I watched this film in a packed cinema in London's West End when it was released. I have never experienced, before or since, an entire audience rendered completely helpless with laughter within the first ten minutes. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't keep up with the gags they were coming so fast. One of my favourite characters was 'Johnny' (played by Stephen Stucker) the camp worker in air traffic control. Airplane was a comic masterpiece and is still as funny to watch. RIP Jim Abrahams and thank you for brightening our lives.
Sounds amazing. I had a similar experience when I saw Dumb and Dumber at the cinema. Everyone laughing and we all missed half the film, never had that happen again.
One of the greatest comedy movies of all time. You can watch it a dozen times and still find something you missed before. June Cleaver arguing in jive is classic!
@@RJ-jc4zb Not too long ago I decided to watch Zero Hour and it was like watching Airplane. Even though it’s a serious movie, I was laughing all the way through it.
#21: As German audiences would have been completely unfamiliar with the concept of "Jive", the people in charge of making the German dubbed version had the absolutely glorious idea of letting the two black gentlemen speak Bavarian dialect, and a very rural version of it, too. And while it's nowadays entirely possible to find people of colour in Germany who are native speakers of Bavarian dialect, this was almost unthinkable back in 1980, making the scene even more hilarious than it could have been in the original English/Jive...
@@rockywatchesmovies ua-cam.com/video/TEkI0cH_rK4/v-deo.html Mind you, the German subtitles are NO adequate translation of what they say in Bavarian! ;-)
Captain Steeeve on UA-cam who is a real airline pilot, said that he has hauled many celebrities, but the best was Leslie Nielsen. He said that before they took off, he was allowed to stick his head in the cockpit and said "Good Luck, we're all counting on you"
I’ve read that flight crews have sometimes asked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to sit in the cockpit with them for takeoff, so they could say they flew with Roger Murdoch 😂
In 2006 or 2007 I was boarding a flight home from Montreal on the way home from a family vacation. While boarding the airplane I walked past Leslie Nelson sitting in first class. I did a double take and couldn’t believe this irony. The whole flight I could see the back of his head and thought of a million things I wanted to go say to him but I chickened out cause I’m sure he’s heard it all on an airplane . When I got home I checked the internet to see if there was anything current on him that I could maybe confirm that it was him and sure enough, he was in Montreal that weekend for some film awards. I’ll never forget that flight.
This is one of my all-time favorite movies. They wanted to use a propeller airliner, but the studio made them use a modern jet liner. In protest, they still used propeller noises for the Jets. However, that just makes the movie that much more hilarious and the studio supposedly never noticed.
The BEST double feature ever in my life - Summer of 1980 at a drive-in theater in San Diego - Airplane and Caddyshack. Was epic!! My husband and I still laugh just as hard every. single. time. we watch either of these movies.
I used to see Lloyd bridges at the Bear Valley Ski Resort in Northern CA, but was too afraid to confront him with: "Guess you picked the wrong time to quit sniffing glue."
I would love to have been in your shoes, I worked with celebrities training them getting physically fit for roles and I am used to being around them…. I would have walked right up and said it and would have improvised additional lines. I bet you would do it now…. Especially after the video? Right? Have a great day!!
When I was 16, 4 of my friends and I piled into my buddy Bob's Plymouth to see a drive-in showing of Used Cars, which we really enjoyed. We didn't realize it was a double feature, and stayed for Airplane!, not having a clue what it was. I've never had a movie watching experience like that night. We probably didn't hear half the movie, we were laughing so hard. Saw it twice more in the theater and then maybe a hundred times on cable. True comedic genius and the highest laughs per minute of any film ever made.
Having grown up with Airplane! and Naked Gun, I find it _really_ hard to imagine Leslie Nielsen as a serious actor, when his timing and expressions are so perfect for comedy. Good on him!
The 2nd movie I brought my future wife to SO long ago. I remember laughing out loud when the airliner was first shown in flight to the sound of internal combustion engines. Rest of the audience silent as they didn't get the joke. Wife and I still trade lines from this great creation.
A friend of mine went to see Airplane! before I did. When he came back from watching it (and before I’d seen it), he spent an hour describing each scene of the movie in minute detail to me. I literally fell on the floor laughing while listening to him. When I finally saw the movie, it did not disappoint.
One thing I already knew about Airplane! was that it is probably the funniest and most gag packed film ever, and you don’t forget the first time you watched it. Now stop calling me Shirley.
@@rogerbarton1790 Is weird to know that this was his introduction to comedy. Not too long ago I was binge watching Colombo and Nielsen was the guess star in one episode. I was expecting for him to say something funny, but of course he didn’t. I found it so weird.
@@chrisphillips348 Within the theatre industry there are a number of well known actors and actresses to whom this is rumoured to have happened for real. It's very easy to do if the sound engineer isn't paying attention (or can't resist the temptation!).
So strange - I watched Airplane! A few days ago not knowing Jim had passed soon ago. RIP friend, thanks for giving us aviation nerds and dry comedy lovers something to REALLY enjoy. 🙏🕊️
I loved this movie as a teenager when it came out. When my son was around the same age, I had him watch a bunch of these comedies from the 80's with me. This one held up better than all the rest. He laughed through the entire thing. Then he was trying to get his friends to watch it, too.
@@rockywatchesmoviesWe call them aeroplanes, so at the time (pre internet) the word ‘airplane’ wouldn’t have made sense. Also, the Australian title is a joke in of itself.
Wow. I thought I knew ***EVERYTHING*** about this movie and even knew about several deleted scenes, such as: the burping contest at the water cooler; "Hi, Jack!", and the man in the yellow rain coat on a tricycle near the end. BUT, I never knew about Jose Feliciano being cast as a pilot - and I nearly called B.S. - until you included actual photos of the scene in the video. Fantastic research. It's not often I can be bested by these types of videos.
@@AndrewDyson-u2u Not that I'm aware of. Though I don't own the Blu-Ray, I wasn't aware ANY deleted scenes had been included in any home-video release yet! I've only known about them from the old TV version, or shows about deleted scenes in movies.
My high school science teacher was in the movie he played the reporter who said "let get some pictures, boys," and they all run to the wall with pictures of aircraft. His name was Len Mooy. He was a great teacher
Easily one of my favorites and best comidies ever. Robert Hays was an excellent choice and I had no idea that Leslie Nielsen was not a comedic actor before this. Shows you his range.
@@JeepGirl941 And when I've seen him in his pre-comedy days in movies I kept expecting funny. He never did-only serious but I laughed anyway knowing what was to come of Leslie. RIP Leslie and Jim!
In Poland, there is a peculiar custom of translating movie titles in a way that they literally and thoroughly describe the movie's plot, often having nothing to do with the original title. Classic "translations" include "Szklana pułapka" (A Glass Trap) for "Die Hard" or "Elektroniczny morderca" (An Electronic Killer) for "The Terminator". For "Airplane", the wonderfully creative title became "Czy leci z nami pilot?" (Is There a Pilot on Board?), and the sequel was translated as "Spokojnie, to tylko awaria" (Relax, it's just a malfunction).
@@rockywatchesmovies Yes! This was 98% well-researched content and 2% advertising, which seems more than fair. Can't wait to see your take on Blazing Saddles...
The Lines Peter Graves were supposed to say to Joey were much worse. Graves said he would never say such things like that to a child even if he was acting and would probably be ostracized by his friends and the industry if he did. So they had to tone it down a lot.
Surely you can’t be serious? This is my all-time favourite movie. I must have seen it hundreds of times and I can quote the entire script from beginning to end. I still find it hilarious.
I think having the serious deadpan actors rather than well known comedy actors was one of the reasons it worked so well although I think Bill Murray can be as deadpan as the rest of them.
My tour guide in California was in this film, he played the turbaned man who tries to self immolate when Stryker tells him his life story! As a coach party we played a typically British trick and ignored all his attempts during our holiday to promote the film, which had just opened there. On the last day of travel we gave in collectively, and he appreciated the joke. We also promised to go to the cinema when it opened in Britain, and were not disappointed 😂😂😂
I went to a Christian high school. We had our senior trip in 1981 to Minneapolis and the guys rented Airplane. They got in trouble (scene of boobs!) but said it was worth it.
Fun fact. Watch the movie over and over and check out the background. Some of the stuff happening there is hillarious. They actually gave credit for this to Mad Magazine for all the background stuff they do in their movie paradies and very early issues of Mad ( before it became a kiddies magazine)
The old guy waiting in the cab at the beginning of the movie was somebody by the name of Howard Jarvis. He was semi-famous in California at the time for creating "Proposition 13", which was a property tax measure (Jarvis- Gann) that passed the voters at that time.......how's that for a bit of "Airplane" trivia???
Universal: Hey, you stole movie ideas from our 1970 Airplane films! JA: You mean the movie we redid from the 1950's that we own the rights to? Universal: Yeah, and that one stole from us too....
Awesome learned a lot about Airplane here. Didn't know it was Lloyd and Leslie's first comedic roll. Knrw it was a hit but hadn't realised it was such a huge hit!
My pal was the first to get a VHS. About ten of us watched this in his gaff. We had to pause it a few times cos we were pissing ourselves so hard. Never gets old four decades later. What made it was the previouly very serious actors playing it as a drana.
I saw the movie on Seattle when it first came out. I worked in aviation at the time. You could tell who was aviation by what jokes the audience laughed at. Like the fueling of the aircraft.
I was impressed with the serious actors who volunteered for this movie. My favourite was Robert Stack, best known for his role as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables TV series. Faces don't come any more serious, voices don't come more stern than his.
I was watching the preview/trailer for Airplane! when attending another film, and when Stack's character walked in and to make a point whips off his sunglasses to reveal /another/ smaller pair of sunglasses, I said to myself that I MUST see this movie! 😎
The odd thing is, compared to Flight into Danger, Zero Hour! *already* feels like the parody version. It's nice that one or two lines do survive directly all the way through from Flight into Danger to Airplane!, too.
In Australia Airplane was renamed Flying High , not sure why . Also when I went to see the awful Get Smart movie ‘ The Nude Bomb ‘ we got a surprise showing of Airplane months before it was released here in Australia. We had no idea what the movie was because this was before the internet. I guess the movie studio wanted to see if Australians would get the jokes. I can say that I have never been in a cinema with so much laughter for the entire movie . Eventually when it was released here it was a huge hit of course . But the fact that we got to see it without knowing anything about it was the best thing ever . It it still the best thing that has happened to me movie wise .
"I can say that I have never been in a cinema with so much laughter for the entire movie... " Totally; saw this with mum and dad at a now closed cinema in Exhibition street in Melbourne when I was 10. Biggest audience laughs I've heard to this day. Only Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop years later came close.
I didn't find The Nude Bomb to be absolutely bad. It was what made me realize how the Get Smart TV show was really just vaudeville humor in sitcom form, as the setups could last longer in the movie. Still, nothing compared to Airplane!
No matter what 💩 life throws at me, Airplane is always guaranteed 90 min bundle of laughs and the perfect escape. I'm just glad it was made in 1980, would be a very different, if not very short, film if it was made these days!
Found your channel a couple of days ago and it is refreshing to have someone give some facts about movies in an entertaining way and not sound like a robot. I have only ever subscribed to 1 other channel doing the same thing, so now I have 2 channels to watch.
I was lucky enough to have met Lloyd Bridges in person at my high school back in 1980 for a celebrity volleyball tournament. He was such an amazing guy. Rip
#1. Before "Zero Hour" there was the Arthur Hailey novel "Runway Zero-Eight." I read that and realized I was reading a serious version of "Airplane!" I didn't see "Zero Hour" until several years later. Hailey was the writer behind "Airport" that basically popularized the genre. #3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's name is misspelled in the credits (Abdul-Jabaar). They specifically wanted an athlete (Kareem or Pete Rose) because Zero Hour had cast football Hall of Famer Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch as the copilot. #20. Reportedly Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker have never seen Airplane II. One of them reportedly noticed it playing on TV in the background one night and turned it off rather than watch it. #21. The "Jive Talk" scenes were entirely improvised by the actors. All that was written in the script was "Fo Sho, Fo Sho, Fo Sho." Harriet Nelson (Ozzie and Harriet) was supposed to be the original Jive interpreter, but she objected to some of the adult language in the script, so Barbara Billingsley was cast instead. #22. All the lines by Johnny (Stephen Stucker) were completely improvised by him. #23. Peter Graves originally turned down the role of Captain Oveur, as he was embarrassed by the jokes. However, a member of his family read the script, loved it, and convinced him to change his mind.
True story: In 1982 I was 8 yrs old. Inspired by the movie, I asked if I could go into the cockpit of the 747 we flew on. They allowed me to (after we landed). The stewardess brought me and my parents up to the cockpit. The Captain greets me and asks if I wanna sit in the Captain's chair. Absolutely! So he picks me up to place me in the seat and accidentally whacks my head against the overhead console. It didn't hurt, but the stewardess let's out a gasp, puts her hands up to her face and the poor Captain is apologizing like crazy, fussing over me making sure I'm ok, where I'm like "Yeah yeah yeah...what does this knob do? What does this lever do?" He goes on to apologize to my folks and they're laughing telling him if I was really hurt I'd be screaming my head off. 😅 (...and while I didn't get a toy plane, he gave me a little pair of brass wings I could pin on my shirt to let people know I was an honorary pilot)
Missed a lot of little cameos in this movie. The "Jive Lady" was Barbara Billingsly (Mrs. Cleaver from Leave It T=to Beaver), the sick little girl on the flight Lisa Davis (Jill Whelan, Capt. Stubing's daughter from The Love Boat) & the window washer (Jimmie "JJ" Walker from the TV show Good Times).
I saw ‘Airplane’ in the Bruin Theater in Westwood Village, California, the same theater that the 3 directors posed in front of in this video. I saw it with my then girlfriend now wife and her sister. It was our second or third date. I was prepared to not like the movie prior to seeing it but it turned out to be one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. The dialogue was great and the jokes were consistently funny throughout the entire movie. Casting primarily dramatic actors in the lead roles was a stroke of genius and added to the incredible humor. I loved Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s brief appearance. I thought he did an excellent job in he role and showed that he definitely had some acting talent.
Thanks. Oops, I've just checked it out and yes, that is a mistake. I had Peter in the script, just a slip of tongue or I was imagining we were mates at the time 😂
"Rocky...do you like spoof films of 1970s air disasters?" 😂😂😂 Also did you know Robert Hayes did a cameo as a pilot in the 'classic' horror comedy Sharknado 2
I did not know that. I have seen the 'classic' Sharknado 2, but I was so distracted by whatever else was going on in the room I must have missed his cameo 🤣🤣
@rockywatchesmovies You didn't know Robert Hayes had a cameo in it?...surely you can't be serious? 😂😂😂 You're right though, there's so much going on so it's easy to miss all the cameos in it (Such as Kelly Osbourne as a flight attendant). His cameo's right at the beginning as Finn and co are flying into the city through the start of the sharknado.
Airplane!" (1980) became "Flying High?" in Australia and New Zealand. Distributors in both Australia and New Zealand changed the title of this classic comedy from "Airplane!" to "Flying High" because they thought it would be too similar to another American movie released at the same time.4 Sept 2017
My cousin had just came out to his parents about being gay A little while later my parents took me to see this movie When the scene where the topless woman runs across the screen came on I said "Oh Yea" my mom said "yes!"as she realized that I wasn't
Little boy offers coffee to little girl... Little boy: Cream? Little girl: No thank you. I take it black, like my men. Seen this movie dozens of times and love it.
Don't feel too bad: I remember laughing my head off when I heard that sound of those WW2 bomber engines on every exterior shot of the model when I was originally watching it in the cinema; many of the people sat nearby to me were wondering what I was actually laughing at. I still think it's one of the funniest things in the entire movie, but even now, some people still don't notice it.
The directors wanted the airplane to be a prop just like the original movie but the producers were strict about wanting a jet. They refused to green light the movie unless it was a jet. The directors agreed but in the post production they had the editors change the jet noise to prop.
From the looks of the paint scheme, appeared to be an ex-TWA 707 (they altered it of course, but those two stripes at the bottom of the fuselage that got bigger going to the rear of the plane was a dead give away. Probably had recently been retired by TWA, as they had the 747 and L-1011 for long haul, and the 767 would be arriving shortly. Also, the 747 that crashed into the terminal in the beginning may have also been TWA or ex-TWA (My first time flying to L. A.(from NYC) was on a TWA 747. We did not crash into the terminal 😂(we did have to land at Kansas City for an engine problem. Left NYC ontime at Noon EST, finally got to LA around 9 PM PST, which was midnight EST 😩12 hours on a plane is a bit much, even on the Queen of the Skies)
I watched this film in a packed cinema in London's West End when it was released. I have never experienced, before or since, an entire audience rendered completely helpless with laughter within the first ten minutes. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't keep up with the gags they were coming so fast. One of my favourite characters was 'Johnny' (played by Stephen Stucker) the camp worker in air traffic control. Airplane was a comic masterpiece and is still as funny to watch. RIP Jim Abrahams and thank you for brightening our lives.
Sounds amazing. I had a similar experience when I saw Dumb and Dumber at the cinema. Everyone laughing and we all missed half the film, never had that happen again.
I used to take a cassette recorder into cinemas to record the audio, and kept the recording of Airplane. The audience laughing is hilarious.
I would’ve never guessed Brits would appreciate this kind of humor.
@@recoveringnewyorker2243?? We invented pisstaking humour!
Strange because the Americans are usually useless at comedy, the English leave them for dead.
One of the greatest comedy movies of all time. You can watch it a dozen times and still find something you missed before.
June Cleaver arguing in jive is classic!
the fact most of the film was copied from zero hour makes it less special
@@RJ-jc4zb Not too long ago I decided to watch Zero Hour and it was like watching Airplane. Even though it’s a serious movie, I was laughing all the way through it.
You think June Cleaver arguing in jive is a classic? Surely you can't be serious.
@runawayronnie I do!... And don't call me Sherley.
@@RJ-jc4zb no, that's what makes it even funnier.
#21: As German audiences would have been completely unfamiliar with the concept of "Jive", the people in charge of making the German dubbed version had the absolutely glorious idea of letting the two black gentlemen speak Bavarian dialect, and a very rural version of it, too. And while it's nowadays entirely possible to find people of colour in Germany who are native speakers of Bavarian dialect, this was almost unthinkable back in 1980, making the scene even more hilarious than it could have been in the original English/Jive...
That's great
@@rockywatchesmovies ua-cam.com/video/TEkI0cH_rK4/v-deo.html Mind you, the German subtitles are NO adequate translation of what they say in Bavarian! ;-)
Thanks for sharing!! That’s hilarious. It is the equivalent of the black actors speaking like “RedNecks” in America
Have a great day! It’s probably morning for you now
In Italy it was Neapolitan dialect
Captain Steeeve on UA-cam who is a real airline pilot, said that he has hauled many celebrities, but the best was Leslie Nielsen. He said that before they took off, he was allowed to stick his head in the cockpit and said "Good Luck, we're all counting on you"
❤❤❤❤❤😂🤣😂🤣😂
Love Captain Steeeve
I’ve read that flight crews have sometimes asked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to sit in the cockpit with them for takeoff, so they could say they flew with Roger Murdoch 😂
In 2006 or 2007 I was boarding a flight home from Montreal on the way home from a family vacation. While boarding the airplane I walked past Leslie Nelson sitting in first class. I did a double take and couldn’t believe this irony. The whole flight I could see the back of his head and thought of a million things I wanted to go say to him but I chickened out cause I’m sure he’s heard it all on an airplane . When I got home I checked the internet to see if there was anything current on him that I could maybe confirm that it was him and sure enough, he was in Montreal that weekend for some film awards. I’ll never forget that flight.
But don't call him Shirley.
I still rate this movie as THE funniest American movie ever made. I love it.
This is one of my all-time favorite movies. They wanted to use a propeller airliner, but the studio made them use a modern jet liner. In protest, they still used propeller noises for the Jets. However, that just makes the movie that much more hilarious and the studio supposedly never noticed.
RIP Jim Abrahams. Thank you for making us all laugh at these silly, but funny, films
I didn't even know he passed😢
@@nyceflix Surely he can't be dead!
Yes, he's dead, and please don't call me Shirley!
🕯
@@nyceflix Me neither 😢
The BEST double feature ever in my life - Summer of 1980 at a drive-in theater in San Diego - Airplane and Caddyshack. Was epic!! My husband and I still laugh just as hard every. single. time. we watch either of these movies.
That is a great double feature
I used to see Lloyd bridges at the Bear Valley Ski Resort in Northern CA, but was too afraid to confront him with: "Guess you picked the wrong time to quit sniffing glue."
That would have been cool. I bet he got that a lot though 😂
I would love to have been in your shoes, I worked with celebrities training them getting physically fit for roles and I am used to being around them…. I would have walked right up and said it and would have improvised additional lines.
I bet you would do it now…. Especially after the video? Right? Have a great day!!
*to quit skiing.
@@jovetj wish I had thought of that. Excellent! 👍
Classic. His hair all punked out & sticking up after sniffing glue🤣😆
Lloyd Bridges sniffing glue 🤣🤣😂😂🤣🤣
Looked like they hung him upside down, you can see the tension on his face muscles.
When I was 16, 4 of my friends and I piled into my buddy Bob's Plymouth to see a drive-in showing of Used Cars, which we really enjoyed. We didn't realize it was a double feature, and stayed for Airplane!, not having a clue what it was. I've never had a movie watching experience like that night. We probably didn't hear half the movie, we were laughing so hard. Saw it twice more in the theater and then maybe a hundred times on cable. True comedic genius and the highest laughs per minute of any film ever made.
Having grown up with Airplane! and Naked Gun, I find it _really_ hard to imagine Leslie Nielsen as a serious actor, when his timing and expressions are so perfect for comedy. Good on him!
Watching the original Poseidon Adventure drama film is completely weird, I keep wanting to laugh!
4:48 A rug that really tied the room together. 😂😂😂😅😅😅
and wasn't pee'd on by some rando Chinaman.
The 2nd movie I brought my future wife to SO long ago. I remember laughing out loud when the airliner was first shown in flight to the sound of internal combustion engines. Rest of the audience silent as they didn't get the joke. Wife and I still trade lines from this great creation.
Interestingly, when they first took off from LAX, you heard the classic sound of jet engines. Then once at altitude you heard the prop sound effect.
FYI, jet engines are internal combustion engines
Ethel Merman was in the two funniest movies ever made -- this on, and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."
Elaine's hair - the best bit of continuity work ever
Elaine; the best straight faced ditz role ever. Bravo Julie.
RIP Jim. Thanks for all the laughs.
A friend of mine went to see Airplane! before I did. When he came back from watching it (and before I’d seen it), he spent an hour describing each scene of the movie in minute detail to me. I literally fell on the floor laughing while listening to him. When I finally saw the movie, it did not disappoint.
One thing I already knew about Airplane! was that it is probably the funniest and most gag packed film ever, and you don’t forget the first time you watched it. Now stop calling me Shirley.
One of my favourite films. It wouldn't have been the same without Leslie Nielsen.
@@rogerbarton1790
Is weird to know that this was his introduction to comedy. Not too long ago I was binge watching Colombo and Nielsen was the guess star in one episode. I was expecting for him to say something funny, but of course he didn’t. I found it so weird.
Surely you can’t be serious!!🤣😆👍
I have not seen the film in years. But I’m laughing watching the small clips. Such a funny movie!
Saw this in the theater as a 14 year old. Still one of my favorite comedies! Only Dumb and Dumber holds a candle to this.
What about original Naked Gun?? Especially when he takes a wiz when wearing the live microphone!! Probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on screen
I never had the pleasure of watching this in the cinema, but i did see Dumb and Dumber. The best cinema experience I have had hands down!
Sorry, sir, Dumb and Dumber is a grade school project next to Airplane!
@@chrisphillips348 Within the theatre industry there are a number of well known actors and actresses to whom this is rumoured to have happened for real. It's very easy to do if the sound engineer isn't paying attention (or can't resist the temptation!).
@@chrisphillips348 Yes!
*Airport 77" is the in-flight movie that is shown in Airplane!
In whose universe?
@@bennetfox I was wondering 🤔
@@dma124 How many (confirmed) Universes are there?
@ Apparently TWO, because yours saw “Airport ‘77!”
lol that’s right! Good call
I watched Zero Hour after I had seen Airplane half a dozen times and was amazed at how similar the two films are.
They literally went through Zero Hour scene by scene and rewrote for comedy. That is why they needed to buy the rights to Zero Hour.
So strange - I watched Airplane! A few days ago not knowing Jim had passed soon ago. RIP friend, thanks for giving us aviation nerds and dry comedy lovers something to REALLY enjoy. 🙏🕊️
RIP Jim Abrahams. To this day still one of my favourite comedies ever. A bona fide hilarious classic.
What a shame he had to live through someone making the movie soul plane
I loved this movie as a teenager when it came out. When my son was around the same age, I had him watch a bunch of these comedies from the 80's with me. This one held up better than all the rest. He laughed through the entire thing. Then he was trying to get his friends to watch it, too.
always remember, renting this film and my parents at the time thought it was a disaster movie spent 20 minutes before realise it was a comedy
Surely you must be kidding
I picked the wrong time to stop sniffing glue…🤣 & don’t call me Shirley…
In Australia the film was called "Flying High".
South Africa too.
It's weird how they give different names to some films in English speaking countries
So that's 21 things I didn't know!
Correct, came to say the same thing.
@@rockywatchesmoviesWe call them aeroplanes, so at the time (pre internet) the word ‘airplane’ wouldn’t have made sense. Also, the Australian title is a joke in of itself.
Wow. I thought I knew ***EVERYTHING*** about this movie and even knew about several deleted scenes, such as: the burping contest at the water cooler; "Hi, Jack!", and the man in the yellow rain coat on a tricycle near the end. BUT, I never knew about Jose Feliciano being cast as a pilot - and I nearly called B.S. - until you included actual photos of the scene in the video. Fantastic research. It's not often I can be bested by these types of videos.
Glad you got something out of it, happy to have bested you this time 🤣
So the Jose Feliciano deleted scene didn't make it to the bluray release?
@@AndrewDyson-u2u Not that I'm aware of. Though I don't own the Blu-Ray, I wasn't aware ANY deleted scenes had been included in any home-video release yet!
I've only known about them from the old TV version, or shows about deleted scenes in movies.
My high school science teacher was in the movie he played the reporter who said "let get some pictures, boys," and they all run to the wall with pictures of aircraft. His name was Len Mooy. He was a great teacher
That's awesome
Easily one of my favorites and best comidies ever. Robert Hays was an excellent choice and I had no idea that Leslie Nielsen was not a comedic actor before this. Shows you his range.
Leslie was in soooo many black and white Westerns
@@JeepGirl941 And when I've seen him in his pre-comedy days in movies I kept expecting funny. He never did-only serious but I laughed anyway knowing what was to come of Leslie. RIP Leslie and Jim!
@@RonSch123 me too! 🤣❤️
Leslie Nielsen appeared in 1971 in an episode of ‘Columbo’.
I think I laughed loudest when Ethel Merman appeared.
Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver) as a bilingual passenger speaking English and Jive cracked me up.
I speak jive
You forgot to mention that this started Elmer Bernstein's streak of scoring comedies, having done crime, westerns, and straight dramas in the past.
His first was Animal House in 1978
This movie rocked the cinematic world and my bowels. I laughed until I cried and laughed some more. It was the beginning of a wonderful genre.
My favourite comedy. Marked my youngest days so much.
In Poland, there is a peculiar custom of translating movie titles in a way that they literally and thoroughly describe the movie's plot, often having nothing to do with the original title. Classic "translations" include "Szklana pułapka" (A Glass Trap) for "Die Hard" or "Elektroniczny morderca" (An Electronic Killer) for "The Terminator".
For "Airplane", the wonderfully creative title became "Czy leci z nami pilot?" (Is There a Pilot on Board?), and the sequel was translated as "Spokojnie, to tylko awaria" (Relax, it's just a malfunction).
Excellent
In Israel it was named "(Have a) Pleasant Flight". vOv
Great video. I appreciate how you get to the point and don't waste the viewer's time.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@rockywatchesmovies Yes! This was 98% well-researched content and 2% advertising, which seems more than fair. Can't wait to see your take on Blazing Saddles...
The Lines Peter Graves were supposed to say to Joey were much worse. Graves said he would never say such things like that to a child even if he was acting and would probably be ostracized by his friends and the industry if he did. So they had to tone it down a lot.
My sister's boy is a joey and he hears these all the time 😂
@@LisaNess-w4yyou have a sister who's a kangaroo?
🤣🤣
@@tejaswoman a kangaroo - what is it...?
A kangaroo? It's an animal that gets very nervous so it jumps around a lot. But that's not important right now !
Great video. Thanks for the data, this is included in my TOP 5 FAVORITE COMEDY MOVIES of all times. Makes me laugh even more than before. 😂
Surely you can’t be serious?
This is my all-time favourite movie. I must have seen it hundreds of times and I can quote the entire script from beginning to end. I still find it hilarious.
I think having the serious deadpan actors rather than well known comedy actors was one of the reasons it worked so well although I think Bill Murray can be as deadpan as the rest of them.
The airplane crashing through the glass was also used in an episode of the A Team.
You don't get much funnier! Than Airplane! It was hilarious! I still laugh when I watch it!
I saw Zero Hour on tv and very quickly had a “wait a minute that’s Airplane” moment.
My tour guide in California was in this film, he played the turbaned man who tries to self immolate when Stryker tells him his life story! As a coach party we played a typically British trick and ignored all his attempts during our holiday to promote the film, which had just opened there. On the last day of travel we gave in collectively, and he appreciated the joke. We also promised to go to the cinema when it opened in Britain, and were not disappointed 😂😂😂
I went to a Christian high school. We had our senior trip in 1981 to Minneapolis and the guys rented Airplane. They got in trouble (scene of boobs!) but said it was worth it.
Fun fact. Watch the movie over and over and check out the background. Some of the stuff happening there is hillarious. They actually gave credit for this to Mad Magazine for all the background stuff they do in their movie paradies and very early issues of Mad ( before it became a kiddies magazine)
The old guy waiting in the cab at the beginning of the movie was somebody by the name of Howard Jarvis. He was semi-famous in California at the time for creating "Proposition 13", which was a property tax measure (Jarvis- Gann) that passed the voters at that time.......how's that for a bit of "Airplane" trivia???
Universal: Hey, you stole movie ideas from our 1970 Airplane films!
JA: You mean the movie we redid from the 1950's that we own the rights to?
Universal: Yeah, and that one stole from us too....
Hey Rocky! Another great video! Thanx!!!
You're most welcome
Awesome learned a lot about Airplane here. Didn't know it was Lloyd and Leslie's first comedic roll. Knrw it was a hit but hadn't realised it was such a huge hit!
Possibly my favorite movie ever!
You have to watch this movie multiple times to catch all the jokes. One of my all time favorites!
To this day I am still finding things I never noticed before.
Damn he hit her in the eye on that second slap I never noticed that 😮
My pal was the first to get a VHS. About ten of us watched this in his gaff. We had to pause it a few times cos we were pissing ourselves so hard. Never gets old four decades later. What made it was the previouly very serious actors playing it as a drana.
Wow. Like, that's really interesting.
I saw the movie on Seattle when it first came out. I worked in aviation at the time. You could tell who was aviation by what jokes the audience laughed at. Like the fueling of the aircraft.
And lifting the " hood" to check the oil.
I was impressed with the serious actors who volunteered for this movie. My favourite was Robert Stack, best known for his role as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables TV series. Faces don't come any more serious, voices don't come more stern than his.
I was watching the preview/trailer for Airplane! when attending another film, and when Stack's character walked in and to make a point whips off his sunglasses to reveal /another/ smaller pair of sunglasses, I said to myself that I MUST see this movie! 😎
The odd thing is, compared to Flight into Danger, Zero Hour! *already* feels like the parody version.
It's nice that one or two lines do survive directly all the way through from Flight into Danger to Airplane!, too.
Great memories Great move thanks
In Australia Airplane was renamed Flying High , not sure why . Also when I went to see the awful Get Smart movie ‘ The Nude Bomb ‘ we got a surprise showing of Airplane months before it was released here in Australia. We had no idea what the movie was because this was before the internet. I guess the movie studio wanted to see if Australians would get the jokes. I can say that I have never been in a cinema with so much laughter for the entire movie . Eventually when it was released here it was a huge hit of course . But the fact that we got to see it without knowing anything about it was the best thing ever . It it still the best thing that has happened to me movie wise .
"I can say that I have never been in a cinema with so much laughter for the entire movie... "
Totally; saw this with mum and dad at a now closed cinema in Exhibition street in Melbourne when I was 10.
Biggest audience laughs I've heard to this day. Only Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop years later came close.
I didn't find The Nude Bomb to be absolutely bad. It was what made me realize how the Get Smart TV show was really just vaudeville humor in sitcom form, as the setups could last longer in the movie. Still, nothing compared to Airplane!
Get Smart again was better than the nude bomb imo.
The cadence and tones/inflection in your voice are virtually identical every sentence you speak.
No matter what 💩 life throws at me, Airplane is always guaranteed 90 min bundle of laughs and the perfect escape. I'm just glad it was made in 1980, would be a very different, if not very short, film if it was made these days!
Found your channel a couple of days ago and it is refreshing to have someone give some facts about movies in an entertaining way and not sound like a robot. I have only ever subscribed to 1 other channel doing the same thing, so now I have 2 channels to watch.
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoy the videos
Here’s another trivia: with the exception of the Mexican national airline, no airline in the world screened this movie during flight.
Had no idea they spoofed a real movie
George Zip, RIP.
@@deletebilderberg Win one for the Zipper. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😆😄😅
Who else thought A Rug Deal was about the hair piece that KAJ wore in the movie?
I was lucky enough to have met Lloyd Bridges in person at my high school back in 1980 for a celebrity volleyball tournament. He was such an amazing guy. Rip
I have to watch it again 😂
It's still hilarious
Being Jewish , my ultimate favorite scene was “Air Israel! Please clear the runway!”
Hoops scene always killed me😂
#1. Before "Zero Hour" there was the Arthur Hailey novel "Runway Zero-Eight." I read that and realized I was reading a serious version of "Airplane!" I didn't see "Zero Hour" until several years later. Hailey was the writer behind "Airport" that basically popularized the genre.
#3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's name is misspelled in the credits (Abdul-Jabaar). They specifically wanted an athlete (Kareem or Pete Rose) because Zero Hour had cast football Hall of Famer Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch as the copilot.
#20. Reportedly Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker have never seen Airplane II. One of them reportedly noticed it playing on TV in the background one night and turned it off rather than watch it.
#21. The "Jive Talk" scenes were entirely improvised by the actors. All that was written in the script was "Fo Sho, Fo Sho, Fo Sho." Harriet Nelson (Ozzie and Harriet) was supposed to be the original Jive interpreter, but she objected to some of the adult language in the script, so Barbara Billingsley was cast instead.
#22. All the lines by Johnny (Stephen Stucker) were completely improvised by him.
#23. Peter Graves originally turned down the role of Captain Oveur, as he was embarrassed by the jokes. However, a member of his family read the script, loved it, and convinced him to change his mind.
This was one of my favourite childhood movies, but it will always be known as Flying High to me, as that was the title of it in Australia.
RIP Jim.
If you haven't listened to the Audio Commentary for this movie, I highly recommend it.
*all I know is that the little girl takes her coffee black, like her men*
The little girl is Penny in The Rescuers.
I thought that was the funniest line in the movie.
"The fog's getting thicker."
"And Leon's getting laaaaaarger."
That's a lot of new facts for a movie I saw 40+ years ago
I'm so clad Christopher Lee turned it down.... but he's still a legend... Leslie Nileson was brilliant in everything he did...
True story: In 1982 I was 8 yrs old. Inspired by the movie, I asked if I could go into the cockpit of the 747 we flew on. They allowed me to (after we landed). The stewardess brought me and my parents up to the cockpit. The Captain greets me and asks if I wanna sit in the Captain's chair. Absolutely! So he picks me up to place me in the seat and accidentally whacks my head against the overhead console. It didn't hurt, but the stewardess let's out a gasp, puts her hands up to her face and the poor Captain is apologizing like crazy, fussing over me making sure I'm ok, where I'm like "Yeah yeah yeah...what does this knob do? What does this lever do?" He goes on to apologize to my folks and they're laughing telling him if I was really hurt I'd be screaming my head off. 😅 (...and while I didn't get a toy plane, he gave me a little pair of brass wings I could pin on my shirt to let people know I was an honorary pilot)
That's awesome
#21. You keep hearing the buzz of the propellers spinning. But it is a JET airplane, not a prop plane!
Just another joke.
Good Video. A Hilarious Movie
Just watching these short clips makes me cry laughing
Missed a lot of little cameos in this movie. The "Jive Lady" was Barbara Billingsly (Mrs. Cleaver from Leave It T=to Beaver), the sick little girl on the flight Lisa Davis (Jill Whelan, Capt. Stubing's daughter from The Love Boat) & the window washer (Jimmie "JJ" Walker from the TV show Good Times).
Also, the lady who was trying to put on her lipstick during the turbulence was the Zuckers' mother, Charlotte.
Julie Hagerty was so hot. Totally under appreciated.
So funny.... Surely you can't be serious!
Don't call me Shirley.
I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
One of my favourite movies. Thank you, and don't call me Shirley!
You're welcome
I saw ‘Airplane’ in the Bruin Theater in Westwood Village, California, the same theater that the 3 directors posed in front of in this video. I saw it with my then girlfriend now wife and her sister. It was our second or third date.
I was prepared to not like the movie prior to seeing it but it turned out to be one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. The dialogue was great and the jokes were consistently funny throughout the entire movie.
Casting primarily dramatic actors in the lead roles was a stroke of genius and added to the incredible humor.
I loved Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s brief appearance. I thought he did an excellent job in he role and showed that he definitely had some acting talent.
I'm looking forward to your video on Airplane II, the sequel
It will get made at some point, I watched it again the other day straight after Airplane!, not a patch on this one.
Love the video, FYI, it's Peter Graves. Not Pete Graves
Thanks. Oops, I've just checked it out and yes, that is a mistake. I had Peter in the script, just a slip of tongue or I was imagining we were mates at the time 😂
"Rocky...do you like spoof films of 1970s air disasters?" 😂😂😂
Also did you know Robert Hayes did a cameo as a pilot in the 'classic' horror comedy Sharknado 2
I did not know that. I have seen the 'classic' Sharknado 2, but I was so distracted by whatever else was going on in the room I must have missed his cameo 🤣🤣
@rockywatchesmovies You didn't know Robert Hayes had a cameo in it?...surely you can't be serious? 😂😂😂
You're right though, there's so much going on so it's easy to miss all the cameos in it (Such as Kelly Osbourne as a flight attendant). His cameo's right at the beginning as Finn and co are flying into the city through the start of the sharknado.
Airplane!" (1980) became "Flying High?" in Australia and New Zealand. Distributors in both Australia and New Zealand changed the title of this classic comedy from "Airplane!" to "Flying High" because they thought it would be too similar to another American movie released at the same time.4 Sept 2017
Haha you included the date when you copy and pasted from Google.
@seanhamilton4175 That's nice of you to notice.
The movie being The Concorde, Airport '79 because it was released in Australia and New Zealand in 1980, the same year as Airplane/Flying High.
My cousin had just came out to his parents about being gay
A little while later my parents took me to see this movie
When the scene where the topless woman runs across the screen came on I said "Oh Yea" my mom said "yes!"as she realized that I wasn't
It was called flying high in Australia 🇦🇺
Little boy offers coffee to little girl...
Little boy: Cream?
Little girl: No thank you. I take it black, like my men.
Seen this movie dozens of times and love it.
Surely you can't be serious
Horrible
@@jack002tuber Don't call me Shirley!!!!!!! 😂
lol at the look on little boys face after the gag liner
"Home-idge"? Om- Arge!
Love this film. I've seen it dozens of times, it took me ages to realise that the background plane sound is of a propeller plane not a jet lol.
Don't feel too bad: I remember laughing my head off when I heard that sound of those WW2 bomber engines on every exterior shot of the model when I was originally watching it in the cinema; many of the people sat nearby to me were wondering what I was actually laughing at. I still think it's one of the funniest things in the entire movie, but even now, some people still don't notice it.
The directors wanted the airplane to be a prop just like the original movie but the producers were strict about wanting a jet. They refused to green light the movie unless it was a jet. The directors agreed but in the post production they had the editors change the jet noise to prop.
From the looks of the paint scheme, appeared to be an ex-TWA 707 (they altered it of course, but those two stripes at the bottom of the fuselage that got bigger going to the rear of the plane was a dead give away. Probably had recently been retired by TWA, as they had the 747 and L-1011 for long haul, and the 767 would be arriving shortly. Also, the 747 that crashed into the terminal in the beginning may have also been TWA or ex-TWA (My first time flying to L. A.(from NYC) was on a TWA 747. We did not crash into the terminal 😂(we did have to land at Kansas City for an engine problem. Left NYC ontime at Noon EST, finally got to LA around 9 PM PST, which was midnight EST 😩12 hours on a plane is a bit much, even on the Queen of the Skies)
Can you do Top Secret! from 1984?
Another absolute classic