Editing Clueless (section)

===Development===
The idea for ''Clueless'' first originated as a television pilot in 1993.<ref name="Creative">{{Cite web |title=Clueless ''Creative Writing'' |date=June 20, 2019 |url=https://vimeo.com/343465997 |access-date=March 26, 2022 |publisher=[[Paramount Home Entertainment]] |via=[[Vimeo]]}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite magazine |last=Nashawaty |first=Chris |date=October 5, 2012 |title=Clueless {1995} |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2012/10/05/clueless-1995 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311185703/http://www.ew.com/article/2012/10/05/clueless-1995 |archive-date=March 11, 2015 |access-date=March 26, 2022 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref><ref name="vanityfair.com" /> Writer and director [[Amy Heckerling]] said: "[[20th Century Studios|Twentieth Century Fox]] said they wanted a show about teenagers—but not the nerds. They wanted it to be about the cool kids. The most successful character in anything I'd ever done was Jeff Spicoli in ''[[Fast Times at Ridgemont High|Fast Times]]''. People think that's because he was stoned and a surfer. But that's not it. It's because he's positive. So I thought, 'I'm going to write a character who's positive and happy.' And that was Cher."<ref name=":4" /> Heckerling, having read the [[Jane Austen]] novel ''[[Emma (novel)|Emma]]'' in college and loving the [[Emma Woodhouse|title character]]'s positivity, decided to write the script around an Emma-like character, saying, "I started to think, 'What's the larger context for that kind of a 'nothing can go wrong' 'always looks through rose colored glasses' kind of girl? So I tried to take all the things that were in this sort of pretty 1800s world and see what would that be like if it was in Beverly Hills."<ref name="Creative"/>

{{Quote box
| quote = "I remembered reading ''[[Emma (novel)|Emma]]'' in college and being struck at how much it reminded me of old TV shows like ''[[Gidget (TV series)|Gidget]]''. There's something so basic about it. I knew ''[Clueless]'' would be set in Beverly Hills because it's a hyper-pastel fantasy place."
| source = —writer and director [[Amy Heckerling]] in 2012<ref name=":4"/>
| width = 30%
}}

As research for the script, Heckerling sat in on classes at [[Beverly Hills High School]] to get a feel for the student culture,<ref name="mentalfloss.com">{{Cite web |last=Puchko |first=Kristy |date=2015-12-01 |title=22 Facts About Clueless On Its 25th Anniversary |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/56217/22-fun-facts-about-clueless |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108174707/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/56217/22-fun-facts-about-clueless |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |access-date=March 26, 2022 |website=[[Mental Floss]]}}</ref> commenting, "...one thing I observed was these girls in a constant state of grooming."<ref name=":4" /> Ken Stovitz had become Heckerling's agent at the time and told her the script had the potential to be a feature film after he read it.<ref name="vanityfair.com" /> The finished script, which was titled "No Worries", contained the main characters that would end up in the ''Clueless'' film.<ref name="vanityfair.com" /> [[Twink Caplan]], Heckerling's friend who had worked with her on past projects, said film executives at Fox were wary of the story being too female-oriented to appeal to a large enough audience. "It was obvious they didn't get it. They thought the script needed more boys in it. They were afraid that if they focused on girls, we wouldn't get any guys to see it. So it went into [[Turnaround (filmmaking)|turnaround]]. It was dead", said Caplan.<ref name=":4" />

Six months later, the script found its way to producer [[Scott Rudin]], who gave it his stamp of approval.<ref name="Creative" /><ref name=":4" /> Rudin's support led to increased interest in the script, and it became the subject of a bidding war between studios which was eventually won by [[Paramount Pictures]].<ref name="Creative" /> Heckerling was excited, as [[Viacom (1952–2005)|Viacom]] (Paramount's parent company) owned several major youth-centered television channels, such as [[MTV]] and [[Nickelodeon]], which were suited to the film's target demographic.<ref name="Creative" />