January 11, 2023 • 49 mins
Mark, Chris, and Mike tackle the first episode of the show, "The Broken Promise," aka "A Substantial Gift." Much like they did with Airplane! ZAZ takes inspiration (and whole scenes) from an existing property, in this case the Lee Marvin vehicle M Squad. You can view a side-by-side comparison here. The show starts strongly with visual, verbal, or sometimes both, jokes at every turn.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Police Squad in Color, starring LeslieNielsen, also starring Alan North and Reck
(00:29):
Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln, to night'sspecial guest star Lorne Green Tonight's episode The
Broken Promise, Welcome to from theFiles A Police Squad in Color. I'm
(00:58):
your host. Mike White. Joiningme is, of course, mister Chris
Sasshew, you should call me theAssassin formerly known as Zasu Pitts, And
of course along with me is misterMark Begley. I am not an animal.
I was looking for my quote.I'm like, what did I Right
down? On tonight's episode, weare talking about a substantial gift. It
(01:23):
is the first episode of Police Squad, the sadly short lived series from David
Zucker, Jim Abrams and Jerry Zucker, the team known as Zaz. This
one originally aired March fourth, nineteeneighty two. I will be harping on
these air dates because these were notaired in order. You can go ahead
(01:44):
and just suck it Firefly fans,because this show was played all out of
order and if memory service, theymoved it around channels and times as well.
They just they wanted to kill thisshow pretty much right now to the
gate they just said, Yeah,people didn't get it. I don't think
you had to pay attention, andthat's not what TV viewers like to do.
(02:06):
Apparently, according to TV executives,Tonight's special guest star Lorn Green,
though in the script for a substantialgift, it is William Conrad, but
he will show up in the Ithink the sixth episode. I guess they
were trying to figure out who they'regoing to get to show up as those
(02:27):
special guests, and of course RexHarrison, no, Rex Hamilton, rexham
Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln. Basically,we are starting off in Joe Clan from
the very first shot of this series, which I fucking love. So I
won't keep saying that throughout the entirething, because if we didn't love this
(02:50):
show, we wouldn't be talking aboutit. Yes, the jokes start with
the credits, I mean, andcontinue through the end credits. It'll just
like an airplane. If you missthem, watch it again and catch the
ones you missed. There are stilljokes all the way to this day that
I was still catching. Yeah,I've seen this I don't even know how
many times, because I remember Iwatched this originally when it aired I think
(03:14):
I watched pretty much every episode butthe first time when they aired it.
Even though they were hard to findand hard to see, this was one
of those shows that was just kindof burned into my brain where even watching
again last night, there were somany lines that I was able to say
before they were saying them on screen. Of course, we're going to talk
(03:34):
about how a lot of this stuffwas recycled for Naked Gun, which we've
all have seen. But these jokesare so classic, Oh my god,
they just worked so well. Imean, the whole exchange about Sally Decker
and Jim Fell and filled in Imean twice, so good, so good
(03:57):
that in Sergeant Taker Away in SergeantBooker as well is another great verbal gag.
The names. There's a plethora ofname jokes in the first episode alone.
Talk about constant gag it throughout andI don't remember so I watched the
first two. I don't think they'reas many in the second one, but
they still place names and people namesjust get ripped on constantly. I watched
(04:23):
it when it aired two, Iguess on the strength of remembering Airplane and
I don't know if Airplane two hadcome out already. I think it was
the same year, if I'm notmistaken, which I also saw in the
theater. Barely remember any of thatthough, But this was something that I
watched with my dad, and it'sone of those like my daughter all through
(04:43):
airplanes saying that is such a stupidjoke. I mean, he would I
remember him saying that that's so stupidwhile laughing. They're dumb jokes, they're
groners, their dad jokes, whateveryou want to call them, right and
left. But I don't know,like you, Mike, probably didn't catch
maybe all six I don't really remember. I feel like when I watched it
(05:06):
this series a couple of years ago, I didn't remember the last couple of
episodes all that well. I knowthat they moved things around. I know
that there is controversy about the order. I think they had them in the
correct order on the DVD, atleast according to air date. I didn't
have an opportunity to see them untilwho knows when, because I didn't have
(05:30):
cable for a very long time.But by the time Naked Gun came out,
I saw that on the strength ofthis, but it had been what
six years or so. Yeah,so I was going. The first four
aired the month of March in eightytwo, so I was going from twelve
to thirteen. We're just like primestupid joke years in a young kid's life.
(05:53):
Really stuck with me for decades anddecades. The whole thing of them
showing out of order really kind ofruins one of the best jokes that they
have because they are constantly name checkingthe previous people in the end of the
episode. So even in the secondepisode, which we'll talk about next week,
(06:14):
there's a reference to Sally Decker,and that list is going to grow
as these episodes go on, andthen they will keep talking about the previous
criminals in the next episode, whichis great. I love that they give
this little thing in here. Thereare so many recurring gags. The one
that I love the most is thatwe don't know for sure if Frank Dribbin
(06:36):
is a serial killer or not.I mean, even the first time we
meet him, we see him inhis car is giving his voice over talking
about how there has been a recentwave of gorgeous fashion models found naked and
unconscious in laundromats on the West Side. Unfortunately, I was invested to getting
hold ups of neighborhood credit unions.I was on the wrong side of town
(06:59):
doing my law. Is he theone that's putting the fashion models unconscious and
naked? Or is he just hopingto catch a glimpse of the fashion models?
Because then later on in the sameepisode, he's driving around and you
see another basket of laundry next tohim. I love that. I love
that. Frank Dribbon is a totalpervert. Speaking of perverts, the character
(07:23):
of Q in this show, whoshows up in the movie, obviously he
is um boy. That's a differentcharacter than I remember. It is essentially
just Peter Graves airplane. I mean, doing literally the same gag the you
know, there's a kid. He'stalking to him and he's like, hey,
(07:44):
you're seeing a grown man naked orsomething to the effective. Like,
it's a little different because in thisit's not him being a pedophile, and
this it's just him being a creepbecause he's like, Hey, does your
bring your mom's clothes in you know, next time, or bring her bathing
suit? And that's Ed Williams asTed Won, and he's just his character
is so different from the movie becausein the movies he's not perverted he's just
(08:07):
he's no selling all the gags.None of it's funny to him, which
is fine because it's like multiple straightmen in a scene. But I didn't
remember him being so drastically different.I can't remember. If it's the way
that the water glistens off of yourmom's skin when she comes out of the
shower, yeah, I love it. Bring back some swimwear next time when
(08:28):
you come. Yeah. Yeah,it's the Peter Graves gags all over again,
which is great. I love that. Actually, it's like a mix
of Airplane and what Naked Gun wouldbecome the movies. It's still kind of
writing that line because they do havea lot of verbal gags. There are
a fair amount of visual gags aswell. I think overall this hues closer
(08:50):
to Airplane than it does to NakedGun. I mean, yeah, there
are jokes that are repeated, likethe shooting at each other from like two
feet away, which comes back,I want to say, in the second
Naked Gun movie, and then thething with the pillow in Naked Gun.
They do that with the wig inthis episode. It's weird to me,
(09:11):
like I remember watching this when itwas just kind of floating around there.
It only came into DVD in twentytwenty, so it's only been on Blu
Ray, so I've been on BluRay for two years. But I remember
seeing and thinking like I was notexpecting when I initially watched it there to
be so many repeated jokes. Butyet they're all here. Everything that you've
(09:33):
seen in Naked Gun will come backin the show, because that's where they're
essentially workshopping. All of these ideasis on the show. But I just
didn't remember how many gags that Iremember from Naked Gun one, two,
and three are just already showing upin the show. Yeah, they recycle
a lot of gags. Well,they're even recycling gags here from Airplane Cigarette
(09:54):
right, Yes, I know,yeah, And I wonder that was the
thing when I watched it all theway through a couple of years back,
I thought, is that a recurringgag on purpose? Or is this just
like recycling their own material? Imean, you know, there's different writers
for the episodes. I want toassume that everything's on purpose, but I
don't know. It gets after awhile you kind of go like, how
(10:16):
many times am I going to laughat the cigarette gag? They do an
airplane gag in this halfway through itwhere they're driving in the car and all
of a sudden the coliseum is behindthem in Italy, right, And then
they're at the apartment and then youcan see the leading Tower of Pisa out
her window, though it's clearly supposedto be Chicago, New York. Lay,
(10:41):
yeah, the script has Chicago.I read that. Yeah, I
read it on something else too,or no, it might have been in
the commentary where they were talking aboutChicago, and I'm like, I don't
get a sense of anywhere in thisexcept for back lot. Right, Yeah,
that's it is very much set boundat that, so okay, I
mean they're not trying to convince usthat Leslie Nielsen is walking around the streets
(11:05):
of anywhere. The movies obviously setin la plays a big part in those
movies that it's set in La.Here they mentioned the Cubs one time,
Well, tell him you were trade. He was traded to the Cubs for
Reggie Jackson. That scene has myfavorite line in the entire episode, which
is we would have come sooner,but your husband wasn't dead yet. When
(11:26):
Leslie Nielsen hits those deliveries, theway the only way that he can.
He just says it and skeeps goinglike that. You say that to someone
and they would be like, whatthe fuck did you just save it?
Just no stopping here for me.MVP of this episode and a lot of
episodes as Alan North as ed Hackinso good because he does the dead pan
(11:50):
like Leslie Nielsen, but he playsslightly less intelligent, which I really like
that. He just seems very confuseda lot of times. It kind of
gives that Lovett look a lot oftimes, just like huh. And I
love that. I love him andhis approach, and I love to the
introduction of him in the credits withthe guy on fire running out squadroom the
(12:16):
police as being shot up in theprocess. You guys have already mentioned it,
but the show sets exactly the tonethat it needs the moment it starts.
I mean, you see Leslie Neilsonbeing shot at and you're like,
Okay, this is a serious show, and then the moment it hooks you,
it subverts your expectations immediately. Ireally appreciate that this show is not
(12:41):
really interested in hewing to the conventionsof television at the time. It really
wanted to do its own thing,which is why I think the three of
us would agree it did not succeed. This show was way too far ahead
of its time to be really appreciatedat the time. And watching this first
episode, what a fucking chore writingthese scripts must have been. My God,
(13:05):
doing airplane is one thing, butdoing this weekly like it only runs
for six episodes, but who knowshow many episodes it really would have run
for if it had been able torun a full length, because I feel
like za Z would have a leftafter a while, or be it would
have just completely diminished in quality ofcomedy. Because again, this is the
(13:26):
first and only episode that they writethroughout the run. I mean, there
are other people, and one ofthem is actually an rather well known actor
in the next episode. It's interesting, this is the one that of all
the episodes that I remember, Iremember this one and none of the other
ones. I am very curious howthey approach this because most of the time
(13:46):
you do a pilot, the pilotcells, they say, Okay, we'll
take thirteen episodes, twenty two episodes, whatever it is. But this one
lasting six episodes is and it comesout in March. So I'm like Okay,
is this a midseason replacement? Andif that's the case, I mean
still it's probably thirteen. But thenI know there were six scripts written.
(14:09):
There was actually a seventh script atleast out there, and we'll talk about
that when we get to the lastepisode. So it's like, Okay,
what were you guys doing. Didyou do six at a time and then
start writing the script for the seventh? I mean, it isn't more like
a cold check thing where you're justlike writing a script. You know,
you've got like three or four scriptsall being written at the same time,
(14:31):
and they're all getting ready to beshot at the same time. Because obviously
they didn't have all of this stuffshot and ready. They shot the six,
they didn't shoot a seventh. Myquestion has always been, how do
you keep that constant? There's nota minute that goes by on any of
these where there isn't a visual,verbal, or combination of the two jokes
(14:54):
happening. There's no stretch of timewhere there isn't something happening. I don't
know how anybody could keep up thatpace with jokes that wasn't just a comedic
genius, not that they're not comedicgeniuses. I mean, that's up to
debate. I can't even imagine thinkingbeyond here's your order for six for this
(15:15):
mid season replacement, We'll see whathappens. David Mish wrote the seventh script,
Testimony of Terror, and his noteabout it was while all the produced
episodes were written by three person teams, and he says that he worked with
Robert Wall and Tino Ensana, theseventh was to be written and directed by
(15:35):
me, meaning David Mish. Wewere canceled after six is more of a
parody of goal Finger meets Ironside,and some of the gags actually ended up
in Top Secret. Omar Shari beingcrushed as a gag. That's from his
Testimony of Terror. So I'm socurious just about the history of this.
I would love to talk with theseguys and find out more information. Ing
(16:00):
if maybe I can drop a noteto Joe Dante, who will talk about
in the next episode, since hedirected that one, find out a little
bit more. You mentioned M Squad, so you've got the shell of things
by parroting M Squad, just likehow we did Zero Hour in Airplane and
then after you know, even intwo episodes, it's like, Okay,
(16:22):
the case gets tough, and sothen Frank goes to Johnny, and I
fucking loved Johnny, and I knowthat the gag is supposed to be that
Johnny is supposed to be like theyoung kid who's polishing shoes and stuff,
but he ends up being this reallyold man looking guy. He's so good,
and I love the way he's alwayslooking around furtively and giving so much
(16:45):
more information than he could ever possiblyknow about any topic in the entire world.
And for me, the best partof it is always who's the next
person to sit in the shoes shinesa chair, because that is always great?
And this one is what life afterdeath right priest so good. I'm
a huge fan of that gag.I'm surprised that gag didn't make its way
(17:10):
into the movie about all these gagsthat I know were constants, because I
know that's that's a returning gag.It's wild to me that that one didn't
show up. Also want to pointout William Duel pretty good in Elvira Mistress
of the Dark as well, whichis the only thing I can think of
him being in, and he playsI think that the horny hotel husband to
the h the I forgot that actress, another fantastic character actress who's just like,
(17:33):
you can't wear makeup, and he'sgreat in there, he's great in
here. I wish that gag itshowed up in the movie because they could
have done that three times in themovies. Had you bat me money,
I would have said that Johnny wasin the movie. Right, Well,
that's my point. It's like,that's the one gag where I'm shaking my
head, like, why didn't theyThe actor was alive until two thousand and
(17:55):
four. Maybe they didn't think itlaid. I don't. I can't imagine
what it is. It plays reallywell on TV. I think it plays
really well within the framework of theepisode, given what they're spoofing and what
that is trying to evoke. Yeah, it's very strange to me that that
(18:15):
has no place in the movies,and there's not even like an analogous in
the movies. I guess there isn'tthe first one where he's like that whole
back and forth with the guy onthe dock where he's paying the guy on
the dock and the guy on thedock pays him money to get the information.
But that's as close as we getwithin the entire framework of those films.
They never reapproach this joke, butthey do it at lease in the
(18:37):
first two episodes. I think he'sin every single one. Yeah, and
I'm only familiar with him from OneFlew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Oh,
that's right, he's one of thepatients. Yeah. Wow, I forgot
all about that. Was that Ediemcclergy were thinking of earlier Chris Robly.
(18:57):
Okay, so ran to put youon the spot. No, no,
no, she is? Is shean Elvira? I want to say that
she was part of that whole comedyclub. She plays Chastity Pariah. Oh
it's Pat Crawford Brown, thank you, who plays William Duel's husband. But
(19:18):
again, like all of those eightiesactresses kind of fall into the same camp,
the same kind of character, alwaysplaying that uptight female character. But
they do it so well. Obviouslyit's funny because, like you said,
of all the gags in this showthat really are returning in that work,
and that even show up on theWikipedia page for each of these episodes has
(19:38):
a Wikipedia entry completely. You don'teven I mean not saying you don't have
to watch this show. You shouldtotally track the show down. It's like
twelve dollars on Amazon. You cansee a lot of the show just by
reading the Wikipedia entry because they havelike half of the gags just laid out
for you. It's kind of insane, but I think it speaks to the
(19:59):
quality and the kind of intricate writingof the show that even to write a
synopsis of this show is an indepth process. You know. I think
I have an answer as to whymaybe he's not in the movies. It
feels like with this they did thesame kind of approach as with Airplane,
where it's more of a time Thereare modern for the time references, like
(20:21):
the Reggie Jackson reference, but itfeels like they're harkening back to fifties and
sixties cop shows, and this wouldwork. Johnny the shoeshine boy gag would
work in a fifties or sixties copshow if I remember correctly. And again,
it's been a long time since I'vewatched the Naked Gun movies, but
that's really contemporary that's supposed to beset in the here and now of late
(20:45):
eighties LA. Maybe it just doesn'twork with that to be fair though,
wouldn't that be the that would bringagain, that would be the joke.
Yeah, yeah, I could seeit in the movie. But yeah,
I think you're probably right to yourpoint. It just doesn't it wouldn't.
Yeah. Also the city, thecity that they're setting it in the movies
(21:07):
is La like right, yeah,yeah, And this is timeless and placeless
and set bound and studio bound andprojection. Yeah, very much in reference
to those shows where I mean,I didn't watch Dragnet a lot when I
was younger, but I did watchPerry Mason and Ironside, and trying to
think of some of the other copshows where it was very much that generic,
(21:32):
wide open set space that's prominent,and especially in this first episode in
the Acme credit place that the wholeaction takes place in, or the main
action where it's just it's wide open. Your building wouldn't be that big in
same with their police station and everythingelse where. It's just this huge,
wide open space. It doesn't quitelook right to the eye, but that's
(21:56):
how those old shows were. It'sgotta be big for Norbrook to fit in
there. Or Al you mean AlSorry, I thought his name was Al
Nordberg. Nordberg comes on the thirdor fourth episode. Oh really, Nordberg
is the Dufus cop that comes ina little later, And I thank you,
(22:19):
Al. That's what I always thoughttoo. And I had to look
at the cast lists and the Wikipediaand all that stuff to straighten that out
for myself, because I'm like,is Nordberg the tall guy? That's what
I always thought? If we're seeinghis face now or what? Is this
a separate character because he comes inlater. You know, he's not in
the first two episode. Nordberg thecharacter. I just remember him mainly from
(22:42):
the Locksmith episode because he has alot to do in that one. I
can now picture him now that yousay that, I can picture the actor
in my head. Yeah, you'retalking about this the role that ends up
getting replaced by O. J.Simpson, everybody's favorite Hurts Rental car folks
person. Oh yeah, I wasconfused as well. I thought that Al
(23:03):
was I thought his name was AlanNorberg. So my bad. So I
kept waiting for the tall guy toshow up in the movies. And I
love that gag, and I lovethe gag of you've got something on your
face. I know the other sideand It's a half of a goddamn banana,
right, I mean, just boom, just the landing of that on
the table. So good. Ah. I think my other question about,
(23:29):
you know, watching this show nowin twenty twenty two, knowing why it
gets canceled, knowing how quickly itgot canceled into its run. Could a
show like this work? And isthis show doesn't show already exist? I
mean in a lot of ways,Matt Graining talks about this show and how
this show would have killed if ithad been on twenty years later. It
would have. But I would contendMatt Graining built upon the ideas of this
(23:55):
show. With The Simpsons, Imean, yeah, The Simpsons is not
a live action show, but plentyof visual and verbal gags in the early
seasons of the show, maybe notso much recently. I cannot speak to
most of the Simpsons past season thirteen. A lot of what modern comedy becomes
(24:15):
is doing a lot of part tonot this show, but za Z and
kind of where their influences lie andwho they influence and what they're trying to
do, which is never give theaudience an opportunity to catch their breath.
That's what it feels like I don'tknow if that was their intention, but
as an audience member watching this showcritically or non critically, there's not going
(24:37):
to be a lot of time whereyou're not being fucking bombarded with stuff incessantly.
The show works in spite of thatbeing a really hard sell. I
feel like it's a hard sell toreally like, we're gonna have a twenty
minute episode of a show where youhave to be engaged the entire time.
That's not easy. Yeah, Iwould say the closest we come to this
kind of stuff for now is probablythe Seth McFarland stuff, especially Family Guy,
(25:03):
Right, But with that, you'vegot the way that those jokes are
structured is so different from how thisis because the jokes are very much I
think you obviously Chris. They hanga lantern on them right where it's like,
oh, well, that reminds meof the time when blah blah blah,
and then they have the joke remindsthe time Chris Walkin went to go
order froyo at tcby and they didn'thave chocolate. It's like, wow,
(25:27):
it's like that, and then theycut to him doing it. That's for
a long time that was all FamilyGuy was and probably still is. I'd
be able to wager a guess.I mean, whatever, those what was
it dolphins with balls with names onthem that they just pushed into the tube
and then they come out and that'show they write the jokes. Yeah,
(25:48):
I mean would put a bunch ofmonkeys in a room with a bunch of
time writers South park Man. Theway that they went after those guys,
holy shit, that was the bestof times. It was the Blurst sometimes
Blurst uptimes, that's Spenny. Thatis what this feels like that but less
reaching. The Family Guy always feltlike at some point it just started reaching
(26:11):
for the jokes as opposed to lettingthe jokes happen organically, right, And
I appreciate Police Squad. Yeah,the second episode maybe not so much.
But this episode really is just everycool, funny, worthwhile gag that Zaz
has, and they pull it outof their bag for this episode, for
understandable reasons, the first episode oftheir show, so they want to make
(26:34):
sure it lands. That's why theydirected it, that's why they wrote it.
This episode, in particular, Ithink, really is start to finish,
very funny and also full of likea lot, Like we've kind of
already mentioned a lot of gags thatnot only come back in this episode,
but are going to resurface over andover again too. Like you mentioned Mark,
(26:55):
a lot of diminishing returns. Well, this also does that thing that
you were talking about Mark in thelast episode where you're talking about the zaz
rules of comedy. And I reallywas picking up on that while I was
watching this, this whole idea ofif something is funny happening in the background,
don't have it funny in the foreground. So Frank and the Captain speaking,
(27:17):
and you've got the guys with thegurney wheeling out, that long gurnee
that just keeps going and going andgoing, and then they cut and you
see the end of the gurney insideof the building, and I love that.
You know, the conversation that AlanNorth and Leslie Nielsen are having isn't
that funny, But that psych gaggoing on in the back is amazing.
(27:37):
Or like the opening of Act twowhere it's Act two Yankees one. I
like the recurring title card gags.Yes, those are total non sequitors,
like that is what I love.I am a huge fan of the I
believe the comic panel is called bizarro, Is it not the one that's used
to be in the newspaper, whichwas all just non sequitors all the time.
(28:03):
I love a good non sequitor,and Zaz are kings of non sequitors.
There's a ton of them in NakedGun. There's plenty of them.
An Airplane and Act two Yankees oneis a very good example, and there's
an even better one in the secondepisode that I think is even funnier.
But it is nowadays the comedy isit? Throughout? Nobody does comedy credits
(28:27):
anymore. We didn't even talk aboutthat with Airplane comedy credits, A recipe
for brownies in the credits. Ithink at some point in one of these
Zaz movies we get it. Itmay be as far down the road as
something like Mafia. Nobody does thatanymore. That's not a thing anybody does.
It's comedy from start to finish.You're eating a salad, and the
(28:49):
salad is funny, and then theappetizers funny, and then the main course
funny. In the dessert is funny. It's throughout. That's not a thing
anymore. Everybody wants to have,you know, a moment of character grow
within a moment of characters having atriumph. It's like, why can't we
just do this anymore? Why can'twe just do a joke fest throughout Naked
Gun coming soon to a theater nearyou, starring Liam Neeson. There you
(29:11):
go, folks, I forgot Now. It's all improv until you find something
that you can put on the screen. Do you hear riff for twenty minutes,
and then we'll cut it all together, you know, the Paul Figue
and Judd Apataw. Yeah, that'swhat we've come to. Well and za
(29:33):
Z recently we're talking about, youknow, not stupid opinions. Everybody's entitled
to their opinion. But you know, the death of comedy blah blah blah.
I would contend the death of comedyis not wokeness. The death of
comedy is improv. That's the deathof comedy. Movies is not writing the
jokes and confidence in writing the jokes. It's, oh, we're gonna have
funny people and they say funny things. That's not necessarily the case. Ghostbusters
(29:59):
twenty sixteen, it's a fantastic exampleof what happens when you go we got
four funny women. Let's just letthem do their thing. Everything is written
down, this script is everything thatwe see is in here. It's very
important to write this shit down,get this script as tight as you possibly
can. You want to let peopleriff on on set. You know,
(30:22):
you do one take that's of thescript, you do another that's for you.
You go ahead and you riff.If you're fucking Robin Williams, go
ahead. It might be something genius. I'm not saying that the level of
comedian is not up to what itwas, but I think the level of
comedy is not to what it was. And it's just like, okay,
don't you don't have to say quiffjokes all the time. It's okay.
(30:47):
It's a different way of writing comedy. This was three dudes at the Helm,
very structured. They knew what theywant, they knew how they wanted
to get there. And like withAirplane, they're showing these movies to people
and they're using that as an opportunityto tune and take the movie and tweak
it down into what they want.Now it's we're gonna do it on set,
(31:07):
and it's like okay, Like Iguess, I guess that is a
way of doing it, and therehave been movies that have been successful.
A lot of those Jet Apatow moviesare very funny, rewatchable, I don't
know. Again, there are partsfrom forty Year Old Virgin that I can
quote that are funny. Okay,there are parts in Police Squad that are
(31:29):
just as funny. It's a differentkind of comedy. I think this comedy
has been around for a lot longer. And this comedy also benefits from people
sitting and looking over it a bunchof times. It's not just one guy
doing his thing, which is fine. That works for stand up not for
a comedy movie. I don't thinkall the time, not emulatably. I'm
(31:52):
going to take four people who arefunny and put him in the movie.
Guaranteed success, not necessarily. AndLeslie Nielsen was a comedic actor before any
of this. That's not what hewas doing. He wanted two That's what
they've said. That's what he said. I wanted to do comedy. He
would play jokes on people on set, whatever the fuck that means anymore.
He's sending condoms to Robert Stack onthe set of Airplane. A used condom
(32:15):
like Jared Letto. I don't knowwhat the fuck he was doing, but
it's funny to me that I wouldassume a lot of the people in this
show are not comedic actors. Imean, that's not the point. And
it's not about you being funny.It's about the script being funny. That's
the difference. Now it's not theactors that are funny. It's the script.
Now, it's the actors not thescript, which with them prob there's
(32:37):
no script cool How do you evensell the project? Oh you got Kate
McKinnon and Kristin Wig and Leslie Jonesand that other actors whose name I always
get wrong, so I'm gonna sayher name is Melissa McCarthy. I think
you're right. That's how you sellit. And we got Paul Fiegan.
He's he's a comedy guy, sohe gets it. It's like, ah,
(32:59):
yikes. Sometimes it does work,but it's a harder hill to climb
than just writing a script and havingthem execute your funny lines. These are
still played straight. The Police Squadepisodes are also no one's telling jokes,
there's no laugh track. No,they fought against that, which I think
(33:19):
if there had been a laugh track, this show would not work nearly as
well as it still does. God, can you imagine if you want to
laugh track, just listen to themon the audio commentary and there's your laugh
track. Because they laugh at theirown jokes quite a bit. I don't
blame them. They're pretty funny.So yeah, improv thing has become like
(33:39):
the gold standard, and it's noteven really improv because you're recording something so
you can do it a million times. Improv on stage, and what we
call improv for movies or TV showsis really just like testing things out unless
it really is improv. Some ofthe best moments of improv in film are
(34:00):
not even kneedic movies. The thingthat jumps to my mind, not a
huge fan of the movie, nota huge fan of the director, not
even a huge fan of the actorinvolved the scene in Django where Leonardo DiCaprio
actually cut his hand and he wentthrough the rest of the scene. That's
improv, that's improvisational acting. Heis sitting there with his hand fucking bleeding
(34:21):
like crazy getting through that scene.The scene in Zoolander where Ben Still legitimately
forgot his line after David Kovney's monologueand goes, but why male models,
that's improv. It's an accident.He didn't mean to, but why male
models? And then David Coovney justpicking up and going, I just told
you that's all improv. That wasn'tthem doing it a million times. It
(34:44):
came out of necessity. And that, for me is when improv works.
Is it when it comes out ofnecessity? That's all you've got. Would
naked gun work in a improv onlycomedy sphere. It's not a totally modern
thing because I remember watching Grumpy OldMen and at the end of the film,
(35:04):
I believe it's running through the creditsthey have Burgess Meredith giving alternative lines
to some of his crass jokes inthe movie. It's different every take.
To me, that's sort of whatthey're doing now in these movies, Like
for every fucking line, it's likeinsert funny line here. Even all the
way you know, back to likeDiehardened stuff. I know Stephen Lee Desuza
(35:28):
was unset just feeding lines to BruceWillis and he would say a bunch of
stuff and they would record him.But at the same time, the script
existed before that, and then it'sa matter of like picking the best line,
so I don't fault that. Butthe one that really gives me,
though, is when the comedian willthink that they have a funny line,
and then they'll do two or threemore funny lines, and it just the
(35:52):
scene lasts for way too long.And I get that a lot in things
like twenty one Jumps Street or someof these Paul Fieg move Sport. It's
just like, Okay, one jokewas enough. You don't have to have
three jokes in this. You tellone joke, you move on to the
next joke, You move on tothe next joke. Sometimes you come back
to that first joke if you needto or want to have that little callback.
(36:14):
But it is not just layer layer, layer layer. The first one
was funny, the second one waskind of dumb, the third one was
absurd. Yeah, no, wedon't need that for me. That kind
of comedy sometimes does work. It'sa very specific scenario. And not only
is this specific scenario, it's aspecific kind of comedian. If it's Tim
(36:35):
Hidecker and Eric Wareheim or Eric Andresomeone who understands comedy and anti comedy,
even someone like Tim Robinson on Ithink you should leave playing it three times,
as long as there's a point inthat third time, I'm on board.
But yeah, it's this like beatingit into the ground and then beating
it further and then now it's likedead, it's buried. Stop beating and
(36:59):
it's already now you gotta stop.And a lot of this improv nowadays is
just how much further can we pushthe joke. I don't think you need
to push it in this scene.You can revisit it. Revisiting jokes is
great za z or like the fuckingKings of that for fuck's sake. Yeah,
it's like in the same scene rightnext to the previous jokes, like
(37:20):
this is a little much like youdon't do you not have anything else to
say? You have an other jokesto trot out here? You just want
to say the same thing three times, all right. I kind of mentioned
that on the Airplane episode, whereit's like that Austin Powers thing where you
go so far it's become absurd andthen at some point it's supposed to be
funny again. That was the comedything for a while, and that's when
(37:42):
I sort of stop watching a lotof comedy films. I guess it's Saturday
Night Live type humor in a waywhere that works in a sketch, But
you're talking about a movie here.Of five minute sketch versus five minutes of
your movie is a different ball game. As as far as I'm concerned,
(38:02):
taking Pat and stretching Pat to onehour and a half log movie is a
good idea. Tarantino had to passthat script, so he punched it up.
He's a funny guy. I've heard, yeah, very a lot of
comedy in his movies. I haveto give this show credit for having an
(38:25):
elephant man gag. Oh good?It yes, the most timeless of all
gags. Elephant man, Oh good. I'm like, would people watching it
now who aren't our ages, wouldthey get it? You know, I'm
not sure, but god damn,it is funny. I watched a reaction
video earlier today as part of myresearch. Oh Boy, of a couple
(38:50):
watching the first three episodes, althoughthey watched him out of order the third
episode, in the fifth episode orswitched blah blah blah, but the first
two were the correct ones that wewere going to be talking about. That
was the gag that they both missed. There was no reaction other than the
spit and stuff coming out of hismouth. Yeah, they didn't catch it,
and they were probably Chris's age.I would guess maybe, dare you
(39:15):
lump me in with the rest ofthese people. I have a little that
you don't know what you're talking about. And here's the little hunch little guy.
That is the kind of dumb Ilove it. Oh my god.
That and I think this is thefirst time that I have caught this joke.
(39:37):
Is when he leans over like he'stalking into an intercom. That's the
joke I thought you were talking about. Chris is talking about the joke with
the hunchback at the end, atthe end when they're doing right after they
did take her away, and herehe is right here. I love.
The one I'm talking about is inthe police station and Frank lean's over like
(39:58):
he's pressing the intercom, but andgives out these orders and then they cut
two right away. Captain a littleperson. I'm like, I have never
noticed that joke before. That wasbrilliant. I love that. Got a
big laugh out of my daughter too. I appreciate the fact that it's just
they don't leave a moment without ajoke. The scene where you have Drebn
(40:21):
talking to Sally Decker on the phoneand he calls already puts the handkerchief over
the phone. You don't know wherethis joke is going. And then they
cut to her and she it's justa completely different voice, but they don't
make it. They make no lightof it, nothing, they don't.
They don't have her freaking out oranything. And it's stuff like that where
it's like the people who were writingthis show understand that you have an opportunity
(40:43):
at every point to tell a joke. Sometimes you don't need to, but
in a show like this, it'salmost like they can't help themselves. And
I appreciate that. It's like they'regonna say a little hunch and oh my
god, here comes a hunchback orsergeant take her away, and it's like
that is his name. When it'sthis kind of show, that's what I
expect. And they always, atleast in this episode, in an Airplane
(41:06):
and a lot in the original NakedGun movie, they always have this innate
ability to deliver well. And whenhe does that, it's the exact replica
of the orthodonist's voice, right,so he sounds exactly like the Orthodonist,
who is apparently eighty yard and thereal the only person that's ad Yard in
the show. That's what they saidin commentary. They're like, he's looped.
(41:29):
No one else was in that scene. I like that his last name
is the same as Leslie Nielsen's name, the doctor in Airplane. And I
think that that name, what isit, zuf Tag or something that that
Zubitski or Zubitsky, that that wasone of their neighbors when they're growing up.
Okay, I thought it was fromAirplane and I just didn't have the
(41:51):
energy to look it up, andso it was his name. Okay,
well that's even better. Having watchedthese two things back to back, I
was like, oh, okay,yeah, stuff starts to fall into place.
I ran in the trivia that thattranslates to toothman. I don't necessarily
buy that, and so that wouldn'tbe too good providential. I think,
(42:13):
yeah, yeah, I don't knowso much bullshit on IMDb. I don't
know. IMDb is a great placeto get all of your trivia and stuff
that you definitely want to read outloud on a podcast and claim that it
is the gospel truth that's true.I'm kind of surprised throughout this entire time
(42:34):
that we've been talking about this firstepisode of the show, we have not
mentioned one of the more I guessiconic gags reoccurring iconic gags, The one
that I've seen out of context themost is the freeze frame gag at the
edge, Yeah, which is justso fucking stupid. And then not only
(42:54):
is it stupid in this episode,stupidly hilarious. I mean not, oh
my god, I roll, butit's stupid and it works, and then
they up the anti in the nextepisode to the logical next degree. The
freees frame gag at the end isgreat. You have Frank's Rebin and Ed
sitting there laughing, and then theyfreeze and then all the North is the
(43:14):
one who starts breaking first, andhe starts just like looking around mouth.
He can't hold it as long asLeslie Nielsen, and obviously I'm sure they
were like, you guys need tostart like getting sick of it the longer
this goes on. But kudos toLeslie Nielsen for holding it so unbelievably long
(43:35):
without ever blinking or anything. Andman, honestly, as much as I
love some of the verbal gags.It might be my favorite visual gag in
the entire run of this show becauseI like that they just go, well,
nobody's really explained why anyone does this, so we're just gonna have them
have no idea why this is happening, which I think is just a funny
kind of like meta textual gag ontop of everything else, because it is
(44:00):
funny if you know what they're tryingto make fun of. Otherwise, I
mean, yeah, it's funny thatthey're frozen. You really do have to
have some frame of reference for someof these TV specific gags, at least
TV at the time. Oh god, Yeah, there was an amazing video
that I saw years ago where itwas every beat before and then freeze frame
(44:21):
of the end of chips. Sojust that like a little like ha ha,
off to the next one, andit may just over and over and
over again. In a show thatwe talk about weekly or monthly, they
do it. They do it inBarney Miller every time. It's every episode
of Barney Miller has it. Colombo'sgot all those stills at the end.
(44:44):
They don't do the freeze at theend. But yeah, there's definitely that
we watch a lot of murder shewrote in this house, and they end
every episode like that, and Ievery time they do what do I think
of police squad? Every fucking timeSeeing them do that has changed the way
I see those scenes now, which, like you just mentioned, Mark,
I have to give entire credit tothat to za Z because I've seen people
(45:07):
do it since, but never haveI seen it done as well as I've
seen it done in this first episodeof this show and then definitely in the
next episode. It is even funnier, which to end your show with a
really standout gag. Got to givethem credit for waiting until the last moment
to do it, but then thefact that they nail it again in the
(45:28):
next episode is a testament to thepeople writing this show and the expectations that
they clearly had for not only themselves, but also the people that they're going
to be bringing on to work onthis show. Because this is the only
episode that they have writing credits onand directing to they direct any of the
other episodes as well, yes,this one. Credit wise, they only
(45:51):
wrote and directed Zaz this first episode. There's another site gag in here that
I think maybe got riffed on yourlater on another comedy show, and it's
one that I've never noticed before.But it's the military Millinary that he meets
God Sally Decker in front of hisarmy hats, and then it says military
(46:13):
millinary. And it's the very hardto say. And when I saw it
and I tried to say it inmy head, all I could think of
was rural juror from Dirty Rock.I don't know if they they pulled it
from that or not. That allnight wicker store, yea, all the
people coming out with their wicker furniture. That's the one gag I don't get
(46:34):
at all, Like I don't understandwhy it's a wicker store and why it's
a twenty four hour wicker store.It makes no sense that pere One Imports
existed in nineteen seven. Maybe that'sthat's why it was pure One Imports open
all the time. I don't thinkso. Who would need wicker furniture and
who would need it twenty four hoursa day. It's like Spatulis City,
(46:55):
you know, Saula, and whowouldn't a wicker TV right, good,
there's so much that even y'all whohave seen the show, however, many
times watched him, and it cameout still spotting psyche gags Like I can't
think of a lot of comedies thateven have come out in the last ten
to fifteen years where I'm like,I would rewatch it and see something new
(47:16):
or notice something else. But justforty years ago, this is a lost
art. It really is, like, and people really did try with like
we mentioned epic movie and disaster movieand whatever fucking iterations of those there are.
But even this television show, thistwenty minute episode, is better than
most of the parody movies that cameout post Scary Movie three, you could
(47:38):
even say post Scary Movie one.It's surprising how well this still holds up
forty plus years later. So onour next episode, we're going to be
talking about the episode of Police Squadcalled Ring of Fear. Until then,
Chris, what is happening with you? My friend Weirdingwaymedia dot Com is what's
(47:58):
happening with me? That's where youcan find this show, My shows,
Mike show, Mark show, everybodyshows, Weirdingway Media dot Com. What
about you, Mark? I mean, do we need to say any more
than that? I don't. Idon't think I think we're done, I
think. Cut to Chris. Hetalks us out and work. All right,
we'll see you next week. Weshould freeze frame ourselves. This is
(48:21):
an audio media, so we can'tdo that. It's just us breathing for
thirty seconds. Yeah, that's notweird. Was like the fucking all of
a sudden, It's like you're listeningto a Zodiac phone. Call him to
(49:00):
June in next week for another excitingstory from the files of Police Squad
Police Squad in Color, starring LeslieNielsen, also starring Alan North and Reck
(00:29):
Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln, to night'sspecial guest star Lorne Green Tonight's episode The
Broken Promise, Welcome to from theFiles A Police Squad in Color. I'm
(00:58):
your host. Mike White. Joiningme is, of course, mister Chris
Sasshew, you should call me theAssassin formerly known as Zasu Pitts, And
of course along with me is misterMark Begley. I am not an animal.
I was looking for my quote.I'm like, what did I Right
down? On tonight's episode, weare talking about a substantial gift. It
(01:23):
is the first episode of Police Squad, the sadly short lived series from David
Zucker, Jim Abrams and Jerry Zucker, the team known as Zaz. This
one originally aired March fourth, nineteeneighty two. I will be harping on
these air dates because these were notaired in order. You can go ahead
(01:44):
and just suck it Firefly fans,because this show was played all out of
order and if memory service, theymoved it around channels and times as well.
They just they wanted to kill thisshow pretty much right now to the
gate they just said, Yeah,people didn't get it. I don't think
you had to pay attention, andthat's not what TV viewers like to do.
(02:06):
Apparently, according to TV executives,Tonight's special guest star Lorn Green,
though in the script for a substantialgift, it is William Conrad, but
he will show up in the Ithink the sixth episode. I guess they
were trying to figure out who they'regoing to get to show up as those
(02:27):
special guests, and of course RexHarrison, no, Rex Hamilton, rexham
Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln. Basically,we are starting off in Joe Clan from
the very first shot of this series, which I fucking love. So I
won't keep saying that throughout the entirething, because if we didn't love this
(02:50):
show, we wouldn't be talking aboutit. Yes, the jokes start with
the credits, I mean, andcontinue through the end credits. It'll just
like an airplane. If you missthem, watch it again and catch the
ones you missed. There are stilljokes all the way to this day that
I was still catching. Yeah,I've seen this I don't even know how
many times, because I remember Iwatched this originally when it aired I think
(03:14):
I watched pretty much every episode butthe first time when they aired it.
Even though they were hard to findand hard to see, this was one
of those shows that was just kindof burned into my brain where even watching
again last night, there were somany lines that I was able to say
before they were saying them on screen. Of course, we're going to talk
(03:34):
about how a lot of this stuffwas recycled for Naked Gun, which we've
all have seen. But these jokesare so classic, Oh my god,
they just worked so well. Imean, the whole exchange about Sally Decker
and Jim Fell and filled in Imean twice, so good, so good
(03:57):
that in Sergeant Taker Away in SergeantBooker as well is another great verbal gag.
The names. There's a plethora ofname jokes in the first episode alone.
Talk about constant gag it throughout andI don't remember so I watched the
first two. I don't think they'reas many in the second one, but
they still place names and people namesjust get ripped on constantly. I watched
(04:23):
it when it aired two, Iguess on the strength of remembering Airplane and
I don't know if Airplane two hadcome out already. I think it was
the same year, if I'm notmistaken, which I also saw in the
theater. Barely remember any of thatthough, But this was something that I
watched with my dad, and it'sone of those like my daughter all through
(04:43):
airplanes saying that is such a stupidjoke. I mean, he would I
remember him saying that that's so stupidwhile laughing. They're dumb jokes, they're
groners, their dad jokes, whateveryou want to call them, right and
left. But I don't know,like you, Mike, probably didn't catch
maybe all six I don't really remember. I feel like when I watched it
(05:06):
this series a couple of years ago, I didn't remember the last couple of
episodes all that well. I knowthat they moved things around. I know
that there is controversy about the order. I think they had them in the
correct order on the DVD, atleast according to air date. I didn't
have an opportunity to see them untilwho knows when, because I didn't have
(05:30):
cable for a very long time.But by the time Naked Gun came out,
I saw that on the strength ofthis, but it had been what
six years or so. Yeah,so I was going. The first four
aired the month of March in eightytwo, so I was going from twelve
to thirteen. We're just like primestupid joke years in a young kid's life.
(05:53):
Really stuck with me for decades anddecades. The whole thing of them
showing out of order really kind ofruins one of the best jokes that they
have because they are constantly name checkingthe previous people in the end of the
episode. So even in the secondepisode, which we'll talk about next week,
(06:14):
there's a reference to Sally Decker,and that list is going to grow
as these episodes go on, andthen they will keep talking about the previous
criminals in the next episode, whichis great. I love that they give
this little thing in here. Thereare so many recurring gags. The one
that I love the most is thatwe don't know for sure if Frank Dribbin
(06:36):
is a serial killer or not.I mean, even the first time we
meet him, we see him inhis car is giving his voice over talking
about how there has been a recentwave of gorgeous fashion models found naked and
unconscious in laundromats on the West Side. Unfortunately, I was invested to getting
hold ups of neighborhood credit unions.I was on the wrong side of town
(06:59):
doing my law. Is he theone that's putting the fashion models unconscious and
naked? Or is he just hopingto catch a glimpse of the fashion models?
Because then later on in the sameepisode, he's driving around and you
see another basket of laundry next tohim. I love that. I love
that. Frank Dribbon is a totalpervert. Speaking of perverts, the character
(07:23):
of Q in this show, whoshows up in the movie, obviously he
is um boy. That's a differentcharacter than I remember. It is essentially
just Peter Graves airplane. I mean, doing literally the same gag the you
know, there's a kid. He'stalking to him and he's like, hey,
(07:44):
you're seeing a grown man naked orsomething to the effective. Like,
it's a little different because in thisit's not him being a pedophile, and
this it's just him being a creepbecause he's like, Hey, does your
bring your mom's clothes in you know, next time, or bring her bathing
suit? And that's Ed Williams asTed Won, and he's just his character
is so different from the movie becausein the movies he's not perverted he's just
(08:07):
he's no selling all the gags.None of it's funny to him, which
is fine because it's like multiple straightmen in a scene. But I didn't
remember him being so drastically different.I can't remember. If it's the way
that the water glistens off of yourmom's skin when she comes out of the
shower, yeah, I love it. Bring back some swimwear next time when
(08:28):
you come. Yeah. Yeah,it's the Peter Graves gags all over again,
which is great. I love that. Actually, it's like a mix
of Airplane and what Naked Gun wouldbecome the movies. It's still kind of
writing that line because they do havea lot of verbal gags. There are
a fair amount of visual gags aswell. I think overall this hues closer
(08:50):
to Airplane than it does to NakedGun. I mean, yeah, there
are jokes that are repeated, likethe shooting at each other from like two
feet away, which comes back,I want to say, in the second
Naked Gun movie, and then thething with the pillow in Naked Gun.
They do that with the wig inthis episode. It's weird to me,
(09:11):
like I remember watching this when itwas just kind of floating around there.
It only came into DVD in twentytwenty, so it's only been on Blu
Ray, so I've been on BluRay for two years. But I remember
seeing and thinking like I was notexpecting when I initially watched it there to
be so many repeated jokes. Butyet they're all here. Everything that you've
(09:33):
seen in Naked Gun will come backin the show, because that's where they're
essentially workshopping. All of these ideasis on the show. But I just
didn't remember how many gags that Iremember from Naked Gun one, two,
and three are just already showing upin the show. Yeah, they recycle
a lot of gags. Well,they're even recycling gags here from Airplane Cigarette
(09:54):
right, Yes, I know,yeah, And I wonder that was the
thing when I watched it all theway through a couple of years back,
I thought, is that a recurringgag on purpose? Or is this just
like recycling their own material? Imean, you know, there's different writers
for the episodes. I want toassume that everything's on purpose, but I
don't know. It gets after awhile you kind of go like, how
(10:16):
many times am I going to laughat the cigarette gag? They do an
airplane gag in this halfway through itwhere they're driving in the car and all
of a sudden the coliseum is behindthem in Italy, right, And then
they're at the apartment and then youcan see the leading Tower of Pisa out
her window, though it's clearly supposedto be Chicago, New York. Lay,
(10:41):
yeah, the script has Chicago.I read that. Yeah, I
read it on something else too,or no, it might have been in
the commentary where they were talking aboutChicago, and I'm like, I don't
get a sense of anywhere in thisexcept for back lot. Right, Yeah,
that's it is very much set boundat that, so okay, I
mean they're not trying to convince usthat Leslie Nielsen is walking around the streets
(11:05):
of anywhere. The movies obviously setin la plays a big part in those
movies that it's set in La.Here they mentioned the Cubs one time,
Well, tell him you were trade. He was traded to the Cubs for
Reggie Jackson. That scene has myfavorite line in the entire episode, which
is we would have come sooner,but your husband wasn't dead yet. When
(11:26):
Leslie Nielsen hits those deliveries, theway the only way that he can.
He just says it and skeeps goinglike that. You say that to someone
and they would be like, whatthe fuck did you just save it?
Just no stopping here for me.MVP of this episode and a lot of
episodes as Alan North as ed Hackinso good because he does the dead pan
(11:50):
like Leslie Nielsen, but he playsslightly less intelligent, which I really like
that. He just seems very confuseda lot of times. It kind of
gives that Lovett look a lot oftimes, just like huh. And I
love that. I love him andhis approach, and I love to the
introduction of him in the credits withthe guy on fire running out squadroom the
(12:16):
police as being shot up in theprocess. You guys have already mentioned it,
but the show sets exactly the tonethat it needs the moment it starts.
I mean, you see Leslie Neilsonbeing shot at and you're like,
Okay, this is a serious show, and then the moment it hooks you,
it subverts your expectations immediately. Ireally appreciate that this show is not
(12:41):
really interested in hewing to the conventionsof television at the time. It really
wanted to do its own thing,which is why I think the three of
us would agree it did not succeed. This show was way too far ahead
of its time to be really appreciatedat the time. And watching this first
episode, what a fucking chore writingthese scripts must have been. My God,
(13:05):
doing airplane is one thing, butdoing this weekly like it only runs
for six episodes, but who knowshow many episodes it really would have run
for if it had been able torun a full length, because I feel
like za Z would have a leftafter a while, or be it would
have just completely diminished in quality ofcomedy. Because again, this is the
(13:26):
first and only episode that they writethroughout the run. I mean, there
are other people, and one ofthem is actually an rather well known actor
in the next episode. It's interesting, this is the one that of all
the episodes that I remember, Iremember this one and none of the other
ones. I am very curious howthey approach this because most of the time
(13:46):
you do a pilot, the pilotcells, they say, Okay, we'll
take thirteen episodes, twenty two episodes, whatever it is. But this one
lasting six episodes is and it comesout in March. So I'm like Okay,
is this a midseason replacement? Andif that's the case, I mean
still it's probably thirteen. But thenI know there were six scripts written.
(14:09):
There was actually a seventh script atleast out there, and we'll talk about
that when we get to the lastepisode. So it's like, Okay,
what were you guys doing. Didyou do six at a time and then
start writing the script for the seventh? I mean, it isn't more like
a cold check thing where you're justlike writing a script. You know,
you've got like three or four scriptsall being written at the same time,
(14:31):
and they're all getting ready to beshot at the same time. Because obviously
they didn't have all of this stuffshot and ready. They shot the six,
they didn't shoot a seventh. Myquestion has always been, how do
you keep that constant? There's nota minute that goes by on any of
these where there isn't a visual,verbal, or combination of the two jokes
(14:54):
happening. There's no stretch of timewhere there isn't something happening. I don't
know how anybody could keep up thatpace with jokes that wasn't just a comedic
genius, not that they're not comedicgeniuses. I mean, that's up to
debate. I can't even imagine thinkingbeyond here's your order for six for this
(15:15):
mid season replacement, We'll see whathappens. David Mish wrote the seventh script,
Testimony of Terror, and his noteabout it was while all the produced
episodes were written by three person teams, and he says that he worked with
Robert Wall and Tino Ensana, theseventh was to be written and directed by
(15:35):
me, meaning David Mish. Wewere canceled after six is more of a
parody of goal Finger meets Ironside,and some of the gags actually ended up
in Top Secret. Omar Shari beingcrushed as a gag. That's from his
Testimony of Terror. So I'm socurious just about the history of this.
I would love to talk with theseguys and find out more information. Ing
(16:00):
if maybe I can drop a noteto Joe Dante, who will talk about
in the next episode, since hedirected that one, find out a little
bit more. You mentioned M Squad, so you've got the shell of things
by parroting M Squad, just likehow we did Zero Hour in Airplane and
then after you know, even intwo episodes, it's like, Okay,
(16:22):
the case gets tough, and sothen Frank goes to Johnny, and I
fucking loved Johnny, and I knowthat the gag is supposed to be that
Johnny is supposed to be like theyoung kid who's polishing shoes and stuff,
but he ends up being this reallyold man looking guy. He's so good,
and I love the way he's alwayslooking around furtively and giving so much
(16:45):
more information than he could ever possiblyknow about any topic in the entire world.
And for me, the best partof it is always who's the next
person to sit in the shoes shinesa chair, because that is always great?
And this one is what life afterdeath right priest so good. I'm
a huge fan of that gag.I'm surprised that gag didn't make its way
(17:10):
into the movie about all these gagsthat I know were constants, because I
know that's that's a returning gag.It's wild to me that that one didn't
show up. Also want to pointout William Duel pretty good in Elvira Mistress
of the Dark as well, whichis the only thing I can think of
him being in, and he playsI think that the horny hotel husband to
the h the I forgot that actress, another fantastic character actress who's just like,
(17:33):
you can't wear makeup, and he'sgreat in there, he's great in
here. I wish that gag itshowed up in the movie because they could
have done that three times in themovies. Had you bat me money,
I would have said that Johnny wasin the movie. Right, Well,
that's my point. It's like,that's the one gag where I'm shaking my
head, like, why didn't theyThe actor was alive until two thousand and
(17:55):
four. Maybe they didn't think itlaid. I don't. I can't imagine
what it is. It plays reallywell on TV. I think it plays
really well within the framework of theepisode, given what they're spoofing and what
that is trying to evoke. Yeah, it's very strange to me that that
(18:15):
has no place in the movies,and there's not even like an analogous in
the movies. I guess there isn'tthe first one where he's like that whole
back and forth with the guy onthe dock where he's paying the guy on
the dock and the guy on thedock pays him money to get the information.
But that's as close as we getwithin the entire framework of those films.
They never reapproach this joke, butthey do it at lease in the
(18:37):
first two episodes. I think he'sin every single one. Yeah, and
I'm only familiar with him from OneFlew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Oh,
that's right, he's one of thepatients. Yeah. Wow, I forgot
all about that. Was that Ediemcclergy were thinking of earlier Chris Robly.
(18:57):
Okay, so ran to put youon the spot. No, no,
no, she is? Is shean Elvira? I want to say that
she was part of that whole comedyclub. She plays Chastity Pariah. Oh
it's Pat Crawford Brown, thank you, who plays William Duel's husband. But
(19:18):
again, like all of those eightiesactresses kind of fall into the same camp,
the same kind of character, alwaysplaying that uptight female character. But
they do it so well. Obviouslyit's funny because, like you said,
of all the gags in this showthat really are returning in that work,
and that even show up on theWikipedia page for each of these episodes has
(19:38):
a Wikipedia entry completely. You don'teven I mean not saying you don't have
to watch this show. You shouldtotally track the show down. It's like
twelve dollars on Amazon. You cansee a lot of the show just by
reading the Wikipedia entry because they havelike half of the gags just laid out
for you. It's kind of insane, but I think it speaks to the
(19:59):
quality and the kind of intricate writingof the show that even to write a
synopsis of this show is an indepth process. You know. I think
I have an answer as to whymaybe he's not in the movies. It
feels like with this they did thesame kind of approach as with Airplane,
where it's more of a time Thereare modern for the time references, like
(20:21):
the Reggie Jackson reference, but itfeels like they're harkening back to fifties and
sixties cop shows, and this wouldwork. Johnny the shoeshine boy gag would
work in a fifties or sixties copshow if I remember correctly. And again,
it's been a long time since I'vewatched the Naked Gun movies, but
that's really contemporary that's supposed to beset in the here and now of late
(20:45):
eighties LA. Maybe it just doesn'twork with that to be fair though,
wouldn't that be the that would bringagain, that would be the joke.
Yeah, yeah, I could seeit in the movie. But yeah,
I think you're probably right to yourpoint. It just doesn't it wouldn't.
Yeah. Also the city, thecity that they're setting it in the movies
(21:07):
is La like right, yeah,yeah, And this is timeless and placeless
and set bound and studio bound andprojection. Yeah, very much in reference
to those shows where I mean,I didn't watch Dragnet a lot when I
was younger, but I did watchPerry Mason and Ironside, and trying to
think of some of the other copshows where it was very much that generic,
(21:32):
wide open set space that's prominent,and especially in this first episode in
the Acme credit place that the wholeaction takes place in, or the main
action where it's just it's wide open. Your building wouldn't be that big in
same with their police station and everythingelse where. It's just this huge,
wide open space. It doesn't quitelook right to the eye, but that's
(21:56):
how those old shows were. It'sgotta be big for Norbrook to fit in
there. Or Al you mean AlSorry, I thought his name was Al
Nordberg. Nordberg comes on the thirdor fourth episode. Oh really, Nordberg
is the Dufus cop that comes ina little later, And I thank you,
(22:19):
Al. That's what I always thoughttoo. And I had to look
at the cast lists and the Wikipediaand all that stuff to straighten that out
for myself, because I'm like,is Nordberg the tall guy? That's what
I always thought? If we're seeinghis face now or what? Is this
a separate character because he comes inlater. You know, he's not in
the first two episode. Nordberg thecharacter. I just remember him mainly from
(22:42):
the Locksmith episode because he has alot to do in that one. I
can now picture him now that yousay that, I can picture the actor
in my head. Yeah, you'retalking about this the role that ends up
getting replaced by O. J.Simpson, everybody's favorite Hurts Rental car folks
person. Oh yeah, I wasconfused as well. I thought that Al
(23:03):
was I thought his name was AlanNorberg. So my bad. So I
kept waiting for the tall guy toshow up in the movies. And I
love that gag, and I lovethe gag of you've got something on your
face. I know the other sideand It's a half of a goddamn banana,
right, I mean, just boom, just the landing of that on
the table. So good. Ah. I think my other question about,
(23:29):
you know, watching this show nowin twenty twenty two, knowing why it
gets canceled, knowing how quickly itgot canceled into its run. Could a
show like this work? And isthis show doesn't show already exist? I
mean in a lot of ways,Matt Graining talks about this show and how
this show would have killed if ithad been on twenty years later. It
would have. But I would contendMatt Graining built upon the ideas of this
(23:55):
show. With The Simpsons, Imean, yeah, The Simpsons is not
a live action show, but plentyof visual and verbal gags in the early
seasons of the show, maybe notso much recently. I cannot speak to
most of the Simpsons past season thirteen. A lot of what modern comedy becomes
(24:15):
is doing a lot of part tonot this show, but za Z and
kind of where their influences lie andwho they influence and what they're trying to
do, which is never give theaudience an opportunity to catch their breath.
That's what it feels like I don'tknow if that was their intention, but
as an audience member watching this showcritically or non critically, there's not going
(24:37):
to be a lot of time whereyou're not being fucking bombarded with stuff incessantly.
The show works in spite of thatbeing a really hard sell. I
feel like it's a hard sell toreally like, we're gonna have a twenty
minute episode of a show where youhave to be engaged the entire time.
That's not easy. Yeah, Iwould say the closest we come to this
kind of stuff for now is probablythe Seth McFarland stuff, especially Family Guy,
(25:03):
Right, But with that, you'vegot the way that those jokes are
structured is so different from how thisis because the jokes are very much I
think you obviously Chris. They hanga lantern on them right where it's like,
oh, well, that reminds meof the time when blah blah blah,
and then they have the joke remindsthe time Chris Walkin went to go
order froyo at tcby and they didn'thave chocolate. It's like, wow,
(25:27):
it's like that, and then theycut to him doing it. That's for
a long time that was all FamilyGuy was and probably still is. I'd
be able to wager a guess.I mean, whatever, those what was
it dolphins with balls with names onthem that they just pushed into the tube
and then they come out and that'show they write the jokes. Yeah,
(25:48):
I mean would put a bunch ofmonkeys in a room with a bunch of
time writers South park Man. Theway that they went after those guys,
holy shit, that was the bestof times. It was the Blurst sometimes
Blurst uptimes, that's Spenny. Thatis what this feels like that but less
reaching. The Family Guy always feltlike at some point it just started reaching
(26:11):
for the jokes as opposed to lettingthe jokes happen organically, right, And
I appreciate Police Squad. Yeah,the second episode maybe not so much.
But this episode really is just everycool, funny, worthwhile gag that Zaz
has, and they pull it outof their bag for this episode, for
understandable reasons, the first episode oftheir show, so they want to make
(26:34):
sure it lands. That's why theydirected it, that's why they wrote it.
This episode, in particular, Ithink, really is start to finish,
very funny and also full of likea lot, Like we've kind of
already mentioned a lot of gags thatnot only come back in this episode,
but are going to resurface over andover again too. Like you mentioned Mark,
(26:55):
a lot of diminishing returns. Well, this also does that thing that
you were talking about Mark in thelast episode where you're talking about the zaz
rules of comedy. And I reallywas picking up on that while I was
watching this, this whole idea ofif something is funny happening in the background,
don't have it funny in the foreground. So Frank and the Captain speaking,
(27:17):
and you've got the guys with thegurney wheeling out, that long gurnee
that just keeps going and going andgoing, and then they cut and you
see the end of the gurney insideof the building, and I love that.
You know, the conversation that AlanNorth and Leslie Nielsen are having isn't
that funny, But that psych gaggoing on in the back is amazing.
(27:37):
Or like the opening of Act twowhere it's Act two Yankees one. I
like the recurring title card gags.Yes, those are total non sequitors,
like that is what I love.I am a huge fan of the I
believe the comic panel is called bizarro, Is it not the one that's used
to be in the newspaper, whichwas all just non sequitors all the time.
(28:03):
I love a good non sequitor,and Zaz are kings of non sequitors.
There's a ton of them in NakedGun. There's plenty of them.
An Airplane and Act two Yankees oneis a very good example, and there's
an even better one in the secondepisode that I think is even funnier.
But it is nowadays the comedy isit? Throughout? Nobody does comedy credits
(28:27):
anymore. We didn't even talk aboutthat with Airplane comedy credits, A recipe
for brownies in the credits. Ithink at some point in one of these
Zaz movies we get it. Itmay be as far down the road as
something like Mafia. Nobody does thatanymore. That's not a thing anybody does.
It's comedy from start to finish.You're eating a salad, and the
(28:49):
salad is funny, and then theappetizers funny, and then the main course
funny. In the dessert is funny. It's throughout. That's not a thing
anymore. Everybody wants to have,you know, a moment of character grow
within a moment of characters having atriumph. It's like, why can't we
just do this anymore? Why can'twe just do a joke fest throughout Naked
Gun coming soon to a theater nearyou, starring Liam Neeson. There you
(29:11):
go, folks, I forgot Now. It's all improv until you find something
that you can put on the screen. Do you hear riff for twenty minutes,
and then we'll cut it all together, you know, the Paul Figue
and Judd Apataw. Yeah, that'swhat we've come to. Well and za
(29:33):
Z recently we're talking about, youknow, not stupid opinions. Everybody's entitled
to their opinion. But you know, the death of comedy blah blah blah.
I would contend the death of comedyis not wokeness. The death of
comedy is improv. That's the deathof comedy. Movies is not writing the
jokes and confidence in writing the jokes. It's, oh, we're gonna have
funny people and they say funny things. That's not necessarily the case. Ghostbusters
(29:59):
twenty sixteen, it's a fantastic exampleof what happens when you go we got
four funny women. Let's just letthem do their thing. Everything is written
down, this script is everything thatwe see is in here. It's very
important to write this shit down,get this script as tight as you possibly
can. You want to let peopleriff on on set. You know,
(30:22):
you do one take that's of thescript, you do another that's for you.
You go ahead and you riff.If you're fucking Robin Williams, go
ahead. It might be something genius. I'm not saying that the level of
comedian is not up to what itwas, but I think the level of
comedy is not to what it was. And it's just like, okay,
don't you don't have to say quiffjokes all the time. It's okay.
(30:47):
It's a different way of writing comedy. This was three dudes at the Helm,
very structured. They knew what theywant, they knew how they wanted
to get there. And like withAirplane, they're showing these movies to people
and they're using that as an opportunityto tune and take the movie and tweak
it down into what they want.Now it's we're gonna do it on set,
(31:07):
and it's like okay, Like Iguess, I guess that is a
way of doing it, and therehave been movies that have been successful.
A lot of those Jet Apatow moviesare very funny, rewatchable, I don't
know. Again, there are partsfrom forty Year Old Virgin that I can
quote that are funny. Okay,there are parts in Police Squad that are
(31:29):
just as funny. It's a differentkind of comedy. I think this comedy
has been around for a lot longer. And this comedy also benefits from people
sitting and looking over it a bunchof times. It's not just one guy
doing his thing, which is fine. That works for stand up not for
a comedy movie. I don't thinkall the time, not emulatably. I'm
(31:52):
going to take four people who arefunny and put him in the movie.
Guaranteed success, not necessarily. AndLeslie Nielsen was a comedic actor before any
of this. That's not what hewas doing. He wanted two That's what
they've said. That's what he said. I wanted to do comedy. He
would play jokes on people on set, whatever the fuck that means anymore.
He's sending condoms to Robert Stack onthe set of Airplane. A used condom
(32:15):
like Jared Letto. I don't knowwhat the fuck he was doing, but
it's funny to me that I wouldassume a lot of the people in this
show are not comedic actors. Imean, that's not the point. And
it's not about you being funny.It's about the script being funny. That's
the difference. Now it's not theactors that are funny. It's the script.
Now, it's the actors not thescript, which with them prob there's
(32:37):
no script cool How do you evensell the project? Oh you got Kate
McKinnon and Kristin Wig and Leslie Jonesand that other actors whose name I always
get wrong, so I'm gonna sayher name is Melissa McCarthy. I think
you're right. That's how you sellit. And we got Paul Fiegan.
He's he's a comedy guy, sohe gets it. It's like, ah,
(32:59):
yikes. Sometimes it does work,but it's a harder hill to climb
than just writing a script and havingthem execute your funny lines. These are
still played straight. The Police Squadepisodes are also no one's telling jokes,
there's no laugh track. No,they fought against that, which I think
(33:19):
if there had been a laugh track, this show would not work nearly as
well as it still does. God, can you imagine if you want to
laugh track, just listen to themon the audio commentary and there's your laugh
track. Because they laugh at theirown jokes quite a bit. I don't
blame them. They're pretty funny.So yeah, improv thing has become like
(33:39):
the gold standard, and it's noteven really improv because you're recording something so
you can do it a million times. Improv on stage, and what we
call improv for movies or TV showsis really just like testing things out unless
it really is improv. Some ofthe best moments of improv in film are
(34:00):
not even kneedic movies. The thingthat jumps to my mind, not a
huge fan of the movie, nota huge fan of the director, not
even a huge fan of the actorinvolved the scene in Django where Leonardo DiCaprio
actually cut his hand and he wentthrough the rest of the scene. That's
improv, that's improvisational acting. Heis sitting there with his hand fucking bleeding
(34:21):
like crazy getting through that scene.The scene in Zoolander where Ben Still legitimately
forgot his line after David Kovney's monologueand goes, but why male models,
that's improv. It's an accident.He didn't mean to, but why male
models? And then David Coovney justpicking up and going, I just told
you that's all improv. That wasn'tthem doing it a million times. It
(34:44):
came out of necessity. And that, for me is when improv works.
Is it when it comes out ofnecessity? That's all you've got. Would
naked gun work in a improv onlycomedy sphere. It's not a totally modern
thing because I remember watching Grumpy OldMen and at the end of the film,
(35:04):
I believe it's running through the creditsthey have Burgess Meredith giving alternative lines
to some of his crass jokes inthe movie. It's different every take.
To me, that's sort of whatthey're doing now in these movies, Like
for every fucking line, it's likeinsert funny line here. Even all the
way you know, back to likeDiehardened stuff. I know Stephen Lee Desuza
(35:28):
was unset just feeding lines to BruceWillis and he would say a bunch of
stuff and they would record him.But at the same time, the script
existed before that, and then it'sa matter of like picking the best line,
so I don't fault that. Butthe one that really gives me,
though, is when the comedian willthink that they have a funny line,
and then they'll do two or threemore funny lines, and it just the
(35:52):
scene lasts for way too long.And I get that a lot in things
like twenty one Jumps Street or someof these Paul Fieg move Sport. It's
just like, Okay, one jokewas enough. You don't have to have
three jokes in this. You tellone joke, you move on to the
next joke, You move on tothe next joke. Sometimes you come back
to that first joke if you needto or want to have that little callback.
(36:14):
But it is not just layer layer, layer layer. The first one
was funny, the second one waskind of dumb, the third one was
absurd. Yeah, no, wedon't need that for me. That kind
of comedy sometimes does work. It'sa very specific scenario. And not only
is this specific scenario, it's aspecific kind of comedian. If it's Tim
(36:35):
Hidecker and Eric Wareheim or Eric Andresomeone who understands comedy and anti comedy,
even someone like Tim Robinson on Ithink you should leave playing it three times,
as long as there's a point inthat third time, I'm on board.
But yeah, it's this like beatingit into the ground and then beating
it further and then now it's likedead, it's buried. Stop beating and
(36:59):
it's already now you gotta stop.And a lot of this improv nowadays is
just how much further can we pushthe joke. I don't think you need
to push it in this scene.You can revisit it. Revisiting jokes is
great za z or like the fuckingKings of that for fuck's sake. Yeah,
it's like in the same scene rightnext to the previous jokes, like
(37:20):
this is a little much like youdon't do you not have anything else to
say? You have an other jokesto trot out here? You just want
to say the same thing three times, all right. I kind of mentioned
that on the Airplane episode, whereit's like that Austin Powers thing where you
go so far it's become absurd andthen at some point it's supposed to be
funny again. That was the comedything for a while, and that's when
(37:42):
I sort of stop watching a lotof comedy films. I guess it's Saturday
Night Live type humor in a waywhere that works in a sketch, But
you're talking about a movie here.Of five minute sketch versus five minutes of
your movie is a different ball game. As as far as I'm concerned,
(38:02):
taking Pat and stretching Pat to onehour and a half log movie is a
good idea. Tarantino had to passthat script, so he punched it up.
He's a funny guy. I've heard, yeah, very a lot of
comedy in his movies. I haveto give this show credit for having an
(38:25):
elephant man gag. Oh good?It yes, the most timeless of all
gags. Elephant man, Oh good. I'm like, would people watching it
now who aren't our ages, wouldthey get it? You know, I'm
not sure, but god damn,it is funny. I watched a reaction
video earlier today as part of myresearch. Oh Boy, of a couple
(38:50):
watching the first three episodes, althoughthey watched him out of order the third
episode, in the fifth episode orswitched blah blah blah, but the first
two were the correct ones that wewere going to be talking about. That
was the gag that they both missed. There was no reaction other than the
spit and stuff coming out of hismouth. Yeah, they didn't catch it,
and they were probably Chris's age.I would guess maybe, dare you
(39:15):
lump me in with the rest ofthese people. I have a little that
you don't know what you're talking about. And here's the little hunch little guy.
That is the kind of dumb Ilove it. Oh my god.
That and I think this is thefirst time that I have caught this joke.
(39:37):
Is when he leans over like he'stalking into an intercom. That's the
joke I thought you were talking about. Chris is talking about the joke with
the hunchback at the end, atthe end when they're doing right after they
did take her away, and herehe is right here. I love.
The one I'm talking about is inthe police station and Frank lean's over like
(39:58):
he's pressing the intercom, but andgives out these orders and then they cut
two right away. Captain a littleperson. I'm like, I have never
noticed that joke before. That wasbrilliant. I love that. Got a
big laugh out of my daughter too. I appreciate the fact that it's just
they don't leave a moment without ajoke. The scene where you have Drebn
(40:21):
talking to Sally Decker on the phoneand he calls already puts the handkerchief over
the phone. You don't know wherethis joke is going. And then they
cut to her and she it's justa completely different voice, but they don't
make it. They make no lightof it, nothing, they don't.
They don't have her freaking out oranything. And it's stuff like that where
it's like the people who were writingthis show understand that you have an opportunity
(40:43):
at every point to tell a joke. Sometimes you don't need to, but
in a show like this, it'salmost like they can't help themselves. And
I appreciate that. It's like they'regonna say a little hunch and oh my
god, here comes a hunchback orsergeant take her away, and it's like
that is his name. When it'sthis kind of show, that's what I
expect. And they always, atleast in this episode, in an Airplane
(41:06):
and a lot in the original NakedGun movie, they always have this innate
ability to deliver well. And whenhe does that, it's the exact replica
of the orthodonist's voice, right,so he sounds exactly like the Orthodonist,
who is apparently eighty yard and thereal the only person that's ad Yard in
the show. That's what they saidin commentary. They're like, he's looped.
(41:29):
No one else was in that scene. I like that his last name
is the same as Leslie Nielsen's name, the doctor in Airplane. And I
think that that name, what isit, zuf Tag or something that that
Zubitski or Zubitsky, that that wasone of their neighbors when they're growing up.
Okay, I thought it was fromAirplane and I just didn't have the
(41:51):
energy to look it up, andso it was his name. Okay,
well that's even better. Having watchedthese two things back to back, I
was like, oh, okay,yeah, stuff starts to fall into place.
I ran in the trivia that thattranslates to toothman. I don't necessarily
buy that, and so that wouldn'tbe too good providential. I think,
(42:13):
yeah, yeah, I don't knowso much bullshit on IMDb. I don't
know. IMDb is a great placeto get all of your trivia and stuff
that you definitely want to read outloud on a podcast and claim that it
is the gospel truth that's true.I'm kind of surprised throughout this entire time
(42:34):
that we've been talking about this firstepisode of the show, we have not
mentioned one of the more I guessiconic gags reoccurring iconic gags, The one
that I've seen out of context themost is the freeze frame gag at the
edge, Yeah, which is justso fucking stupid. And then not only
(42:54):
is it stupid in this episode,stupidly hilarious. I mean not, oh
my god, I roll, butit's stupid and it works, and then
they up the anti in the nextepisode to the logical next degree. The
freees frame gag at the end isgreat. You have Frank's Rebin and Ed
sitting there laughing, and then theyfreeze and then all the North is the
(43:14):
one who starts breaking first, andhe starts just like looking around mouth.
He can't hold it as long asLeslie Nielsen, and obviously I'm sure they
were like, you guys need tostart like getting sick of it the longer
this goes on. But kudos toLeslie Nielsen for holding it so unbelievably long
(43:35):
without ever blinking or anything. Andman, honestly, as much as I
love some of the verbal gags.It might be my favorite visual gag in
the entire run of this show becauseI like that they just go, well,
nobody's really explained why anyone does this, so we're just gonna have them
have no idea why this is happening, which I think is just a funny
kind of like meta textual gag ontop of everything else, because it is
(44:00):
funny if you know what they're tryingto make fun of. Otherwise, I
mean, yeah, it's funny thatthey're frozen. You really do have to
have some frame of reference for someof these TV specific gags, at least
TV at the time. Oh god, Yeah, there was an amazing video
that I saw years ago where itwas every beat before and then freeze frame
(44:21):
of the end of chips. Sojust that like a little like ha ha,
off to the next one, andit may just over and over and
over again. In a show thatwe talk about weekly or monthly, they
do it. They do it inBarney Miller every time. It's every episode
of Barney Miller has it. Colombo'sgot all those stills at the end.
(44:44):
They don't do the freeze at theend. But yeah, there's definitely that
we watch a lot of murder shewrote in this house, and they end
every episode like that, and Ievery time they do what do I think
of police squad? Every fucking timeSeeing them do that has changed the way
I see those scenes now, which, like you just mentioned, Mark,
I have to give entire credit tothat to za Z because I've seen people
(45:07):
do it since, but never haveI seen it done as well as I've
seen it done in this first episodeof this show and then definitely in the
next episode. It is even funnier, which to end your show with a
really standout gag. Got to givethem credit for waiting until the last moment
to do it, but then thefact that they nail it again in the
(45:28):
next episode is a testament to thepeople writing this show and the expectations that
they clearly had for not only themselves, but also the people that they're going
to be bringing on to work onthis show. Because this is the only
episode that they have writing credits onand directing to they direct any of the
other episodes as well, yes,this one. Credit wise, they only
(45:51):
wrote and directed Zaz this first episode. There's another site gag in here that
I think maybe got riffed on yourlater on another comedy show, and it's
one that I've never noticed before.But it's the military Millinary that he meets
God Sally Decker in front of hisarmy hats, and then it says military
(46:13):
millinary. And it's the very hardto say. And when I saw it
and I tried to say it inmy head, all I could think of
was rural juror from Dirty Rock.I don't know if they they pulled it
from that or not. That allnight wicker store, yea, all the
people coming out with their wicker furniture. That's the one gag I don't get
(46:34):
at all, Like I don't understandwhy it's a wicker store and why it's
a twenty four hour wicker store.It makes no sense that pere One Imports
existed in nineteen seven. Maybe that'sthat's why it was pure One Imports open
all the time. I don't thinkso. Who would need wicker furniture and
who would need it twenty four hoursa day. It's like Spatulis City,
(46:55):
you know, Saula, and whowouldn't a wicker TV right, good,
there's so much that even y'all whohave seen the show, however, many
times watched him, and it cameout still spotting psyche gags Like I can't
think of a lot of comedies thateven have come out in the last ten
to fifteen years where I'm like,I would rewatch it and see something new
(47:16):
or notice something else. But justforty years ago, this is a lost
art. It really is, like, and people really did try with like
we mentioned epic movie and disaster movieand whatever fucking iterations of those there are.
But even this television show, thistwenty minute episode, is better than
most of the parody movies that cameout post Scary Movie three, you could
(47:38):
even say post Scary Movie one.It's surprising how well this still holds up
forty plus years later. So onour next episode, we're going to be
talking about the episode of Police Squadcalled Ring of Fear. Until then,
Chris, what is happening with you? My friend Weirdingwaymedia dot Com is what's
(47:58):
happening with me? That's where youcan find this show, My shows,
Mike show, Mark show, everybodyshows, Weirdingway Media dot Com. What
about you, Mark? I mean, do we need to say any more
than that? I don't. Idon't think I think we're done, I
think. Cut to Chris. Hetalks us out and work. All right,
we'll see you next week. Weshould freeze frame ourselves. This is
(48:21):
an audio media, so we can'tdo that. It's just us breathing for
thirty seconds. Yeah, that's notweird. Was like the fucking all of
a sudden, It's like you're listeningto a Zodiac phone. Call him to
(49:00):
June in next week for another excitingstory from the files of Police Squad
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.