10 Things You Didn't know About Airplane

[Music] airplane hilarious spoof movie which of course takes place on an airplane released in 1980 it follows the character ted striker played by robert hayes a traumatized war veteran turned taxi driver who boards a flight from la to chicago in order to win back the love of his stewardess girlfriend elaine dickinson played by julie hegarty whom has broken up with him however during the flight many of the passengers and crew become ill from airplane food poisoning where all manner of hilarious chaos ensues on this manic flight of absurdity it's up to stryker to put aside his fears of the war and take to the controls of an air vehicle once again and land the plane in this classic movie that is a prime example of a spoof movie done right with many memorable performances including lloyd bridges as the control tower supervisor robert stack as captain rex kramer and leslie nelson as dr rumak so get out your dancing shoes and get ready to mock saturday night fever as we look into 10 things that you didn't know about airplane [Music] [Music] can you fly this plane and land it surely you can't be serious i am serious and don't call me shirley number 10 inspired by a serious movie airplane was the brainchild of comedy trio jerry and david zucker and jim abrahams whom also gave us the naked gun series the creation of airplane goes back to 1971 when the three young funny men created a comedy theater group called kentucky fried theatre where they would perform for an audience in order to get material the trio of funny guys would record late night tv and the next day review the tapes in order to get inspiration for funny gags one night they accidentally taped an old 1957 movie called zero hour which is basically the exact same plot as airplane even down to the fish food poisoning only the movie has played out entirely serious upon watching it the two zuckers and abrahams knew that they were onto something with zero hour and that there could be great comedy potential so they got down to writing a remake be that a spoof remake [Music] in fact airplane's co-director jim abrahams describes zero hour as being the serious version of airplane number nine original title [Music] david and jerry zucker and jim abrahams wrote the original script for airplane in 1975 and the movie's original title was the late show which is a curious name as the late show doesn't exactly suggest that this is a movie about an airplane however before the late show or as it would become airplane could go forward it was felt that the rights to zero hour would have to be obtained as the airplane script was seen as being too similar to zero hour so there was a fear of copyright infringement so the trio of young writers managed to buy the rights to zero hour for twenty five hundred dollars in order to avoid any legal issues the writers also took inspiration from the airport film series which were a series of airplane disaster movies which came out during the 70s once again these films were played seriously the original script also featured parodies of commercials that were on tv at the time but it was advised by people who read the script to not include the commercial gags so they were eventually removed i'm kind of glad because they may not have made sense for future viewings although the advert parodies may have worked in the late 70s 20 to 30 years later new viewers probably wouldn't get the jokes number eight no one wanted the script so they made another movie airplane was the first script that abrahams and the suckers had worked on and by the mid to late 70s the script was complete however there was just one problem no one was interested in the script at that time the three writers were friends with director john landis and he encouraged them to write a script based on their kentucky fried theater act so they abandoned airplane and instead got to work on kentucky fried movie which the zuckers and abrahams had written with landis directing abrahams and the zuckers learnt a lot about the filmmaking process while making kentucky fried movie as well as being their first time on a movie set and they learned while making kentucky fried movie that if airplane was to be made into a movie in order for it to be the movie they wanted then they themselves would have to direct it with all three of the young performers eventually becoming the directors of airplane [Music] number seven the movie was intended to be shot in black and white the airplane script was making its way around movie studios with word of mouth getting around about how funny it actually was production company embassy pitchers were interested in the script and were in talks with the zuckers and abrahams for them to make airplane however the airplane script found its way to future disney ceo michael eisner who at the time worked for paramount pictures eisner set up a meeting with abrahams and the zuckers and said that paramount pitchers could distribute the movie on one condition it be filmed in color you see originally it was intended for aeroplane to be a black and white movie as a homage to the movie it was spoofing zero hour a similar thing happened a few years earlier with mel brooks's young frankenstein which was also filmed in black and white to comedic effect but yeah just imagine if airplane was in black and white i can actually see that working to be honest and of course the zuckers and abrahams went with paramount pictures over embassy pictures as embassy pictures were more of an independent movie company whereas paramount was more mainstream and thus airplane was filmed in glorious color number six non-comedy casting when it came to casting airplane the zuckers and abrahams wanted to cast actors who hadn't done comedy before or at least weren't known for comedy david letterman auditioned for the main role of ted stryker but didn't get the part the part went to robert hayes as abrahams and the zuckers liked his performance in the movie angie as for the role of elaine sigourney weaver actually auditioned for the part but she didn't get it and the role went to julie hegarty christopher lee and don deluise were approached for the part of dr rumak but both actors turned the part down so leslie nelson took on the role and totally steals the show thanks to his deadpan delivery of dialogue which contrasts with the absurdity of the script excuse me sir i'm sorry i have to wake you you're a doctor that's right during filming nielsen would often pull pranks on his co-stars with whoopee cushions and was generally considered lots of fun to work with aeroplane was the start of nielsen's career as a leading comedy actor and after airplane he would go on to star in more comical roles in movies like the naked gun and dracula dead and loving it number five robert stack impersonating himself modern audiences may recognize actor robert stack more for being the host of the mystery tv show unsolved mysteries where he no doubt contributed to many children's nightmares in the 80s and 90s thanks to the chilling way he presented the show however long before that he played captain rex kramer in airplane where he delivered an unforgettable performance however originally while filming the zuckers and abrahams felt that he wasn't playing the part the way that they had in mind so in order to get the performance they wanted they took interesting measures as they showed stack a tape of an impressionist called john breiner who was impersonating stack and told him that's the kind of performance they want so stack had to study the impressionist impersonating himself in order to get the performance right so just to recap robert stack's performance in airplane is based on an impersonation of robert stack so he's basically impersonating himself and yep i've just gone cross-eyed number four music of airplane [Music] airplane was scored by movie scoring legend elmer bernstein who at the time was most well known for creating powerful epic scores for movies like the ten commandments and the magnificent seven he had previously dabbled in comedy two years earlier where he scored the john landis movie animal house bernstein saw an early cut of airplane and found it to be a really funny movie and he was told to write a score that's corny and over the top and not to make it sound epic but more like a score for a cheap b movie and just with animal house it totally works as the music an airplane takes itself so seriously and can be so over dramatic which is a great contrast to the absurdity and comical mania of what's on screen his score definitely completes the movie and like leslie nelson bernstein would go on to continue to branch out in comedy more going on to score movies like the blues brothers trading places and ghostbusters number three the sequel there was indeed a sequel to airplane which came out in 1982 called airplane 2 the sequel now let's just say that the two airplane movies are like twins well the first airplane movie is the sibling that everyone loves and looks up to whereas the second is the black sheep in the family that no one likes so how did airplane 2 go so wrong well for a start jerry and david zucker and jim abrahams who were the driving force behind the first movie didn't return for the sequel that and the sequel interestingly takes a more science fiction approach where this time it revolves around a spacecraft and a colony on the moon airplane 2 had a promising start in the box office when it first came out but its numbers had drastically dropped in its second week with the movie only going on to make 27 million dollars at the box office the critics weren't kind to this movie either at the time airplane 2 the sequel often got lumbered with grease 2 and that they were both sequels to popular movies that paramount pitchers had released in 1982 that were ultimately flops well at least that year they had much better luck with star trek 2. wow all these number twos coming out in the same year but to be fair airplane 2 does still have its fan base and some claim that had the first airplane movie not come out and airplane 2 being its own thing then it may have been just as popular and successful as airplane number 2 name change yeah believe it or not but here in australia and new zealand airplane had its title changed to flying high in fact all my life i've known airplane as flying high there have been many times when i've been talking to people outside australia about comedies and i bring this movie up and the response i always get is what is flying high in fact even while making this episode i keep instinctively wanting to call airplane flying high so why the name change well because of the movie the concord airport 79 which was part of the disaster airport film series as previously mentioned a series that airplane even took inspiration from the concord airport 79 was released in 1979 in the states however its release was delayed in australia and new zealand with it being released here in 1980 round about the same time the airplane was to be released and whoever was in charge of airplanes release in this part of the world thought that the two movies titles sounded too similar and may cause confusion on the account that they would both be released at the same time so airplane became flying high however even now 40 years after its release it's still known as flying high and at this stage it probably will be forever more [Music] what a pisser now often when i talk about movies that have alternative titles in other parts of the world some people tend to say well that's not true what proof do you have i've been to said country and it didn't have an alternative title when i was there well here is my dvd of airplane where you can clearly see it's called flying high so yep this is my actual physical evidence that the movie is called that here flying high number one legacy there was a bit of apprehension over the release of airplane as supposedly the film fared poorly in its test screenings and abrahams and the zuckers were worried that they had a flop on their hands airplane was released worldwide in july 1980 and was very successful bringing in 158 million dollars on a mere 3.5 million dollar budget making it a huge money maker for paramount pitchers airplane would go on to be nominated for a golden globe for best motion picture comedy as well as a bafta and the zuckers and abrahams would win a writer's guild of america reward for the script that they had created for airplane so their initial worries over the movie's release was proven wrong airplane was praised by critics who thought the movie was silly and juvenile but it was silly and juvenile done right making it a genuinely funny movie not only does airplane off to make it to funniest movies of all time lists but also the list of greatest movies of all time in general in a poll done by uk channel 4 it scored as the second best comedy movie of all time after monty python's life of brian it was also ranked at number 6 on bravo's list of 100 funniest movies it also made it to empire's list of 500 greatest movies of all time and the new york times 1 000 greatest movies of all time as well it also came in fourth in the writers guild of america's 101 funniest screenplays so airplane was big business for what was otherwise a silly film and it has gone on to have a lasting impression where even now it's still admired and celebrated heck even a bald guy from australia is making a youtube video about it it's definitely a small movie that went a long way and is still going strong with its popularity increasing in time it's a movie that shows us that in our gloomy world laughter is important and sometimes we need to see silly things and to have a good laugh [Music] this film is a must for all movie fans seriously airplane is a benchmark in the history of comedy and cinema and it's one that guarantees a good laugh from those who watch it even though nowadays the spoof genre isn't really a thing thanks to a decline in the recent quality of spoof comedies airplane shows us that there is merit in the genre if done right with good humor and passion anyway i'm minty and don't call me shirley see ya [Music] so you

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

Views: 445,275

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Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2020