When Harry Met Sally Trivia
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49 free When Harry Met Sally trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This When Harry Met Sally trivia quiz covers the 1989 film from the drive out of Chicago to the New Year's Eve run across Manhattan. The easy questions are the ones every fan knows: the deli, the line, who directed and who wrote it. Then it goes deeper into how the film was made: the lunch at the Russian Tea Room where it started, the actors who turned down Harry, the working title, the sad ending Rob Reiner planned before he fell in love, and who actually came up with 'I'll have what she's having'. There are questions on the cast (including the President's son playing Sally's ex), Harry Connick Jr.'s soundtrack, the box office, the awards and the film's afterlife, from the London stage version to the 2025 Super Bowl commercial. Every answer has been checked against the film's Wikipedia page and those of its makers, and each explanation adds one detail worth remembering.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed When Harry Met Sally...?
Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner directed it, coming off Stand by Me (1986) and The Princess Bride (1987); it was his fifth feature after This Is Spinal Tap and The Sure Thing.
Q 02Who wrote the screenplay for When Harry Met Sally...?
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron wrote the screenplay, basing Harry on long conversations with the director and producer Andrew Scheinman, and Sally partly on herself and her friends.
Q 03In which year was When Harry Met Sally... released?
1989
It was released on July 12, 1989, into a summer dominated by Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and became a sleeper hit.
Q 04What are the full names of the title characters?
Harry Burns and Sally Albright
Harry Burns and Sally Albright meet as new University of Chicago graduates who share a long drive east after commencement.
Q 05Harry and Sally first meet sharing a drive from Chicago to which city?
New York
They drive to New York, where Sally is starting journalism school; Harry is dating her friend Amanda, which is how the two end up sharing the car.
Q 06What is the central question the film asks?
Can men and women ever just be friends?
The film asks whether men and women can ever just be friends; on the first drive Harry says no, because 'the sex part always gets in the way'.
Q 07At which real New York deli does Sally fake an orgasm?
Katz's Delicatessen
Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston Street hung a sign over the table reading 'Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!'
Q 08Who delivers the line 'I'll have what she's having' in the deli scene?
Rob Reiner's mother
Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle Reiner, delivered the line; a jazz singer and actress, she died in 2008 at 94.
Q 09Who came up with the punchline 'I'll have what she's having'?
Billy Crystal
Billy Crystal came up with the punchline during script meetings; it was the last piece added to a deli scene that had been built up in stages.
Q 10Which actress suggested Sally should actually fake an orgasm on screen, not just discuss it?
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan proposed actually performing the fake orgasm at the table; Reiner demonstrated what he wanted himself before she did take after take.
Q 11Where does 'I'll have what she's having' rank on AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes?
33rd
The film also placed 23rd on AFI's list of the funniest American films.
Q 12Who plays Marie, Sally's best friend?
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher plays Marie, who keeps a card file of eligible men and ends up marrying Harry's friend Jess after the disastrous double date.
Q 13Who plays Jess, Harry's best friend?
Bruno Kirby
Kirby reunited with Crystal two years later in City Slickers.
Q 14The actor who plays Sally's ex-boyfriend Joe is the son of which US President?
Q 21What was the screenwriter's original working title for the film?
How They Met
Ephron's first draft carried the working title How They Met; a long list of alternatives, including Boy Meets Girl and Harry, This Is Sally, was tried before the final title.
Q 22How did the script originally end?
Harry and Sally stay friends
The script originally had Harry and Sally stay friends, which Ephron and Reiner felt was truer; Reiner changed his mind after meeting his future wife, Michele Singer, during production.
Q 23Which of these actors turned down the role of Harry Burns?
Tom Hanks
Gerald Ford
Joe is played by Steven Ford, Gerald Ford's youngest son, who was best known as Andy Richards on daytime TV's The Young and the Restless.
Q 15How does Harry describe himself to Sally on their drive?
As a dark side kind of guy
Ephron drew Harry's gloomy pessimism from her interviews with the recently divorced Reiner, who was 'constantly depressed and pessimistic yet funny'.
Q 16Over how many years does the film follow Harry and Sally?
Twelve
The story spans twelve years: they meet in 1977, cross paths again in 1982 and 1987, and marry three months after New Year's Eve 1988.
Q 17Where do Harry and Sally run into each other for the third time, in 1987?
A bookstore
They meet again in a bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. on the Upper West Side; Sally has split from Joe and Harry's wife Helen has left him, so they try being friends.
Q 18What is Harry watching alone at home on the last night of 1988 before he runs to find Sally?
Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve special
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, the ABC countdown special Clark had hosted since the mid-1970s, is on Harry's TV; he then walks the city reminiscing before sprinting to the party.
Q 19The interludes with older couples telling how they met were originally based on what?
Real interviews Ephron conducted
Ephron did the interviews when she didn't feel like writing; the material was rewritten and reshot with actors.
Q 20Which real-life friendship supplied much of Harry and Sally's dialogue?
Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal
The split-screen scene of them channel-surfing on the phone was something Crystal and Reiner did every night.
Tom Hanks turned Harry down, saying he could not identify with a man devastated by his divorce; Richard Dreyfuss and Michael Keaton were also considered.
Q 24Which actress was the director's ex-wife when work on the film began in 1984?
Penny Marshall
Reiner's marriage to Penny Marshall, the Laverne & Shirley star, ended in 1981; his awkward return to single life fed directly into Harry.
Q 25At which New York restaurant did the director, producer and writer first meet in 1984?
The Russian Tea Room
They first met over lunch at the Russian Tea Room on West 57th Street in 1984; Ephron rejected Reiner's first pitch, and a second lunch about single life became the film.
Q 26Which singer performs the standards on the film's soundtrack?
Harry Connick Jr.
Harry Connick Jr., then 21, sang the standards; Reiner thought he sounded like a young Sinatra, and the album became his breakthrough.
Q 27What did the soundtrack's singer win for his work on it?
His first Grammy Award
The soundtrack won its singer his first Grammy Award, Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance, in 1990; the album also went double platinum.
Q 28Which 1924 standard from the film made AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie songs?
It Had to Be You
'It Had to Be You', written by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn in 1924, ranked 60th on AFI's 2004 list of 100 Years...100 Songs.
Q 29Who arranged the big band and orchestra on the soundtrack?
Marc Shaiman
Shaiman went on to a long partnership with Billy Crystal, including his Oscar-hosting musical numbers, and later wrote Hairspray.
Q 30Roughly how much did the film gross in North America?
$93 million
It grossed about $93 million in North America, making it one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of the 1980s.