More than 40 years after Airplane! debuted on the big screen, the film’s three co-directors are out with a new book called Surely, You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! It’s an oral history of the wacky anecdotes behind the making of the comedy.
Before they gained Airplane! fame, David Zucker, his brother Jerry, and their friend Jim Abrahams were just funny friends putting together theatrical skits in Wisconsin. They found mild success with their homegrown comedy theater “Kentucky Fried Theater,” then moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and began writing film scripts.
Jerry Zucker (left), David Zucker (center), and Jim Abrahams (right) attend the premiere of “Airplane!” at the Bruin Theater in Westwood on July 2, 1980. Photo courtesy of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker.
When they started scripting Airplane!, Abrahams and the Zuckers wanted to amplify parody by having their actors deliver their lines seriously.
“We told [the actors], ‘You have to do the lines as though you didn't even know you were in a comedy,’” David Zucker recalls.
The actors’ deadpan deliveries and the movie’s over-the-top slapstick gags contributed to what Jim Abrahams calls the “endearing legacy” of Airplane!
“All those guys [the actors] … had spent their whole careers playing these straight roles. And suddenly, they were having fun at their own expense,” Abrahams says. “If you can laugh at yourself, that's pretty endearing.”
“We thought it was gonna be a big hit … when we made [the movie], but we never would have guessed that it would have hung around so long,” Jim Zucker says.