40 Fun Facts About Diner

In Diner, what is never shown of Elyse, the bride whose football quiz drives the plot?

Her face is kept off screen from start to finish, so the woman the whole test is about stays a stranger even at her own reception.

Which actor played hard-drinking rich kid Fenwick in Diner two years before starring in Footloose?

Kevin Bacon had just quit the soap Guiding Light when the audition came, and he read for the part with a 103-degree fever that he felt suited the woozy Fenwick.

How does Eddie first respond in Diner when his fiancée Elyse fails his football quiz by two points?

He cancels the wedding on the spot, with both sets of parents waiting on the result, then changes his mind during a night out with his best man.

Barry Levinson made his directing debut with Diner and later won a directing Oscar for which film?

Rain Man won him the directing Oscar and took Best Picture too, six years after his own Diner script had lost in the screenplay category.

Two years after Diner came out, Baltimore's beloved Colts left town overnight for which city?

Indianapolis got the Colts on March 29, 1984, when the franchise moved out in the middle of the night as Baltimore threatened to seize the team by eminent domain.

Which quarterback led the Colts, the team Eddie worships in Diner, to NFL titles in 1958 and 1959?

Johnny Unitas was also the league's Most Valuable Player in 1959, three years after joining the Colts as a free-agent backup.

Vanity Fair argued that Diner's aimless booth banter paved the way, eight years on, for which sitcom?

Seinfeld took its famous 'nothing' from the film, the magazine argued, and it traced the chatty hit men of Pulp Fiction back to the same booth.

An MGM executive wanted to cut the Diner scene in which Eddie and Modell bicker over what?

A roast beef sandwich is the whole point, Levinson told him: the squabble shows the friends' rivalry and fears better than any plot scene could.

Which actor played the married friend Shrevie in Diner before turning burglar as Marv in Home Alone?

Daniel Stern and his screen wife barely got along off camera, once spending a whole night filming in a car without speaking to each other.

Which actor played Colts-mad groom Eddie in Diner before starring as Mahoney in Police Academy?

Steve Guttenberg, just 22, was probably the most experienced of the young cast, having already shared sets with Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck.

Boogie Sheftell, the smooth-talking gambler of Diner, is a law student who earns his living as what?

A hairdresser by day, Boogie was patterned on a real friend of Barry Levinson's, and the actor studied his own stylist at work to prepare.

The friends in Diner argue over who is better for romance: Frank Sinatra or which other crooner?

Johnny Mathis is the rival pick, and Barry Levinson said the argument came straight from his own nights at a Baltimore diner, as did the talk of Elvis Presley.

Which rock singer wrote the songs for the stage musical of Diner, with a book by Barry Levinson?

Sheryl Crow wrote the music and lyrics, and the show had its premiere at Signature Theatre in Virginia, which she was glad to find so close to Baltimore.

The diner seen in Diner was trucked to Baltimore on a flatbed from a diner graveyard in which state?

New Jersey supplied it after talks with a real Baltimore diner broke down over money, and it looked so authentic that a trucker pulled up asking for breakfast mid-shoot.

On day one of shooting Diner, first-time director Barry Levinson had to be prompted to say which word?

Action went unsaid while actors and crew stood waiting in a pool hall, until an assistant director whispered a reminder to his boss.

The Colts-themed wedding that closes Diner takes place on which holiday night?

New Year's Eve gives the film its clock: the story opens at a Christmas dance in 1959 and ends as the decade does.

Which stand-up comic made his film debut as Modell in Diner after tagging along to a friend's audition?

Paul Reiser was only out to buy socks that day, yet much of what he says on screen was ad-libbed and his unscripted toast closes the film.

Which actor won the National Society of Film Critics supporting award as the gambler Boogie in Diner?

Mickey Rourke had turned heads a year earlier as the arsonist in Body Heat, and Boston's critics also named him best supporting actor for Boogie.

Which actress, the only one Barry Levinson saw for the part, played Shrevie's wife Beth in Diner?

Ellen Barkin threw the script in the trash halfway through her first read, and her agent had to talk her into leaving a Broadway play to take the part.

What does Beth misfile in Diner, causing her husband Shrevie to lose his temper and storm out?

His records are the trigger, and the row leaves Beth in tears and drifting toward Boogie, an old flame who consoles her.

What lands on the friends' table in the closing shot of Diner, leaving the men frozen and staring?

The bouquet drops in front of them in slow motion, and the men freeze, struck silent by the thought of who marries next.

What prank does Fenwick stage for his friends on the drive from the dance that opens Diner?

A fake car crash it is: he flips his own car over and smears himself with ketchup to play the victim by the roadside.

Where is a drunken Fenwick found in his underwear in Diner, shortly before the friends' arrest?

A church Nativity scene is where he settles, in the manger, and after he topples the display his is the only family that leaves its son in jail overnight.

Boogie Sheftell spends Diner dodging a $2,000 debt run up by a losing bet on which sport?

Basketball sinks him, not the Colts, and he turned down the chance to call the wager off before the game; an older family friend finally settles the debt.

Which 1959 Troy Donahue romance is on screen during Boogie's popcorn-box prank in Diner?

A Summer Place brought MGM a lawsuit: its star Richard Egan sued in 1984, saying he had never been paid for the scenes reused on screen.

Which comedy director, for whom Barry Levinson wrote High Anxiety, urged him to write Diner?

Mel Brooks kept hearing his writer's stories about the old Baltimore gang, and the script finally came in a three-week burst while Levinson's wife was away filming.

Which New Yorker critic saw a smuggled print of Diner and told MGM her rave would run regardless?

Pauline Kael was a friend of the executive producer's mother, which is how he got the film to her after poor test screenings left MGM unsure about releasing it.

Diner is set in 1959, when Eddie's beloved Colts beat which team for the NFL title?

The New York Giants led 9–7 entering the fourth quarter in Baltimore before the Colts scored 24 straight points to win 31–16.

Barry Levinson's script for Diner earned the film's only Oscar nomination but lost to which film?

Gandhi won for John Briley's script on a night when Tootsie, a film Levinson had quietly helped to write, lost in the same category.

What does Boogie tip straight into his mouth at the counter in Diner, a flourish his actor invented?

Sugar, washed down with a Coke, was the actor's own idea for a scene Barry Levinson wrote in fifteen minutes because two of his stars asked for one together.

Which TV quiz show does dropout Fenwick watch in Diner, surprising viewers by knowing the answers?

College Bowl, which pits teams from rival universities against each other, had only just moved from radio to television in 1959, when the story takes place.

Which Ingmar Bergman film are Eddie and Billy watching in Diner when Shrevie drags them out?

The Seventh Seal, in which a knight plays chess against Death, is an art-house detour for the gang that ends when Fenwick's latest drunken stunt needs handling.

Which older character, played by future L.A. Law star Michael Tucker, pays off Boogie's debt in Diner?

Bagel settles it out of respect for Boogie's father, then offers the young man a job so that he can work the money off.

Which Colts fullback, name-checked in Diner, scored the overtime touchdown that won the 1958 NFL title?

Alan Ameche, a Heisman winner nicknamed the Horse, went on to found a hamburger chain with his teammate Gino Marchetti.

One hanger-on in Diner speaks only in lines from which 1957 Burt Lancaster film?

Sweet Smell of Success is all he ever recites, a running tribute by Barry Levinson to the drama about a powerful newspaper columnist and a hungry press agent.

The Colts whom Eddie worships in Diner began in 1953 with the assets of which one-season NFL flop?

The Dallas Texans won just once in their only season, an upset of the Chicago Bears played before a tiny Thanksgiving crowd in Akron, Ohio.

CBS filmed a Diner TV pilot in 1983 with which future Tarantino regular taking over as Boogie?

Michael Madsen inherited the role in a pilot written and directed by Barry Levinson, with James Spader as Fenwick, but CBS never made a series of it.

The real-life 'Boogie' who inspired the gambler in Diner went on to found which clothing chain?

Merry-Go-Round grew from a single Atlanta shop into a nationwide mall chain, and Leonard Weinglass later opened a restaurant-boutique called Boogie's Diner.

Which coach won back-to-back NFL titles with the Colts of Diner's era before taking the Jets to glory?

Weeb Ewbank is the only coach to win championships in both the NFL and the AFL, and his underdog Jets beat the Colts, his old team, for the title.

The eatery in Diner is named for which Baltimore waterfront neighborhood, where the set was planted?

Fells Point was chosen for its harbor view, not for history: Barry Levinson's own gang met at a diner in the city's northwest.