# The comedy Airplane! was released 30 years ago! Surely you can't be serious! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249 "2010-07-10T21:33:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/1 "2010-07-10T21:33:36Z")
I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley. [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/movies/27airplane.html](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. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/2 "2010-07-10T21:40:34Z")
How wild is it that I just now finished watching “Zero Hour!” ? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/3 "2010-07-10T21:45:48Z")
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit taking Flomax. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/4 "2010-07-10T21:55:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/5 "2010-07-10T22:19:17Z")
> [@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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/6 "2010-07-10T22:23:18Z")
> [@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): [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qaXvFT_UyI8/hqdefault.jpg "Airplane - Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaXvFT_UyI8) The Nun slapped the hysterical woman. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/7 "2010-07-10T22:26:59Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/8 "2010-07-10T22:29:39Z")
[Found it.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8_koBdi0tM) It’s still funny. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/9 "2010-07-10T22:32:21Z")
ok, I stand corrected on that scene. But I know there were a couple that flopped and didn’t make the final cut. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/10 "2010-07-10T22:40:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/11 "2010-07-10T23:14:35Z")
> [@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](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. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/12 "2010-07-10T23:53:59Z")
30 years?! Give me Hamm on five and hold the Mayo! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/13 "2010-07-10T23:59:39Z")
The funniest movie ever made. And my favorite movie of all time. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/14 "2010-07-11T00:09:49Z")
I just want to tell this thread - good luck. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/15 "2010-07-11T00:17:49Z")
> [@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? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/16 "2010-07-11T00:29:11Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/17 "2010-07-11T00:33:44Z")
_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._ ---
**Author:** ![da\_pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@da\_pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/da_pope)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/18 "2010-07-11T00:34:17Z")
good luck, we’re all counting on you. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/19 "2010-07-11T00:35:28Z")
What can you make of this? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249/20 "2010-07-11T00:38:48Z")
Striker…Striker…STRIKER! \ EDIT: Oops; that was Aiplane 2! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-comedy-airplane-was-released-30-years-ago-surely-you-cant-be-serious/546249.md?page=2)