Facts About “American Graffiti”

Larrylambert
4 min readJan 2, 2024

Apparently, it was a slice of life movie.

Creative Commons: nworbleahcim

I know American Graffiti is a classic movie, but I honestly didn’t remember that much about it. One thing that stuck in my mind was the postscript of the movie. I remembered it revealed the terrible fate of one of the characters in particular. That’s right, Steve, aka Ron Howard, became an insurance agent.

In addition, I do remember the movie was very car oriented and Harrison Ford played a role in it. So, after doing some research, here are some things you might not have known about American Graffiti.

1: George Lucas did American Graffiti, after having his first project, THX-1138, was unsuccessful. Francis Ford Coppola told him, “Don’t be so weird.”

So, Lucas did American Graffiti to show he could do something people could relate to. After all, anyone who saw the bar scene in Star Wars knows weird doesn’t sell.

2: Universal Pictures almost made it a made for TV movie. It was saved form that fate when Francis Ford Coppola came on board.

Coppola was fresh off his success with The Godfather, so he had some clout with the studio. I guess he…

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Larrylambert

You probably don't know my name, but have likely seen my work. I've written for numerous syndicated cartoon strips and my gags have appeared in national pubs.