History Film / Diner

** Eddie constantly annoys his friends by asking them who they prefer, [[FrankSinatra Sinatra]] or [[JohnnyMathis Mathis]]. When Boogie [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]] and answers "[[Music/ElvisPresley Presley]]", it sets off Eddie's BerserkButton.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Subverted; Eddie reveals to Boogie he really is a virgin.

->"I'm buying at the [[TitleDrop diner]]."

Though not a big hit on release, thanks in part to ExecutiveMeddling, this became a cult hit on video, and helped launch the careers of Mickey Rourke (Boogie), Steve Guttenberg (Eddie), Creator/KevinBacon (Fenwick), Paul Reiser (Modell), Daniel Stern (Shrevie), Ellen Barkin (Beth), and Timothy Daly (Billy). It's also one of the first films to feature SeinfeldianConversation, and according to many of its fans (including Creator/JuddApatow, Nick Hornby, and Creator/JerrySeinfeld himself), may be the UrExample.

''For the pinball machine from Williams, [[Pinball/{{Diner}} click here.]]''

* BerserkButton: It's bad enough that Beth can't understand the importance of Shrevie's record-collection organization system, but she also ''doesn't know who CharlieParker is.''

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Played for laughs; Fenwick pretends to have gotten in a car accident and thrown from the car so that Boogie, Modell, Shrevie and Beth will think he's dead. Not until Boogie is standing over Fenwick does he let them in on the joke. Also, the "blood" is from a ketchup bottle he'd been carrying around for weeks]].

* RecycledInSpace: ''IVitelloni'' set in Baltimore.
** Alternatively, an East Coast version of ''AmericanGraffiti''.

''Diner'' is a 1982 semi-autobiographical ComingOfAge film by Creator/BarryLevinson set in Baltimore in the last week of 1959. It's about six friends: Boogie, a gambling addict who works at a beauty shop, is a law school graduate, and is the closest among the group to a ladies' man, Eddie, who's getting married, but [[SeriousBusiness is making his bride-to-be pass a test about the Colts before the ceremony]], Fenwick, a rich screw-up, Modell, the DeadpanSnarker hanger-on, Shrevie, who works at an appliance store and is the only one of the group who's married (to Beth), though not happily, and Billy, who comes back from college for the prospective wedding, and has his own woman problems with Barbara, who works at the local TV station.

Though not a big hit on release, thanks in part to ExecutiveMeddling, this became a cult hit on video, and helped launch the careers of [[Film/AngelHeart Mickey Rourke]] (Boogie), [[PoliceAcademy Steve Guttenberg]] (Eddie), KevinBacon (Fenwick), [[MadAboutYou Paul Reiser]] (Modell), [[CitySlickers Daniel Stern]] (Shrevie), [[TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossTheEighthDimension Ellen Barkin]] (Beth), and [[Series/{{Wings}} Timothy Daly]] (Billy). It's also one of the first films to feature SeinfeldianConversation, and according to many of its fans (including Creator/JuddApatow, Nick Hornby, and JerrySeinfeld himself), may be the UrExample.

Levinson later shot a pilot for a proposed TV series, but the series was never picked up. However, Levinson announced he would turn the movie into a Broadway musical, with songs by SherylCrow.

** Eddie constantly annoys his friends by asking them who they prefer, [[FrankSinatra Sinatra]] or [[JohnnyMathis Mathis]]. When Boogie [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]] and answers "[[ElvisPresley Presley]]", it sets off Eddie's BerserkButton.
* ShoutOut: Everyone goes to see the movie ''ASummerPlace''. Later in the movie, we also see Billy and Eddie going to see ''TheSeventhSeal.''
** Also, a minor character can quote ''SweetSmellOfSuccess'' by heart, much to Eddie and Modell's annoyance.

** When coming out of a movie theater, Billy sees a guy who once was part of a team that jumped him when they were younger, so he goes up to him, and, without warning, decks him. The others are jubilant.

Though not a big hit on release, thanks in part to ExecutiveMeddling, this became a cult hit on video, and helped launch the careers of [[Film/AngelHeart Mickey Rourke]] (Boogie), [[PoliceAcademy Steve Guttenberg]] (Eddie), KevinBacon (Fenwick), [[MadAboutYou Paul Reiser]] (Modell), [[CitySlickers Daniel Stern]] (Shrevie), [[TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossTheEighthDimension Ellen Barkin]] (Beth), and [[{{Wings}} Timothy Daly]] (Billy). It's also one of the first films to feature SeinfeldianConversation, and according to many of its fans (including Creator/JuddApatow, Nick Hornby, and JerrySeinfeld himself), may be the UrExample.

* ThrowItIn: Steve Guttenberg couldn't react coherently to the answer of "Presley", but Levinson kept it in because it was funnier.
** Generally speaking, most of the dialogue at the diner was improvised, especially Modell's, since Paul Reiser was so good at it.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Though Eddie [[spoiler: gets married in a synagogue]], Boogie uses words like "[[YiddishAsASecondLanguage schmuck]], and the arguments Eddie and Modell get into could arguably be categorized as JewsLoveToArgue, there's no indication of this otherwise.

** The guys all describe a beautiful woman as "death".
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Part of the script involved Eddie and some of the others going to see the 1959 NFL championship between [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_NFL_Championship_Game the Colts and the New York Giants]], but Levinson couldn't afford to shoot anything at the football stadium, so the sequence had to be scrapped.
** As noted above, Levinson wrote, produced and directed a pilot for a tv version of series, which would have featured Paul Reiser as Modell.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: The film is based on Levinson's experiences growing up in Baltimore (the football quiz, for example, was something he claimed a cousin of his did). There has been speculation about which of the characters was based on Levinson, but Levinson has always insisted that no one character was based on him; all of them were partly based on him.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The actors hung out before shooting began so they'd become close, and the diner scenes were held till the end of the shoot so they'd have bonded by then. Also, when there were conflicts between some of the actors, Levinson made all of them stay in what was known as the camaraderie camper.
* ExecutiveMeddling: As mentioned above, the studio didn't like the movie, and was going to dump it, until critics such as Pauline Kael raved about it.

''Diner'' is a 1982 semi-autobiographical ComingOfAge film by Barry Levinson set in Baltimore in the last week of 1959. It's about six friends: Boogie, a gambling addict who works at a beauty shop, is a law school graduate, and is the closest among the group to a ladies' man, Eddie, who's getting married, but [[SeriousBusiness is making his bride-to-be pass a test about the Colts before the ceremony]], Fenwick, a rich screw-up, Modell, the DeadpanSnarker hanger-on, Shrevie, who works at an appliance store and is the only one of the group who's married (to Beth), though not happily, and Billy, who comes back from college for the prospective wedding, and has his own woman problems with Barbara, who works at the local TV station.

->''I'm buying at the [[TitleDrop diner]].''

''I'm buying at the [[TitleDrop diner]].''

{{Diner}} is a 1982 semi-autobiographical ComingOfAge film by Barry Levinson set in Baltimore in the last week of 1959. It's about six friends: Boogie, a gambling addict who works at a beauty shop, is a law school graduate, and is the closest among the group to a ladies' man, Eddie, who's getting married, but [[SeriousBusiness is making his bride-to-be pass a test about the Colts before the ceremony]], Fenwick, a rich screw-up, Modell, the DeadpanSnarker hanger-on, Shrevie, who works at an appliance store and is the only one of the group who's married (to Beth), though not happily, and Billy, who comes back from college for the prospective wedding, and has his own woman problems with Barbara, who works at the local TV station.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[HomicideLifeOnTheStreet Dr. Scheiner]] is a customer at the appliance store Shrevie works at.
** [[LALaw Stuart Markowitz]] is Bagel, an aluminum siding salesman trying to get Boogie to work for him.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[HomicideLifeOnTheStreet Dr. Scheiner]] is a customer at the appliance store Shrevie works at.
** [[LALaw Stuart Markowitz]] is Bagel, an aluminum siding salesman trying to get Boogie to work for him.

* SeriousBusiness: This movie is filled to the brink with it. In addition to Shrevie's argument with Beth (see above), we have the following:

This film contains examples of:

* RefugeInAudacity: In-universe - [[spoiler: Boogie bets the other guys he can get Carol Heathrow to touch his penis. So, when they're at the movies that night, at one point he opens his fly and puts the popcorn box over his penis. Eventually, as she's reaching for the popcorn, she touches it, freaks, and runs out of the theater. When he catches up to her in the girl's bathroom, he explains he only opened his fly because she got him excited, so he wanted to try and calm down. However, a certain point in the movie made him get excited again, and the penis just went through the bottom of the box. She seems to buy it.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Part of the script involved Eddie and some of the others going to see the 1959 NFL championship between [[http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_NFL_Championship_Game the Colts and the New York Giants]], but Levinson couldn't afford to shoot anything at the football stadium, so the sequence had to be scrapped.

** When Shrevie is at work at the appliance, we can see the 1949 movie version of ''LittleWomen'' playing on one of the televisions.