* BabyNameTrendStarter: Before ''Love Story'', Jennifer was a fairly uncommon name. After ''Love Story,'' Jennifer was the most popular baby name for girls in the US for ''fourteen years''.
* CastTheExpert: Dartmouth's hockey team portrayed the hockey players in the movie.
* ColbertBump: A lot of the newer generation likely know of the movie from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode where Marge and Homer watch it on a date night.
* DawsonCasting: Creator/RyanONeal was 29 and Creator/AliMacGraw was 31 when they played the early 20-something Oliver and Jenny, respectively.
* EnforcedMethodActing: Ryan O'Neal and Ali [=MacGraw=] had to rehearse for ten days before filming, so that they would already be friends by the time they played lovers on screen.
* NovelizationFirst: Author Erich Segal wrote the screenplay first, then adapted it into a novel, which was published before the film's release, and became a runaway bestseller.
* StarMakingRole: For Creator/RyanONeal. In fact, because of this, he was instrumental in getting ''Film/BarryLyndon'' made.
* TalentDouble: Bill Cleary, Olympic hockey star, was Ryan O'Neal's double for scenes where Oliver is seen playing hockey or ice skating.
* ThrowItIn: The famous line "love means never having to say you're sorry" was actually said wrong by Ali [=MacGraw=] when they filmed the scene. In the screenplay, it's "love means ''not ever'' having to say you're sorry".
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Barbara Parkins was the first choice for the role of Jenny, but it was one of many potential big parts she turned down before opting to move to the UK and live off her money from ''Peyton Place''.
** Creator/WarrenBeatty, Creator/BeauBridges, Creator/JeffBridges, Creator/JamesCaan, Creator/KeithCarradine, Creator/MichaelDouglas, Creator/PeterFonda, Creator/DustinHoffman, Creator/RobertRedford, Creator/BurtReynolds, Creator/DonaldSutherland, Creator/JonVoight, Creator/ChristopherWalken, and Creator/MichaelYork were all considered for the role of Oliver.
* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: The production of this film caused enough damage to Harvard University's campus to the point where they've almost always turned down offers to film there since.
** The policy mentioned here was actually set later in the 1970s, after filming of ''A Small Circle of Friends'' caused at least as much damage. A small number of later productions have been able to film brief scenes on campus, with one notable example being ''Film/WithHonors''. Most of the exceptions (including ''With Honors'') involve films that had Harvard alums involved in key production roles and had plots that cast Harvard in a very favorable light.
* WriteWhoYouKnow: Oliver was based on friends of the author, college roommates Creator/TommyLeeJones, and UsefulNotes/AlGore. The movie was also Tommy Lee Jones' film debut as Hank Simpson.
----