History YMMV / AmericanGraffiti

** Bob Falfa wears a CoolHat because Creator/HarrisonFord was unwilling to cut his hair for a period-appropriate hairstyle. This would be oddly inverted when Ford starred in ''Film/BladeRunner'' nine years later; there, Deckard was supposed to wear a Cool Hat, but Ford deliberately had his hair cut to avoid this, especially because he'd [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk recently starred as another hatted hero]].

* {{Adorkable}}: Terry "Toad" Fields is an endearing HollywoodNerd, who is socially awkward, wears large glasses, and wins the affections of the sweet popular girl, to whom he spends an adventurous evening with.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The scene where Paul Le Mat's character pretends to come on to Mackenzie Phillips' to get her to go home is more than a little uncomfortable, given [[ParentalIncest what would allegedly happen to Mackenzie a few years later]]...

** Universal thought so little of the film (not knowing how to market it, and certain that as it had no stars it would flop), that it sat on the shelf for six months before the studio finally decided to release it. To their great surprise, it became enormously successful at the box-office.

* AwardSnub: Averted when it was nominated for five Oscars - Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and Best Supporting Actress for Candy Clark - but played straight when it lost all five. Granted, it was the same year ''Film/TheSting'' and ''Film/TheExorcist'' came out. There's also Creator/RichardDreyfuss missing out on a Best Actor nomination.

** This was also the first film to make its soundtrack basically another character, made up entirely of specifcially chosen songs for each scene, which directors like Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/QuentinTarantino have since made into its own artform.

* {{Adorkable}}: Toad is an endearing HollywoodNerd, who is socially awkward, wears large glasses, and wins the affections of the sweet popular girl, to whom he spends an adventurous evening with.

** Suzanne Somers as the Blonde in the T-Bird. All she does is mouth "I love you" at the camera and fans have been wondering about her character ever since.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The scene where Paul Le Mat's character pretends to come on to Mackenzie Phillips' to get her to go home is more than a little uncomfortable, given [[ParentalIncest what would happen to Mackenzie a few years later]]...

* AwardSnub: Averted when it was nominated for five Oscars - Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and Best Supporting Actress for Candy Clark - but played straight when it lost all five. Granted, it was the same year ''Film/TheSting'' and ''Film/TheExorcist'' came out.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The scene where Paul Le Mat's character pretends to come on to Mackenzie Phillips' to get her to go home is more than a little uncomfortable, given [[ParentalIncest what would happen to Mackenzie a few years later]...

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The entire soundtrack, really, but special mention has to be made of "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MG's accompanying the climactic drag race.

** Bob Falfa wears a CoolHat because Creator/HarrisonFord was unwilling to cut his hair for a period-appropriate hairstyle. When Ford starred in ''Film/BladeRunner'', Deckard was supposed to wear a cool hat, but he deliberately had his hair cut to avoid this, especially because [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk he had recently starred as another hatted hero]].

* AwesomeMusic: The entire soundtrack, really, but special mention has to be made of "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MG's accompanying the climactic drag race.

* CommonKnowledge: The film is often cited as being the inspiration for ''Series/HappyDays'', when in fact it was more or less the other way around. ''Grafitti'' was inspired by an episode of ''Love, American Style'' starring Ron Howard, and then its success inspired Garry Marshall to expand that episode into a whole show.

** Ron Howard would later direct a ''Star Wars'' movie, but only after some serious drama between the studio and the original directors that Lucas himself would be proud of. For extra hilarity, said movie? ''Film/{{Solo}}'', the origin story for Harrison Ford's character!

** Ron Howard would later direct a ''Star Wars'' movie, but only after some serious drama between the studio and the original directors that Lucas himself would be proud of. For extra hilarity, said movie? ''Film/SoloAStarWarsStory'', the origin story for Harrison Ford's character!

** Ron Howard would later direct a ''Star Wars'' movie, but only after some serious drama between the studio and the original directors that Lucas himself would be proud of.

* HilariousInHindsight: Steve's remark about Laurie's BigBrotherAttraction, when you realize this film is made by the same guy responsible for the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies, [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack one of which]] is infamous for a passionate kiss between Luke and Leia [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi before they find out they're siblings.]]