"Airplane!" Creators on Letterman, March 15, 1982
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- "Airplane!" directors/writers/producers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams guest on March 15, 1982, and bring with them Dave's 1979 screen test for the role of Ted Striker. They also plug their new tv show "Police Squad."
This is the type of interview that made me love Letterman in the 80s. There was nothing else like it on TV.
That's because other than 2 other networks and PBS, there truly *WAS* nothing else on tv.
had the MONKEY CAM and STUPID PET TRICKS
@@indy_go_blue6048: There as now even less on. Another example where many options and more is in practice less.
My favourite bit in Airplane will always be Captain Rex Kramer arriving at the airport and fighting his way through a gauntlet of religious nuts.
🤣YES! 🤣
Yes brilliant
@@Plisken65 TSA?
I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.....🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂❤❤
@@Dreamskater100
Transportation Security Administration
While Hollywood churned out overblown bombs with overpaid SNL alumni, this trio had the simple idea of using inexpensive and iconic aging action stars playing straight face against the scripted madness. A solid gold formula.
there werent any aging action stars in it
@@OGRE_HATES_NERDS what about Barbara Billingsley otherwise known as June cleaver from leave it to beaver?
@mysterious144 Ah yes! Well-known Hollywood action star Barbara Billingsley!
@@JohnSmith-mx8wp LOL
Imagine the cast of expendables making the parody of the expendables in the same vein as Airplane!
It's great to see Police Squad with an audience reaction.
The funniest bit in Airplane is when the doctor is describing the progression of symptoms of fish-poisoning as the pilot is getting sick.
Ah that's right, I had the lasagne.
And “stop calling me Shirley”
No, it was when the woman was feeling sick, regurgitated an egg, the doctor cracked it open and a bird flew out.
That's one of my favorite scenes too. Incredible
“And finally the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering, wasted ,piece of junk.”😂
So now I know that it was an almost EXACT copy of "Zero Hour" WOW, watch the comparison video on here of that, it's amazing
Don't call me Shirley.
Jerry Zucker - "Similar plot". Yeah OK 😉
they buy the right from zero hour
@@nrchmn no they bought the left
@@nrchmn - Bought it for $2500.
These guys are the only ones who could pull off such perfect literal gags. I admire their movies so much.
Nobody remembers "Top Secret". I never laughed so hard in my life as I did with that movie.
I love TOP SECRET: it's one of my very favourites ! How could anyone who saw this hilarious masterpiece not remember it ?
🎶 How silly can ya get? 🎵
I just talked to Nobody and he confirmed his remembering the film.
Just one more day and he would have completed the tunnel - kills me each time.
I remember it. Thought it was better than airplane
"You can't take a guess for another 2 hours?"
David Letterman wasn't cut out to be a movie star, and these guys weren't meant for live television. We all have our calling.
Hey he was in Cabin Boy
Remember Chevy Chase and his try at late night talk show? yep sometimes you have a calling, and you should stay there. Jay Leno was terrible acting , but decent talk show host.
Tell that to George Zip
ruclips.net/video/pvJcOLo3ZWw/видео.html Also use their names: Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker.
The whole thing is staged dude. They cracked me up in this!!
The changing of jackets during comm breaks is funny, but my favorite part is at 15:10... Jerry Zucker is wearing Dave's jacket; He reaches into the coat pocket, finds some cash, and slips it into his pants pocket. Very droll.
Haha! Did not understand that part before!
@@l3p3 the fake mustache was supposed to be the gag but dave ruined it.
Very Marx brothers...
I dunno - these are highly intelligent guys and did well in the interview in my eyes.
Jerry, David, and John are so funny! WHY ARE THEY NOT MAKING MOVIES ANYMORE?!
Because they were so funny...this days it doesn't matter anymore. It has to tick all right boxes...
Probably seen as inappropriate humour now but to me they are funny
Maybe they looked at their bank accounts and said that’ll do.
When I first watched Airplane! and Police Squad, I was too young (plus not speaking a world of English) to get most of the jokes, but I do remember I knew I was watching something great. Few years later I watched them again (on VHS) and got few more jokes, and liked them even more. And so on. :)
I am serious and dont call me Shirley
Thats the most famous part of that movie
I think the “Have you ever …, Billy” cockpit dialog and the automatic pilot “recovery” scenes are in the running too.
“Ever wondered why it’s called a ‘cockpit’, Billy?”
To all complaining about this interview:
David Letterman had just started this show and was still relaxing into it. Enough said.
As for the complaints about how awkward, unfunny, dull and terrible the three guests are: How are you enjoying their work? They exhibit the same dry humour, wordplay and wit here as you would see in their movies. The switching of clothes, dumb sight gags and casually pocketing David's money are just as much part of their comedy as responding all at once when asked if they directed together. It boggles the mind to think that anyone who enjoys their movies could watch this and come away thinking it was terrible.
geez, relax
@@D45VR It's been 11 months, I couldn't be more relaxed about this.
@@ohio Every bit of this was planned. It just went over a lot of people's heads.
@@Lost_n_Found_1 Exactly...but see how dave fucked up the stache joke? The funny part was how serious they kind of were and the stache would move from person to person instead of the jacket...or the jacket was gonna be another part as well.
This is talk shows before pre-interviews. That's why the pace is less zippy and gags and other things sometimes bomb.
It's interesting as the skeet shooting-surfing is in the into of Top Secret.
Surprised Kentucky Fried Movie didn't get a big reaction from the audience. It's just as funny as Airplane!.
"Airplane" is an almost EXACT take off of the B movie "Zero Hour" with Dana Andrews. "Airplane" basically spoofs scene by scene of the original movie.
Yes, but heavily laden and leavened with references to and tropes of the very popular and well known 1970s _Airport_ franchise which was much more a part of the Anerican and English-speaking world's public consciousness at that time, which is why I’m glad they made it in color.
Unlike _Zero Hour_ (1957), which had been made 23 years - barely a generation - earlier, even 50 years later, James Whale’s _Frankenstein_ was still very much a part of the public consciousness, so Mel Brook's could produce a parody like _Young Frankenstein_ because even littke kids knew who or what "Frankenstein" was or were familiar with the monster's likeness and were probably aware of its tropes, even if only vagely and subconsciously.
However, _Zero Hour_ was largely forgotten, so most people, including those who had seen it at the time of its theatrical release likely wouldn’t have appreciated the references without the ridiculously over the top _Airport_ franchise having been made, even as obviously a direct parody of _Zero Hour_ as it is, hardly anyone would have appreciated the humor which, starting with the first _Airport_ movie in 1970, ran the decade of the 70s, with the last sequel having been released just a year before _Airplane! _ was released, so even early Gen-Xers could get the humor.
(This is a précis of my successfully defended doctoral thesis, which can be found archived at the the Southern University of North Dakota at Hoople.)
The line at the end is pretty seriously obscure, where one of the Zucker Brothers mentions "starting a small religious school at Yavneh." In late antiquity (around the time of Jesus and such) Yavneh was a major seat of Jewish learning and the home of the Sanhedrin - which of course was also a wonderful bit in Kentucky Fried Movie where Bruce Bixby endorses a painkiller called Sanhedrin, presumably to the bafflement of anyone who hadn't spent significant time studying the Talmud.
Thank you for that. It’s learning stuff like this that is part of the reason I read comments to glean rate nuggets like this. (And just to be clear, given the nature of this video and the comments, I’m being sincere, not sarcastic.)
my god we were all young back then....looking at this brings back them old memories!!!!
Love watching these old slow paced and cringey / awkward clips. You just don’t see this kind of thing nowadays. I love the old late night shows. Even the first few years of Conan were great.
These guys are geniuses.
No. They are Zucker, Abrahms and Zucker.
@@pressureworksaka GENIUSES..
They ripped airplane off from another movie.
@@davelanger, yes, its a satire of "AIRPORT"- type movies= airplane disaster movies. AIRPLANE 2 the sequel not written by the trio, is terrible.
The Zuckers and Jim Abrahams knew what they were doing.
So, yeah its based on other movies..BUT, ITS A SATIRE..naturally it would be based on another source such as movies, books, etc, or behavior/actions/practices by society, again, coming from another source.
That is what SATIRE IS..making a point, and/or entertaining by farcical content that shows folly in our actions and behaviors, and practices, and it derives many times from our pop culture, etc..
@@robertsprouse9282 Airplane is pretty much a shot for shot remake of zero hour
I love all the movies made by these three geniuses although Airplane is their masterpiece. I watch it over and over (and don't call me Shirley).
These guys have dry sense of humor thats funny as hell
OMG, I was in the audience at Cal State Long Beach where they showed Airplane in rough cut before it came out in the theater! I'm famous haha!
The swapping of the suits shows their subtle sense of humor.
Funny that David is talking about Skeet Sufing then - obviously became a musical number for Top Secret!
I THINK (again, THINK) the woman in the 'screen test' was Toni Kalem who also played Angie Bompinsaro (sp?) on the Sopranos. I've looked high & low but can't confirm that.
Thanks! I couldn't place her.
She was "Big Pussy's" wife.
From Milwaukee butt flourished in Madison with Kentucky Fried Theater & took it to LA! 👌👏👏
who notices that the beige jacket moves amongst the three producers?
As well as the glasses.
Not only among the producers but including Dave as well.
@@dongiller again it was supposed to be the mustache but dave ruined it.
And now Dave has the longest beard in entertainment world wide.
gotta watch this movie as soon as I get out of that turkish prison
Hold my beer while I get into a Turkish bath.
Anybody notice that the jacket Abrahams walked out wearing was worn by Jerry Z. in the second segment and then
worn by David Z. in the third segment and by Letterman at the end. The dark jacket Letterman wore was passed Jerry Z
and Letterman is now wearing glasses, Dave's adjustment of the glasses @ 13:05 and the audience reaction are probably
about the inside joke.
+wiedep That's an amazing observation, wiedep. I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. Thanks.
I was able to see a lot of the morning show (at work) and was hooked. When I heard that tickets were available for the rehearsal shows in '82 I snapped one up and loved it. These kinds of bits made the show the 'hit' it was but after a few years at CBS the edge was disappearing and I lost interest - as a large chunk of his audience did too. What they had going in 6A was like one of those basement 'theaters' you could find in the LES with all
kinds of funky fare. Moving into the cavernous Sullivan theater and the 11:30 time slot changed all that and it was never the same.
+wiedep I couldn't agree more. There was an intimacy in 6A that was lost in the Ed. Are you on the facebook? We have a fb/afl group. Tonight I put up a 4-frame screen-shot of the four segments in this clip and mentioned the jacket transfer (crediting you for noticing it).
I'll look.
wiedep Unless you're a member in the group, you won't see it. I've also put it on my page.
you don't know what you missed if you didn't see daytime letterman and the early stuff late nite--pure off the wall genius that was impossible to do at the end. All great shows are like that; you just can't do the energy and craziness for 30 years. And as you get older, you fade.
Wow, that's amazing! I've never seen that screen test!!
“Cigarette?”
“Yes, I know.”
This must've been before the movie "Top Secret!" was released, since "skeet surfing" took place during the opening credits of the movie. These guys made hilarious movies, but they don't interview very well. You could tell they weren't involved with "Airplane II". That picture wasn't very funny and repeated a lot of the jokes from the first "Airplane".
Clifford Shafran yes, Airplane was the first of its kind released in 1980. Top Secret being the second (and my favorite comedy movie of all time, hands down) was released in 1984.
“This is not.....Mel Torme” 😝
“Sir, you dropped your phony dog poo.....”
“.....what phony dog poo??!!!...”
Omg I could rattle of quite after quote from Top Secret, I freaking love that movie.
If everybody had a 12 gauge...
I think the interview was hilarious. Same style of humor as their films. People just expect a certain flow in talk show conversations. They did at least a dozen bits, some so subtle you might not have noticed. These guys epitomize irreverent and awkward, and that's what makes it funnier for some of us. ;)
i didnt see anything wrong woth the interview
It's a shame they didn't get to write and direct Airplane II but the writer of Grease 2 did.
I think Airplane II is very funny too.
Was about to watch Airplane for the 1001 time and thought, "Gee, (yes, I say gee to myself), I wonder if there's an interview with the creators?" And behold, on David Letterman, nevertheless.
top secret , airplane, Letterman, ground breaking humor.
it's incredible to learn DL was so close to getting the lead role in Airplane
I saw that screen test - I wouldn't us the word "Close".
one of them directed 1990's movie hit ghost.
love this trio.
1990.
These guys went to my High school. They make references to the area a lot in their movies.
Which was where, when and what would be an example?
Provide an answer with at least two examples, using complete subject-verb sentences and demonstrating use of paragraphs, simile, metaphor and analogy with a gerund. You have two minutes and the answer must be in your own handwriting.
@@fredericklmeade2947 Settle down Francis.
Fantastic upload. Cheers!
Incredible that they were able to stay composed during the great earthquake of '82
Now I know where the idea for surf skeet shooting scene from the Top Secret came from.
it is interesting that it was not mentioned that the police squad clip shown is a near-verbatim (choreography and dialogue, minus the humor) take from an M squad episode.
look up "Zero Hour! vs Airplane! Comparison"; several videos do shot by shot comparisons of the two and they are hilarious. For 35 years I thought that Airplane! was a spoof of the Airport disaster movies but I was wrong.
Well, they did an excellent parody of 1957 film Zero Hour, a lot of the dialogue is identical and the plot is exactly the same.
This is great! Late Night before Letterman had is shtick together... !
Imagine a film where these three had teamed up with the original Pythons.
WAZA Where disco lives forever. Plane hits antennah, disco dies.
Cigarette? Yes I know
Letterman could play that role straight, which is what was needed.
Love how they change the jacket in each interval
I'm surprised that nobody here is speculating on whether that was a *real* screen test, or if it was shot for the show...
It was a real screen test.
I thought it looked like a fake screen test, like it was just a skit for the show.
In the movie they got the idea for Airplane! from you can just see the edge of what they were thinking about how they could use it for their movie.
Thank God for comedic genius from the minds of 3 obvious germans.
Has anyone else mentioned that during the commercial breaks, they keep shifting the blazer and glasses from one person to another? And in the fourth cut, the blazer ends up on Dave?
Quite a few.
They use the skeet surfing idea in the great movie “Top Secret”.
wow very earlir dave days!!
Youll be great... youll be swell!
The one question I would ask them: How did you get so many big name talents!?
Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves for the big boys, then Julie Hagerty, Lorna Patterson and Barbara Billingsley, plus Stephen Stucker and Robert Hays, and Ethel Merman plus Kareem Abdul Jabbar, oh man, there was James Hong too... And all the others...
They were kinda going for a bit of the "Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" whole deal, weren't they? 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁👍👍👍
David Letterman auditioned for the lead role of Stryker.
As is shown in this clip.
You know. Chevy Chase can't act either,but he did popular movies at the time. The test looked like Chase in the part.
The Naked Shoulders of D. Letterman
15:11 Jerry reaches into the blue jacket and pulls out a big wad of cash ( belonging to Dave?) I'm guessing.
That test stuff of Dave ain't fuckin' bad.
I like how some of the stuff falls flat It's more unpredictable that way.
Quite possibly one of the weirdest and most awkward interviews I've seen.
+Alexandra Pierce I know and what's with all the breaks every 2-3 mins.
+Wayne Thomson The show was just over a month old, and at the time it was split into eight acts, which resulted in too-short segments. They were aware of the problem and so soon after they changed it to seven acts with an extended mid-hour break. And that routine remained throughout the rest of the show's run until it ended in '93.
Any interview with Robert De Niro is 100000000x more awkward.
maybe you're used to smooth interviews where everything is scripted.
ffs why does nobody understand dry humor on this board?
Funniest stuff in the movie=Barbara Billingsley talkin' jive, and ABDUL-JABBAR as co-pilot ROGER MURDOCK who keeps trying to change the subject when the yappy kid keeps telling him that he is really KAREEM and that the kid's dad thinks KAREEM is overrated, which gets an exasperated ABDUL JABBAR grabbing the kid, and saying: LOOK KID, you tell your old man to drag WALTON and LANIER's butt up and down the floor for 48 minutes..
First time I heard those two, BILLINGSLEY AND ABDUL-JABBAR, I absolutely could not stop laughing for about two minutes each.
Its the funniest movie ever, and the NAKED GUN movies and Police Squad tv show are, close, but not quite there with AIRPLANE; nothing is.
Geniuses
David Letterman was on an episode Mork and Mindy and was very good.
What I love and hate about this, is seeing their product on screen, they are fantastic, but certainly wouldn't want these guys around in my everyday life.
Shows how insane and illogical Hollywood can be. The three guys that deliveried the goods on the original movie are shut out of the sequal!
It’s called capitalism: “We’re Paramount. We have the rights to any sequel. We can make it and reap all of the profits without having to involve or share any revenue with its creators.”
Dave, class.
Geez, 3 frigging commercials breaks in 12-1/2 minutes. And that was 1982. No wonder people stopped watching tv.
No one on the staff back then was happy with the show being split up into 8 acts. That's why within a few months it was split up into 7, allowing more time for the interviews.
Did anyone notice that Jim Abrahams did just look like Ben Mendelsohn? :-O
Yayy, UW-Madison!!!!!!!
Hey that’s my exact birthday
Ha! Imagine testing "Airplane!" in colleges these days!? It wouldn't get off the ground. Imagine the offense taken with the 'jive talking' scene? Ha!
Did anyone else notice that they keep exchanging clothes with each other?
fil meup Yes, over a year ago. Mentioned elsewhere in this comment section.
I picked the right time to quit watching chat shows , Fantastic film though
The funniest movie ever
16:10 "who's on first" on steroids!
They all look like Sienfeld.
I died
Jewish families dont usually date outside their own community, so i guess there’s ur answer.
Barbara Billingsley Talking Jive!!
14:58 is the funniest part of the whole interview
OMG that was hilarious!!!
11:15 For one I don't believe they never saw the sequel, and in case of the very small chance that they truly haven't seen it, I think that they should see it. The sequel does the first one justice. Naked Gun was a classic series just like Airplane was.
37 years ago!
Just found out Dave auditioned for the role of Ted Striker
yes this is the first ive ever heard of this !!!
How do these guys compare to Cohen or Farrelly brothers?
Anyone notice...after each commercial break, they are swapping jackets?
A few have elsewhere in the comments.
@@dongiller Yes...I see now. Thanks for pointing it out to me. 👍
170 Million !!!!
Love the glasses and jacket switching
Funny.
I have been posting old school david letterman.
Link?
Didn't Letterman try out for Kentucky Fried Movie ?
Yes, according to David Zucker.
Jerry Zucker has an uncanny resemblance to Jerry Seinfeld.
It seems God decided this is the best template for a comedian.
So he just inflated it and made it perfect.
Who was the actress in the AIRPLANE audition?
reading the letterman bio is making me watch these old interviews, great stuff
It's all of a piece. :)
All the folks complaining about the trio being unfunny on live television must be Americans.
The thing I found most grating was that after every three lines or so, it was time for a commercial break.