating in 1984. Now actual teens could go see teen sex comedies in theaters without having to sneak in or, even worse, have a parent accompany them.
It's difficult to say how many films benefitted from the less restrictive rating and the increased box office potential for films that might have otherwise been slapped with an R-rating, but it's impossible to understate the ultimate results of the PG-13's inception. 1985's Just One of the Guys seemed to be the perfect test case for Hollywood in determining how a sex comedy might fare in this brave new world of PG-13 flicks. Based very loosely on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the film centers around ambitious journalist-in-the-making Terri Griffith (Joyce Hyser) and her quest to prove that the only thing holding her back from being lauded for her work is the fact that she's female.
When her parents set sail on a Caribbean cruise, Terri decides to take the drastic step of enrolling in a new high school as a boyto see if her talents are any more appreciated due to a simple gender swap. With the help of her best friend Denise and her dweeby little brother Buddy, Terri soon finds herself accepted into a circle of male friends thanks in no small part to her helping a nerdy guy named Rick (Clayton Rohner) become a heartthrobwithan image makeover. Unfortunately, Terri begins to fall for Rick, leading Rick to think that his new male buddy is gay when in actuality, it's all just a big misunderstanding.
Things come to a head on prom night when Rick finally asserts himself and beats up the school bully—played by 80s school bully icon William Zabka. Terri's college boyfriend also shows up, putting more pressure on Terri to tell Rick the truth. Rick is incredulous at first, leaving Terri with no choice but to prove her point the only way she knows how...
One of the major differences between Just One of the Guys and the vast majority of high school sex comedies of the era is that this flick had a woman at the helm, Lisa Gottlieb. In fact, one could do a lot worse in representing the best of the decade than the trio of female directed flicks Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Valley Girl, and this one. Much like Amy Heckerling helped Phoebe Cates through her nude scene in Fast Times, Gottlieb was able to convince Hyser to do this film's topless scene.
At the time, Hyserhad famously datedboth Warren Beatty and Bruce Springsteen, and she thought that it was probably not the best idea to do a nude scene in this film. Thankfully Gottlieb was able to convince Hyser that there really was no better or cleaner way—story-wise—to get the ultimate point of the scene across.Thank goodness she was able to convince her to do the scene because it has become one of the most iconic nude scenes of the 1980s and more or less gave Hyser a lasting legacy. While she had a fairly substantial acting career both before and after this film, it's this role and this moment which helped to cement her status as one of the definitive dream girls of the 1980s.
However,the film wasn't an unqualified success when it hit theaters. After opening at number five at the box office—behind The Breakfast Club in its 11th weekend of release—Just One of the Guys went on to earn a respectable $11 million. That was nearly triple the film's budget, so it was certainly not a failure, but it was far from the biggest success in the genre in 1985. However, two major forces in the home entertainment industry were gaining significant steam at this same point in time. By late 1985, VHS rentals were becoming hip and HBO was popping up in more households, both of which substantially raised the profile of a lot of films that weren't box office blockbusters like Just One of the Guys.
Thanks to word of mouth, the film's rental receipts went through the roof and the flick also became a staple of HBO's afternoon programming. The PG-13 rating meant that HBO could show the film during the day as kids were getting home from school or spending summer days glued to the boob tube.That meant that more pairs of horny, impressionable teenage eyes were on Hyser's topless scene on any given day than there were in the film's entire theatrical run. The film, and that scene in particular, became very well known as a result.
Joyce Hyser's topless flash remains the gold standard for PG-13 nude scenes, which have become less and less common in the last twenty years or so. It's comforting to know that it exists at all and even better that you don't have to wait for the film's climax to see them as you can catch them anytime you like right here on Mr. Skin! However, there are worse films from the era to watch—most of them, actually—and if your childhood didn't coincide with this film's peak of relevance, there's never been a better time than now to give Just One of the Guys a shot!
Catch up withour most recent editions ofAnatomy of a Nude Scene
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—Eva Green's Star is Born in Bertolucci'sThe Dreamers
—Phoebe Cates Takes a Dip and Becomes a Legend inFast Times at Ridgemont High
—Kim Basinger Gets All Wet for Mickey Rourke in9½ Weeks
—Molly Ringwald Does Her Only Topless Scene inMalicious
—Straw DogsRaises That Pesky Issue of Consent
—No Amount of Plausible Deniability Can Excuse What's Going On inCaligula
—The Devil's AdvocateFills Our Eyes with Double Vision
—Schlockmeister Ed Wood Transitions to Booby Movies withOrgy of the Dead
—36-Year Old Diane Lane Plays a MILF inUnfaithful
—Natalie Portman Goes Nude in Wes Anderson's Short FilmHotel Chevalier
—Orson Welles Distracts Us with a Nude Oja Kodar inF for Fake
—Japan's Most Notorious Director MakesIn the Realm of the SensesHis Most Notorious Film
—The Erotic ThrillerBoxing HelenaProvides More Laughs Than Erotic Thrills
**Click Here to Read All Past Editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene/Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy**
