Movie Flashback: Airplane! Changed Comedy

The comedic team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker) weren't the first to parody pop culture and they definitely won't be the last, but what they brought with Airplane! 35 years ago this month is something totally different.
Mel Brooks would hire comedians like Harvey Korman or Madeline Kahn. The Monty Pythons and the Saturday Night Live gangs would do it themselves, but Airplane! had a novel approach. Have serious actors make fun of themselves. And rather than them winking and smiling at the camera, just have them read the lines serious.
And it worked.
While filming a scene, Lloyd Bridges, who plays the McCosky, a Chicago airport top official, is speaking with Robert Stack, who plays Kramer, another top airline official, and asked him if he thought the dialogue was funny, because he didn't think it was. Stack replied that they were the jokes.
The joke of Airplane! is seeing Barbara Billingsley, aka June Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver, acting as an interpreter with two jive-speaking guys and then getting into a verbal argument with them. Or Peter Graves in his deep stoic voice, casually asking a boy, "Ever seen a grown man naked?"
Airplane! came by accident. ZAZ had been recording late night TV to find commercials to parody during their routines and discovered the movie Zero Hour. They liked it. They like it so much they decided it need a parody.
Mel Brooks said you make fun of the movies you love and that's what ZAZ did. They poked fun of all the melodrama from movies like Zero Hour and the Airport movies as well as the disaster movies that were common during the 1970s with big-name stars.
One of those stars was Leslie Nielsen, who had appeared in movies such as The Poseidon Adventure and City on Fire. He was one of the first of the actors to jump at the opportunity to appear in Airplane! because he was reportedly at the stage in his career where his age meant he was only getting grandfather roles. The same year Airplane! was released, Nielsen also appeared as the father of Jamie Lee Curtis in the slasher hit Prom Night.
Nielsen was known as a practical joker off the set. He had just purchased a hand-held fart machine that he would keep in his pocket and would push the button when he leaned in to shake someone's hand just to get their response.
And watching Airplane!, you see him as someone finally being able to do what they want. And Nielsen understand the material as he plainly says, "And don't call me Shirley" to someone.
ZAZ had a way of throwing it all on the screen and seeing what sticks. And Airplane! pushes those boundaries. When the protagonist Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) says, "The shit's going to hit the fan," the next scene is of what we presume feces hitting a desk fan. In another scene where a character says the plane is on instruments, there's a cut to characters playing musical instruments. The cutaways were probably an influence on Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy.
Airplane! changed comedy and ZAZ would go on making movies like Top Secret! and Ruthless People before splitting up and directing movies individually with some success. Abrahams directed the Hot Shots! movies. David Zucker directed The first two Naked Gun movies and BASEketball and Jerry Zucker found success going serious with Ghost.
Now, parody movies seem to focus too much on slapstick and gross-out humor rather than cleverness. Even some of ZAZ's latter movies did this.
You also see some actors getting their feet wet. Julie Hagerty who plays Elaine, Ted's girlfriend, reportedly got the role because she appeared too nervous during the audition and her soft-spoken voice was just what the filmmakers were wanting.
David Leisure as one of the bald Hari Krishnas reportedly said the only reason he got the role was because he was willing to shave his head.
There's also a small role for Jonathan Banks, of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame, as an air-traffic controller.
And most notably, there is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as Roger Murdock, who is really Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pretending to be a airline pilot. This is a parody of other disaster movies in which sports stars had roles. Originally, Peter Rose was considered but the filmmakers were unable to get them.
If you want a good laugh for 90 minutes or just to learn some jive, buy a ticket for Airplane!