Grand Theft Auto began as a script idea by Rance Howard titled 'Tis the Season.

The title Grand Theft Auto was originally considered for Eat My Dust (1976).

Ron Howard originally pitched to producer Roger Corman a wide variety of potential ideas for his directorial debut, including a thriller set in the world of snuff films.

Corman's advice for the first-time director was "If you do a good job on this picture, you'll never have to work for me again."

Ron Howard prepared for shooting Grand Theft Auto by making his own Los Angeles to Las Vegas road trip.

Grand Theft Auto had one of New World's higher budgets, $602,000.

Part of the financing came from Balcor, a Chicago-based real estate syndicate who had also put money into the Corman-produced Jackson County Jail (1976).

Shooting began on March 2, 1977, one day after director Ron Howard's 23rd birthday.

Location shooting commenced for 23 days in and around Victorville, California. Other movies filmed in Victorville include Lost Horizon (1937), It Came from Outer Space (1953), The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004).

Although his first day of filming progressed slowly, Howard had gotten 37 shots by the end of the day.

With Allan Arkush shooting his second unit, Howard was able to break a New World record for set-ups captured during a single day...92.

On the shoot, the catered food was so bad that Ron Howard's wife Cheryl and her grandmother volunteered to cook for the entire cast and crew.

A tabloid news story circulated during filming that Ron Howard's less than two-year marriage was on the rocks.

Howard lost 15 lbs. during shooting.

10-Q was an actual radio station, who permitted the use of their call letters in Grand Theft Auto in the spirit of free publicity.

The frustrated groom thrown with his bride from their "flying cottage" was writer-director-actor Paul Bartel, who had helmed Death Race 2000 (1975), Cannonball! (1976) and the cult hit Eating Raoul (1982).

The senior citizens whose bus is cashiered into the chase were comprised mostly of friends of Ron Howard's Aunt Dot. The Rolls Royce seen in the film was actually three: one vintage Rolls Royce, one mounted on a Chevy chassis for off-roading and a junker on a truck chassis which could be wrecked during the demolition derby scene. Seen briefly as a gangland kingpin, Garry Marshall was the creator of Happy Days and the brother of comedienne Penny Marshall, who starred on the Happy Days spin-off Laverne and Shirley.

The clown-suited ice cream vendor was played by second unit director Allan Arkush.

At a screening of Grand Theft Auto for the cast and crew, Ron Howard was punk'd when the feature was preceded by his "Gary, Indiana" scene from The Music Man (1962).

Roger Corman scheduled the first sneak preview of Grand Theft Auto for an audience who turned out to be comprised mostly of retirees.

According to Weekly Variety, the box office take for Grand Theft Auto was $2.5 million.

CBS Television later bought rights to the film for $1.1 million.

Grand Theft Auto was the first film that the cable TV network HBO showed three times in one day.

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:
Ron Howard/Roger Corman audio commentary, Grand Theft Auto: Special Edition DVD
How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime by Roger Corman with Jim Jerome
Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon...and Beyond by Beverly Gray
Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Life by Beverly Gray
Clint Howard Interview by Ed Mitchell, Psychotronic Video No. 23
Clint Howard Interview by Calum Waddell, Shock Cinema No. 28