Striker finds himself having to fly the shuttle too, and William Shatner ( Star Trek) makes a surprise appearance as the commander of a lunar base. The sequel reunited most of the cast - excluding Leslie Nielsen - and took place on a space shuttle. While Airplane! was a huge success, the trio sat out the inevitable follow-up Airplane II: The Sequel.
Pete franklin rant dont call me up movie#
In this case, they saw a movie where a character exclaims "Surely you can't be serious?" and inspiration struck when they added the now famous punchline. It turns out this joke has a simple origin, with the Zucker brothers and Abrahams revealing in a Vulture interview it was born out of their practice of watching old, serious b-movies with very dramatic dialogue and then crafting gags around them. This joke has been oft repeated in the years since Airplane!'s release, making appearances in The Office and video game Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
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Striker states "Surely you can't be serious?" to Rumack, who replies with “I am serious - and don’t call me Shirley.” This is especially true of the movie's most famous joke, when Rumack brings troubled war pilot Ted Striker to the cockpit and reveals he'll have to fly the plane. Rumack, with his deadpan performance being the highlight of the movie. The movie also relaunched the career of veteran actor Leslie Nielsen, who appeared in classics such as Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure. Related: Hot Tub Time Machine 3 Updates: Why It Won't Happen The filmmaking trio would perfect this type of comedy with 1984's Top Secret! starring Val Kilmer ( Batman Forever) and The Naked Gun franchise.
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Airplane! pioneered a new type of genre parody where the actors play the movie straight in spite of the ludicrous events unfolding around them. Zero Hour!'s combination of unintentionally hilarious dialogue and taking the silly events of the plot deathly serious made an impression on Zucker, Abrams, and Zucker, who retained a lot of the dialogue and key sequences from the movie in their script. The plot of Zero Hour! featured a World War 2 pilot forced to land an airplane after the pilots become ill with food poisoning.
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It's the best joke from a film almost springloaded with them, but what is the origin of Airplane!'s famous "Don't call me Shirley" gag? Airplane! was written and directed by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker, with the comedy being heavily inspired by the 1957 b-movie Zero Hour!, which featured Sterling Hayden ( The Godfather).