AMC clears ‘Airplane!’ for takeoff on film’s 40th anniversary
“Don’t call me Shirley.” Even if you”re not a movie connoisseur, chances are good that you know which film yielded that line, along with many others that immediately entered the annals of great comedy quotes in the summer of 1980. Back then, the relentless, fast-paced humor of “Airplane!” first gave a major reboot to screen satire — and AMC is celebrating the picture’s 40th anniversary by showing it twice Monday.
Paramount Home Entertainment also is marking the occasion with a new Blu-ray release of “Airplane!” as part of its recently launched “Paramount Presents” line of particularly notable titles from the studio’s history. That disc includes an interview session recorded last winter with Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker, the writer-directors who followed their success with the sketch-based “Kentucky Fried Movie” by infusing their taste for spoofery into a more structured story. Additionally, where possible, Turner Classic Movies will present “Airplane!” as one of its “Big Screen Classics” in theaters Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.
Several disaster movies inspired “Airplane!,” especially “Zero Hour!,” a 1957 drama adapted from a novel by “Airport” author Arthur Hailey. The parody mirrored the original so closely — as with the food poisoning that affects the flight crew, plus the name of Ted Striker, the Robert Hays-played hero who pursues his stewardess ex-girlfriend (Julie Hagerty) — the humorists felt compelled to buy rights to “Zero Hour!” to avoid possible copyright problems. The “Airport” movies clearly influenced other “Airplane!” elements, particularly the scene of a guitar-playing nun (singer Maureen McGovern) serenading an ill child (Jill Whelan), lifted right out of “Airport 1975.”
For several actors long cast in a serious mode, “Airplane!” opened them up to a new potential for comedic parts. Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (collectively known as ZAZ in shorthand) hired them for exactly that reason, to play against their dramatic images by maintaining their familiar approaches amid zany circumstances.
Leslie Nielsen arguably had the most success in that vein, playing a doctor aboard the troubled plane and delivering the aforementioned “Shirley” line repeatedly. He would continue to have hits with ZAZ in the “Naked Gun” spoofs, spun off from the short-lived “Police Squad!” television series they made after “Airplane!” Other beneficiaries from the latter project were Peter Graves as the plane’s pilot, Robert Stack as a veteran aviator and Lloyd Bridges as an air-traffic controller who “picked the wrong week” to give up various personal vices.
Another factor in the enduring popularity of “Airplane!” is that it doesn’t overstay its welcome: Without commercials, it runs just under 90 minutes … and if a one-liner doesn’t work for you (see: 1982’s inevitable “Airplane II: The Sequel,” which was made by others), hold on, another one is coming quickly. However, most of the jokes do land well, as does “Airplane!” overall after 40 years aloft.