Julien Thaddeus Springer --J.T. for short-- tries to make it as an athlete and, even more importantly, he tries to make it as a person who might interest some girl -- any girl! 

J.T.'s problems begin to upset his home life and his parents exile him to his room. There's nothing in that room for him except a television set, and he begins watching "nostalgia" programs, set in what seems to him a much happier time. 

He becomes convinced that he's a 1950s personality trapped in the body of a modern teenager. To escape the unhappiness of his real world, he creates a make-believe world, a town called Oakdale, in the 1950s, and in Oakdale he's not a weirdo! In fact, he's someone special. In a climactic scene, J.T. fights through his problem and comes back prepared to cope with the real world of today.