How We Made: Airplane!

The greatest movie, EVER! ‘Airplane!’ fans must watch ‘Zero Hour.’

I was an absolute terror in the summer of 1980! The whole time, all I did was rattle off lines from "Airplane!"

"Johnny, what can you make outta this?" May he rest in peace.

I can always watch this movie again.

HAH! I love corny campy comedies. Not the wife.

'Oh god, you're watching 'that' movie?' when Showtime had in on rotation months ago.

'Yep!' shit eating grin. I still see things in that movie that I didn't notice before.

I was saddened to find out that Stephen Stucker died of AIDS. Such a loss. He was funny. All of his lines were ad-libed. They tracked down and hired the original voice actors for the announcements at LAX for the announcer battle in the terminal. The Zuckers were baggage handlers early in the movie. A European flight crew asked Kareem to sit in the jump seat so they could brag that they flew with 'Roger Murdoch'. That was Leslie Nielsen's first comedic role. The movie was profitable after the first two days of being released. 747 pilots told the producers that they had actually touched the terminal glass windows with their planes before the scene in the movie.

And: the part of the Jive Lady was originally intended for Harriet Nelson, who had played the mother in the 1950s sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. She turned it down because she was concerned about the film's adult language. She was replaced with Barbara Billingsley who played the mother in Leave It to Beaver. She later admitted to Robert Hays that she regretted not taking the part.

I love that movie...

I will never forget seeing it on opening night. The next day Gene Shalit was reviewing the movie on the TODAY show. He said, "They say this movie has a laugh a minute. We'll they're wrong." I thought did he see the same movie i saw? Then he said, "It has a laugh every 30 seconds!" I think the laughs are even closer than that! Gotta love Roger Murdoch "Huh?"

I picked the wrong day to give up sniffing glue. The best of the best right up there with Blazing Saddles.

Side by side comparison: Zero Hour! (1957) Vs Airplane! (1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-v2BHNBVCs

Still funny. Saw it when it first came out and still laugh when I see it.

"Flying High" in Australia, and maybe other places?

“What’s the vector Victor”?
“Ever seen a grown man naked”?

I hadn't been aware of "Zero Hour!" before I caught it one night on the tube. Sat there realizing how hard it must have been for "Airplane!" to actually add more schlock to the story line. Great stuff!