In an era where audiences are peddled an onslaught of remakes, sequels, and requels, few attempts at adapting existing works really manage to stand out. That one of these precious few was immediately trashed by critics who didn’t understand it and mismanaged by a company that was too scared to court controversy, is a shame. That show, though you may not expect it, was none other than Paramount’s own “Heathers”, which aired in 2018.
The series, created by Jason Micallef, had the same basics as Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann’s film of the same name, fixating on a group of students at Westerberg High School in Sherwood, Ohio, and the deeply messy politics and behavior that comes with that. It retained the main crew of three “mean-girls” Heathers (Chandler, Duke, McNamara), along with the blasé “good person” Veronica and her faux-tortured murderer love interest JD.
Though similar to its source, it gave the film a queerer bent: what if the politics of high school had changed and social climbing queer kids were weaponizing their identity online and off? Created by a queer cast and crew — including directors like Leslye Headland and Gregg Araki — the series was as whip-smart as the original. This was a series that successfully managed to critique empty allyship, narcissistic queers, sociopathic straight boys (and girls), worthless parenting, incompetent educators, and, perhaps most scathingly, the inadequacy of the school system and government in the face of tragedy.
But “Heathers” never made the splash it should have beyond clickbait headlines about how it had episodes pulled because of its presumed proximity to school shootings and a network that was terrified of bad press (which it got anyway). That the series has remained something of a cult classic, much like its original film was in its own heyday, comes at no surprise, but it does make one question how exactly it got made?
With Leslye Headland’s new “Star Wars” series, “The Acolyte”, currently making waves as it airs on Disney+, IndieWire spoke to Headland and “Heathers” creator Jason Micallef (who is now writing for “The Acolyte”), along with actor Drew Droege, and writers Price Peterson and Dan Brier about the creation, the reception and the French aristocracy twist they had planned for Season 2.
The series began with its pilot, shot in a tumultuous political landscape and designed for TV Land but then pushed to the Paramount Network — Viacom’s rebrand of Spike TV that was intended to be “like HBO”. Though initially intended to be a half-hour, it ended up becoming something darker and more prestige-y than they expected, taking the idea of “Heathers” in a new direction for a new generation.
Jason Micallef, Creator: I don’t know if I believed that a bunch of skinny hot blonde girls were the stars of the school. It didn’t really feel like [the world of the original “Heathers”] was the world we lived in at the time. It wasn’t a trollish decision, or a lecture, I just didn’t buy it. So I wrote the pilot, they said, “Let’s do it, but you need to pick a director,” and I’d known Leslye [Headland] for years. She created this amazing visual deck and everyone knew she was the right one for it.
Leslye Headland, Director: Jason and I have been friends since both of us were assistants in 2004 and I was like, “Let me do this with you!” The look of the show was based on different references that I showed [in the pitch]. There wasn’t a lot of discussion beyond it because I had already presented it all: cinematography, tone, color scheme, everything. “Twin Peaks” was in there, a lot of original “Heathers” references in the way it was shot, some Coen brothers in there to express how things can be violent and strange and, at the same time, feel very funny. There’s images of “Pulp Fiction”, “Full Metal Jacket”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, “Fight Club.”
Dan Brier, Writer: I came on as the writers assistant, but, over the course of the writers room, I got to contribute more and co-write the eighth episode with Annie [Mebane, the show’s head writer] and Jason. It was the best job I ever had; all of the writers were smart and funny and, from the beginning, Jason’s approach was ‘how do we honor not only the content of “Heathers”, but the spirit of it.’ It was sort of devil may care, spitting in the eye of every authority that we possibly could. The real goal was to aim as crazy as possible and wait for someone to tell us we couldn’t do something. And there was really almost no pushback [from the network].
Micallef: And, so, the first day of shooting was the day after the crazy election that year [2016], literally the next day. The energy was wild. I had a lot of friends that were weirdly crumbling, but I had this thing where I had to work sixteen hours a day. It was very helpful. We made it, edited it, and they picked it up. I didn’t know the level of control most showrunners have over those episodic directors, so I was very much like, “Here’s the things that are important to me to make it look awesome.” Directing four things at the same time, and editing at the same time, you’re racing back and forth. I remember with one scene, Gregg [Araki] asked me, “What are you thinking about for the visuals of this?” And I was like oh my god, I’m not gonna tell Greg Araki what to do with the visuals, so “do whatever the fuck you want”, which is not common in television.
Price Peterson, Writer: Writing it right after Trump was elected, the world was in this crazy state of shell shock and we just sat on Jason’s floor. The show was mostly written by women and gay men, and, by the time we started writing Season 2, all three women were pregnant. So my main takeaway was that it was a very nurturing, sweet, and positive place; like a support group for what was happening in the world.
Drew Droege, Actor: It was a dream to get to come on there and be a part of it because I am a huge fan of the movie and both Jason and Leslye’s work. We didn’t do the rest of the series, after the pilot, until the summer of 2017, so the tone of the show changed drastically in the back nine. We had to shift into more of an understanding of what we were satirizing and it became a lot stronger because it was more character based and less about making fun of identity politics. I think it’s true to the source material of “Heathers”, in which everyone is material. Every side, every political ideology, every character, is fodder for comedy, but you want to be able to understand them.
Micallef: The writers were incredible – and Annie corralled all these geniuses because, as weird as it could get, it had to be a story and it had to make sense. The show is a real testament to her work. At the time, we weren’t just thinking “let’s do something shocking” though. We wanted to make an actual satire. And the network was awesome. They loved us. We would get emails – and I’m telling you this never happens – and be included on giant chains where random people at Paramount that do ad buys, completely unrelated, were telling us how much they loved it.
Brier: The writers room was right after inauguration, a very hot intense zeitgeist. We would all come in every day and be venting sincerely about how insane reality was and using this show as a sort of medicine. We can use these characters and the vessel of this very satirical film to try and process this. And what made us laugh in that environment was this chance to poke the eye of all these uncomfortable dark realities.
Peterson: We felt safe enough to address the things that upset us about how people treat each other, so the irony of “Heathers” is that the tv series has an ink black heart, but it was actually made by a group of sensitive and caring people.
Brier: I would say it set the bar very high and it’s hard to find a similar spirited group of writers that were wanting to tackle something really bold and brave. I’ve been in a lot of different writing environments now so it’s just been internalized to not say certain types of things. Don’t step on that hot button because it’s not worth that reaction.
Micallef: At that time, it felt like [representation] had to be “important” and “good”. And I remember someone from GLAAD called me right when the casting for the pilot had gone out. They really wanted me to think about the issue with having a non-binary person as a Heather, which I thought was great, but then it dawned on me: people think the Heathers are the villains. Like they’re not going to win Miss Congeniality or anything, but they’re the victims of JD, and ultimately Veronica in our version.
Droege: This is also a show about high school and how popularity corrupts. So I don’t want to watch another show where three white blonde girls walk down the hall and flick someone’s ear. Imagine the school gives that power and popularity to large people, queer people, BIPOC people. They’re 15, 16, 17 years old — they’re still monsters who don’t know what to do with that power.
I think of myself in high school; my only defense mechanism was being funny and I used that to make fun of people. I was a menace, but it was my only power. You’re navigating puberty and don’t know the power your words and actions have. I was just a gay kid in North Carolina, and I was popular because I could be funny. So many shows about queer kids in high school have them getting thrown in the trash can, being sweet and good people, falling in love with the jock… I think it’s dismissive and offensive to assume that we can’t be monsters.
Brier: I think that was what allowed it to be so biting and so fun. Obviously these were not the conventional Heathers of the ‘80s and it was animated by the belief that, for everyone in the writers room, they were these sort of wish fulfillment versions of themselves as adults; they could be transported back to high school and be as mean and funny as they are, able to fully inhabit that confidence and just be the most evil, mean person they could possibly be.
Peterson: Perhaps it shows our comfort with our own world and community, and how we love our fellow queer siblings and our flaws. It’s interesting to get at what’s universal about power struggles, which is that people are always looking to get one up on someone else, but queer people are so much funnier about it and do it with style. We set out to have this boring psychopath be the fake heroine of the show until we revealed that she’s actually the crazy villain and the ones you thought were the villains are actually the ones you’re rooting for. And that’s the queer experience in general.
Droege: I’m a big believer in equal opportunity, everybody is lampoonable. We should make fun of queer people, of BIPOC people, of liberal people, and from the point of view of those people, not from the point of view of others punching down. There’s something about human comedy that’s interesting to me, as opposed to things where everyone’s beliefs are the same as my own. I don’t want to sit down and watch a play and have my own opinions given back to me. And “Heathers” shook that up.
Micallef: The whole point of being a teenager is that you’re kind of trying on things. And I didn’t love that we’re raising kids to be hyper fixated on identity and how that is everything. At the time I was reading a lot of Buddhism and the whole tenant of that is being conscious not to identify with anything. It’s interesting that we’re doing “Star Wars” now and the Jedi are kind of like that; identifying with what you know and recognizing how that causes suffering and pain. And I thought it’s interesting because it’s the opposite of what you should do with young people, which is let them be who they are. Be an amorphous thing that changes! I hope you’re not the same person you were years ago because, otherwise, you haven’t grown at all.
After producing the entire season, the show began its downfall. Scheduled to premiere in March 2018, the premiere was postponed because of the shooting in Parkland at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Meant to premiere in July, Paramount Network once again postponed the show because of concern for its content following the Sante Fe High School shooting that very June. In October, Paramount Network settled for airing the series over five nights, with the episodes awkwardly shoved into pairs per night of the week.
The fifth episode was altered (removing a bit of a video game with teachers holding guns), the seventh and eighth episode were pulled from air (only made available online), and the tenth episode – its grand finale – was entirely cut out, with only the ninth airing as a makeshift finale in the United States. While it aired in full and unedited on HBO Europe, StarzPlay in the UK, and Stan in Australia, it has never been made available in the US in full.
Micallef: No one at the network was concerned about [the queer content or drama], but then the school shooting stuff happened. No point in arguing with it now, but, by the way, there is no shooting in our show. And what’s crazy is that it’s hard to remember which one kicked things off, which was exactly what the show was talking about.
Headland: When there was all the protesting and outcry about Parkland, which was justified, I remember talking with Jason about how it was all going to go away and nothing was going to change. There was all this outrage at the show, and pulling the last episode, and this corporate reaction to free speech, simply because people were rightfully protesting the way guns work in this country and how insane it is that people can just walk through a school and do that. But Jason and I knew nothing was going to change. Like once someone came in and shot kindergarteners, you’re done.
Micallef: Viacom was like living in an episode of “Succession” with corporate intrigue and CBS, and they didn’t want the heat that came with “Heathers”. So they were like “we’re not airing the show”, which I didn’t even know was something they could do. They’d all seen it, they knew what was in it. And that’s what art is. It’s not meant to make you feel great all the time. It can challenge you, it can infuriate you, it can do so many things. And if you don’t want to do that, don’t fucking watch it. I think if the show came out today, it’d be a hit because I think they’d grasp it.
Brier: It was as close to book banning as you can get on television. The only parallels I can think of are a back catalog of an old show where you find out an actor did something horrible and then they remove the old episode. But it’s all fictional, it has nothing to do with anything off screen.
Micallef: Our text chat with the writers was hysterical. We all had a moment like our house had burned down. You’re just sitting around laughing. The Episode 8 pulling was hysterical to me. Nobody wants to believe this, but there are a lot of dumb people. There are so many people that just do not understand satire, even as a concept.
The series also received some negative reviews, including from queer critics, who cited it as “a hateful, bigoted exercise in regression” and “written for aging Fox News viewers who get angry about people’s gender pronouns”.
Micallef: At first we were like “what the fuck” because it’s so crazy to have an opinion about something that you haven’t engaged with, and we knew people were doing it in bad faith, and to bolster their own platforms. There’s a little bit of respect in me that they’re just doing what the Heathers would do, so I can’t take it personally. And those who only saw the pilot? Come on, it’s a television show. You don’t read the first chapter of a book and decide you have a full opinion. But the reaction to the show from both ends — the right hating it to the left hating it, the money people hating it and the critics hating it — it all weirdly reinforces the art, proving the show’s point.
Headland: The tone of humor is just not what people wanted. They wanted a soft, non-threatening version of “Heathers,” or just a similar color palette. Ours is much more abrasive and pops. The sharpness of “Heathers” came from the dialogue and subject matter. We were making fun of things you’re not allowed to make fun of. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of in my career.
Peterson: It was an uphill battle in general because there was a building sentiment against remakes and IP, mixed with a small but very passionate fan base for the musical version of “Heathers.” I don’t want to turn this into a tirade against Twitter itself, but there was a time when people who felt powerless would turn to Twitter to feel some sort of impact on the world. You can shout down powerful people, you can start a movement. For the most part, I think we’re looking back and saying it was a bubble. All the influence was miniscule compared to what the rest of the world is, but studio execs and critics and journalists would all look to Twitter to see what people were saying, and that’s not representative of what everyone thought. Either way, we wrote a show of its time and it shouldn’t surprise us that very time is what ate it alive.
Brier: It was bizarre. There’s the classic saying that you don’t want to be the villain of the internet for any amount of time, and it felt like, while none of us individually were, it was a rollercoaster ride of being perceived in bad faith. Also, I would say personally it made me kind of stop believing in the internet in a weird way, like it really did feel so “hive mind” and shallow a reaction to work that is trying to do something different. Maybe it’s not a perfect show, or not for everyone, but it’s at least aspiring to be something new and weird and different. And it was wild to watch that be so flattened.
Headland: I remember I was surprised at how many people didn’t get it, and also not. I was mostly surprised that there was no interrogation at all of the show, no curiosity around it. I remember talking to someone who said it was really divisive, that Viacom’s freaked out, and people are concerned about it being upsetting. And I listened for a while and thought, “It sounds like we made “Heathers.” Nobody liked that movie. What are you talking about?” And I do feel like “Heathers” was punished for not being able to slide into a sort of comfortable space. Everything was very heightened in a way that people didn’t get. We had the queerest crew and writers’ room, so when people were like, “This is anti-queer,” I was just like, “What are you talking about?” There’s no curiosity about who made it.
Peterson: It sounded like toxic allyship, like someone thought they were sticking up for queer people, but if you even continue watching the show, it’s very clear who the heroes of the show are and who the villains are. To get to the end and think the queers are the villains, you have some media literacy issues. Another question it gets into is: How palatable does a queer villain have to be?
Though the series was unceremoniously canceled by Paramount Network, the writers had finished writing the entire second season they’d been hired to make. The plan was to take the concept of “Heathers” and place it in another era: that of the French Revolution.
Micallef: We wrote Season 2. They loved the show so much before it even aired that they wanted us to write a second season. They were letting me do what I wanted with that one too, and I had this crazy idea: what if I wanted to set it in Versailles because that’s exactly what high school is? A revolutionary time is interesting and perfect for “Heathers” because people act in all kinds of ways that are baffling.
Droege: We were going to be in 18th century France, a la “Marie Antoinette.” In hindsight, had we done that for Season 1 instead, we probably could have continued, because it was enough of a separation that people wouldn’t have felt so attacked. It also brings up what the show and movie have always said: this continues to happen in society. This is what societies do to each other and it’s about how important popularity is, and how you’ll live and die to be accepted. That’s so much of what the through line is, more than anything else on the show.
Brier: The intention was to have the same spirit and bring back a lot of the same actors, the anthology style of “American Horror Story.” Jason had us all read different books about the French Revolution, so I read this whole book about Robespierre. We wrote the entire season by the time it became clear that it was not going to get made, but we came up with some really insane stuff and I wish it had been made because it’s an even bigger swing.
Peterson: The cold open [of my episode] has the revolution up and running. Executions have begun, anyone even lightly associated with the aristocracy is being executed and everyone’s cheering. And there’s boy Heathers, all named John, and you can see they’re using the revolution to gain power. And they finally go too far, like someone brings out the king’s terrier, because it was the crown dog, and it gets beheaded and then everyone goes quiet, like the revolution is almost destroyed. We were talking about licensing Jock Jams to play during the executions too, but we never settled on how much anachronism we would do.
It’s only been six years, but the “Heathers” team still looks back at the series with pride. Not a single person involved seems to regret its creation and they’re able to look back at its criticism with sensitivity more than hatred. Their one real hope for the future of the show? Making it available for all to watch in full.
Micallef: Time has changed, and I do have a lot of empathy for the people that hated it at the time. Well, not so much empathy — they’re idiots — but I do understand that Trump had become president and, wherever you land on that, the energy was raised and people felt attacked. And I think when people feel attacked, whether they are or aren’t doesn’t actually matter. They’re on the hunt for anything — something like our show — that can reinforce what you believe. But we really wanted to make something that, hopefully, young people could watch and see that someone understands the real problems in our society.
Headland: This is going to sound so pretentious but I was reading this Stanley Kubrick biography and what was so surprising was how much of his work was panned. Now he’s so revered – there’s no one better than him – but people didn’t like him. Stuff comes around, whether that’s 15 or 20 years later, but it has to be available so that an audience can find it. I do think it should and can have a life beyond what it was allowed to. I’m learning this with “Star Wars” as well. It’s not for everybody, but I think that the people who do respond to it, who are like-minded, will get it.
Droege: We were so encouraged from the table read through the shooting because we were all in agreement about what we were making. This is a pitch black comedy, and I understood why there was a reaction to it. When there’s actual school shootings happening, how do we have a comedy on air involving that with teenagers? It’s too close. People can’t separate things. And we were living in the Trump years. Everything changed, now we have alternative “facts” and it’s so hard for anyone to have a complex thought, so they all want things that are soft and kind and loving. It’s unfortunate, but I think “Heathers” is brilliant and the best TV show I’ve ever worked on.
Brier: That was the tragedy of the exact historical moment that the show came out in. Everyone wanted to treat everything with such kid gloves, and they wanted to sanitize things so that there could be no risk of something being misinterpreted. This was written by mostly queer people trying to honor the spirit of things they loved as teenagers, and not trying to be gentle in pretending that every queer teenager is the nicest, sweetest angel. It was throwing some sharp elbows, and that allowed a cynical or lazy reviewer to just be like “this show is intentionally demonizing these people” when it obviously was supposed to be catering to that exact audience. It had a “who gives a fuck” attitude and I think everyone involved in the show was trying to make the type of thing they would have loved to see when they were seventeen.
Droege: The movie went through such a period of people not wanting to do it and staying away from it, and didn’t get success until VHS, so it sort of tracks. But what’s interesting to me is that I’ve talked to people in other countries who love it, who see it for what it is. They see it as an evisceration of America, and we are a country that just can’t own our shit.
Peterson: It feels like it should be the click of a mouse to get to it, but I think there’s just something behind the scenes, some baggage around it. No one wants bad publicity on their reputation and they seem to think “Heathers” would be harmful to their image. Every now and again, because it aired in its entirety in Europe and Australia, you’ll get someone from the region making a YouTube video about it, but I feel like that kind of reassessment has been actively prevented because the finale isn’t available in the US. I do feel that it is as timely as ever.
Headland: It would be incredible if Paramount just threw it on there, or if it got pirated more. I just wish people could see it because I believe there’s an audience for it. How long did it take the original movie to become iconic? It certainly wasn’t this thing that came out of the gate and everyone loved it.