Trivia
In the VHS version, Anthony Michael Hall is credited as "The Geek". In the TV movie and film versions, he is credited as "Farmer Ted."
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The license plate on Jake's car reads "21850", which is director John Hughes's birthday (2/18/50).
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Filmed at Niles East High School. Some of the students in the big party scene are wearing Niles East Trojans jackets and shirts. Niles East is in Skokie, Illinois and was closed for over ten years when the filming started. The school has since been remodeled as part of Oakton Community College.
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Molly Ringwald almost lost the part of Samantha to Ally Sheedy, her future The Breakfast Club co-star.
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In late 2003, USA network announced that a made-for-TV sequel called "32 Candles" was being planned, showcasing the original characters 16 years after the original film. It was unknown at the time of the announcement whether any of the original cast would be involved with the project.
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When Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall first met, they did not get along at all. Director John Hughes took them shopping at a music store and they discovered they had similar musical tastes and eventually got along.
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When Sam (Molly Ringwald) and her friend are in the lunch line, one of the menu selections behind the lunch lady's head reads "Canned Brownies in Light Syrup."
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According to Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong) there was a deleted scene where he sings at the dance.
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When Samantha is in her room talking on the phone with her friend a promotional poster can be seen on the wall for the rock group Squeeze and their album entitled "Singles" which was released in 1982.
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Samantha's dad's car has the license plate "V58", which stands for "Vacation '58", a story written by John Hughes for National Lampoon Magazine.
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There is a poster of "The Fall Guy" actress Heather Thomas on the back of Mike's bedroom door.
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The movie's line "Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?" was voted as #86 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
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Brother and sister John Cusack and Joan Cusack co-star in Sixteen Candles. John is Bryce, one of Anthony Michael Hall's geeky friends. Joan is the geeky girl seen on the bus, and having trouble sipping water from a drinking fountain.
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Other music posters in Samantha's house include Culture Club, The Stray Cats (over her bed), and Sammy Hagar.
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Samantha says that Caroline 'must have flunked nine grades' because of her mature figure for a high school student. In actuality, Haviland Morris was 25 years old during filming. Michael Schoeffling (Jake Ryan) was 24.
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The German title of the film, "Das darf man nur als Erwachsener", translates to "One may do that only as an adult".
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One scene which was cut from the final theatrical version but later shown in the TV version was shot in the cafeteria at one of Niles East's two sister schools', Niles North.
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During the dance scene, John Cusack is wearing a WLS t-shirt. Although it currently has a talk-radio format, in 1984, WLS was a top-40 station in Chicago.
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Other than Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos is the only actor to appear in all three of John Hughes' teen films that were under contract with Universal. In Weird Science he can been seen at the table in the bar. In The Breakfast Club, he serves as the janitor. In Sixteen Candles, he stars as Sam's future brother-in-law.
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The character of Long Duk Dong was supposed to be a teenager but Gedde Watanabe, who portrayed him, was 28 years old at the time this was filmed.
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In the cafeteria scene seen in TV broadcasts, the lunch menu reads as follows (in all-uppercase changeable letters):
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- MEATBALL SALAD - .80
- SENIOR BURGER & FRIES - $1.00
- CHIPPED PORK ON A BUN - .55
- JUMBO FISHDOG - .75
- CORNAROOS - .55
- GELATIN BALLS - .30
- CANNED BROWNIES IN LIGHT SYRUP - .50
- VITAMIN COBBLER - FREE
- ICED TEA - .15
- GRAPE BEVERAGE - .15
- WARM MILK - .10
In the book 'You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, And Their Impact on a Generation' by Susannah Gora, Molly Ringwald says that because she and Anthony Michael Hall were too young to entertain themselves at bars or nightclubs, they often spent their Saturdays off from filming Sixteen Candles crashing the Bar and Bat Mitzvah receptions that were being held at the hotel in Skokie, Illinois, where the cast was being housed.
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During the dance scene, John Cusack is wearing a WLS t-shirt. Although it changed to a talk-radio format in the 1989, WLS was a top-40 station in Chicago at the time this movie was filmed.
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Cameo
Dick Biondi:
Chicago radio legend is heard on the radio (uncredited) in the opening bedroom scene where Molly Ringwald is looking in her mirror.
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