The comedy Airplane! was released 30 years ago! Surely you can't be serious!

[GIGObuster]

I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/movies/27airplane.html

Back in 1979, when “Airplane!” was being shot on Universal’s back lot in Los Angeles, it didn’t seem like a potential blockbuster. The three Wisconsin-born filmmakers were rather amazed that anybody would give them a budget — and $3.5 million at that — to make such a lark, one that had no big stars. A follow-up to their 1977 cult film “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” which they had written, this was an extended riff on “Zero Hour!,” a glum thriller from 1957 about an imperiled aircraft that set the template for the next half-century’s worth of disaster pictures.

The plentiful pop cultural references and anything-for-a-laugh attitude of “Airplane!” recalled early films by Mel Brooks (“Blazing Saddles”) and Woody Allen (“Bananas”). But its velocity and density were new. Every scene was packed with surreal, often faintly metafictional sight gags (including a supporting turn by the N.B.A. giant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a co-pilot who denies that he’s really Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and a cameo by Ethel Merman playing a psychiatric patient who thinks he’s Ethel Merman). And the film proudly served up jokes so astoundingly corny that they somehow managed to circle around the bend and become hilarious. (“Surely you can’t be serious.” “I am serious — and don’t call me Shirley!”)

At the same time “Airplane!” wasn’t just a collection of bits. The narrative hewed closely to that of “Zero Hour!,” and if you can factor out all the silliness — no small feat with a movie that segues from a “Casablanca”-inspired romantic flashback to a “Saturday Night Fever”-like dance number — what remains is a compact, even classical piece of filmmaking.

[blondebear]

How wild is it that I just now finished watching “Zero Hour!” ?

[ftg]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit taking Flomax.

[China_Guy]

I saw the first cut audience reaction free showing at UC Davis when I was a freshman. IIRC, John Davidson was one of the financial backers and he was at the showing. A couple of scenes got cut out before the final theater release based on the Davis pre-view.

IIRC, there was a scene of the nun singing and for some medical evac kid on the plane and ripping out the IV tubes while swinging her guitar around. It wasn’t funny and there were a couple of other scenes that were kinda duds.

[hogarth]

@China_Guy

IIRC, there was a scene of the nun singing for some medical evac kid on the plane and ripping out the IV tubes while swinging her guitar around. It wasn’t funny and there were a couple of other scenes that were kinda duds.

That scene was in the movie, and I thought it was funny.

[GIGObuster]

@hogarth

That scene was in the movie, and I thought it was funny.

And it was not the nun, it was the other stewardess that played the guitar (At 1:24):

Airplane - Trailer

The Nun slapped the hysterical woman.

[Robot_Arm]

@China_Guy

IIRC, there was a scene of the nun singing and for some medical evac kid on the plane and ripping out the IV tubes while swinging her guitar around. It wasn’t funny and there were a couple of other scenes that were kinda duds.

Randy (the other flight attendant, played by Lorna Patterson) borrows the guitar from the nun (Maureen McGovern, no less) and sings sings for the sick girl, pulling her IV out twice. That’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

[Robot_Arm]

Found it.

It’s still funny.

[China_Guy]

ok, I stand corrected on that scene. But I know there were a couple that flopped and didn’t make the final cut.

[Nzinga_Seated]

deleted. I came to let China Guy know that he has not right to his own opinion on that hilarious scene, but I see he has realized the error of his ways.

[Ponch8]

@GIGObuster

And it was not the nun, it was the other stewardess that played the guitar (At 1:24):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaXvFT_UyI8

The Nun slapped the hysterical woman.

And sang “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” for the jive dude, who quickly starts vomiting.

[Chefguy]

30 years?! Give me Hamm on five and hold the Mayo!

[Sir_T-Cups]

The funniest movie ever made. And my favorite movie of all time.

[TPWombat]

I just want to tell this thread - good luck.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@TPWombat

I just want to tell this thread - good luck.

There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

[Rilchiam]

I can’t find a link, but I’m told Robert Hays broke his back a few years ago. Not paralyzed, but not in great shape either.

Also, in the disco scene, he was juggling for real.

[Bryan_Ekers]

Casablanca-inspired romantic flashback? That’s dumb - the first time Striker and Elaine meet is presented as a spoof of Saturday Night Fever, while the later beach scene is a takeoff on From Here to Eternity.

By the way, the sick girl? Went on to play Captain Stubing’s daughter on Love Boat.

[da_pope]

good luck, we’re all counting on you.

[BrotherCadfael]

What can you make of this?

[hogarth]

Striker…Striker…STRIKER!

<smack>

EDIT: Oops; that was Aiplane 2!