66 Fun Facts About American Pie

Who wrote the screenplay for the original American Pie?

Adam Herz prepared by rewatching Porky's and studying Bachelor Party beat by beat, because he wanted to bring back the unapologetic party comedies of the 1980s.

Which pair of brothers directed American Pie, even though only one of them is credited?

Paul and Chris Weitz had never directed a film and assumed they would be turned down, so they simply told the studio what the script needed; Chris ended up billed as a producer.

Which film did American Pie knock off No. 1?

Wild Wild West cost about $170 million, some fifteen times as much, yet the teen comedy went on to out-earn it worldwide.

Made for about $11 million, American Pie grossed how much worldwide?

$235 million came in worldwide, more than half of it abroad, even though the studio had sold most foreign rights before release for a guarantee of only about $5 million.

American Pie is set in the fictional town of East Great Falls in which US state?

Michigan is the screenwriter's home state: he studied film at the University of Michigan and set his revival of 1980s party comedies in a town like the one he grew up in.

American Pie's fictional town is modeled on which real one, where the screenwriter went to high school?

East Grand Rapids supplied more than the name: during casting the directors had the writer bring in his high-school yearbooks to see the classmates behind the characters.

Where was American Pie mostly filmed?

Long Beach, California gave the film two schools for one: Millikan High played East Great Falls from outside and Long Beach Polytechnic from inside, near streets seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Why was American Pie's working title, Great Falls, dropped before release?

Test audiences reacted badly to it while loving everything else: preview crowds said the title was the one thing about the film they disliked.

Which rating did the MPAA first give American Pie when the film was submitted?

NC-17 kept coming back until the pie scene was trimmed; the film went before the ratings board several times before it earned the R the studio insisted on.

Who plays Jim Levenstein in American Pie?

Jason Biggs was the directors' first choice, but the studio held out for a bigger name and gave him the part only after that star passed.

Who plays Jim's endlessly supportive dad in American Pie?

Eugene Levy disliked the father as scripted, a wink-wink dad he found a little creepy, and insisted on improvising him into the earnest, corny one on screen.

In American Pie, Jim's father walks in on him with what kind of pie?

Apple pie enters the story as advice: a friend tells Jim that is what third base feels like, and he tests the claim on one he finds in the kitchen.

Who plays Steve Stifler in American Pie?

Seann William Scott was a newcomer in his first feature, billed as 'Seann W. Scott', and Stifler was only a supporting part before the sequels built themselves around him.

In American Pie, which instrument does Michelle, the band-camp storyteller, play?

Flute in hand, she starts story after story with 'one time, at band camp', and the running joke later gave a 2005 spin-off its title and setting.

Who plays Michelle Flaherty in American Pie?

Alyson Hannigan's band geek is a side character in 1999, yet by the third film she is the bride the whole story revolves around.

Who plays Nadia, the exchange student, in American Pie?

Shannon Elizabeth's Nadia is packed off home after the webcast reaches the whole school, yet she returns for American Pie 2 and again for American Reunion.

In American Pie, which school group does jock Oz join to meet girls who don't know his reputation?

The choir, a vocal jazz group, is meant to be his hunting ground, but he ends up walking out of his lacrosse final to sing a duet with Heather.

Members of which real band cameo in American Pie, watching Jim's webcam broadcast?

Blink-182's new drummer Travis Barker is the one on screen, but the end credits name Scott Raynor, the drummer he had just replaced.

Which teen star turned down the role of Jim in American Pie?

Jonathan Taylor Thomas, famous from Home Improvement, was the name the studio wanted; one director recalls he 'wasn't interested in the slightest', which opened the door for an unknown.

In American Pie, Finch and Stifler's mom famously get together on top of what?

A pool table at Stifler's party starts a running joke: the pair end up together again at the close of the second film and of the third.

In American Pie, which occasion do the friends call their last chance?

Prom night is three weeks off when Kevin names it, reasoning that the parties afterwards are their best shot; the pact itself only says before they graduate.

Which four-letter slang term did American Pie push into the mainstream?

MILF was not coined for the film: the screenwriter says he borrowed slang already in use, and John Cho's 'MILF Guy' chant carried it into the mainstream.

In American Pie, Stifler gets revenge on Finch by spiking his coffee with what?

A laxative is the cruellest choice, because Finch refuses to use the school toilets and goes home instead; this time he is tricked into the girls' bathroom, with a crowd waiting outside.

Which real hot-dog restaurant inspired Dog Years, the gang's hangout in American Pie?

Yesterdog, which opened in 1976, is a hot-dog counter in the area where the writer grew up, so his characters got a hangout of their own modelled on it.

In American Pie 2, Jim is mistaken for a prodigy at band camp and must play which instrument on stage?

Trombone lands in his hands when he turns up at Michelle's band camp and is taken for a visiting prodigy; his solo before the concert audience is a disaster.

In American Pie 2, what summer job do the friends take to cover the rent on their lakeside party pad?

Painting houses leads three of them into a home they are working on, where the two women who live there catch them and turn the tables.

Which household product does Jim accidentally grab in American Pie 2, landing him in hospital?

Super glue, grabbed in place of lubricant, puts him out of action just as Nadia arrives early, so Michelle poses as his girlfriend to buy him time.

American Pie 2's opening weekend in 2001 set a record for an R-rated comedy, beating which film?

Scary Movie had set the mark a year earlier with $42.3 million; American Pie 2 edged past it with $45.1 million, knocking Rush Hour 2 off the top of the chart.

Which film is the highest-grossing entry in the American Pie franchise?

American Pie 2 took about $287 million worldwide and held No. 1 in the US for three straight weekends; none of the other three theatrical films came within $50 million of it.

In American Pie 2, where is Heather studying abroad while Oz keeps the relationship going by phone?

Spain keeps Heather an ocean away all summer, so the couple try phone sex instead, only to be interrupted mid-call by Stifler.

Which music legend's son directed American Wedding?

Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan's eldest son, came up through music videos and later directed will.i.am's 'Yes We Can' video, inspired by Barack Obama's 2008 campaign.

In American Wedding, what does Stifler accidentally feed to a dog?

The wedding ring has to be recovered the only way possible, and what Stifler then does to keep the secret from the bride's mother is the film's big gross-out gag.

Who plays Michelle's younger sister Cadence in American Wedding?

January Jones's Cadence has Stifler and his rival swapping personalities to win her, one playing the gentleman and the other the lout; four years later she was Betty Draper in Mad Men.

In American Wedding, the guys travel to which city to track down Michelle's dream dress designer?

Chicago is where they trace the designer to a gay bar, and Bear, the regular Stifler wins over there, goes on to organise Jim's bachelor party.

American Wedding is the only theatrical American Pie film without which of these characters?

Oz is one of six regulars missing from the third film, Heather among them; all six came back for American Reunion nine years later.

Who wrote and directed American Reunion?

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg wrote the Harold & Kumar films, whose Harold, John Cho, had been a bit player in the 1999 film; they brought him back for the reunion too.

Where was American Reunion actually filmed?

Metro Atlanta stood in for the friends' Midwestern home town: the reunion was filmed in Georgia in the summer of 2011.

In American Reunion, which character's mother, played by Rebecca De Mornay, seduces Stifler?

Finch gets a taste of his own medicine at last: he had ended each of the three earlier films in the arms of Stifler's mom.

In American Reunion, Jim reconnects with Kara, a neighbor he used to do what for?

Babysit is the awkward part: Kara is turning 18 and drunkenly tries to seduce him, and his friends must distract her parents while he sneaks her home to bed.

American Pie Presents: Band Camp (2005) follows Matt Stifler, who is Steve Stifler's what?

Younger brother Matt is desperate to live up to Steve's reputation, and the prank on the school band he pulls to prove it gets him banished to band camp.

In American Pie Presents: Band Camp, what job does Chuck 'The Sherminator' Sherman hold when he punishes Matt?

Guidance counselor Sherman, the dorky classmate of the 1999 film, now holds the power: it is he who sentences Matt Stifler to a summer at band camp.

The 2009 American Pie spin-off revolves around restoring what?

A sex manual, the one Kevin consults in the first film, gets ruined, so three virgins seek out Jim's dad and track down its past authors to restore it.

Which Stifler is the hero of American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006)?

Erik is the Stifler who cannot live up to the family name, still a virgin as graduation nears, so his girlfriend hands him a free pass for a weekend at his cousin's college.

Which American Pie Presents spin-off is the only one without Jim's dad, Noah Levenstein?

Girls' Rules (2020) flips the premise, with four senior girls making the pact, and it is the first film in the whole series to go without his character.

The actor who plays Jim's dad in American Pie co-created and starred in which sitcom with his son?

Schitt's Creek began as the son's idea of a rich family that loses everything; he took it to his father, and several networks turned them down before Canada's CBC said yes.

The actor who plays Stifler has said he was paid how much for the first American Pie?

$8,000 was so little that he was still selling churros at the Los Angeles Zoo to pay his bills in the months before the film came out.

Jennifer Coolidge, who plays Stifler's mom, later won two Emmys for which HBO series?

The White Lotus is an anthology that swaps its cast and resort every season, yet her Tanya McQuoid was brought back for a second run, and she won an Emmy for each.

When American Pie came out, the actress playing Michelle was also starring as Willow on which TV series?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was ending its third season when the film opened, so in 1999 she was a shy student witch on television and a far less shy band geek in cinemas.

Mena Suvari, who plays Heather, earned a BAFTA nomination for which other 1999 film?

American Beauty cast her as Angela, the cheerleader of a middle-aged man's rose-petal fantasies, a world away from sweet, virginal Heather in the same year.

The brothers behind American Pie later shared an Oscar nomination for adapting which Nick Hornby novel?

About a Boy swapped teenagers for Hugh Grant as an idle Londoner who invents a son so that he can date single mothers, then finds himself stuck with a real boy.

The actor who plays Jim later played Larry Bloom in which Netflix series?

Orange Is the New Black cast him as the fiance Piper leaves outside, a struggling writer who turns her prison sentence into a newspaper article that makes his name.

Who wrote and recorded the 1971 hit 'American Pie'?

Don McLean has spent decades declining to decode the lyrics; asked what the song means, he famously replied that it means he never has to work again.

Which musician died in the plane crash that 'American Pie' calls 'the day the music died'?

Buddy Holly chartered the small plane himself, fed up with a tour bus whose heating kept failing in a bitter Midwestern winter.

Which artist broke 'American Pie's near-50-year record as the longest US No. 1 song in 2021?

Taylor Swift took the record with 'All Too Well (10 Minute Version)', the uncut form of a song she had first released nine years earlier in a far shorter edit.

The other hit single from the album American Pie is a tribute to which painter?

Vincent van Gogh inspired 'Vincent', written after its composer read a biography of the painter; it reached No. 1 in Britain, where 'American Pie' itself had stalled at No. 2.

Madonna's 2000 cover of 'American Pie' was recorded for the soundtrack of which of her films?

The Next Best Thing co-star Rupert Everett talked her into the cover and sings backing vocals on it; the single went to No. 1 in Britain.

The handwritten manuscript for 'American Pie' sold at Christie's in 2015 for roughly how much?

$1.2 million was the price in New York in April 2015; the songwriter had promised that the 16 pages of drafts would finally reveal what his lyrics meant.

The writer of 'American Pie' learned of the plane crash the song mourns while doing which teenage job?

Delivering newspapers at 13, he cut open a bundle of the local paper in New Rochelle and saw the crash on the front page, a moment the song's opening verse replays.

'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'American Pie' parody 'The Saga Begins' retells the plot of which film?

The Phantom Menace is retold from Obi-Wan Kenobi's point of view; Yankovic says the original songwriter told him his children played the parody so often that its words crept into his head on stage.

The National Recording Registry, which added the song 'American Pie' in 2017, is kept by which institution?

Library of Congress: its Librarian adds 25 recordings a year on a preservation board's advice, and anyone can send in nominations, under a 2000 law passed to guard America's sound heritage.

Which city produced a widely shared citywide lip dub video set to 'American Pie' in 2011?

Grand Rapids staged it after an article listed the city among America's dying cities; thousands of residents took part, and Roger Ebert called it the greatest music video ever made.

Tara Reid, who plays Vicky, later starred in all six films of which TV-movie franchise?

Sharknado cast her as April Wexler opposite Ian Ziering from 2013 to 2018, and she leaned into the joke by launching a perfume called Shark by Tara.

The brothers who directed American Pie had co-written which 1998 animated film?

Antz gave them a writing credit but no directing experience; they later said they were as surprised as anyone to get the job, having never directed a frame of film.

Which horror hit's success spurred American Pie's writer to get his teen comedy finished?

Scream showed studios that teenagers would pack cinemas; he taped a newspaper story about its success to his apartment wall so that nobody would beat him to a teen movie.

Thomas Ian Nicholas, who plays Kevin, starred as a preteen Cubs pitcher in which 1993 baseball film?

Rookie of the Year cast him as Henry Rowengartner, a Little Leaguer whose broken arm heals so tight that he can suddenly throw hard enough for the majors.

Which Aretha Franklin hit placed one spot above 'American Pie' on the RIAA's Songs of the Century?

'Respect' placed fourth and 'American Pie' fifth on a 2001 list drawn up for schools, where voters from teachers to elected officials were asked to choose with historical significance in mind.