American Graffiti is a 1973 period coming of age film directed by George Lucas, and written by Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams and Wolfman Jack and featuring Harrison Ford. Set in 1962 Modesto, California, American Graffiti tells of the exploits and adventures of a group of teenagers during a night of cruising around town and listening to pirate radio personality Wolfman Jack.

Development of the film started shortly after the release of Lucas's THX 1138 in 1971, at the same time as Lucas was developing an "untitled science fiction space opera", later to become the basis for Category: Star Wars Episode IV - : A New Hope|Star Wars. The film was initially funded by United Artists, but after creative differences arose with the studio, Lucas decided to work with Universal Pictures instead. Filming started at San Rafael, California, but the production was kicked out of the town and most of the film was shot in Petaluma, California. Although Universal interfered little with production, the studio did object to the film's title of American Graffiti, recommending Lucas change it to Another Slow Night in Modesto.

The editing of American Graffiti was strenuous: the first cut was roughly 210 minutes long, and the final cut was released at 112 minutes. To this day the location of the other 100 minutes of footage remains unknown. The film received positive reviews and was a unanimous box office success (recouping 92 times its budget with its North American financial take). The film was nominated for five different categories at the 46th Academy Awards, and in , American Graffiti was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and was added to the National Film Registry for preservation.

Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an Academy Award-winning director and producer as well as an actor. Howard came to prominence in the 1960s while playing Andy Griffith's TV son, Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show (credited as Ronny Howard), and later in the 1970s as Howard Cunningham's son and Arthur Fonzarelli's best friend, Richie Cunningham, on Happy Days (a role he played from 1974 to 1980). Since retiring from acting, he has directed many films including Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, and the upcoming sequel to the The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons.

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, known for starring in a number of films, television and theater roles since the late 1960s. He is probably best known for his roles in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and most recently, the 2008 bio-pic W. as current Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney.