Surely You Can’t be Serious: The Wacky World of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker
We all like to think we’re pretty classy and sophisticated, but still nothing makes an audience laugh more than seeing a guy get hit in the nuts – Idiocracy probably had it right when it envisaged a future when all the Oscars would be won by a movie called Ow! My Balls! Low humour is far older than cinema itself and fast-paced slapstick has had audiences rolling in the aisles for well over a century, from the bumbling antics of Laurel and Hardy and Jerry Lewis through to the comic misadventures of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
In 1980, three guys from Wisconsin married this tradition with goofy wordplay, absurd sight gags and something relatively new: an acknowledgement that older non-comedic films could be unintentionally hilarious in their own right, too. That movie was Airplane!
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.”
It started when three childhood friends and students of Shorewood High School – brothers David and Jerry Zucker and their pal Jim Abrahams – started their own theatre called The Kentucky Fried Theater in 1971. Their act was riffing on old movies and TV commercials, something like a prototype of Mystery Science Theater 3000. This would eventually lead to their first film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), a loose collection of sketches written by the boys and directed by John Landis the year before Animal House became a box office smash.
For the theater, ZAZ would sift through recordings of late-night TV channels for the most overly sincere and accidentally funny old movies they could find, then dub the dialogue with their own voices. During one session, they found Zero Hour!
Written by Arthur Hailey and starring Dana Andrews and Sterling Hayden, the 1957 thriller tells a familiar story: Ted Stryker (Andrews) is a former fighter pilot guilt-ridden after a poor decision caused the deaths of his squadron during WWII. His wife leaves him, taking their son with her to Vancouver, and Stryker races to get on the same flight in an attempt to win them back. Disaster strikes when several of the passengers and the pilots are struck down with food poisoning, which means Stryker must take the controls and land the bird at a fog-shrouded airport, talked down by his doubting former captain.
The movie provided the basic storyline and even some of the character names for Airplane! and the ZAZ team had plenty of other material to crib from by the time they got around to writing the screenplay. Arthur Hailey’s Airport hit the shelves in 1968, a runaway (or should that be runway?) bestseller featuring another transport hub beset by problems as a heavy snowstorm sets in, a plane blocks the runway, and a mad bomber is onboard another passenger jet that desperately needs to land.
The 1970 big screen version starring Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, and a host of other familiar faces was also a major hit, earning 10 Oscar nominations including Best Picture. This kickstarted the golden era of the disaster movie (see also: Irwin Allen and Roland Emmerich: Masters of Disaster), a string of blockbusters that specialised in putting all-star casts in perilous situations.
Self-doubting heroes, melodramatic side stories, hazards piled on top of other hazards, and spectacular set pieces were a regular feature throughout. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) were the two big ones, but Airport also spawned three increasingly unlikely sequels. You could often count on George Kennedy showing up – he starred in all the Airport movies and also appeared in Earthquake (1974) alongside Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner.
As with anything that becomes insanely popular, disaster movies quickly degenerated into self-parody and was all but done by the time Airplane! was released in 1980. Indeed, the ZAZ team weren’t even the first ones to the punch – 1976 brought us The Big Bus, a spoof concerning troubles aboard a nuclear-powered bus.
Airplane! may have made fun out of Zero Hour! but ZAZ clearly had a lot of affection for it, too – Jerry described it as a “perfectly classically structured film” and freely admitted that they copied much of it because they were inexperienced at screenwriting. The story is played for laughs but the dramatic stakes still work – despite the relentless gags (Forbes clocked it at one laugh every 20 seconds), we’re still rooting for Ted Striker (Robert Hays) to conquer his demons and his “drinking problem” and land the plane, and his relationship with Elaine (Julie Hagerty) is so endearing that we feel genuinely happy when they get back together at the end.
Once the Airplane! script was completed in 1975, however, ZAZ were worried that it was such a beat-for-beat rerun of Zero Hour! that it might incur a lawsuit. To solve this problem, they approached Warner Bros. and were able to buy the rights to the earlier film for just $2500. It still took them a while to find a buyer, but eventually Paramount agreed to finance the film on the condition that producer Howard Koch could fire them after two weeks if it wasn’t working out.
Once Airplane! had clearance for takeoff, the key thing which set it apart from earlier spoofs like Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (both 1974) was the casting. While those films largely starred comedic performers, the ZAZ boys wanted actors who were only known for straight dramatic roles. This, they reasoned, would add another dimension to the comedy if the dialogue was delivered in a totally deadpan way, as if the actors didn’t realise it was supposed to be funny.
So instead of shooting for big Saturday Night Live stars such as Bill Murray and Chevy Chase (Paramount’s preferred picks), ZAZ opted for the likes of Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen (who briefly appeared as the captain in The Poseidon Adventure), and Robert Stack. These guys weren’t the main stars but they were key to the success of the movie, seasoned familiar faces delivering wacky dialogue with deadly earnestness – cue Nielsen’s immortal line: “I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.” According to ZAZ, Nielsen was a “closet comedian” who was relishing the opportunity to be funny after a few decades straight-jacketed by serious roles, cracking up his fellow cast members on set with his beloved pocket fart machine.
ZAZ originally wanted to shoot in black-and-white to mimic the old movies that influenced it, but acquiesced to the studio’s demand for colour. That turned out to be an inspired choice, as the flat look of Airplane! Is virtually indistinguishable from that of other Airport movies of the time. To hammer home the faux-seriousness, they also hired Elmer Bernstein to compose an authentically overwrought B-movie score.
If Paramount had doubts about whether ZAZ could pull it off, they needn’t have worried. Everybody just got Airplane! from day one. It earned rave reviews, even attracting favourable notices from usually high-minded critics, and it was a smash hit at the box office, earning $130 million worldwide on its initial release from a modest budget of $3.5 million. Robert Hays was even asked to be a presenter at the Academy Awards.
A sequel was inevitable and Howard Koch was behind Airplane II (1982) with Robert Hayes, Julie Haggerty, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves all returning. But without ZAZ onboard it lacked that magic touch. Instead, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trio turned their attention to the files of Police Squad!
“I’m Frank Drebin, Detective-Lieutenant of Police Squad, a special detail of the police department. There’d been a recent wave of gorgeous fashion models found naked and unconscious in laundromats in the West Side. Unfortunately, I was assigned to investigate hold-ups at neighbourhood credit unions.”
ZAZ had their formula and they wouldn’t deviate from it (apart from Ruthless People in 1986) until they parted ways in the 1990s. Next up was a vehicle for Leslie Nielsen, now a breakout Hollywood star in his fifties after his delirious turn as Dr Rumack in Airplane! The format was exactly the same for Police Squad! as they mined the hoary old tropes and storylines of vintage police procedural TV serials, in particular shows like Felony Squad and M Squad – just check out the intro to the latter starring Lee Marvin to see the similarities.
ZAZ originally wanted to make Police Squad! a feature film, but they lacked a strong overarching plotline. Paramount moved them towards making it as a TV show for ABC Network instead. Once again, they borrowed heavily from their inspiration, with the pilot almost a shot-for-shot remake of one particular M Squad episode. All the usual pratfalls, sight gags, and non-sequiturs were present, along with several running jokes such as the introduction of a special guest star who was instantly killed off in the credits sequence. One such intro involved John Belushi, but his cameo was pulled after he died of a drug overdose in March 1982.
Nielsen invested Frank Drebin with a winning warmth and lovable sincerity, and he was joined by fellow veteran actor Alan North as his commanding officer, Captain Ed Hockley, and former bodybuilder Peter Lupus as hapless Officer Nordberg. The show almost matched Airplane! for laughs but it wasn’t quite so consistent in tone, perhaps resulting from directorial changes – ZAZ only helmed the first episode, and Joe Dante took charge of two more.
Nevertheless, Police Squad! was a success, receiving positive reviews and earning two Primetime Emmy Award nominations: Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Nielsen and Outstanding Writing in the same category for Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker. Yet despite the positive buzz, the ABC Network cancelled it after just one season, supposedly on the grounds that viewers actually needed to pay attention in order to get the jokes. Joe Dante explained that it was a novel concept for the time, without a traditional laugh track and an almost identical look to the shows it was spoofing.
“I know a little German… He’s sitting over there.”
Undeterred by the premature demise of Police Squad! ZAZ moved onto Top Secret! Starring a serious young Juilliard-trained actor called Val Kilmer, the film sent up classic war films while also spoofing Elvis Presley musicals.
Looking back in hindsight knowing the difficult reputation that Kilmer would acquire over his career, it is quite poignant seeing the absolute abandon with which he plays the role. Top Secret! was his first film and he really went for it. Kilmer was a fan of The Kentucky Fried Theatre and sang an Elvis tune in his audition with a bowling pin hidden inside his oversized rockabilly trousers, which he pulled out at just the right moment. Even then, the Zuckers described him as “mercurial” and Kilmer admitted he had trouble enjoying himself on set. But he sure looks the part, playing the whole thing charmingly straight and commits to the musical numbers and action scenes with gusto.
Top Secret! Is very patchy – by their own admission, ZAZ say they didn’t have a strong enough storyline and didn’t give Kilmer enough to work on with an underwritten role. But there are still some brilliant gags and some very inventive scenes, most notably a visit to a bookstore to meet Peter Cushing that was filmed entirely in reverse, and a stunning underwater fight scene. This subaquatic bar room brawl is perhaps the most ambitious sequence in the entire ZAZ catalogue, requiring Kilmer and the other actors to hold their breath for 15-second bursts with divers off screen to top them up on oxygen between takes.
The ZAZ team knew Top Secret! was thinner than Airplane! (“You know you’re in trouble when you have trouble cutting the trailer,” Jerry Zucker ruefully joked) but they still hoped it would come close to their previous film’s success. It did not. Initially bumped back to avoid competing with Ghostbusters and Gremlins, it was released on the same day as The Karate Kid. Despite doubling its money at the box office (taking $20 million vs a $9 million budget) it was considered a flop, perhaps down to high expectations after the astonishing profits made by Airplane! Nevertheless, Top Secret! earned a strong cult following and found a new lease of life when Val Kilmer passed away in April 2025.
“He’s on life support. Doctors say he’s got a 50-50 chance of living, though there’s only a ten percent chance of that.”
With his disaster movie credentials, I’m always slightly surprised that George Kennedy isn’t in Airplane! But the veteran Oscar-winner finally got his chance to shine in a ZAZ movie with The Naked Gun, the 1988 big-screen adventure from the files of Police Squad! Taking over from Alan North, Kennedy formed a brilliant partnership with Nielsen, setting ‘em up for the star to knock ‘em out of the park while also generating plenty of laughs himself.
The movie came along at just the right time for Nielsen. He has become so synonymous with spoof comedy that it’s kind of forgotten that he went back to languishing in mostly serious roles in second-rate movies between Airplane! and The Naked Gun. It was his first lead role in over 30 years since Forbidden Planet and he grabbed the chance with both hands, also showing a superb talent for physical comedy as well as his now-trademark deadpan line delivery.
He certainly reprises the role with gusto as Drebin first thwarts an axis of evil ahead of the opening credits (Gorbachev, Gaddafi, Idi Amin and pals) before racing against the clock to stop a plot to whack the Queen of England with mind-controlled assassins. Along the way, he finds time to fall in love with Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), a sultry secretary with a very nice beaver.
As before, ZAZ wanted to cast actors with no prior comedy experience, which was where Priscilla Presley and O.J. Simpson came in. Previously better known as the wife of the King even after their separation in 1973, Priscilla went on to earn some fame in her own right in the early 1980s, most notably appearing in 143 episodes of the hit TV show Dallas.
Bo Derek originally turned down the role of Jane Spencer, Drebin’s love interest, and Presley turned out perfect for the part. Despite playing an alluring character, there is a charming innocence to her performance and her comic chemistry with Nielsen is wonderful.
More contentious in hindsight is the presence of O.J. Simpson, taking over from Peter Lupus as Nordberg. Formerly a superstar NFL running back, “The Juice” had a fair amount of acting experience before teaming up with ZAZ, appearing in disasters movies like The Towering Inferno, The Cassandra Crossing, the acclaimed mini-series Roots, and the conspiracy thriller Capricorn One. But he certainly wasn’t known for comedy, and he showed a brilliant knack for slapstick as Nordberg spends most of the movie (and its sequels) getting beaten up and injured in a variety of outlandishly painful ways.
The laugh-per-minute ratio isn’t quite as high as Airplane! but The Naked Gun still must rank as one of the funniest movies ever made, delivering a series of hilarious set pieces: Nordberg’s accident-prone harbour shooting; Drebin bribing an informant and walking away $20 up; Drebin stabbing the villain’s rare fish with a pen; the car chase with the timid driving school student; a loved-up montage to Herman’s Hermits “I’m into Something Good;” and the climactic sequence at the baseball stadium with Drebin getting carried away as the umpire. Nielsen plays it a little goofier this time around and his performance is a thing of joy – if the Oscars didn’t routinely overlook comedy acting, he would’ve been a shoo-in for a nod, surely.
Like Airplane! before it, The Naked Gun received widespread critical acclaim and crushed it at the box office, taking home over $150 million against a budget of just $12 million. Two sequels followed: The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear (1991) and The Naked Gun 33 ⅓: The Final Insult (1994). Both movies had some seriously funny moments but it was a case of diminishing returns as the ZAZ triumvirate were already going their separate ways. The latter even received two Razzie nominations for O.J. Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith for Worst Supporting Actor and Worst New Star respectively. Perhaps it was inevitable in O.J’s case; just three months after The Final Insult was pleased, Simpson was arrested and charged for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman, turning him into one of Hollywood’s most reviled bogeymen and setting the stage for one of the most sensational celebrity trials in history. As for Smith, I feel a little sorry for her – she played a stereotypical femme fatale to the hilt and showed surprisingly good comic timing.
That was the end of the ZAZ era – they only worked together as a trio on five pictures, and they started moving in different directions as early as 1988 when David Zucker told Premiere magazine it was a case of “too many guys sitting in the same chair.” Of the three, Jerry arguably had the biggest success outside spoof comedy, directing the supernatural romantic blockbuster Ghost and First Knight starring Richard Gere and Sean Connery. The other two stuck largely close to their parody roots: David wrote High School High, wrote and directed BASEketball starring the South Park boys, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and launched the Scary Movie franchise. Jim teamed up with Lloyd Bridges again to spoof Top Gun and Rambo in the Hot Shots! Films and reunited with David and Leslie Nielsen on Scary Movie 4.
As a major Hollywood star in his advancing years, he also became a regular guest on talk shows where his warmth of personality shone through and he delighted in making his hosts and audiences fall about with expert use of his fart machine – check out this lovely compilation. He did other stuff but basically stuck to variations of his Airplane!/Police Squad! persona for the rest of his career, starring in inferior spoofs such as Repossessed (a parody of The Exorcist with Linda Blair), Dracula! Dead and Loving It for Mel Brooks, Spy Hard, and the aptly titled 2001: A Space Travesty.
Nielsen passed away in 2010 aged 84 and, after many years paying his dues in stolid supporting roles, he took his beloved comic personality to the grave. A band played Ira Newborn’s brilliant “Theme from Police Squad!” at his funeral, and the epitaph on his gravestone reads “Let ‘er rip!” in reference to his beloved fart machine.
“It's a topsy-turvy world, and maybe the problems of two people don't amount to a hill of beans. But this is our hill. And these are our beans!”
We live in very stressful times and even comedy has become more cynical over the past few decades, often more interested in shock value than provoking belly laughs. It would be great to have ZAZ and Nielsen around now – their movies were often crass, sometimes bawdy, frequently inspired, and always hilarious. There are no deeper themes, messages, or subtexts, just a noble intent to make audiences laugh by cramming as many jokes as possible into 90 minutes. I think there is something very wholesome about that. Here’s hoping that Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson can do them justice when The Naked Gun arrives this year.
So there you have it, our look back at the delightful movies of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker and their biggest and most unlikely breakout star, Leslie Nielsen. What are your favourite gags or scenes? Let us know!
P.S. We have never seen this printed on paper, but absolutely adore this promotional image of Nielsen, aping pregnant Demi Moore's Vanity Fair cover shot!
