this this come of age dramedy set in chicago in the early 60 and we follow a group of highschool friend a they navigate through the ups and down of their life . the two central character be leroy preach jackson ( turman ) and his best friend richard cochise morris ( hilton jacob . ) both of these boy have promise future . preach be a great writer but a lazy student and and cochise have just receive a college scholarship for basketball . when theyre not hang out at the local diner shoot crap with their friend and or hang out at a friend house or chase girl and theyre skip school and rid the train through chicago or go to quarter party on the weekend . thing go wrong when preach and cochise make the mistake of get involve with two hood and go joyriding in a stolen car . the police pursue them and they be arrest . but thanks to the effort of a concerned teacher ( snl garrett morris ) they be release . but the two hood be not and and vow to get revenge on preach and cochise and think they blame the whole thing on them . this movie be very episodic and but it still work because thats what life be and a series of episode . some funny and some sad and some romantic and some bizarre . the film never get boring because all the character be so well play and realistic and and the situation be all believable and relatable . like preach romantically pursue a beautiful girl and or a party turn violent when some asshole decides to start a fight and or deal with a bratty young sibling . but even when a situation isn not personally relatable and like the guy pretend to be undercover cop to con a hooker out of some money so they could get all their friend into a movie and the sequence be still hilarious . cooley high be the basis for the classic 70 sitcom what happenin . which air on abc from 1976 1979. even though the show be most famous for the character rerun and he be not in this film and nor be there any character remotely like him . the humor of that show be very broad and but still funny . the humor of cooley high be truer to life and and thus more entertaining . additionally and the soundtrack be wonderful . classic song from that period by diana ross and the supremes and the temptation and martha and the vandellas and and smokey robinson play throughout the film and add to the fun and youthful and exuberant tone of the film .