![]() After working for Roger Corman’s low-budget production house and directing Grand Theft Auto in 1977, Howard had his first major hit as a director with 1982’s Night Shift, featuring his buddy Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton in his first starring role. Ironically, Howard had himself been accepted to USC film school before being cast in Graffiti, and he looked to Lucas as a mentor. When the movie became a hit, ABC decided to turn the Love, American Style episode into an ongoing series, Happy Days, using Howard and his connection to the film as part of the draw. Howard was well-known thanks to his lengthy run as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, and he had already played Richie Cunningham in an episode of the anthology series Love, American Style titled “Love and the Television Set.” It was that episode that convinced Lucas to cast Howard. ![]() One of the key casting decisions was Lucas’s choice of Ron Howard as Steve. He also perceived that the cruising culture the film would celebrate was something that was waning at the time, so it would make the film both a nostalgia piece and, hopefully, something that would also appeal to a younger audience. Lucas connected to the experience of youth by centering the story not in the present, but in 1962. The Film Indirectly Launched Happy Days and Some Other Really Good MoviesĪmerican Graffiti trailer (Uploaded to YouTube by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers) ![]() Using his Modesto youth as inspiration, Lucas teamed up with co-writers Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to write American Graffiti. ![]() During the making of Lucas’s film THX 1138, an expanded reimagining of his prize-winning short, Coppola challenged Lucas to see if he could write something with mainstream appeal. The pair would later co-found the studio American Zoetrope. set he chose Francis Ford Coppola’s Finian’s Rainbow. Part of his prize include the chance to work and observe on a Warner Bros. As a film production grad student, he won first prize at the 1967-1968 Student Film Festival for his experimental sci-fi short Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB. Lucas was a film student at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts alongside other future directors like Steven Spielberg and John Milius. THX 1138 trailer (Uploaded to YouTube by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers) As he headed to college, Lucas’s car obsession was replaced with a new passion: film. Had he remained in the vehicle, he might not have made it. During the crash, Lucas’s seatbelt broke and he was thrown free of the car. Lucas’s car was struck from the side and flipped, only stopping when the vehicle struck a tree. That aspiration was soured after Lucas was involved in a car accident on June 12, 1962. At one point in his youth, he entertained the idea of being a race car driver. Young George Lucas was into movies, but he was really into cars. If you love American Graffiti, Star Wars, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, Thank a Broken Seat Belt Here are a few facts about that fateful fictional night in 1962. ![]() Released 50 years ago in August of 1973, the hit film would net Lucas his first Best Picture nomination and lift the careers of Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, and more to another level. While the latter two would lead toward Lucas’s best-known work, his experiences with car culture and West Coast teen life in the 1960s would manifest in a different beloved movie, American Graffiti. A long time ago, in a California far, far away, George Lucas grew up loving cars, comics, and science fiction. ![]()
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