Line #104 Trivia/Airplane


1	* ActingInTheDark: To an extent. Although all involved were aware that the film was supposed to be a comedy, many of the actors admitted that they were unsure of the exact tone ZAZ were going for and basically had to be shepherded into giving the line readings they wanted. A few of the actors, however, were on board from the beginning and knew exactly what ZAZ wanted, including Robert Hays, Robert Stack, and (of course) Leslie Nielsen.
2	* ActorInspiredElement:
3	** The Mustang used in the scene where Rex is being brought to the airport was owned by Robert Hays. He got paid $35 a day for its use and they used it for two days.
4	** Most of the jive talk between the two black passengers was improvised by the actors, Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs, as the Jewish filmmakers weren't sufficiently "conversant" in black street language. In a bonus vignette for the "Don't Call Me Shirley" edition of the DVD, White and Gibbs explain how they came up with the dialect for the ZAZ team and are subtitled in jive while speaking regular English.
5	** The sound of Captain Oveur's uncontrollable flatulence was provided on-set by Leslie Nielsen, using a fart machine he always kept on hand to prank people.[[note]]He'd gotten in trouble handing out fart machines to the rest of the cast -- who took to them like fish to water, resulting in a veritable cacophony of fart noises -- before ZAZ started banning them on-set. The other actors would remark that Nielsen could "play that thing like a maestro".[[/note]]
6	* ActorSharedBackground: Robert Hays was in real life a licensed pilot, having completed his training in 1974, although it was an entirely different kind of flying, altogether.
7	** '''All together''': ''"It was an entirely different kind of flying."''
8	* ApprovalOfGod: Creator/ArthurHailey, who wrote the original Creator/{{CBC}} TV drama film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_into_Danger Flight into Danger]]'' (1956), later adapted into ''[[Film/ZeroHour1957 Zero Hour!]]'' (1957), and was a credited co-writer on ''Zero Hour!'' itself. He also wrote the novel that launched the ''Film/{{Airport}}'' [[DisasterMovie disaster film]] franchise, [[note]]With ZAZ borrowing the PA announcers' argument about abortion from it[[/note]] and later admitted that he "laughed like everyone else" at ''Airplane!''.
9	* {{Blooper}}:
10	** As Ted meets Elaine in the airport corridor, you can see a crewman letting out cable off to the left. The Zuckers acknowledge this in the DVDCommentary.
11	** After the "The white phone" line, you can hear a crew member (the script supervisor) behind the camera laugh. This is also mentioned in the DVDCommentary.
12	** There's also one in the dance scene, also mentioned in the DVDCommentary: when Striker does a backflip into the crowd, you can see his actor, Robert Hays, off to the side, very obviously waiting for his cue to jump back in to replace his stunt double. His head is fairly visible off to the right.
13	* CareerResurrection: Before this film, Creator/LeslieNielsen had a long career in Hollywood playing mostly bit parts on film or TV guest shots, with the occasional leading role in a low-budget project. Before 1980, he was probably best remembered for his leading role in ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''. After 1980, he was best known for his role as Dr. Rumack in this film, where his deadpan performance made him one of the funniest things in the film. [[LeslieNielsenSyndrome He would go on to play similar roles in an assortment of other]], mostly similar comedies, notably Frank Drebin in ''Series/PoliceSquad'' and ''Film/TheNakedGun'' film trilogy as well the lead roles in ''Film/SpyHard'' and ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''.
14	* CastTheExpert:
15	** For the argument between announcers concerning the white and red zones at the airport, the producers hired the actual announcers for Los Angeles International Airport. Incidentally, they were a real married couple.[[note]]For those curious, at the real airport, the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only, and there's no stopping in the red zone (except for transit buses).[[/note]]
16	** Lee Bryant was best known [[ForgottenTrope at the time]] for acting in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ4kCF22O2w Yuban coffee commercials]].
17	* CastTheRunnerUp: Marcy Goldman was originally considered for the role of Mrs. Hammond but was eventually cast as Mrs. Geline instead.
18	* TheCastShowoff:
19	** Robert Hays juggling during the Magumbo Bar dance sequence.
20	** The producers gave Norman Alexander Gibbs and Al White freedom to write their own Jive dialogue and also Barbara Billingsley's lines, because they were not familiar enough with Jive to do it themselves. White even went to a library and read books on African-American vernacular English in order to up it further, all in his own volition. He also coached Billingsley on how to say her lines.
21	** Randy's performance of "River of Jordan" showcases Lorna Patterson's excellent singing voice. Patterson would later focus her career on doing musical theatre.
22	* CelebrityVoiceActor: In the Latin American Spanish dub, and, while being a voice actor by his own right, Rex Kramer was voiced by Mexican TV actor Alberto Pedret, who was also the [[SameLanguageDub voice]] of Wrestling/ElSanto in his own films.
23	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
24	** In Finnish, it's "Hey, We're Flying!" This led to a whole series of imported American comedies being titled "Hey, We're [insert verb here]!"
25	** In Polish it's "Is there a pilot with us?"
26	** France went with the similar "Is there a pilot in the plane?"
27	** In Brazilian Portuguese, "Fasten Your Seatbealts, the Pilot has Disappeared!"
28	** Czech Republic had the similar "Fasten your seatbelts, please!"
29	** In Italian, it's "The Craziest Airplane In The World".
30	** German has "The incredible voyage in a crazy Airplane".
31	** Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and the Philippines all had the title "Flying High!"
32	** In Spanish, the film was released as "So where is the pilot?" in Latin America and "Land [as well] as you can" in Spain. From then on, almost every movie that had Creator/LeslieNielsen in its cast was released as [[TranslationMatchmaking "So where is X?" and "X as you can"]].
33	** In Swedish: "Look, we are flying!"
34	** In Israel, it was "Have A Nice Flight".
35	* CreatorBacklash:
36	** [[Music/PeterPaulAndMary Peter Yarrow]] wrote "River of Jordan" for the wedding of a friend. He was a little bummed out to see it used in a comedy. In the ''Surely You Can't Be Serious'' book, Yarrow says that he's fine with it now, and that his main concern was that UsefulNotes/TedKennedy had once told him that it was his favorite song, and he was afraid that Kennedy would somehow be mad at him over it.
37	** When interviewed for the DVDCommentary, Peter Graves said he felt really uncomfortable with some of his more risque lines, especially involving little Joey. He initially rejected the role, but was pressured by his friends, wife, and [[SoMyKidsCanWatch daughters]] to accept. Fortunately, later in life, Graves had relaxed enough about it to jokingly hit on the (now-adult, of course) actor who played little Joey in cast reunions.
38	* DeletedRole: The opening scenes originally included an filmed "Polish joke" about Air Poland having pilots who were "flying blind", with the flight crew being Music/StevieWonder, Music/RayCharles and Music/JoseFeliciano (plus a seeing-eye dog). The first two were lookalikes, but Feliciano appeared AsHimself. After deciding the joke was too tasteless, the bit was cut, leaving Feliciano out of the film.[[note]]The real Music/RayCharles would later appear in a similar gag in ''Film/SpyHard''.[[/note]]
39	* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: A joke about Mamie Eisenhower was dubbed over when she died during production.
40	* EnforcedMethodActing:
41	** Creator/LeslieNielsen slapped Creator/LeeBryant for real during the GetAHoldOfYourselfMan scene, and threw in a [[CrossesTheLineTwice second slap]] without warning for good measure. Her confused reaction in this scene is entirely real.
42	** According to Ross Harris (Joey), Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar was "not acting" when he erupted and grabbed Joey following his relentless criticisms about Kareem's basketball performance. Harris said Kareem grabbed him very hard and Joey's fearful expression was quite real.
43	* ExecutiveVeto:
44	** The studio wouldn't let the producers use a propeller plane as the airliner, so the producers gave the jet a propeller plane sound instead.
45	** The producers also wanted to shoot the movie in black and white, like ''Film/ZeroHour1957''. The studio flat out told them that it would be a color film or a film by another studio.
46	* ExtremelyLengthyCreation: The first draft was written in 1974.
47	* FollowTheLeader:
48	** While not the first movie to be a feature-length parody (Hi, Creator/MelBrooks!), its success practically birthed the entire "parody movie" genre, with films like ''Film/YoungDoctorsInLove'' and, much later, ''Film/ScaryMovie'' borrowing heavily from this film's brand of RapidFireComedy and [[ReferenceOverdosed heavy reliance on contemporaneous pop culture]].
49	** The film itself was inspired by ''{{Magazine/MAD}}'''s section about "scenes we'd like to see in movies".
50	* FriendshipOnTheSet: A bunch of the actors became close with the ZAZ team over the years, especially Creator/RobertHays, Creator/LeslieNielsen and Creator/LloydBridges; David Zucker gave the eulogy at Nielsen's funeral and Jim Abrahams did likewise for Bridges. Barbara Billingsley and Al White had a long friendship that began with the jive translation scene.
51	* GenreKiller: Killed off the whole disaster movie genre for a decade or so by making audiences unable to take them seriously anymore. It also killed the aerial subgenre retroactively, as the airliner-in-peril/stewardess-lands-the-plane trope of the previous ''Airport'' series was destroyed, and all the drama with it.
52	* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny:
53	** As told on the DVD commentary, Stephen Stucker (who played Johnny) was given the straight lines of the characters around him and allowed to write his own lines.
54	** Most of the jive talk between the two black passengers was improvised by Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs, as the creators weren't sufficiently "conversant" in black street language.
55	* HeAlsoDid: Crossing over into HilariousInHindsight territory, Craig Berenson, who played Paul Carey (the guy who's sent out to get Rex Kramer), went on to become a producer. His most successful film? ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane''.
56	* HeyItsThatPlace: The ''Film/FromHereToEternity'' skit was shot on the same beach where Taylor discovers the Statue of Liberty in ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968''.
57	* IAmNotSpock:
58	** Creator/PeterGraves was dismayed to meet people who believed he was a pedophile.
59	** In a 2008 interview on ''Series/{{Today}}'', Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar told the story of being on a European flight and asked to sit in an empty seat in the cockpit during takeoff so the crew could say they flew with Roger Murdock.
60	* LifeImitatesArt: The cockpit voice recorder of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1248 Southwest Airlines Flight 1248]] picked up one of the flight crew joking "I picked a bad day to stop sniffin' glue!" while waiting to approach Chicago-Midway Airport during a snowstorm. The plane ran off the end of the runway and into a city street, killing one person on the ground and injuring nine others.
61	* MoneyDearBoy: Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar's salary paid for an expensive rug he wished to purchase.
62	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: When Dr. Rumack is removing eggs from the woman's mouth and cracks one open to release a bird, the bird nearly hits a passenger in the face as it flies off.
63	* NoStuntDouble: Creator/RobertStack, at age 61, did his own stunts during the fight scene in the airport ticket area.
64	* OneTakeWonder: The plane crashing through the terminal was so expensive to design and set up that, by necessity, they could only do one take (with multiple cameras set up). It was also the very last thing shot for the film.
65	* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/LeslieNielsen, Creator/LloydBridges, Creator/RobertStack and Creator/PeterGraves (all serious dramatic actors), doing comedy. In the case of Nielsen, this role [[LeslieNielsenSyndrome redefined his career]] and would become his default shtick for the rest of his life. Bridges also briefly became a comedic actor (later being cast in ZAZ's ''[[Film/HotShots Hot]] [[Film/HotShotsPartDeux Shots!]]'' films) before his death in 1998. While Stack's most prominent work after this movie was becoming the host of ''Series/UnsolvedMysteries'', he also continued to dabble in comedy, including voicing a similar character in ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica''.
66	* PlayingWithCharacterType:
67	** It's surprising to think of it now, but Creator/LeslieNielsen's role in the film was based entirely upon his established persona of studly, stoic heroes, but this time played for laughs rather than drama. The gambit was so successful that the term LeslieNielsenSyndrome came into existence.
68	** Barbara Billingsley, better known as all-American white 50s housewife [[Series/LeaveItToBeaver June Cleaver]] was brought back from retirement to play the old lady that speaks Jive. (She was not the first choice -- that was Harriet Nelson of ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'', who turned it down for fear of how risque the material was, a decision she would later admit to regretting. In retrospect, the choice of Billingsley has aged much better as ''Leave it to Beaver'' has stuck far more in the popular imagination than ''Ozzie and Harriet'' did.)
69	** Lee Bryant's part included a spoof of her catchphrase in Yuban coffee commercials: "Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home."
70	** The producers approached a few actors of the ''{{Film/Airport}}'' movies to play spoofs of their original characters. They all turned down the offer due to pressures by ''Airport'''s studio, Universal, who (rightfully) expected this film would damage the franchise (though ''The Concorde...Airport '79'' had done quite a bit of damage to it already).
71	* RealLifeRelative:
72	** The newspaper boy who "Chews off own foot" was producer Howard W. Koch's grandson, who was asked for the picture without being told what it was going to be used for; he didn't find out until seeing the movie. Incidentally, according to the special effects guy, Koch, a long-time producer and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was the designer of the shit that hit the fan.
73	** Mrs Jaffe, the woman who introduces Elaine to Dr Rumack, is played by Jim Abrahams' real-life mother, Louise Abrahams Yaffe.
74	** And the woman trying to apply makeup in the film is David and Jerry Zucker's mother, Charlotte.
75	* RomanceOnTheSet: Jim Abrahams met his wife on the film. She’s the blonde extra walking by Robert Hayes at the airport.
76	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: The script was first written in 1974. ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'' was made in-part to give ZAZ a film credit to help them sell the ''Airplane!'' script.
77	* ScrewedByTheLawyers:
78	** The producers of the ''Film/{{Airport}}'' films constantly pestered Paramount over alleged infringement issues. One big fight was over the singing nun and the bedridden young girl awaiting a transplant, which were directly parodying a subplot in ''Airport 1975''. Not only that, there was going to be ParodyAssistance, since Helen Reddy, who'd played the nun in ''Airport 1975'', had been lined up to play the nun here. Because of the legal pressure, Reddy backed out and Maureen [=McGovern=] took over, which at least retained a CastingGag element since [=McGovern=] had done the theme songs for ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'' and ''Film/TheToweringInferno'' (and played a singer in the latter). Eventually a compromise was worked out, but one stipulation was that the nun couldn't actually sing to the girl, which is why Randy sings "River of Jordan". Also, because of the compromise, ''Airplane!'' could [[MarketBasedTitle only be used as the title in North America]].
79	** There was a skirmish with the studio legal department over adding "So there" at the end of the copyright disclaimer as a CreditsGag in the closing credits, but since the film was already in wide release at that point, nothing came of it.
80	** The Directos Guild of America initially wouldn't let all of the ZAZ team share a director's credit, maintaining that Guild rules prohibited more than one credited director. To get around this, they worked up a hilarious backup plan centered around LoopholeAbuse: Jerry Zucker (who was the one who stood by the camera, called for takes and worked with the actors, while David Zucker and Jim Abrahams focused more on the visual aspect) legally changed his name to Abrahams N. Zuckers, and they could now say that he was the film's sole director. It got far enough that "Abrahams N. Zuckers" was listed on the film's clapperboards as director. Eventually the DGA agreed to let all three share the credit (they won by a single vote in the board meeting), and Jerry was relieved to be able to revert back to his real name.
81	* SoMyKidsCanWatch:
82	** Neither Barbara Billingsley (initially) nor Peter Graves were thrilled about appearing in this film, but were convinced by their friends and family.
83	** Subverted with Lloyd Bridges, whose (adult) sons, Beau and [[Creator/JeffBridges Jeff]], urged him to accept his part.
84	* StarMakingRole: For Creator/RobertHays and Creator/JulieHagerty.
85	* {{Surprisingly Lenient Censor}}:
86	** In an interview on ''[[Series/{{Later}} Later with Bob Costas]]'', Robert Stack was amazed A) that ZAZ got away with the 'Shit hits the fan' joke and B) that it made him laugh a lot.
87	** More amazing than that is a gratuitous closeup of a topless woman who jumps right in front of the camera during the "Does anyone know how to fly a plane?" mass panic sequence. In a ''PG-rated'' movie. One can only presume the censors were laughing too hard to catch that one.
88	* TrendKiller: This film was not only a GenreKiller for the DisasterMovie -- it also killed the aerial subgenre retroactively, as the airliner-in-peril/stewardess-lands-the-plane trope of the previous ''Airport'' series was destroyed, and all the drama with it.
89	* ThrowItIn:
90	** Stewardess Randy was supposed to tell the disembarking passengers things like "Watch your step!" and "Be careful!" as they stepped onto the emergency exit slide. However, in an early take, actress Lorna Patterson unexpectedly got all the passengers to crack up by offering each of them a cheery, "Thank you for flying [=TransAmerican=]! Have a nice day!" The script was changed accordingly.
91	** Most of Stephen Stucker's lines were ad-libbed.
92	** The HystericalWoman was originally going to be slapped once by a [[FairForItsDay male passenger]], but actress Lee Bryant came up with the idea of being slapped several times by "people you wouldn't expect, like the doctor or the nun." The producers accepted her suggestion and expanded it to include the shot of approaching passengers with sequentially more severe weapons.
93	*** Creator/LeslieNielsen went further off-script and slapped Bryant for real, not once but twice. Maureen [=McGovern=], who played the nun, was terribly concerned with hurting Bryant and could only do her comically small slap next.
94	** During the scene with the girl running to keep up with the plane as it taxis off with her boyfriend, the towers she keeps colliding with weren't supposed to fall over, but they went with it because it was funnier.
95	** In the scene when the man turning on the air for his ill wife causes a gale to blow through the cabin, there's a shot of a bearded passenger. The fake beard was supposed to be blown off, but the glue unexpectedly held, so the actor started pulling faces in order to dislodge it.
96	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
97	** In an extreme example, the Zuckers first had the idea of parodying ''any'' late night TV thriller, complete with fake commercials. They recorded a random late movie, and would parody whatever movie came on. It was pure chance that this movie was ''Film/ZeroHour1957''.
98	*** Proofreaders advised the crew to shorten the commercials and they were eventually removed completely. The idea of having a shorter ''Airplane!'' as the ''Fistful of Yen''-style centerpiece of a ''Kentucky Fried Movie'' sequel was also kicked around.
99	** The Zuckers wanted to use a propeller plane and film in black and white to be even closer to ''Zero Hour!'', but the studio vetoed both.
100	** Dr. Rumack was an ordeal to cast. Creator/JackLord, Creator/DomDeLuise, Creator/JackWebb and Creator/VincentPrice all turned down the role, as did Creator/ChristopherLee, who later said he made a big mistake turning it down in favor of ''Film/NineteenFortyOne1979''. Had Lee taken the role, Leslie Nielsen (who was approached very late in the casting process after ZAZ remembered his melodramatic turn as the captain in ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'') may well have remained a dramatic actor for the rest of his life.
101	** Creator/DavidLetterman auditioned for the role of Ted. Jerry Zucker brought the audition tape on ''Late Night'' once as a prank. (As a side note, he also auditioned for the "Film @ 11:00" guy for ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie''.)
102	** A ScreenToStageAdaptation, with Music/WeirdAlYankovic (a huge fan of the movie) writing the songs, was planned, but quickly became {{Vaporware}} when he found out that nobody had approached the Zucker brothers for the rights and that they thought it was a terrible idea.
103	** Creator/BillMurray and Creator/ChevyChase were suggested for Ted Striker by the studio but rejected by the producers due to their insistence on having a "serious" cast. Creator/FredWillard and Creator/RobertWuhl were also considered. The studio actually pushed for Music/BarryManilow, of all people, but ZAZ had zero interest (and a sympathetic Paramount development exec ran a BatmanGambit to discourage Manilow by calling him and emphasizing how inexperienced the directorial team was).
104	** Creator/ShelleyLong and Creator/SigourneyWeaver auditioned for Elaine Dickinson.
105	** Johnny's line of suggesting "Mister Rogers" as "best man on this. Someone who knows that plane inside and out and won't crack under pressure," was actually dubbed in. Stephen Stucker actually originally suggested, "Mamie Eisenhower," who died during production.
106	** The creators sought Creator/GeorgeKennedy for the role of [=McCroskey=], but he and Universal felt that appearing in the spoof would damage the ''Film/{{Airport}}'' franchise in which he starred ([[GenreKiller which happened even without him]]). He'd later team up with ZAZ to act in ''Film/TheNakedGun''.
107	** Creator/JoeDante [[http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/gremlins/13227/the-den-of-geek-interview-joe-dante was originally offered the director's chair.]]
108	** Ken Finkleman said in an interview that he was in talks for a third ''Airplane!'' film, but nothing ever came up of it again.
109	** [[Creator/CaitlynJenner Bruce Jenner]] was offered the role of Roger but turned it down in favor of ''Film/CantStopTheMusic''.
110	** Fellow [[HouseWife '50s sitcom mom]] [[Series/TheAdventuresOfOzzieAndHarriet Harriet Nelson]] was the first choice for the Jive Lady, but she nervously turned it down because of how naughty the script was. When she later appeared on ''Angie'', which co-starred Robert Hays, he confronted her about this and she admitted regretting not taking the part.
111	** The line "You ever seen a grown man naked?" was originally "You ever seen ''a grown man's cock?''", which directly played off the previous question "You ever been in a cockpit before?" but was replaced for being too risqué.
112	** Pete Rose was the originally the sports star who was supposed to play the co-pilot (he was even written specifically into the screenplay), but filming coincided with baseball season, so Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar took the role instead.
113	** The original shooting script contains a deleted gag: A guy at LAX calling out to his friend, "Hi, Jack!", whereupon he is promptly dog-piled by police officers.
114	* WorkingTitle: ''The Late Show'', back when it was intended to be a spoof of late night TV, then later on ''Kentucky Fried Airplane''.
115	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Contrary to what you might think, it was a very tightly scripted film, but a few things were added during production. Johnny unplugging the runway lights came about when the stock footage of runways used for the climax unexpectedly included a shot of the lights suddenly going out.
116	* WrittenByCastMember:
117	** ZAZ attempted to script out the Jive scenes themselves, but fully acknowledged that they had no idea what they were doing. After they were cast, Norman Alexander Gibbs and Al White rewrote the dialogue after pointing out to ZAZ that Jive isn't an entire form of speech but rather slang words and phrases that get peppered to regular language. After getting the gist of what ZAZ wanted them to say, the two actors researched the history of Black language, compiled Jive words and phrases, and essentially created a new English dialect from scratch for the film.
118	** As mentioned above, Stephen Stucker concocted ''all'' of Johnny's lines. He'd been part of ZAZ's Kentucky Fried Theater troupe, where he was a scene-stealer with his oddball comedic sensibility and improv skills, so they knew that anything Stucker came up with would be better than anything they could possibly write for the character.

Context Trivia / Airplane