Last week I wrote about reviving this old blog. It turns out I wasn't done digging. Just below the blog, one layer further down, was an even older site: Son of Grease, a fan tribute to Grease 2 that I created in the olden times (1996).
You heard that right: I built the first fan site for Grease 2, the 1982 sequel, starring Michelle Pfeiffer in her first big role and featuring a bowling alley musical number, a mysterious Cool Rider on a motorcycle, and a song about reproduction sung in a high school biology class. Allison wrote the full plot synopsis, and to this day I admire the comic brilliance of her contribution.
Origins
Why was I borderline obsessed with Grease 2 as a 20-something right out of college? That's a story for another day. Suffice it to say that this box-office flop has earned a huge cult following over the years.
In those early days of the web, I wanted to practice building a site. As GeoCities started to take off, I realized I could get the URL www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1982 and I was off to the races. The site's name came (indirectly) from leading man Maxwell Caulfield himself.
Son of Grease had everything a 90s fan site was supposed to have: plot summaries, cast bios, lyrics to every song, tinny WAV files, a webring, and a guest book. The guest book archive still covers five years of fan notes from 1996 to 2001, and reading through them is pretty amusing. The very first one is a facetious entry from my good friend and college roommate Gary J.
As what I imagined to be a funny joke, I elected myself the "President of the Son of Grease Fan Club." That fan club initially only existed in my mind, but later we did have a Yahoo Group for a while. In 1998, when I attended the Yale Cabaret production of Grease 2, I was thanked in the program with that title, which made it all worthwhile.
While I've on rare occasions made small tweaks and redesigns to the site, it has been mostly untouched for many years.
The 2026 Reboot
As is likely obvious, I have had some extra time on my hands lately, so I put my Claude Code subscription to questionable use and jumped right into a full revamp:
- A new, mobile-friendly design. Every page is rebuilt on a modern, responsive template that works on a phone, while keeping most of the original content and a little of the old GeoCities spirit.
- Housecleaning. I removed a bunch of cruft, including the merchandise store and product images pages.
- New clips. I captured some new video clips straight from a VHS source, including Brad's audition and the Pink Ladies Pledge, and upgraded the audio clips to match. I might do some more of those, we'll see.
- Link rot repair. Same story as the blog: many entries in the Links section were broken, so they now point to Wayback Machine snapshots when possible. I also added a bunch of new ones: recent articles, podcasts, videos, In Print citations, and one delightful Northampton TikTok troupe.
- Events. A new Events page lists Grease 2 screenings and sing-alongs, from the 92nd Street Y in 2012 to this year's poolside screening at the TCM Classic Film Festival, which came with a cast reunion. The 2018 35th anniversary screening and cast reunion in Beverly Hills is also spotlighted on that page.
- On Stage. In my years away from the fandom I had missed some things! The revamped On Stage section covers productions that followed the first Yale Cabaret staging in 1998, including Cool Rider in London's West End in 2014, a UC Berkeley student staging in 2016, a five-week run at Portland's Funhouse Lounge in 2023, and the Cool Rider 10th anniversary concert at the London Palladium in 2024 (featuring Maxwell Caulfield as Mr. Stuart). The Cool Rider studio album is on the Music & Lyrics page now too.
Why spend time on such frivolity?
Partly because it's fun, but mostly because this kind of site is disappearing. The fan-built web of the 90s was weird and personal and earnest, and a lot of it is gone for good. Son of Grease somehow survived thirty years, and it felt worth making sure it can survive a few more, and that somebody stumbling onto it from a phone in 2026 has a nice time.
Also, Grease 2 is great, and I will not be taking questions. 🤓
If you know of a Grease 2 event or link I'm missing, send it my way. And if you signed the guest book back in 1997, hi. Thanks for coming back.