American Graffiti/Trivia

• Executive Meddling / Recut: Universal trimmed four minutes from the film for its initial release. When it was re-released to theaters in 1978, following the success of Star Wars and Lucas' resulting clout, the cut scenes (including Toad dealing with a fast-talking car salesman and Bob Falfa serenading Laurie with "Some Enchanted Evening") were put back in. Producer Coppola openly sympathized with Lucas over the matter, as he himself also dealt with executive meddling while shooting The Godfather.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Let's see, Richie Cunningham's in it. And Matt Hooper. And Melvin Dummar. And Oscar Wallace. And Shirley Feeney. And Julie Cooper. And Matthew Blaisdel. And Chrissy Snow. And Indiana Jones / Han Solo.
• Star-Making Role: For Richard Dreyfuss. Also the first significant non-child role for Ron Howard.
  • And, of course, there's now plenty of Retroactive Recognition for the rest of the cast, most notably Harrison Ford.
• Throw It In: Terry crashing his Vespa at Mel's during the opening credits was an actual accident by Charles Martin Smith.