Episode 00: Airplane! (1980)

Before Police Squad! (1982) there was Airplane! (1980). Mark, Mike, and Chris talk about the ZAZ team's directorial debut, and their first team-up with Leslie Nielsen, in this hilarious send-up of disaster flicks. Using the bones of Zero Hour (1957) and their "15 Rules of Comedy" ZAZ and Co. fill the screen with sight gags, puns, and parody that holds up to this day.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Alice Wahid color story. Let's LeeKnew kicked her long weight? Qushnas bro
stand by for the most extraordinary chainof events ever swept up into high adventure.

(00:31):
Hey Larry, where's the fort Clift? Part Clift with the Vaga water
Airplane? Airplane is drama. There'sa doctor Brodie at the Mayo Clinic.
There's a passenger on your Chicago flighttwo O nine or a little girl named
Lisa Davis en route to Minneapolis.She scheduled for a heart transplant. I

(00:55):
want you to make sure that she'skept in a reclined position and that a
continuous watch is kept r IV airplaneis action. Airplane is romance. I
love you. Elane Airplane is music. There is only one river, there

(01:26):
is only one seed. Airplane isdancing. Never has the spoon been so
big? Have you ever been ina cockpit before, Sir, I've never

(01:46):
been up in a room before.Peter Graves seen a grown man naked.
Kareem abdul Jabbar. My name isRoger Murdoch. I'm an airline pilot.
Leslie Nielsen. This woman has tobe got into a hospital. Whispital that's
a big building with patience. That'snot important right now. Lloyd Bridges,
Johnny, look you they got anissue this black nick hat for a brooch

(02:09):
for pterodiacical people. Robert Stack allright, Steven's face, a few facts
and we hope you enjoy the restof your flight. Julie Haggarty, By
the way, is there anyone onboard who knows how to fly a plane?
Can you fly this plane and landed? Robert Hayes. Surely you can't
be serious. I am serious,and don't call me Shirley. I gotta

(02:32):
get out of here. Get outof here. Don't get a hell of
yourself. Please let me hang.I'll get back to your seat. I'll
take care of this down here.Do you want on the floor? Everything's

(02:53):
yourself made? Day? Oh?I know everybody getting crash positions. The

(03:15):
most incredible adventure the screen has evercreated. Spillers the Big News Airplane from
the files of Police Squad in Color. This is a new podcast hosted by

(03:39):
Me, Mike White, Mark Begley, and Chris Dash who say hello,
gentlemen, Hello, gentlemen. Perfect, perfect. This is the kind of
show where that's the response that you'regonna get. I was hoping so I
was really hoping. On this podcast, we are talking about Police Squad,
a very very short lived TV seriesfrom the early nineteen eighties. It was

(04:04):
put together by the fine gentleman JimAbrams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
also known as ZAZ. We'll beusing that acronym quite a bit as we
go through here. They are theguys that were the I don't know what
their role was in the Kentucky Theater, this comedy troupe from the seventies.

(04:24):
They put together the Kentucky Fried Movie, put together a little bit of a
movie called Airplane, and they've goneon to do a whole lot of other
things, including Pollie Squad. Buttonight we're gonna be kicking it off with
a discussion of Airplane. Released innineteen eighty. Airplane is an amazing parody
of film of well quite a fewairplane films, but mostly the movie Zero

(04:48):
Hour from nineteen fifty seven. Ohmy god, the first time I saw
Zero Hour, I couldn't stop laughingbecause I was so used to airplane.
Airplane also played a lot on allof the Airport movies. I'm not sure
if the audience remembers that there wasa whole spate of airport movies that were

(05:09):
happening in mid to late seventies,and these things. There were the official
ones, and then there were theknockoffs, and this was the parody,
and God bless them, this wasfreaking hilarious. So Mark, when was
the first time you saw Airplane?I saw this in the theater as an
eleven year old boy. I don'tknow if this was like a birthday event

(05:32):
or just mom dropping us off toget rid of us so they can shop
or whatever, but I remember enjoyingit immensely, even though a lot of
the humor and a lot of theparody went way over my head. I
don't know if I had seen anyof those airport movies on TV, any

(05:54):
of the disaster films. Definitely hadn'tseen Zero Hour as a kid. Still
haven't seen it, actually, Ohboy, Yeah, that was another thing
I dropped the ball on. Itbecame a regular rental when VHS came around
and cable. I haven't watched itin years, though, until Chris and

(06:15):
I watched it with the commentary,and then I watched it last night with
my daughter, which was an absolutefucking blast watching with her. It's to
me, one of the if notthe best parody of the last forty two
years. So, Chris, youactually watched this movie. I just want
to point out that that is inreference to something else, not the fact

(06:38):
that I've never watched something, becauseI most of the time am doing what
Mike is doing, which is hostingthe shows, and if the host doesn't
watch it, what the fuck isgoing on? So, yes, I
watched Airplane, not once, nottwice, but well just twice. I
watched it once with Mark Begley becausewe wanted to watch the momentary together,

(07:00):
which pretty much meant we did notcatch any of the dialogue driven jokes.
And I think we should make adistinction here, especially just right out of
the gate, because dialogue driven jokesand visual gags are going to be two
very different conversations to be had.So we watched Airplane in a way that
I'd never watched it before, whichis without any of the don't call me

(07:21):
Shirley, or you know you've seena grown man naked or you guys picked
a hell of a day to stopsniff and glue. Not that we've missed
it, but we didn't get tohear it because we're listening to the zaz
commentary, So it was more aboutthe visual gags. By the way,
it holds up if if you justwatch it for visual gags, it holds
up even without the dialogue. Butman, I watched it again this morning.

(07:46):
It took me back to the firsttime I saw it, which would
have been let's say sometime between twothousand and three and two thousand and six,
so that's how late into my lifeAirplane entered, which would have been
the last sixteen years essentially. SoI saw it as a teenager. I
got most of the jokes. Butthe more I've watched it, especially now

(08:09):
as someone who has seen exponentially moremovies since two thousand and six or whatever
the fuck it was, I understandthe references now I have. Like Mike
mentioned, Zero Hour is a biginfluence. I watched Zero Hour when I
watched Airplane the first time a longtime ago, and I just kind of
skimmed around it on this one,because again I've seen it, and this
movie Airplane is pretty much just ZeroHour, but the comedic version, like

(08:33):
it's it's such a close fact similethat Zero Hour almost becomes I'm not gonna
say not worth watching, but youcan essentially watch it by watching Airplane,
but a more entertaining version because itdoesn't take itself as seriously. It kind
of reminded me of when I waswhen we were talking earlier this year,
Mike, you and I about LethalWeapon, and I was like, I

(08:54):
know the plot of Lethal Weapon becauseof Naked or because of National Lampoon's Loaded
Weapon, which is a funnier andbetter movie. An Airplane is a funnier
and better movie than Zero Hour isbecause it takes what Zero Hour hangs its
hat on and says, well's it'skind of goofy, you know that,
right, Like it's kind of sillyand they poke fun at it. I

(09:16):
don't know if I would go asfar as say it's the best parody movie.
I think Blazing Saddles is still betterbecause it's a parody too, right,
I guess, or as Blazing Saddleis a satire, because that's the
thing, like this is a parodyin the vein, and like scary movie
is in the vein of airplane,a scary movie is, I guess scary

(09:37):
movies in the vein of Blazing Saddles. I just blazing Saddles always felt a
little bit more nuanced than Airplane.But Airplane's jokes are funnier than Blazing Saddles.
Does that make sense? I meanBlazing Saddles is tackling something else.
There's none of the racial underpinnings inall the racists or idiots, because there's
none of that in this movie.There are some scenes that people might watch

(10:00):
today and be like, wait asecond, but they still worked, namely
the I speak jive but they stillwork like they still work because it's not
poking fun at the difference is it'spoking fun at the fact that this you
know, Barbara Billingsley speaks jive asthe youngest one here and the person who
is closest to the age of peoplewho might find this problematic, it's not.

(10:20):
This is like, like Mark said, this is a solid parody film,
and I don't know if it's thebest, but it's in the conversation
for the best for sure. AndI would not argue as someone if they
said, what it is the bestbecause it's a laugh a minute and there's
very few moments in this movie thatstill don't work today. Yeah, I
would definitely say that Blazing saddles.I mean, we've seen the stranger comes

(10:46):
to town. We've seen you know, the railroad baron is crooked, the
governor is crooked, all those kindof things. But the sheriff coming to
town being black and being ostracized becauseof that in a funny way, I
don't think we had necessarily seen thatbefore. I would say that that is
more of a satire than a parody, as opposed to this, where you're
just going beat by beat. Imean, Zero Hour is almost impossible for

(11:11):
me to watch because it gives youthe setup for every single joke, but
it doesn't give you the punchline.But you're filling in the punch line every
single time. Unless you've never seenairplane, then you can enjoy Zero Hour.
But having seen airplane, you're justwaiting for you know, surely you
can't be serious. I am serious, and don't call me surely like you're

(11:31):
just waiting for Dana Andrews to followup with some of these lines in here,
because they are playing everything straight.And that's the great thing about Airplane
is that so much of the time, I'd said, probably eighty percent of
the time, everybody is playing stuffstraight. I mean, having Leslie Nielsen
and this is like his breakout comedicrole, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves.

(11:56):
I mean, just all of theseactors playing a one hundred percent straight Robert,
Robert Hayes and Julie Haggerty are playingit's straight. There is not a
single joke that either one of themhas in the movie at all. Like
it's it's a straight performance. AndI like too that it's very timeless.
You know, I saw this maybewhen I was eight years old. I

(12:18):
don't remember if I saw that.I know for sure I saw the sequel
theatrically. I don't remember I sawthe original theatrically, but I know I
had seen the original before I sawthe sequel, so I imagine I had
to have seen it theatrically. Andyeah, same thing as you Mark.
Just the jokes flew over my head. I had no idea. I mean,

(12:39):
I knew that things were funny whenit came to like, oh,
this is Saturday Night fever. Iknew the contemporary jokes to nineteen eighty,
but I didn't any know. Ohit starts off like Jaws. Okay,
I get those things, but I'mnot picking up all of the Arthur Haley
type references and Arthur Haley is.I mean, it's hilarious how many times

(13:01):
they remade some of the same stuff. I mean, Airport is basically very
very close to Flight into Danger.In Flight into Danger had been made several
times, going back all the wayto nineteen fifty six on a television show,
and then there's just all of theseremakes, and then Airport was nineteen
seventy, but then by seventy fiveit becomes kind of this cottage industry.

(13:26):
I mean, I've got a bookover here called The Stewardess is Flying the
Plane, all about disaster movies.And to your point, Chris, disaster
movies in the nineteen seventies. Thatwas big notes. You know, you've
got your meteors and disaster movies inthe seventies, man, Like, that's
those are the genres in the seventiesthat really stand out to me. We

(13:46):
just talked about Harry and Tante onthe Culture Cast, and I said,
road movies in the seventies, butEarthquake, Towering Inferno, I mean,
Adam Adam Long mentioned it a bunchof times, Towering Inferno, But then
all of these movies like this isa response to how I'm sorry to say
this, but disaster movies for meare just the drizzling shits of a genre.

(14:09):
Like, for the most part,they're all the same. Even the
good ones are still kind of thesame. Even the good ones, though
there are some really good ones outthere. Yeah, beside an Adventure towering
in Turno, what our boys Levensonand Link they worked on roller Coaster.
It's a fantastic movie. Earthquake ispretty good too. I mean, they're
the big ones are pretty good.But then, like you mentioned, you

(14:31):
get every derivative version from here untilKingdom Come, and it's like, did
we really mean Earthquake five? Imean, I know that's not a thing,
but effectively, any movie that comesafterwards is just aping what those movies
did, probably better, and wetried to pick that up. I mean,
we tried to have disaster movies again, like twenty twelve and can't remember

(14:54):
the last one, Ray San Andres, thank you, I knew. I
almost said the one that The Rockdid so San Andreas. I mean,
Independent Stay, so many, somany of them, A couple of Volcano
ones, Dante's Peak, right,Yeah, there was that in the nineties,

(15:15):
was like it was a resurgence ofit that was thanks to CGI Yeah,
Deep Impact and Armageddon, And Ikind of want to nail myself up
to a cross here on this podcastimmediately. I kind of like Armageddon now
because of all those movies that cameout in the late nineties early two thousands,
it's the one that doesn't care thatit's stupid. Oh yeah, yeah,

(15:35):
it revels right. All the otherones are like, we refuse to
be dumb. Deep Impact refuses tobe stupid. And Armageddon is unequivocally the
dumbest disaster movie that came out ofthe nineties, but it's also the most
fun and holy shit, the castalone. But that's the other thing about
these kinds of movies, these disastermovies or even disaster this parody disaster movie.

(15:56):
The cast just stacks itself as youneed to have. It's like a
disaster movie. It's a necessity tohave pig names in it. Like it's
almost like a requirement that you haveto have John Carroll, Dge melting in
Lava, you know, and andHaitians a Haitian, Tommy Lee Jones and
Volcano. It is right, there'sAnn Haitian. That movie. It might
No, I must be confusing itwith something. Yeah, no, no,

(16:18):
she is. I'm trying to thinkit was Tia Leone and Deep Impacts,
right, the other actress and thenLinda Hamilton and Dante's Peak with Pierce
Brosnan. Yeah right, yeah,I mean that was the thing on those
posters. It would be here's allthe pictures of all the stars that you're
going to see, and they bringout the old stars, they bring out

(16:38):
you know, Gloria Swanson would bein them, Helen ready, you know,
just all of these little cameos basicallybecause you've got it's like a cruise
ship. You've got all of thesepeople that are right there and they're all
stuck in one location. So youknow, I mean, God towering Infernos,
got what Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. I mean, yes, Poseidon

(17:02):
Adventure doesn't Posidon Adventure? He OhGod, uncle Joe from Willie Wonk.
I always forget that actor's name.But Shelley Winters and Roddy McDowell and Gene
Hackman and Ernest Borg not yeah,good God in heaven. That's the draw
of disaster movies. One of thedraws is like all of the cast.
And what's funny is, even thoughthat Airplane is a parody movie, the

(17:23):
cast is completely insane, even forthis movie. I mean, yeah,
Leslie Nielsen, I'm sure you twoknowing you did your research, but this
is the comedic Leslie Nielsen movie.He literally wanted to do comedy and they
didn't cast him as a comedic actor. And this is the first time he's

(17:45):
a comedic actor. And I don'tthink there's a moment from here on out
where he's not doing comedy maybe alittle bit after this, until this comes
out and him right like Leslie Nielsenfor people my age, naked Gun,
it's mister McGoo, it's police squad. But again, police squad is a
more recent thing. But this,like you mentioned, Mike, this is

(18:07):
the moment where the perception of LeslieNielsen changes one to eighty. And he
wanted that to be the case.He wanted to do comedy, which is
insane because knowing what we know aboutLeslie Nielsen's career post Airplanes, like,
of course he's doing comedy. That'swhat he's known for. Now. That's
why I know, Miss Frank Drivon, That's the only thing I really know

(18:29):
Leslie Nielsen as like, but hewas the heavy before that, always right,
the heavy. For me, nothaving watched this in a long time
and seeing some of the later comedicroles, I prefer when he plays it
straight same light and airplane, Yes, right, and we'll get into that

(18:52):
later, especially in the Naked Gunseries. It becomes diminishing returns for me
when he is being goofy. Itdoesn't land. All his lines are straight
lines in Airplane. Most of hislines in Police Squad are the same kind

(19:12):
of blurs the edge is there alittle bit in that. But watching it
again for the first time these lastcouple of weeks, it's like, yes,
this is what I expect from him, and what for me works from
him is total dead pan, straightdelivery of every single line. Well,
and almost everybody's doing a dead panright, Like I guess Stephen Stucker is

(19:34):
not playing the air traffic the John. Yeah, the hardcore joke master of
the air traffic controllers. I mean, he's there's always like one character in
each of these kind of groups that'sthe funnier one, and he's the funniest
of all of them because he's theone actually telling the jokes. You have
Lloyd Bridges doing the straight man thing, which in and of itself is hilarious.

(19:55):
But everybody on the airplane's playing itstraight like everybody, but they're just
taking the words and they're just youknow, well they're on instruments and then
you know, you have the youknow or it's raining, and they make
up for it because they know whatyour expectations are and they one hundred percent
subvert them. I think when Iwas a kid, Johnny was my favorite
because that was the humor I couldlatch onto as a kid. Watching it

(20:17):
last night with the audio and allthe jokes, watching it with my daughter,
I was like, oh, thisis He's the least funny part of
this. There's there's only a fewlines of his now that still really resonate
with me, Like, looking tomake of this Johnny, Well, I
can make a brochat. That oneworks. There's also when he pulls out
the plug and laughs at the camera. I love that. The other one

(20:41):
is and Leon's getting larger. That'sit, you know. Otherwise it's like
there's a sale of pennies, likesome of them. Yeah, Rapunzel,
Rapunzel. It's like, Okay,it gets a little much, but I
know what you mean. Yeah,And it was interesting to gauge my daughter's
reaction to him as well, soI was sort of able to tune out
a little bit of my own watchingof it and watch her watch it.

(21:06):
It seemed like that was the stuffthat landed the least for her as well.
But there I don't know how manytimes she said that was so stupid.
Oh my god, that was sostupid, as she's laughing. Yeah,
I can't even think of the lastmovie that we've watched where she has
laughed that much. And I waslike, yep, still got it.

(21:26):
And of course she got the Jawsreference Saturday Night Fever. Maybe not.
I know she knows the song,but I don't know if she knows that
dance routine. I think that's wherethings like Scary Movie and other more recent
parody films missed the mark, asthey're too hung up on recent things.
So once you get past screen orwhenever, that'll happen. Once you get

(21:51):
past screen being popular, first ScaryMovie is still amazing, though, like
that's it, hits. I thinkit has those timeless beats enough, because
Scream is timeless, right the firstone. But then yeah, you get
into the others and it's this happenedlast Tuesday. You know, you watch
Epic Movie or some of those otherhorrible, horrible ones, and you're just

(22:12):
like, this joke is fresh asof a week ago, and it already
feels old. Yeah, And likewhen Miles Fisher did the Tom Cruise thing
right in Disaster Movie and it's like, good God, like those like the
same year, and like nobody's talkingabout that. I don't even think people
remember that anymore, like to bringattention to the fact to Tom Cruise is

(22:34):
a scientologist and he made a crazyperson scientologist video that's worth checking out.
But yeah, it's like this isnot going to age well, like if
at all, question Mark And hereyou have a parody of a movie from
nineteen fifty seven being made in nineteenseventy nine coming out in nineteen eighty.
I love that za Z year likewe wanted to dress people more in fifties

(22:59):
garb than in these garb so thatit would be more timeless. And I'm
just like, yeah, it kindof works because other than those very specific
cultural touchstones like Saturday Night Fever likeJaws, but thank god, those were
huge, so you can definitely getthose things. I mean, there are
a couple other, like very specificthings to nineteen seventy nine, but for

(23:22):
the most part, I would sayninety percent of this movie, if not
more, is completely timeless. Andit was so smart to base it on
something old because it just takes thatand it's timeless. Basically, are you
telling me that kids in twenty twentytwo don't know who ethel Mermon is?

(23:44):
So I'm like, that's the realethel merm Okay, that means right right.
Watching it with Mark and listening tothe commentary, it's so funny.
I had never noticed it before.So, yeah, everybody's dressed up in
fifties garb, right, but whenwe're in the airport, they're fucked.
They don't even it's real people.It's just real people. So it's you

(24:07):
got you know, Julie Haggerty dressedup like a nineteen fifties, you know,
flight attendant, and then you knoweverybody else is dressed like the seventies.
It's white collars. Yeah, it'shilarious. They're tight. What were
the name of those slacks or thebell bottoms? Sands of bell slacks,
Yeah, huggers the one thing andyou didn't know this reference. Chris was

(24:29):
the my husband never has a secondcup of coffee. I know that.
I can't remember what coffee it wasfrom, but I know those ads.
Oh yeah, I looked it upthis morning and it was from you ban.
Oh sure, you can't stap amore coffee. It's late and you've
never had a second you know,I'd love another cup. You've never had
seconds of my coffee. I'm apretty good coffee. But that night we

(24:53):
both discovered you ben. You banspecial coffee because it's made with special beans
one one hundred percent Colombian. We'retaste in a rooma so deliciously rich.
Hey, how about seconds for me? With richness worth a second cup?
Yeah, you ban coffee. Thisstuff's great. You put sprinkle that on
a little bit. I scream,I know what you band is only because

(25:15):
of the National Lampoon's Vegas vacation,because that's what that's what cousin Eddie buries
the money in his yard and isban coffee. Wow, there are some
jokes that don't let that would notland today, Like let them crash the
fucking counterpoint joke like that, Imean, that's fucker. Carlson basically Wow,

(25:37):
yeah, sure, but like butthat again, like that's in the
commentary Zaz mentioned that that was inKentucky Fried movie, that the original version
of that joke is but point counterpoint. Yeah, there are a couple jokes
that are kind of a little toospecific. But at the same time,
like you mentioned, Mike, it'snot the whole movie, like disaster movie

(25:59):
is like a really the entire movie. I'll tell you I saw a disaster
movie in theaters. I saw adisaster movie in theaters after I went and
watched Smoking Aces the same day.Wow. Yeah, fuck me, that
was a shitty double feature, justlike from one piece of shit to another
piece of shit. Like you bothhave mentioned by the time that Scary Movie

(26:19):
four, I will hardcore defense,Scary Movie three, Scary Movie four,
an epic movie, and disaster movieand all of the Oh what's the freeburg?
Is that who they are? Celta, Yeah, when we get to
that point, it's like the girlwho you know, the girl with the
dragon tattoo, who dated the guywith the forty year old It's like,
guys, right, which is notthem? That's another Yeah? Oh really,

(26:42):
Oh I assumed it was. Ijust assumed that was them, sorry
mine, And I think Freedburg.I think he got his start because his
dad directed Spyheart, if memory servesoh, which is one of those lesser
Leslie Nielsen ones where he is yuckingAdopt and hamming it up and doing the
mugging towards the camera. All that. Spyheart has a pretty good opening song

(27:06):
sure does, done by weird AlYankovic, the recipient of his own biopic.
Apparently. Yeah, I remember whenhe was murdered in nineteen eighty five,
though that was very sad for me. Oh my god, yeah,
Al Yankovic, Oh my god.The fact that weird Al is all over

(27:29):
Leslie Nielsen's career will never not befunny. Also, god, yeah,
it's airplane. Those those singular jokesare there, but they don't get in
the way of I picked the hellof the day to stop sniff and glue,
Like, yeah, there's no culturalpoint for that. That's just funny
because you know it's those escalation jokesare the jokes for me an airplane that

(27:49):
always work. And Mark, whenwe were watching it, you talked about
the long callback jokes, which arealso something that like za Z does better
than anybody else, like in MakedGun two with the zoo joke. The
fact that that is throughout the entiregoddamn movie, the fact that that factors
into the climax of the movie isimpressive beyond belief. And you see the

(28:11):
kind of the beginnings of it herean airplane where there are the Shirley joke
continues. It persists every time theysay it, and most times with stuff
like this, they do it onceand they don't do it again. Well,
that's the thing, too, iswhen you have a movie that is
just rapid fire jokes, if youmiss a couple, that's okay, and

(28:33):
you get you guys both listen tothe commentary. You know how they fine
tune this movie. You know howthey were just chopping stuff that wasn't working,
and sticking and stuff that was,and sticking to their guns and saying
this one works, this one doesn't. And there were a lot of times
in the commentary where they're like,well this joke doesn't work anymore, and
I'm like, it works for me, you know, I think it's pretty

(28:55):
funny. You know. There area few things, yeah, we talked
about Johnny, like a few thingsthat don't really hit that much anymore.
But so many of these things dojust hilarious. And then yeah, just
being like this machine gun of jokes. You miss a few times, that's
okay, You're still going to justhit that target so many times, both
visual and dialogue driven, because againwe the first time I watched it in

(29:19):
probably a decade, was just visualgags only, and they're all there.
A scene now that I cannot unsee. It's Robert Stack doing his own stunts
in the scene where he's punching allof the religious zealots. He's doing that
himself. I told my daughter towatch out for his flip over the guy

(29:41):
him scientology. And we should pointout because you kind of mentioned it,
Mike. The way they fine tunedthis movie is they took it to college
campuses and they showed it to collegekids, and where the college kids weren't
laughing, they took that out.And you know what, as far as
I'm concerned, if I were amovie like this today in twenty twenty two,

(30:03):
same crowd would be I would beshowing it too, because those are
the people that I give a shitif they find it funny. You know,
there are going to be people myage they're going to be people y'all's
age that find these things funny.But ultimately, the tastemakers and the people's
whose opinion you want to be hittingare the college kids, because they're going
to be the people that are goingto be driving things for the next decade.
And Yeah, what a better wayto get a movie that's funny into

(30:27):
the right group of people to tellyou if it's funny you're not by showing
it to college kids. I knowthat zaz are rather hard on themselves,
especially about the second half of themovie, because I don't think the second
half of the movies is funny.Is the first half? Also. I
think that's because the second half ofthe movie requires there to be a plot
exactly, and where most comedies diefor me is when the plot enters the

(30:48):
picture. Right in this movie,it doesn't, but it does kind of
throw its hooks into the movie andslow it down ever so slightly. Yeah,
there was a little bit of dragon the wings, Yeah exactly,
but you still have I mean,by that time, we've gained the momentum

(31:10):
and we're just posting on that.We've got Bernstein's score just driving us along.
We've got the score in a comedymovie. It's insane, though,
Shit, folks like that should happeningtoday coming Oh, you know all those
Hans Zimmer movies that are comedies.Like No, I put the close captions

(31:33):
on because I wanted those point Iwould assuming that. I think that's how
we watched it as well, Chris. I wanted that to come up when
the music changed, so that mydaughter would I mean, she noticed it
anyway, but she was like,Oh, the music's changed again. It's
all the different themes, slow morosemusic playing, intense, happy music,

(31:57):
playing et cetera, et cetera.It's like, oh, man, that's
so good. I don't know thatI would necessarily catch that with my ears,
just watching it for the heck ofit or something, but it's amazing
to me that this is I justkept thinking, oh, this is library
music that they're using for specific spots, because it's so varied throughout the whole

(32:21):
film and just so bombastic and overthe top that bom bom bom bah and
just taking us there and I meanall of the older to your point,
it sounds like library music when theplanes are crashing, and the use of
the stock footage for that or scenesfrom other movies and stock noise is that

(32:44):
they used for the plane. That'slike at the biplane. It makes sense
though, it makes sense when you'rewatching a movie. But I don't know
if they were meaning for that tobe part of the joke, but yet
it's part I think there were.It works either way, yeah, either
way. Like you know, again, Abram Zucker and a Zucker, Like

(33:06):
I don't want to give them allthe credit in the world, but Jesus
Christ, there's only three names onthis well, even the model, I
mean the model of the plane.I old my daughter, I'm like,
I much prefer this over a CGIplane. I don't care how cheap it
looks. It's just hanging there.Yeah, and it doesn't even matter if
it's as a joke or not.I just like seeing a real plane in

(33:29):
fluffy fake clouds. And if Isee the string every once in a while,
you know, a big fucking deal. Yeah. Same with the leaping
heart in the Mayo Clinic. Youknow, they point out the string in
that and it's like, who cares? Oh man, I mean that might
be one of the most specific jokesthat they have as far as the whole

(33:51):
patient on the airplane, the singingLady and all that. I mean,
because that is right out of oneof those airport movies. I can't remember
which one, because they all welltogether after a while, because I know
I saw a lot of those disastermovies. I know I saw Concord,
I saw the one where they landin the water. I mean each time

(34:13):
it was like, how are wegoing to crash this plane? Or kind
of like with airplane who they wentout into space. There was already a
supersonic jet that goes off into space. I think Lane Majors was piloting it
in a real movie. And thenhere's this parody movie. I mean,
it's it was just a whole thingof like, how are we going to
get these people in peril? Youknow it's food poisoning, terrorists on the

(34:36):
plane, you know, oh somethingwent wrong with the electrical. It's wild
those movies. And then yeah,that scene of the girl who's there and
they've got I think it really wasHelen Ready in the movie. But she's
a singing nun and singing to thispoor little girl who needs an organ transplant
or something. It's just like thatto me is the most specific, but

(34:57):
it really works well because even ifyou don't, the reference is just a
goofy fucking scene. Yeah. Ithink that's one of the few of the
airport disaster movies that I saw,because I remember going, oh, wait,
I know this from something else,because I had already seen Airplane.
In the commentary, they mentioned thatthey didn't want to have a lot of
cameos from comedians, and obviously JimmyWalker shows up as Windshield wiper Man as

(35:21):
he's credited as. Can we talkabout I think the cameo in this movie
that is the one worth talking about, which is Kareem abdul Jabar playing Kareem
abdul Jabar playing Roger Murdoch Kareem abdulJabar in disguise, which I assume is
the part of the joke. Butit's that moment where he's not Kareem abdul

(35:44):
Jabar until he is, and thatand that's such a smart joke because in
so many other movies again at thetime, I mean, even fucking they're
all they're doing is just aping thefact that OJ was in Towering Inferno,
and and but yet, but yet, I mean that's what it is,
right, I mean, they're they'releaning into it. But at the same

(36:05):
time, a lesser movie would neverhave done the joke of him in his
gear being dragged out of the cockpit, but yet this movie does. And
it all the credit goes to zaZ because even though you do have Jimmy
Walker, who was a big dealat the time, I mean, holy
shit, they could have made abig deal about him being in the movie,
it's not. He's just he's justthere. And you know, you

(36:29):
do have ethel Merman, and youhave these other kind of smaller cameos.
But that's kind of the weird thingabout these these kinds of movies later in
their lifespan, is it almost startsto be coming about the cameos and less
about telling jokes throughout the movie.And this movie, yeah there are jokes,
quote unquote, but they don't needKareem Abdul's bar there. He just

(36:52):
happens to be there. I'm nottrying to be this guy. But what
it actually was for the reason Kareemwasn't here was the co pilot in Zero
Hour Hour was Elroy Crazy Legs Hirsch, who was a football player, and
so they're like, we need asports star. They went to Pete Rose

(37:14):
originally for that role. He turnedhim down. It was baseball season,
and then they went with Kareem,So it's kind of playing on that history
already though. I think that theOJ thing, and of course we'll talk
about OJ as we go along wellthis series, Yes, but yeah,
it was really because of crazy Legsand then yeah, this whole thing of

(37:35):
he's not Kareem abdul Jabbar, butthen he becomes Cream abdul Jabbar. And
I mean just that stupid back andforth of over and under and Roger and
I mean as Clarence best things ever. I love it. Huh. It's
waiting for that, for that tocome into play. I'm like, why
is this last name over? Whenis that? You know? Because I

(37:55):
know they say over when you signoff? But yes, oh there it
is. There it is, andit works so fucking perfectly. Blind to
zero nine or clear bar Victor atthree to four, we have Clarence,
Clarence, Roger Roger. Let's ourvictory Victor now Radio Clarence over Clarence over
over Roger owner. Let's not forgetthe fact that there's just casual pedophilia in

(38:22):
this movie that Peter Graves didn't understandwas funny. Oh man, Peter Graves
is so good in this and Ilove that scene. I mean that is
one quotable, quotable section. Itused to be a lot more quotable than
it is now, but still everythinga grown man naked. Yeah, that

(38:43):
was the scene that went over mytasium. Do you like Gladiator movies?
But again, like you couldn't.I would go out on a limb and
say you couldn't make those jokes now, right? Like that? That might
be kind of where people are checkingout casual pet Tophelia jokes and again,
but they work here because it's notovert or is it. I don't know,

(39:06):
I don't know, I don't thinkhard. Yeah, maybe if it's
Peter Graves doing it or someone whohas is you know, contemporary equivalent,
right, which I guess would bewhat like Tom Selleck. I don't know,
I don't know, Like who's PeterGraves's equivalent in twenty twenty two?
Wow, the James Brolin, Idon't know. Yeah, maybe I see

(39:30):
we'll see the return of that kindof in Police Squad right with the doctor.
Yeah, yeah, so that getsreturned, although that's still early eighties
so, but it was on TVthat's just two years away from this.
Yeah. But I also really likeRobert Hayes. I have seen Robert Hayes

(39:52):
and all of one other thing,and you guys are gonna laugh, but
I saw him as the Dad andHomeward bound Hey film about talk sucking animals
featuring Michael J. Fox. Ithink I watched the TV show he was
on that they referenced in the commentary, and I can, of course,
now I can't remember the name ofit, but it was a pretty big

(40:13):
deal in the late seventies. SoI think I knew Angie. Yeah,
Angie Angie. Yeah. I mostlyknew him after this, from his turn
as Starman in like eighty six orsomething when they made a Starman TV show.
I like him. He's good,He's a great he Again, like

(40:35):
the thing is, they don't haveto be comedic actors in this movie.
That's the thing about this movie thatmakes it sing is I don't know if
Lloyd Bridges was a comedic actor.Frankly, I would wager he wasn't.
But he's in this He's in hotShots, He's in Jane Austen's Mafia,
which is his goddamn last movie roleeven which, you know, the hustle

(40:55):
in these parody movies is impressive becauseagain, like even Leslie Yelsen was doing
Scary Movie up until the mid twothousands. I mean he was in Scary
Movie three and maybe even four.Nobody in this movie is a comedic actor
up until this point other than likeStephen Stucker or some of the kind of
their Kentucky Freight Theater players. Butthey're only there because they're part of that

(41:19):
Kentucky Freight theater. You know,Robert Hayes, Julie Haggarty, Leslie I
mean Leslie Nilson after the fact,but none of these actors were, oh,
that's a funny guy, other thanlike Jimmy Walker. Like again,
but but they're not given much timeintentionally because it's the script that's funny.
It's the writing that's funny. It'sthe visual gags that's funny. And that's
how you do this kind of movie, which is why these kinds of movies

(41:43):
don't exist anymore, because nobody understandsthe formula anymore. And I'm not saying
I understand the formula. Put thisput a fucking put a superhero parody movie.
In front of me and tell meto do it, and I would
just I would just say, nope, fuck no, I'm not doing it,
because, like the holy shit,at this point, to do a
superhero parody movie is like doing adisaster parody movie in the eighties. You

(42:05):
have way too much to draw fromand it's hard to drown out the noise
to get to like those root ideas. Because that's the thing about Airplane that
makes it such a good movie isit distills down all the bullshit noise into
just a couple of main ideas andgoes these how we're going to hit these
ideas and you know what, everythingelse. We don't need to parry the
parody those things because they're not goingto have lasting power. And even Airport

(42:30):
doesn't have lasting power. Nobody's talkingabout Airport in twenty twenty two, but
we'll still watch Airplane. Yeah,a movie that parody is those movies.
Like what a shame it must beto be the people who made the movies
that this movie parodies, Because,like I said, was Zero Hour.
I've seen zero R one time,no interest in watching it again because anytime
I watch it, anytime I watchAirplane, I feel like I'm watching Zero

(42:52):
Hour anyways. I love the storyabout Robert Stack and that they had to
teach Robert Stack to basically parody himselffrom the John Beiner album So Good.
And I think it's the success ofthe film is that these aren't comedic actors.

(43:12):
They're not looking to hit a funnytone or a funny face or it's
all the dialogue and the visuals.We have a couple, you know,
other than Johnny, the character ofJohnny, there's a couple fourth wall breaks
that I guess you could say,are you know, supposed to be funny

(43:35):
or jokey, But for the mostpart, it's it's all played straight and
nobody realizes. It's almost like nobodyrealizes what they're doing or saying is funny.
Well, Robert Hayes essentially just goeslike, oh, that's ethel Merman
over there, like it's got ajoke, Like that's just ethel Merman singing
in a bed, we as theaudience find it funny. Or like when

(43:57):
when Robert Hayes and Julie Haggarty goto the tribe and they're fucking selling tupperware
and teaching them basketball. None ofthose characters would find in the fiction of
the film, would not find thatfunny, But yet we as the audience
find it funny. And for me, like, that's not something that anybody's
doing anymore. That's not a comedicstyle anymore. And you know what,

(44:19):
I know people are always like,oh, comedy is so easy. Fuck
it. This is the hardest podcastI've ever done, because I have almost
avoided doing comedic films on a podcastentirely since I started podcasting, because it
just evolves into remember that one partthat was funny. It's goddamn impossible to
talk about a comedy, yet herewe are, and yet it's also impossible

(44:40):
to make a funny movie. I'veall if someone came up to me and
said, what genre? Would younot want to write comedy? But like
one, I would not want towrite comedy. I really wouldn't because it's
not easy. It's it's not onlyis it not easy, I personally think
it is the hardest genre to tryto be successful at. Already. Comedy
movies. Have you talked about onthe projection Beef Mike, Like a handful?

(45:04):
Probably probably a handful. And yeah, it's very difficult because I am
constantly trying not to be like,oh, and then there's this other thing,
and there's this other thing, andit's just yeah, it gets so
old after a while. And Iknow it's gonna be very tough to talk
about the police squad stuff because thatis just again, joke after joke after
joke after joke, and it's gonnabe tough, guys. But I think

(45:29):
we'll be able to do it iftonight is you know, in any way
a reflection of how that'll go.I think we're fine. I mean saying
some of the lines like don't callme surely, etc. Are fine or
not. It's not quote fast twothousand member. It's the member barrier.
Yeah right, well that's the thing. I mean, you put somebody like
again again someone my age. Ididn't have a frame or reference who Barbara

(45:52):
Billingsley was. I didn't grow upwatching Leave It to be Right. I
thought that that joke was funny whenI first saw it, because it is
an old white woman talking to AfricanAmerican well dressed men about, you know,
cut off a piece of pork anddrag it through the garden, Like
that's funny because she's saying it,but knowing the kind of meta textual joke

(46:12):
makes it even funnier because she's essentiallyAmerica's mom a lot in a lot of
ways, or at least for acertain generation. And that's what makes it
even funnier, possibly even funnier thanwhat she's saying. And that is a
testament to za Z as a writingtrio, to say, Okay, so
you've got the joke, but you'vegot the addition to the joke, and

(46:36):
that's what makes the joke work,not just now, but forever, because
the Barbara Billingsley thing only works througha certain generation, but an old white
woman speaking quote jive unquote will nevernot be funny in any context. Well,
especially because that jive is just amazing, just the thickness of it.
And I'm just like, is thisreally even how anyone actually spoke? Just

(47:01):
these two is coming up with us? Yeah? Right, I just believe
that's what they said in the commentary, that it was just their thing.
She men. Then hunk came upand miss my old lady got to be
running cool upside down his head,you know. He Oh, I'm not
getting biggert. No, You're gonnalet him a big rapp up on you.

(47:22):
Man, I say, hey,Scott so to say, I won't
see pretty jee. I get thesame old, same movie knock a self
approach, like the great amount ofbacklop performers down. I take TC being
man, Hey, you know whatthey say, see you brawl to get
that booty ac laying down the smackgot to be yo. That's just amazing

(47:44):
because and I loved the subtitles andall that. It's so good and when
she gets mad at them and justshe starts speaking jib, I mean,
it's so good. Excuse me,Stewart us I speak jive, cut me
off a piece of the pork anddrag get through the garden is a quote
that lives in my brain rent Free. I don't know why it's stuck out

(48:06):
to me all these years, butthat specific part of it just has stuck
out to me. And again,it's all fake. Nobody actually talks like
that, but it adds immense amountsof comedic value to the movie, even
if it's again kind of tone deafin twenty twenty two, but not really.
I feel like even the most wokestersof twenty twenty two would still find
some comedic value in it. Iwould hope, so I would hope that

(48:30):
good taste because doesn't get in theway of humor, because this movie is
so fucking funny. Right. Well, it's like every couple of years I
see people getting on Twitter and they'relike, cancel Blake or whatever social media
duor because Twitter is not long forthis world. Future listener, When people
get on Twitter and they're like,cancel Blazing Saddles, it's racist. It's

(48:52):
like, you do yet have youseen You haven't seen it? Okay,
got it? If you watched it, you would know that the racist are
the fucking idiots in the movie.The people who are progressive are seen as
the smart ones like you, Andagain that's satire. But parody kind of
has that same problem where it's peopledon't It's like with the Onion. People

(49:12):
don't get it, and when it'staken out of context, it can be
seen as serious, but the intentof the people behind it is never to
be serious or honest with their feelings. It's meant to poke fun at the
people who are This movie would nothave worked if people had been mugged into
the camera. It wouldn't have Iwould not we would not be talking about
this movie today. We wouldn't betalking about any zac anything if they were,

(49:37):
you know, if they were doingLate Naked Gun thirty three and a
third bullshit where it's like I'm good, like I don't need to see this.
I wanted to mention something about thecontext issue where they talk about in
the commentary the loudspeaker at the beginningtalking about the red and the white zone,
were really the people that did thatfor lax, Like who the fuck

(50:00):
would know that? Right? Ifyou were air traveler in the late seventies
and went and saw this, yougo, oh, that sounds like the
same people that actually do the voiceover in the airport or whatever, or
having the real DJ for that radiostation in Chicago that they knocked the tower
over from, you know, youknow za Z keeping Disco alive. It

(50:22):
doesn't matter in the grand scheme ofthings, but yes, if you're privy
to that, I guess you geta little extra level. So like with
my daughter having to explain, youknow, that's ethel Merman, she don't
know who the fuck ethel Mermon is. I probably didn't know who the fuck
ethel Mermon was at eleven years old. The joke works either way because it's
an actual woman singing this song thatmight or might not be familiar. Not

(50:46):
a soldier in drag singing the song, so it works on that level.
The Jimmy Walker thing, I don'tthink I would ever have known that was
him if that hadn't been mentioned inthe commentary. Not that that's a contextual
joke, but you can fairly makehim out. There are a lot of
people in this movie though, Imean, holy shit, thanks when we

(51:10):
were watching this movie. The holyshit chat of the bags in this movie,
those of you know him is whatMike Ermin trout from Breaking Bad.
Also, James Hong in this movieas a guy just casually killing himself.
Nothing about this movie would be funnyrealistically. That whole running gag of all
the people killing themselves is so good, especially the Middle Eastern guy with the

(51:37):
pouring gasoline Oliver himself. Oh mygod, it's so good. Everything about
this movie just is a success,frankly. And if this were the first
movie that you made, you knowyou would have people lighting up at your
door to make another movie. Thisis the second movie that Zaz made after
Kentucky Fried movie, so they hadpeople lighting up at their door to do

(51:59):
things. But even then, likethe testament of a real comedy is whether
or not we could watch it todayand it'd be funny and it holds up.
And there were movies made a yearago that people are not going to
be watching next week and find funny. But yet I would contend you could
put on Airplane for a group ofpeople varying ages in twenty twenty two,

(52:22):
and I think people would walk awayfrom it going, yeah, it's pretty
funny. There are still some timelessjokes like Julie Haggarty giving the autopilot a
blowjob and smoking a cigarette after.I mean that there will never not be
funny because that joke has no socialor societal context that's needed. I mean,
some of the jokes need a societalcontext, but a lot of the

(52:45):
jokes don't. And when they don't, that's when a comedy kind of transcends
just being funny, and it kindof transcends into being important or culturally necessary.
I'm not saying this movie is culturenecessary for people to see, but
this kind of comedy and these kindsof movies, this kind of movie specifically
doesn't get made this well anymore ifit ever did. Like, there are

(53:07):
a handful of movies that I wouldconsider come close to what Airplane did.
But even then, I don't thinkthey're as solid as Airplane is. Throughout.
There's not a like and they're likeone joke, maybe that doesn't work,
but even then you've got another onecoming up right exactly. Like it's
so quick with the jokes that itdoesn't even matter if they don't land,

(53:27):
because they put another one right upagainst it, even if it's not a
dialogue joke. Sometimes a dialogue anda visual joke are in the same scene
and one works and the other doesn't. That's a testament to the people who
are writing these movies, because itjust doesn't happen anymore, and it's a
shame. But at the same time, it's not easy. Like I said,
I would never the last thing Iwould want to do is try to

(53:49):
make other people laugh. Like really, it's not easy. As funny as
I know people think I am orMike White you make me laugh, and
Mark you make me laugh. LikeI don't think any one of us would
want to go and try to makea funny movie to make other people laugh,
because fuck that I'm not I'm notgetting involved in what other people think.
It's funny. No way. No, there's a reason why I don't

(54:10):
go on comedy podcasts. I meanyou can. You can hear some of
my performances on things like god awfulmovies. I just crashed it, burn
buddy. But I consider you afunny guy, Mike. That's the funny.
That's a funny guy. We're afunny guy. Like I'm a clown,
like I amuse you. You're afunny guy. I don't watch a

(54:35):
lot of comedies anymore because they becomeI don't know if it's the Mike Myers
effect or where this started. Maybeit's a Saturday Night Live that trademark,
that one the Mike Myers effect.Yeah, where we talked about running gags
in this, but there aren't thatmany. There's the Shirley line a couple
of times. There's the taxi,which we hit. I think I counted

(54:59):
for times up until that final onecredit scene, including a post credit scene
the people killing themselves because of hislong boring stories. There's the what is
it like? What's a hospital building? The building which is Those are pretty
those those never get old, andwe'll see those, I believe in police

(55:22):
squad show up a number of times. But that idea of running a joke
into the ground to where it becomesunfunny, then absurd, and then funny
again, that's like a more modernidea, and that shit drives me crazy.
I think of Austin Powers when whenI think of that, like,

(55:43):
let's take it and just keep goinguntil we've exhausted it and then bring it
back around and hope that it's funnyagain at the end. I don't know.
That doesn't really happen, at leastin this one. I haven't watched
the Naked Gun movies in a verylong time, so they might do that
in those. You really haven't watchedNaked Gun I watched every year. I

(56:06):
haven't. I haven't watched. I'mexcited I haven't watched. I just haven't
been off of comedies for someone becauseI fear that even the ones that I
used to find funny I won't anymore. Okay, Caddyshack, tell both of
y'all, Naked Gun that only holdsup. It is still funny and it's
meta text really funny now because ithas O. J. Simpson in it,
and that was that's funny. That'sfunny for all the wrong reasons.

(56:30):
I'm with you, Mark, Idon't really go back and rewatch that now.
Top Secret. Yes, I willwatch Top Secret whenever it's on.
I need to watch that one again. I've brought that up to my daughter
a number of times, trying torope her in. I'm like, I
should it pops up on Prime,you know, like suggestions for you,
and I'm like, hey, youknow you want to watch this? And

(56:51):
it never gets a bite from her. So maybe now after watching this,
because I'm telling you, man,she fucking laughed a lot. She might
have said, that's such a jokea lot. But I mean that's what
my dad used to say when wewatched things, when we watched Murder by
Death as an example, that's sostupid. As he's laughing, I take
that with a grain of salt.I've never seen Top Secret. Oh boy,

(57:15):
we should do that. I've nevershow hashtag. I've never seen I
know, I know that it's kindof the in between project, right,
it's there in between project right.Yeah, I said this might be although
is that really that's not really aparody though, I mean, I guess
it's kind of a parody. Itkind of is. Yeah, I mean
it takes a lot from a lotof other films. I mean just little

(57:36):
bits and pieces. I mean,of course there's the Blue Lagoons stuff in
there, but this whole thing andthe pop star going overseas and becoming a
spy, I mean that had tohave been in something. It's kind of
a parody of the Elvis movies aswell. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I would watch it. I've neverseen it, and I look good Kilmer
who doesn't love out kilm Oh mygod? And he is so good in
this good in Everything movie? Rightwas that his first movie? Yeah?

(58:02):
Yeah, he hit it out ofthe park in that one. And this
is where they you know, theystart looking at the camera a little bit.
It's kind of you know, likeyou can tell, like you said,
this is that in between Police Squadand the first Naked Gun film is
where this one's at, and they'restarting to do some of those things that
are not necessarily going to endear usto the Naked gun films. But I

(58:25):
think they do it so well inthis one. And honestly, for me,
I don't like it when they lookat the camera. Like, for
me, the joke is always aboutmake the joke and move on, right,
The one area where they look atthe camera in Top Secret is when
they say it's as if we werein some sort of awful movie, and
then they both look at the cameraand then they look back at each other,

(58:46):
and then they move on and that'sit, you mean, Like in
Spaceballs. My favorite scene in Spaceballsis when they put in Spaceballs the movie
and they're they're showing the movie windwill then be now soon like that,
but again they are knowingly making ajoke about it. When you go out

(59:07):
of your weight to make a jokeabout it, that for me is when
the jokes really sing. It's justlike like, oh, come on,
guys, like you've hit ninety ninepercent of the balls, don't miss this
last one just because you want tobe cute c because that for me,
it's it's just this like cutesy nonsensethat you get, you know, the
meat, the mugging towards the cameraor the fourth wall break. It's like,

(59:30):
you don't need it to be funny. You've been funny up until this
point. Without it, there's noneof it. An airplane, they never
look at the camera and go well, zero hour, you know, And
I appreciate that because, like you'vementioned later. It gets with za Z
stuff the more they start, especiallya Naked Gun two and three, like
oh my god boy, Yeah,Naked Gun three is mug fest. Leslie

(59:52):
Nielsen like it, not a fan. Even though that movie has some pretty
funny moments, it's just you can'tlook at the camera and make a joke.
You're not a stand up comedian.That's not what made you funny to
begin with, and that's not whatis going to make me laugh now.
They have a set of fifteen ruleszazz and they mentioned it a few times

(01:00:17):
in the commentary. But I feellike those later films, and especially like
the Scary movie stuff. And Ibelieve that's only one of the brothers,
one of the Zuckers that directed those, and they're all involved in producing it.
They weren't involved in the first ones, were they? Yeah, I
don't think the first two. Ithink it was starting with three. That

(01:00:37):
was the Wayans brothers that started theScary movie franchise. But they start to
break their break their own rules aboutthose kind of jokes, the like being
in on it right, calling attentionthere's no they're in a movie, or
having you're not supposed to have aforeground joke and a background joke at the

(01:01:00):
same time. If there's a backgroundjoke, the foreground needs to be straight.
They play with those rules even inAirplane, but generally if there's something
going on in the background, what'sgoing on in front isn't funny, right,
And they stick to that pretty closely, like all through the six episodes
a Police Squad. I think lateron they start to lose grasp of their

(01:01:22):
own self created rules that's out therefor people to look up. The Original
Scary Movie, Squiggy is the principleat the school and they don't hang a
lantern on it. David L.Lander is the principle and he's principal Squiggy
in the movie. In two orthree or in not three or four or

(01:01:45):
five, they would have hung alantern on it. But in the Original
Scary Movie he's just principal Squiggy.And that's what reminded, that's what made
that movie so good, is it'sjust like Airplane, just keep going,
don't stop and let the jokes sitbecause you've got something else coming up.
And that for me is always what'smore important. It's not the joke that

(01:02:05):
you told, but the next jokethat's coming up. That's always the more
important joke. It's not the onethat's making people laugh, but can you
get them to laugh again again andthrough the end of the movie. I
think Scary Movie two is one ofthe worst movies ever made. I've never
seen it. I've never seen it. I've seen the third one is fun.
I like three, I like four. Five. I don't think I

(01:02:28):
made it through five. It wasthat bad. But two. I try
to forget that movie. But thereare some things in there. There's this
whole running thing, and I loveChris Elliott, but his role, his
character is so annoying and so's They'retrying to be gross, but it's not
gross and it's not funny. Thethird movie, You Know Who. The

(01:02:50):
third movie is half written by CraigMazin, who wrote Sure, Noble and
The Last of Us Like Holy Shit, like what the fuck? And Craig
maze and also wrote one of myfavorite movies, nineteen ninety seven's comedy classic
Harlan Ellison Leading rocket Man, acomedy that we did talk about it on
my podcast because it has Bill Sadlerin it and Harlan Williams as the lead

(01:03:15):
in a movie is not a thingthat's happened. Well, frankly, since
you said to Harlan Ellison first,Harlan Williams. Sorry, yes, sweet

(01:03:35):
swirling onion rings. Harlan Williams,the Man with No Chin, as he
probably prefer to be known as Williams. Harlan Williams in a biopic of Harlan
Wison. I just watched that.Call me Harlin. What if it was
Harlan Williams just doing comedy in themiddle of the desert. Oh, that

(01:03:55):
already exists. Never mind. Idon't know if you guys have you seen
that. There's just it's I forgetwhat the hell the comedy special is,
but it's Harland Williams in the desertdoing stand up on essentially like a cliff
face in the Mojave desert, andit's just him just doing his stand up
routine. Don't see that guy inmuch anymore these days. He's the only

(01:04:17):
thing that I really remember from somethingabout Mary is always the hitchhiker. The
rest of the movie. I mean, I kind of remember some franks and
beans and hair gel, but reallyit's all about that hitchhiker, and we
quote that all that I quote thatall the time, it's not to my

(01:04:38):
office because you're fucking fired. Iwould like to point out that Harlan Williams
is also in Freddie Got Fingered,a movie that totally should be a Projection
Booth episode at some point, becauseI think the I think the general consensus
has come around that it is amovie worth reassessing. Frank, we're seeing
it. I'm kind of waiting forthe Criterion Collection to put it out.

(01:05:01):
Okay, I mean it might happen. It could happen. Freddy gott Fingered
is a movie that deserves re appreciation. And you know who it hasn't it
Julie Haggarty playing Tom Green's mother.So there you go. Even he understood
the comedic value of Julie Haggarty,who was about to be in The Christmas
Star. I was just gonna saythat taking over Melinda Dylan's role a movie

(01:05:25):
that none of us knew we needed. She is hilarious. She is she's
pretty funny. She plays sting this. Oh yeah, she plays the Haggard
up, you know, just kindof like look hands up in the air.
Female lead really well. And she'snot having any of Richard or Richard
Hayes. What's his name, RobertHayes. Shit, she's not having any
of his ship in this man Again, She's a very strong female lead in

(01:05:47):
this, and I'm glad that sheleft him over all this night. Yes,
she and Mary Steen Virgin sometimes Iwould mix up when I was younger
because they both have that kind ofsoft spokenness to them, and I'm glad
they're both still working. Yes,yeah, Julie Haggardy getting all the roles
at Shelley Duval isn't getting Yeah.Yeah. So I asked my daughter after

(01:06:15):
watching this, I said, whatwas your favorite scene or what was your
favorite gag? And she said,I think the whole bar scene And I
was like, Okay, that's that'shard to dispute at the pointing at the
bag girl Scout fight is legitimately welldone, well done stunt acting. I
kind of have to agree with heron this. And what they say they

(01:06:38):
shot that whole thing in three days. Yeah, that doesn't seem possible,
what with the rig to do therig they dancing. Yeah, my god,
well you know they probably had whatlike four weeks to do the whole
movie. That's what they said,Yeah, that they shot this whole thing
in thirty days. Well I could, What the fuck did I do in

(01:06:59):
thirty days? Holy shit? Werelike my age, right, they're in
their thirties. Fuck me here.You know. Here's the thing though,
at the end of the day,I feel like this is the high that
has never recaptured, which is unfortunatein a lot of ways, because normally
your career kind of starts at amidpoint, and you reach that high point

(01:07:23):
two or three movies or two orthree years in. You know, I
love Naked Gun, and we're gonnabe talking about the police squad and all
that, which I fucking love.And I've seen Naked Gun more times than
I've seen Airplane. But similarly toMark when you and I talked about Jordan
Peel movies, I love Nope,but I understand that get Out is the
better movie. I love Naked Gun, but Airplane is the better movie.

(01:07:45):
Airplane is the more important movie.And Airplane is in the goddamn Library of
Congress, folks, It's in theNational Film Registry, and I'm not sure
Naked Gun is. So I thinkit speaks volumes that a movie that's a
parody of other movies is in theFilm registry, and those movies aren't.
Airport is not in the film registry, but Airplane is. And that,

(01:08:09):
my friends, is a testament towhat comedy can be when done by the
right people. And the caz Man. If they never get better than this,
great and they don't, they reallydon't. But that's okay. This
high. Most people never hit thishigh. Most people don't even come close
to this high. But yet theydid, and that that has to be

(01:08:31):
applauded. And that's why this movieis still funny forty fifty two years later.
Whatever the hell is sixty two yearslater? What is it? What
are we at two forty two?I don't know mad Old right now?
Don't sorry, guys, I don'tknow math. I'm a podcaster. I
didn't listen in math class. Ilistened to all the other classes that were

(01:08:53):
important for the class. Oh yeah, they were teaching in high school.
I'm sure they have them now,yeah, boy, but they do.
They're gonna come take our Speaking ofpeople taking our jobs, they're gonna come
take our job. We're old hatnow. Telecommunications it is probably a whole
other world now, Oh boy,Yeah, Mike, I have to ask

(01:09:14):
you, what's your favorite bit inthe movie. Oh God. I always
love Robert Stack driving and just theuse of the rear projection and that they're
just calling such attention to how fakethe rear projection is. I really like
that a lot that comes back andnaked gun, and they do like an
evolved version of it and naked gun, Oh, they sure do. Yeah,

(01:09:39):
I think for me, I don'tknow, I'd love that they're on
instruments gag because it's such a throwaway. It's such a fucking throwaway gag.
But I always watch Leslie Nielsen inthat scene. He's just yeah, no,
no, no, he's really committingto playing that upright bass. I
don't know. Anytime Lislie Nielsen's onscreen is probably my favorite part. But

(01:10:00):
I love that they're on instruments orLloyd Bridge is going they're coming right at
us and jumping out the window.That will never not be funny. It's
so good about you, Bagley.You mentioned what your daughter's favorite bit is.
But I gotta know, I dolike the bar scene a lot,
but I, for some reason alwaysgo back to the painting that he's doing

(01:10:24):
and not psychiatric hospital. Yeah,and then the reveal, Can I get
a break? Here, what astrange gag. Yeah, it's weird,
And I think that stuck out tome as a kid, like what the
fuck? You know? His legis really over his shoulder and it's surreal
in a very odd way. Andand za Z in the commentary talk about

(01:10:45):
how they were like, not awhole lot of people laughed at it,
but we left it in. Yeah, and I'm glad they did because it's
I think it work. You can'ttrust audiences for every gag. You gotta
sometimes you gotta hold tight to theones that you really think aren't going to
work for that one person sitting ina movie theater in Fresno, California,

(01:11:06):
in nineteen eighty and they kept itin for me, So I'm happy about
that. You know what, onelast thing I thought of was when we
were watching it with the commentary,I realized, Okay, all these big
names are in this, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Peter
Graves, but they don't show up. Leslie Nielsen shows up a little over

(01:11:27):
half an hour in. Lloyd Bridgesis later than that, Robert Stack is
later than that. You don't havethem from the onset. Because as we
were watching it, Chris, Iwas like, but where are all these
guys that I misremember them all beingin this? Yeah? I don't know.
It's just weird to me how thatit works in a movie these days.
You wouldn't have your big names comingin so late in the film.
There'd be some kind of introduction tothem earlier. I know you mentioned Jimmy

(01:11:51):
Walker, and I think I realizedthat he was in it, but really
didn't you know, It's not like, oh, yeah, Jimmy Walker was
in that movie. David Leisure.He's the one that I always remember.
He's one of the two Chris Christians. Yes, and he ended up and
I don't know if you're gonna knowthis one, Chris, but he was

(01:12:13):
Joe is Zuzu. He was thelying pitchman for the Zuzu car company and
he every I mean everything that hesaid was captioned as far as like because
everything he said was a one percentbaldfaced lie. He was so good as
that pitchman that you know. That'slike one of his major roles for me

(01:12:33):
is all of those commercials that hewas in. He was so perfect as
that. But I love when heshows up as one of the Harry Christas
and then he actually comes back inthe sequel as well with this lie detector.
I'll prove this great looking at Suzuis a better pickup than Toyota.
It has more standard features than Toyota. It has a double walled cargo bed,

(01:12:54):
steel built at radios and a fivespeed transmission. Toyota doesn't yet to
louis priced in poort truck in America. See you can trust me? Wow?
Oh yes, Airplane too. Yes, the sequel a movie we're not
talking about coincidentally, not because wedon't want to, but because za z

(01:13:17):
are not involved. That's true.No, I love that movie and I
wrote a nice big essay about itthat has my favorite line of the Airplane
series lights blinking no Fresno, whogoes to Fresno anymore? Delivered by by
Johnny. And then we went toBakersfield, and then we ended up in

(01:13:38):
Fresno, Fresno. No one goesin Fresno anymore. Nice. It's like,
oh, my hometowns in a movie. I shouldn't watch it because I
have not seen it since I watchedAirplane One and was like, oh,
there's a sequel, I should watchit, and then was promptly disappointed.
But again, that was fifteen yearsago, so that doesn't count. And

(01:13:59):
it has ripped torn in it andripped horns amazing, he isn't Freddie got
fingered for folks like half of thecast. If Freddie got fingered as an
airplane too, the secrets there yougo. I don't know how that HAPs.
I remember nothing about the movie otherthan that FROs No line. I
really don't. I believe I sawin the theater two, probably because I
liked Airplane so much. I remembermostly the courtroom scenes and the misunderstanding of

(01:14:26):
one of the people on the stand. I mean, I probably give it
a big pass because I did seethat the theatrically for sure, and it's
got Shatner and all this great stuffgoing on in it. For me,
it's probably not as funny as Ithink, but I remember liking it quite
a bit. I mean, it'sdefinitely no Airplane one, but it's got

(01:14:46):
some good gags. Airplane two isnever gonna be. I mean, that's
that's the problem. I mean,once we get to you know, once
we're done talking about police one,we get the naked gun. Well,
I mean, that's the same thingwith Naked Gun one and Naked Gun two.
It's like it's not as good.It was never going to be because
the notes that Naked Gun hits orairplane hits aren't. They just they're not

(01:15:11):
going to resonate as much because they'rethe ones who did it first. You
can't play the note after somebody andexpect that people are going to, well,
that's a special note. You're playingthe same note that somebody else is
playing, just a little differently,and they can never get over the fact
that it's the same note that somebodyelse plays, even if you're the ones
making the second movie, Which iswhy I would contend no comedy needs a
sequel. Anchorman two, Jesus Christor I'm trying to think of, oh

(01:15:35):
what super Troopers two gets a passbecause it does a little bit different.
But most of the sequels to comediesare not very good. Tell me a
good sequel comedy. Begley already broughtit up. I mean, you've got
the trilogy, the e trilogy ofAustin Powers films talk about diminishing returns.

(01:15:57):
I will tell you that I laughedmy ass off watching I think it was
that third one, which is probablyhorrible that I did. But I that's
surprising more than anything else where.Now I love good Man. Okay,
that may be the exception that provesthe rule. For the most part,

(01:16:19):
comedy sequels never hit the highs ofthe original, right, oh Hangover are
you? Are you trying to provea point? Yeah, speaking of Craig
Mason, he wrote at least Hangovertwo, maybe even three, maybe even
one. So and he wrote thosesome of those late he wrote Scary Movie

(01:16:41):
three. So horror movie sequels tendto be bad. Comedy movie sequels tend
to be bad. Like it's nota lot of the times that original idea
that you've captured. It is lightningin a bottle, and you know people
will line up to see a secondand third movie, but it will never
reach that at high that the firstone did. It just won't. Like

(01:17:01):
the highs of Airplane were never reachedever again, even by Naked Gun.
Like the funny jokes in Airplane cannotbe reached again because this are timeless.
They're just they are without a placein time. People fifty years from now
can watch it, and people almostfifty years ago we're watching it and laughing
at it. And that's a testamentto a comedy that's in the National Film

(01:17:26):
Registrate. So I think that's thefinal word on that. Yeah, how
often are we doing this, fellas? Is this is going to be every
week? When this is coming outevery month? I mean, what are
our plan here for? Let's letthe people know, Bagley, I believe
we decided that it'll be weekly,So ten weeks, because we've got this

(01:17:53):
episode on airplane, will have thesix episodes on each of the sood it's
a police squad, I think weeklyand every episode is an episode. So
yeah, that's what my understanding was. And we'll record you know, one
and two, but split them intoseparate episode record three and four or five

(01:18:15):
and six, and then the NakedGun movies will be their own episodes.
Because I think Chris wanted a tenepisode package, sure, why not?
I figured it was ten episodes tenweeks. That takes us what three and
a half months? Ye, though, I would vote for one extra episode
if we can talk about Top Gun, especially since you've never seen it.
No top Gun top Secret. Yeah, I haven't seen Top Gun as an

(01:18:40):
adult, but I don't want towatch that movie. No, No,
to be fair, I do likeHot Shots a lot, which is true
Top Gun the parody movie one ofmy favorite bits. You're doing okay,
John Cryer with your fucking We usedto do that to each other at the

(01:19:02):
movie theater a lot. We'll justwalk right up to somebody and like be
so in their face. You don't, okay, buddy, I love a
top hot Shots part due with RowanAtkinson. Oh fucking Miguel for air in
there. Yeah, it's fantastic,za z baby. They were bringing home

(01:19:27):
the bacon even into the late nineties. Yeah. Well, until we talk
again next week, Fellas, wherewe will be finally cracking open the files
of Police Squad. Now that wehave set the tone of this podcast,
Chris, what is going on inyour world? My friend? Well,
we started a podcast network, youand I did, and then all of

(01:19:47):
our friends joined us, like MarkBegley. So weird Ingway Media is where
you can go to find out allabout nineteen. I guess this is twenty.
This is the twenty show, twentyand counting or twenty one and two.
The other day. Oh shit,my math is wrong. I didn't
say I didn't care about math andhigh school folks, I already said at

(01:20:08):
once. So Herewaymedia dot com iswhere you can go to find all the
shows that Mike White works on,that Mark Bagley works on and now I
work on, and then all theshows that we work on together and separately.
And that's where you can go.What about you, Mark Bagley,
what's keeping you busy? Well,not a whole lot this month other than
this, probably so, but youcan check out older episodes with Chris and

(01:20:31):
Mike and Chris and Mike on Wakeupheavydot com or at weird Newaymedia dot com.
Mike, where can people find you? Well, you guys already stole
my thunder about weird new Media here. I thought it was going to be
making a whole announcement and everything.It's called the bar. I've got everybody

(01:20:51):
waiting upstairs as champagne bottles chill butwhatever. Yeah, and go to the
protection booth and find more about mein projection with podcast dot com, or
just go to Weirdingwaymedia dot com andI swear one of these days will have
a prettier site than what Spreaker givesus. So that's one area where that
could definitely improve their user experience.Oh, just one of many, just

(01:21:14):
one? Are we going to becomelike the Simpsons and just drag the platform
that we're on. It is prettyjust the running. It's pretty ugly.
I mean, as long as theydeserve it. I mean, I mean,
there's got to be other people thatare Dragon spreakers, so let's just
by a law. How's that heador image looking for you? Huh yeah?

(01:21:35):
Where can people find this show?Mike weirdingwaymedia dot Com. Be sure

(01:22:02):
to tune in next week for anotherexciting story from the files of Police Squad