"Is there a pilot in the airplane?" - The best comedy

A few years back, the comedy "Is there a pilot on the plane?" won a Lovefilm vote. The film (Airplane!) was named the funniest of all time. More than three decades have gone since the premiere of this performance, and some of the scenes and styles have become iconic.

1. The creators employed the same voice artists that handled the real-world announcements at Los Angeles International Airport for the announcer fights over the airport's white and red zones. The white zone at a genuine airport is just for loading and unloading passengers, whereas the red zone has no pauses (except for transit buses). In real life, they were married to each other.

2. "I've got to get out of here!" The sequence in which the flight attendant attempts to soothe the hysterical customer was improvised on the spot. Based on a scene from the movie "Zero Hour!" (1957), one of the passengers phoned the flight attendant to attempt to calm her down, then another passenger informs the flight attendant that he will take care of it and then slaps her, the joke should have ended there. Lee Bryant, who played the emotional woman, recommended to the directors that the comedy be extended to include additional disgruntled passengers forming a "slap line".

Although they appreciated the idea, they were apprehensive to carry it out for fear of injuring Bryant. They agreed to give it a shot and even provided props (boxing gloves, tire iron, handgun, and so on) for the passengers. They kept him in the film after one take after briefly teaching him. Leslie Nielsen's second slap, according to Bryant, was not rehearsed or expected, and he did hit her, but not on purpose.

3. Leslie Nielsen's first comedy role was as a doctor. He later stated that he was overjoyed to receive the offer since he was worried that he was getting too old for anything other than "old grandpa" parts. The studio originally wanted Dom DeLuise to play the Doctor, but directors Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams prevailed. Nielsen went on to have a successful career in crazy comedy, most notably in subsequent Zucker Abrahams Zucker (ZAZ) movies.

4. According to the DVD commentary, the song "Stayin' Alive" was accelerated by 10% for the film's dancing scene. The Bee Gees had to provide permission to speed it up.

5. Because the ZAZ crew was not sufficiently "acquainted" with black street lingo, the performers, Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs, improvised most of the jive discussion between the two black passengers. White and Gibbs discuss how they came up with the ZAZ team's lingo in a bonus segment for the "Don't Call Me Shirley" DVD release. The scene is subtitled in jive whenever the participants speak in ordinary English.

6. Peter Graves, best known for playing the supposedly conservative, paternal, and authoritarian leading man, regards the script as a "disgusting dream" at first. Graves stated that after declining the offer and alerting his agency, he received a call "within an hour" from producer Hock Koch wanting to meet to discuss the picture, which Graves accepted.

Graves' tone had softened by the end of the conversation when he discovered that, like Leslie Nielsen and Robert Stack, he was going to be playing himself and that nothing about the absurdist comedy was to be taken seriously. He was, however, still hesitant to play a character who attracted young guys and refused to commit to film.

7. Stryker (Robert Hayes) and Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen) have a movie dialogue ("Surely you can't be serious" "I'm serious, and don't call me Shirley") The American Film Institute ranked it as the 79th best movie quotation.

8.  Robert Stack, at age 61, performed his stunts during the fight scene at the airport.

9. Because the directors knew David Letterman, they requested him to apply for the role of Ted Stryker. Although they enjoyed his reading, Letterman was plainly uneasy about the prospect of formal acting and was openly happy when he was not cast. In fact, David Zucker told Letterman's management that they felt Letterman might get the position (they planned to have him come back for another audition), but were startled when the manager responded no way. His audition was broadcast on his talk program, much to his chagrin.

10. Otto, the autopilot, eventually fell apart after spending several years in Jerry Zucker's garage.

11. Lloyd Bridges had several doubts about his character's motivations and lines, while Robert Stack noted that the visual gags were so frequent and useless that no one in the audience cared. "We're a joke, Lloyd," Stack said.

12. According to his autobiography, the legendary Christopher Lee turned down the role of Doctor Rumack. He described it as a "big mistake".

13. Film debut of Julie Haggerty. Jill Whelan's film debut.

14. Pete Rose was scheduled to play Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but he was playing baseball at the time of filming, thus the part went to Kareem. He was paid $30,000 to perform in the film but demanded $35,000 to purchase an oriental rug.

15. Rossi Harris (Joey) stated in an interview shortly after Peter Graves' death in 2010 that Graves was exceedingly uncomfortable on site; Graves avoided all contact with him while they weren't filming. Harris also stated that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was "not acting" when he exploded and grabbed Joey in response to his constant criticism of Kareem's basketball play. Kareem, according to Harris, grabbed him hard, and Joey's terrified demeanor was genuine.

16. Dr. Rumack was named after the Zuckers' next-door neighbor, Dr. Barry Rumack, who is today a well-known toxicology expert.

17. Peter Graves only agreed to create the film because the script appealed to his wife. He couldn't understand why they wanted him for the part and suggested they cast some hilarious individuals instead.

18. Sigourney Weaver auditioned for the role of Elaine Dickinson.

19. Bill Murray and Chevy Chase were considered for the role of Ted Stryker.

20. Robert Hayes was a licensed pilot in real life, completing his training in 1974. Although it was a completely different type of flying.

Post by Bryan C.