Marking 25 years of Clueless, the teen comedy that keeps on giving 

Twenty-five years on, why does a low-budget teen comedy, based on a 200-year-old novel, continue to resonate with audiences? 

Alicia Silverstone in Clueless

Imagine a world without Jane Austen. It’s a frightening prospect, isn’t it? No Austen means no Mr Darcy, no Dashwood sisters and no Emma Woodhouse. We’d have been deprived of some of the greatest works of literature ever produced. Worse still, there would be no Clueless.

Back in the early nineties, writer and director, Amy Heckerling – chief in command of such divisive, mainstream comedy features as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Look Who’s Talking – took a meeting with the suits at Fox. Indeed, the money men had wanted Ms Heckerling to develop a teen-orientated television show. They’d wanted something fresh, something exciting – something about “the ‘in’ crowd”.