A term that describes a bunch of young upstarts in any industry, the Brat Pack was first used in the 1980s to refer to a group of actors that included Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, and Rob Lowe. Honorary Brat Pack members were Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, Mare Winningham, Charlie Sheen, John Cryer, Christian Slater, Robert Downey, Jr., James Spader, John Cusack, Eric Stoltz, Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, and Matthew Broderick. The name is a play on the Rat Pack, a term used for the 1960s Vegas clique of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.

The den mother of the Brat Pack was writer/director John Hughes, who changed the teen film genre forever. Not content to leave the celluloid teenage experience at lookin'-to-get-laid comedies, Hughes explored the premise that high...