Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to the Surely Can't Be Serious podcast,
discussing and debating the iconic and the forgotten of eighties
and nineties pop culture with your co hosts James D.
Graves and Jason Colban.
Speaker 2: So here we are on our best of the Parodies of.
Speaker 3: The eighties, Best to the Parodies, yeah.
Speaker 2: Best of the parodies movies, yes, our first movie podcast. Yeah.
And of course we got to keep our namesake in
the picture here. So we're going to talk about Airplane
by Zucker Abrams and Sucker Zizzy, and we are going
to talk about Spaceballs by the originator and master of
the parody, mister mel Brooks. Really appreciate you tuning us
in and we hope we keep you entertained. Please be
involved with us on this podcast. We have an account
on Twitter that we would love to talk to you
and communicate with you. The name of our Twitter handle
is at Shirly podcast on Facebook or at Shirly podcast
on Twitter. That's it, okay, So to jump right in.
We're going to talk about Airplane, all right, So we
haven't I haven't talked to you. I don't know if
you've got a preference on which one of these is
better or not. I've made up my mind. But maybe
we just maybe we'll just keep it a secret.
Speaker 3: Let's just dive in and see what we got.
Speaker 2: Okay to jump right in, We're going to talk about
Airplane before we get every.
Speaker 4: Time to Yes, good luck, We're okay, Okay.
Speaker 3: I can't. Let's get too far down the road of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one quote.
Speaker 3: Sure, Oh my gosh, it's going to be a quote faster.
Speaker 2: It looks like the pick the wrong We could quit smoking.
Speaker 3: In fact, we should just stop talking and just play
the movie and get out of the way.
Speaker 2: Okay. So Airplane was released in nineteen eighty. Let's try
to do maybe some rapid fire exchange back and forth
of things that happened in nineteen eighty. Padded shoulders became
a fashion trend among young professionals that were dubbed in
that particular year yuppies.
Speaker 3: Well, I get the unfortunate. John Lennon was shot.
Speaker 2: Rubik's Cube was debuted in nineteen eighty, which quickly became
the hottest toy trend of the early eighties. Did you
have a cube?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And I took it apart and I
put it back together, and I never learned to actually
have solt it. Actually I was young enough at that time.
I saw my brother take it apart, and I was like, oh,
I can do that. And then I pulled all the
stickers off, and they don't go back on once you
pull them off, so we had to get a new.
Speaker 3: Whes the sticker puller offer. I actually I can solve
one side, maybe two sides, but I can't do the
whole thing.
Speaker 2: I can get it all the way. I can get
it top layer and next two down layers, but there's
a formula to get that last layer, and I haven't
memorized it me.
Speaker 3: Okay, also Junie of nineteen or not June of nineteen,
but nineteen eighty, you had the miracle on ice.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what I have. Is my next one as well.
The US team with their amateur players does the miraculous
thing and beats the Soviet Union, whose players were all
professional and incredibly good.
Speaker 3: H Okay, go ahead, Okay.
Speaker 2: So ACD another side event, ACDC frontman Bond Scott dies
and that was in February of nineteen eighty. Shortly thereafter
they have to decide what to do. They find frontman
Brian Johnson through auditions. He actually came straight from a
Hoover vacuum commercial you would.
Speaker 3: Come back from.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful mover.
Speaker 3: The new compack does more than beat.
Speaker 2: It also cleaves.
Speaker 1: It also sweeps, rushes up to the net.
Speaker 4: It's a beautiful.
Speaker 3: An opportunity knocks, Yeah, there's opportunity and then there's Back
in Black knocking on your door.
Speaker 2: Right. Yes, so they had they had recorded partial some
of Back in Black, had set it up, but he
worked with them, completed the album and Back in Black
was released. Uh in June of nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 3: The news that blows in my mind. He is doing
vacuum cleaner commercials. Yeah, and they say, come scene on
Back and Black. Now they didn't know what I mean.
You know, Back in Black and I'd be the one
of the best albums that I think.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's no question that it is their best album.
And he has done a phenomenal job with them since then.
And I mean his voice is so similar to Bond
Scott's and his stage presence was spot on. His look
was different than anybody else. It was a solid I mean,
they are arguably one of the best rock and roll
bands of all time.
Speaker 3: All right. How about this Mount Saint Helens blows up
in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember that either, but my father's recollection
is that it was like almost like nighttime during the day,
like a cloud enveloped at least all of the US,
if not the whole world.
Speaker 3: I remember it. That was a very sort of curious
thing for me, you know, following along this major explosion
and killed people, and the Mountain blue half of its top.
Speaker 2: It was supposed to be an inert volcano, right there,
wasn't supposed to be active.
Speaker 3: It was, well, it was a sleeping giant. Yeah, they
started to notice the bulge.
Speaker 2: Okay, I had that one as well. So next one
on the list is Lakers beat the seventy six ers
for the NBA Championship, with mister Magic Johnson himself scoring
forty two points in the final game.
Speaker 3: Best point guard at all time. Don't come at me
on that one, okay. How about this hosted notes gone
sale for the first time in.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty Oh wow, So that's an interesting one. Yeah, Okay.
In on October third of nineteen eighty, which is the
day that I turned five. Nice, the police released as
in YadA Mandada Chad my favorite police song on it
Don't Stand So.
Speaker 3: Close to.
Speaker 2: The World may recognize Ronald Reagan was elected in nineteen eighty.
That's kind of a big one. I remember that one.
I actually remember.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that was big. And I did play
a bunch of quarters worth of pac.
Speaker 1: Man and.
Speaker 2: Oh sure, sure well Reagan pac Man neck and neck
on importance.
Speaker 3: I think for me, Yeah, okay, what else you Yeah?
Speaker 2: Nothing? No, I got nothing.
Speaker 3: Well do we want to do? So? Do you want
to do? The top ten real quick?
Speaker 2: Top ten Top ten songs of nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: So, just to kind of so I'm a big music guy,
I'm a big pop music guy. Just to kind of
set the stage for when we are actually talking about
this is the top ten for the week of Airplane
was released on July second, nineteen eighty, so this is
roughly that time period. Here's the top ten on the
top one hand, be right for this, yes, all right?
Number ten Cars by Carry Against the Wind by Bob Seger.
Nine Beautiful Okay, Hurts So Bad by Linda Ronstat, No idea,
I Got nothing on that Stomp by the Brothers Johnson. No, okay,
here we go now we start to get into the
biggest part of Me by Ambrodier. The Sexy Eyes by
Doctor Hook, Got Nothing here we go. Don't Fall in
Love with a Dreamer by Kenny Rogers.
Speaker 2: That One I Would Do, Yeah, That one was an
LP that we had coming up by Paul McCartney. Nope
Call Me by Blondie. Oh yeah, fantastic. That song is
still good.
Speaker 3: And number one song this week. The release date of
nineteen Airplane in nineteen eighty was Punky.
Speaker 2: Down Nice Funky Town is also a classic. Okay, let's
move on to our movie Airplane oversimplified plot. Are you ready? Okay?
All right? So Striker is a war veteran and he
cannot handle flying anymore because of a bad experience he had.
His girlfriend, who's a flight attendant, leaves him. What a pisser.
He goes to find her, dear John letter too soon
and runs to chase her onto the airplane. He chases
her onto the airplane, buying a ticket. She goes on
the airplane is surprised to see him. He pleads with
her to come back to him, but then everything goes
awry when the food that is served on the airplane
starts making everyone sick, including the pilot, the co pilot,
and the navigator, leaving no one else to fly the
plane except can you fly this plane and land it?
Surely you can't be serious.
Speaker 4: I am serious, and don't call me surely.
Speaker 2: Ted Striker, who is still dealing with the problem of
his stress from his war days. Then to help him,
help guide him through the process of bringing the plane down,
is his old war buddy Rex Rex Creamery.
Speaker 3: He is successful that he doesn't know how much he
hates his guts.
Speaker 2: Yes, he is who is ultimately successful in guiding the plane,
and he has overcome his fear and he and his
striker and his girl are reunited to live on happily
ever after.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that is the simplified plot of Airplane.
Speaker 2: Yes, so let's talk about who wrote and directed the movie,
Avid Zucker.
Speaker 3: Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abers.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's right, the trio known as zazz z A
z z Abram, Abrams, Zucker, Abrams and Zucker, who have
gone on since that time to do multiple parody movies,
including Naked Gun, which was Naked Gun from the Files
of Police Squad. Interestingly, there was actually a series that
they wrote and directed called Police Squad. That was a
TV series. It lasted exactly six episodes.
Speaker 3: I got to watch that.
Speaker 2: I oh, it is so good. And I was one
of those fortunate few who had an older brother who
was very familiar with the video store. So I actually
watched Police Squad before they ever made Naked Gun. And
so I went to Naked Gun with happy anticipation, and
it was fantastic. They took so many things from that
original series, but the Zuckers refused to do a laugh
track in them. They had so many site gags a
laugh track wouldn't really make any sense for them. And
as a result, the studio said, okay, never mind, Well
are your six episodes that you did and then we're done.
A laugh track would have killed that. I absolutely absolutely would, Okay.
So they started. These guys started out together, work, went
to college together, came created the Kentucky Fried Theater together,
which is where many of their comic bits come from.
Was this kind of improvisational actor troupe theater that they
put together. And then the first movie that they came
out with was the Kentucky Fried Movie exactly, which I
have not seen. Have you seen it?
Speaker 3: I've seen parts of it.
Speaker 2: I've seen little bits of it. It's it's that same
kind of weird, quirky humor, not to the same degree.
But did you know who was directed by right throwback
to our episode number one? Yes, there you go.
Speaker 3: So they originally Airplane was scheduled to be a skit
in the middle of the second Kentucky Fried movie. So
it's supposed to be a skit, but they decided, hey,
there's enough meat on the bone here, we can actually
make the whole thing a movie.
Speaker 2: Whole thing of movie yep. And so the way that
they came up with the idea for this movie is
they were recording old late night bits. Do you know
this story?
Speaker 3: I heard this?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, go ahead tell it.
Speaker 3: Well, so they used to leave the VCR on recording overnight,
just hoping to get funny commercials sort of those something
to make fun of overnight, and they accidentally recorded zero
Hour and ended up Zero Hour and thinking, man, this
is we could really turn this into something funny.
Speaker 2: So, for those of you who don't know, Zero Hour
is a movie from the what fifties, nineteen fifty seven
nineteen fifty seven, which was an intense airplane drama and
if you are so lucky as to see it, you
will say, oh my, they really did just totally adapt
this script from that script. They some of the lines
are identical. And because they knew that they were doing it,
they were fascinated by this weird movie. They decided, we're
going to buy the rights to the script first, which
their lawyers told them they didn't have to do, but
they did anyway, right, smart move, I think, yeah, absolutely,
avoid the trouble. And it couldn't have been that expensive.
Speaker 3: Okay, So do you know who they wanted to be
in the movie initially.
Speaker 2: So they're One of their first choices for Ted Striker
was David Letterman. Did you know that watched his screen
his audition? Yes, and no, it's terrible.
Speaker 3: It was. It was embarrassing, and they.
Speaker 2: All agreed that it was terrible. They were so excited,
and he was like, this is a bad idea. And
then when they were down there, like, you're right, this was.
Speaker 3: A bad idea, and he was up front saying, listen,
I'm not an actor. No, And he's not an actor no.
Speaker 2: And he's on They are on one of the earliest
episodes of The David Letterman Show.
Speaker 3: I also heard paramount wanted very Manilow to.
Speaker 2: Be one of the pilots. Oh wow, did you hear.
Speaker 3: That, and then also considered Bruce Jenner.
Speaker 2: I can see that, Yeah, Bruce Jenner, probably for the
Kaream Abdul Jabbar Park.
Speaker 3: Correct, he was, No, they wanted him to be one
of the pilots.
Speaker 2: Kareem Abdullal Jabbar was the pilot, yes, okay, so he
wanted wanted him to be in the Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Park probably okay.
Speaker 3: But the real person they wanted in the cream Adul
Jabbar part was Pete Rose.
Speaker 2: Oh, they're never one choice, which would have been an
entirely different Yeah, but.
Speaker 3: It was shut during the summer and Pete was playing baseball.
Speaker 2: Okay, So there you go. I'm glad they ended up
with Corey. So they were involved in other pictures, a
couple of the scary movies, some other silly parody things,
but nothing compares to Airplane and to Naked Gun and
the sequels for Naked Gun. Interestingly, they did not do
the sequel for Airplane. Airplane two was done by someone else,
had a lot of the same stars in it, of course,
but part of the contract with the studio was they
get to decide who and how and where the sequel goes,
and they did ask these guys to do it, but
they weren't interested, no, thank you.
Speaker 3: They were on the outside looking in on that deal.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So, actually, before we go any further, this this podcast
was very nearly Airplane versus Naked Gun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was, but we decided that there was those
two movies were so similar, and you guess, yeah, you
needed to have you need to have two different styles
of parody.
Speaker 3: Goer, before going further, did you enjoy Airplane two?
Speaker 2: I think I did, but it's also been like since
nineteen eighty five or earlier since I watched it, so
I don't. I mean, I remember they're flying the Space
Shuttle and it's headed towards the Sun, and I remember
there's like courtroom scenes, which when I watched some of
the scenes from the Kentucky Fried movie it seemed to
be kind of a throwback there too that as well.
I'm sure I liked it then, but I have not
seen it recently enough to say whether it holds up
or not.
Speaker 3: It's not on the same level, but there's some there's
some laughs in it, right especially since it's similar plot
seeing people give me a.
Speaker 2: Position the name striker. I'm sitting down and facing front.
Speaker 3: Why would you.
Speaker 2: Want to know that striker stri.
Speaker 3: Like a striker?
Speaker 2: Anything else on writers and directors?
Speaker 3: Nothing else in writers directors?
Speaker 2: Okay, So moving on to soundtrack and special effects. I
have enough. Okay, Jason, let's stop for just a second
and do a Potter and Family shoutout.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, podcasters are a very supportive group, so there's certain
podcasts we want to put our endorsement on.
Speaker 2: You have a friend that has helped us out tremendously
when we've been developing this podcast.
Speaker 3: That's right. My good buddy, Dave Dolphin has the Practical
Worship Podcast. He's a worship pastor at a church here
in Oklahoma City. Good friend of mine. He's been very
encouraging and very helpful with questions that type of thing.
Speaker 2: It really means a lot to have a mentor to
help you through these things, and he's been a great
help to us and we really appreciate it. That's right.
Speaker 3: If you are in the church choir, you have an
interest in church music, definitely want to catch his podcast,
The Practical Worship Podcast. Thank you, Dave, We really appreciate.
Speaker 2: It, thanks, David. Okay.
Speaker 3: So a composer for Airplane, yes, especially a famous composer, yes,
very famous, Yes, Elmer Bernstein.
Speaker 2: Right, who in the sixties and seventies was doing some
of the best movies. He did The Magnificent Seven, yep.
Speaker 3: And Commandments Wow, the Great Escape.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And as it turned out, he was close family
friends with the parents of John Landis. As we mentioned,
John Landis was the director of the Kent the Kentucky
Fried movie, right, and he is also the composer for
Animal House, which was John Landis's next big, big movie,
and he was it was because he was friends. He's like, hey,
I'd love you to come do this. And if you
remember the soundtrack from Animal House, it's this very kind
of pomp and circumstance type of composing, which was perfect.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's the it's the juxtaposition of this high falutint music
and these crazy college kids. And so I think there's
really no question that the John Landis Z A Z
connection had to have ended up with him doing the
soundtrack or doing the composing for Airplane as well. And
he's he's done tons of movies since then.
Speaker 3: We I mean we just talked briefly. I mean all
like it looks like all of john landis is I
mean American World from London, Ye, spies like us, trading places.
Three amigos also did Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters Yeah, I mean Moonraker,
Caddy Shack right, I mean to kill a mocking bird.
I mean you get you get to kill a mockingbird right,
take commandments right, also get spies like us.
Speaker 2: And if I could, if I could get this guy's
movies all down, I would I would win at the
Kevin Bacon game every single time, every single time. Was
the composer for this and Animal House. Kevin Bacon boom
right there.
Speaker 3: You know. Hit. Another one that was impactful to me
was Moonraker.
Speaker 2: I love Moonraker.
Speaker 3: Does that kind of haunty yeah?
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean I just love the movie the
I told you yesterday. My Jaws was my favorite, Like
villain become Hero. I mean you got the character arc
with him. The Spy who Loved Me? Is that the
first one he was in? So he played Jaws and
a Spy who Loved Me? Klin, Richard Klein, Richard Keel,
I'm sorry, Richard Keel. Now Richard Okay, Richard Keel played
Jaws in the Spy Who Loved Me, who comes back
to reprise the role in Moon Raker and ends up
being a hero and falls in love with the geeky
girl and.
Speaker 3: It gets a girlfriend and becomes a wimp.
Speaker 2: Oh no, he becomes a good man.
Speaker 3: This is a.
Speaker 2: Conversation for another day, right, okay, So Elmer Bernstein, Yeah,
we we've been educated on the amazing history of his movies.
Speaker 3: He's composer. But we mentioned a couple of things from
the soundtrack.
Speaker 2: Oh sure. So you've got the classic dive bar, criminal
bar with the girl scouts fighting each other, and then
all of a sudden, somebody her head goes into the jukebox.
Her head goes into the juke box and suddenly staying alive. Right, stay,
a lot of other Begi starts playing at increased speed. Yes,
it's faster in the movie than it is and it's
but I mean, you gotta have something you can dance to.
Speaker 3: And then you get the disco scene.
Speaker 2: And the yanks off is his navy jacket and is
already in the disco butterfly collar with the white vest,
and then the jacket comes back and hits him in
the face.
Speaker 3: That's a great scene, you actually, and so the soundtrack
you have the game from Jaws, right, planes running.
Speaker 2: So that's a that's a special effect.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: They've what they've done is they've put clouds on top
of a I mean literal lake wooden platform and they're
rolling the their roll in the toy I mean special
effects on this one are not they don't fool yet,
well they don't.
Speaker 3: The budget is three and a half million dollars.
Speaker 2: Right, so yes, this is their first substantial movie and
for what they had, plus it adds to the comedy value.
I think when you see a little toy plane plane
and absolutely runway.
Speaker 3: So a couple of other things. If you remember during
the movie, you have the The nun Seen Respects by
Artha Fanklan Ari s b CD.
Speaker 1: Find Out what it means to Me Ari sb CD.
Speaker 5: They out DCP suck to.
Speaker 2: Be sucking to me, sucking to me, suck to be
sucking to me, suck to me. Yes, So here's an
interesting Let's see, she was the songwriter for a song
that was very popular in the seventies that was the
theme music for a TV series Trivia Question trivia break,
Trivia break name that TV series?
Speaker 3: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: The TV series was Angie starring mister Robert Hayes. Oh yeah,
so yeah. The lady who composed the theme music for
Angie ends up being the nun in air.
Speaker 3: And clearly Robert Hayes is the star. He is striker yep, okay,
and so respect Berry Franklin. Everything's coming up, roses oh
ethel Merman, he just thanks which that is her last film, by.
Speaker 2: The way, sure, and then way to bring it down.
Speaker 3: You do have a a little bit of the Notre
Dame Victory march in there. Uh huh.
Speaker 2: One one for the Zipper.
Speaker 3: Talking about George Zip.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then finally you think before we move on to
this last no, the river Jordan's there is only one river.
Speaker 5: There is only one se.
Speaker 3: Is a song written by a guy from Peter Paul
and Mary Popular.
Speaker 2: My guess is his name is Peter or Paul It
probably is or John Dender.
Speaker 3: But he wrote it as a gift to his bride
on her wedding thing, and so he thought it was
a very heartfelt, serious and then they took it and
made it into this hilarious joke.
Speaker 2: So is that is that the one where she's singing
with the guitar and knocks the girls ivy out.
Speaker 3: There is only one. Yeah, she knocks her ivy out
and the guys.
Speaker 2: Are classical pla. This is a classics number one. And
this I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about it now. They
have people they and we'll talk of this when we've
talked about the actors, but they bring in people who
do serious roles and the seriousness and this, I mean
that girl sings well. She is performing that song really well.
And that in combination with the girl who's making the
fish face because her iv has come out, is brilliant.
It is the brilliance of the comedy of a Zas.
Speaker 3: Yes, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about our five top lines or scenes.
Unless you've got one more thing you canna tell me?
Speaker 3: No, Okay, I can quote all day there.
Speaker 2: It's there is really no end to like. Almost every
line in this thing is perfect. It's one of the
most quotable movies of all time.
Speaker 3: Yes, every every joke lands too. It's not like I
really can't think of anything.
Speaker 2: That's just no, no, okay, all right, I will I
will start number five looks like I picked the wrong
weeked quit sniffing glue. Lloyd Bridges, Yes, brilliant and.
Speaker 3: He was a serious actor, encouraged by his sons Bow
and Jeff to take this role. And he had trouble
sort of figuring it.
Speaker 2: Out, struggle. He was perfect, he was great.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, So my fifth favorite. I like this one
he says when the doctor and the pilot talk. Yes,
this scene where he's like, when can you land this plane?
In the past says I can't tell you can tell me.
I'm a doctor. He's like, well, I'm not sure. Well
can't you take a guess? Well enough for another two hours.
You can't take a guess for another two hours. That
whole conversation cracks me up right funny, funny. Okay, So
that's my number five.
Speaker 2: Okay, number four for me. The cockpit what is it?
That's the little room where the pilot sit. But that's
not important right now. Oh my gosh, that's brilliant genius
that they use multiple times with the hospital with the cockpit,
and I think they probably used it over again and
some other thing. But genius building with patience.
Speaker 3: But that's not the part right now, right, all right?
Number four for me, He says, the whole Johnny, the
character Johnny, which is the weird guy.
Speaker 2: At the kind of a I know exactly who Johnny is, Johnny,
what can you make this?
Speaker 3: And he hands them some papers like well, I can
make a hat, or I can make a broach, or
I can make the pterodactyl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So I'm gonna go ahead and jump up
to my number two because my number two is every
single thing that Johnny says. He he is perfect. And
here's what's interesting. He was one of those guys who
came from the Kentucky Fried Theater and he they didn't
write any of his lines. They just gave him the
script and you know, hear the lines and if you
want to come in, let it know. And so every
single thing that he does was his own improvisational thing.
And it's brilliant. And you know, we talked about and
we're going to get into it. But they got serious
actor number one, Peter Grave, Serious Actor number two, Leslie Nielson,
Serious Actor number three, Robert Stack, Serious Actor number four,
Lloyd Bridges, and Robert Hayes does a fantastic job and
Julie Haggerty does a fantastic job of all remaining perfectly
serious throughout the movie, and that's what makes this movie
so good and so funny. But Johnny is the exception
that breaks the rule. It's a big, pretty plain, big wheels.
Speaker 3: It's right with red stripes.
Speaker 2: Looks like a big tile in gosh.
Speaker 3: All right, so I guess we go back to you, okay,
back to me?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay.
Speaker 3: Anything that the black guys say cracks me up.
Speaker 2: Every time, absolutely, the jive talk, the give talk.
Speaker 3: And then when Barra Billingsley steps in, excuse me, miss,
and then she starts talking to you know what they say,
see your broll to get a booty actor, layer down,
a smack cole, got to.
Speaker 2: Be chump, don't want to Okay. So interestingly, the Zazz
when they wrote this, they really just made up garbage,
gibberish stuff. But the two actors that portrayed the jive
talking guys in the movie, they've read the script and
they're like, we got to come up with something better
than this. And so when they go into audition, they've
actually again written their own dialogue where they're throwing in
some of the stuff that they grew up with which
if you hear these actors talk, it's hilarious because they
I mean, they're they're the most well spoken, clear, I mean,
it's not what it does. They don't sound like them
the guys in uh airplane at all. But those those
guys came up with that, and it kills their moment.
Speaker 3: Didn't raise no DMan, they dug the red.
Speaker 2: You're me, I don't know, go ahead, the.
Speaker 3: Part in the bar where the girl scouts are fighting
when he lean's over till the guy maybe dreaming pinched
me right. But the best part of that whole scene
is when Elaine is dancing with the guy that gets
stabbed in the back.
Speaker 2: He's pointing at his back, in his back, and she
thinks it's a dance move. Well, Joey, have you ever
been in a Turkish person?
Speaker 3: Joey, you like movies about gladiators?
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen a grown man nikked?
Speaker 3: Peter Graves gets asked to save these lines all the time.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, And and he was. He was
incredibly nervous about playing the part because he had been
in nothing but serious roles before and he just didn't
He was like, I don't know if I can do comedy,
and they said, we don't want you to do comedy.
We want you to be as serious as you can be.
So can you imagine deliver bring to a child actor
the line, have you ever seen a grown man naked
with absolute sincerity? How do you do that? I don't Yeah,
I don't know. Okay, I gotta say one thing. There's
this one line that I'm gonna give honorable mention to
because I literally laughed out loud. I mean I laughed
out loud throughout the movie, but this was a pa
laugh that I don't even I need to look up
the actor, but he's one of the bit actors in
there in the air control room and he's on the phone.
Speaker 5: In the flying has no airline experience at all. He's
a menace to himself and everything else in the air. Yes,
birds too, Oh my gosh, it's hilarious. Well, I'm gonna
throw an honorable mention too, Okay.
Speaker 3: When Leslie Nielsen comes in and says, I just want
to say good luck, Royal cantan on you, right, and
then continues after they already crash landed, they land the
plane and all and everything's done. I just want to
say good.
Speaker 2: Luck Royal Canny, and then our number one has to
be surely you can't be serious.
Speaker 3: I am serious.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you Airplane for giving us the title of
our podcast very much. All right, okay, so we are
now onto the actors. Okay, you ready, Okay, let's roll
with first R two. Top two actors, who are Robert
Hayes and Julie Haggerty. Honestly, they didn't do much else
besides this. Robert Hayes was in Angie, which was a
popular series at the time, then after it was canceled,
did this movie and not much else. He was obviously
an Airplane two, as was Julie Haggerty. This was Julie
Haggerty's first major motion picture, and she's been in quite
a few things since then, but nothing of.
Speaker 3: The only thing I really remember from her is what
about Bob's Wife?
Speaker 2: Oh that's right? Oh well that is that is a
solid movie.
Speaker 3: That's funny.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that's it for her and for him really yeah,
when I if I see him, he's Airplane.
Speaker 2: He's dead Striker always. That's it.
Speaker 3: She's going to be Elaine always.
Speaker 2: Okay, So then we move on to our supporting cast.
We have Peter Graves, who is famous from the Mission
an Impossible series, not the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible series,
but the original television series. We have the original soundtrack.
I want to play that right now because it's so
awesome and anything on Peter Graves. I know what you're thinking. No,
we're not related, all right. Who we got next?
Speaker 3: Leslie and Nielsen.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's Nielsen had been in some pretty weird
kind of B movie things, but always a serious role,
and he's kind of funny. He's in a Martian movie.
Speaker 3: It's very strange, like one of those old fifties sci
fi bad sci fi, like Mystery Science three thousand times,
oh for sure. And he's like the kind of the.
Speaker 2: Tough guy, the guy. Yeah, basically he's the hero, right.
Speaker 3: But whenever I say Leslie Neilson to me, he's Frank
Dreven absolutely. I mean, he's the doctor from Airplane too,
but he's Frank driven from Megan guy. Then we have
Lloyd Bridges, father of as you mentioned, Jeff and Bridges,
Bow Bridges, the.
Speaker 2: Fabulous Baker Boys. Okay, so these guys came from TV.
Leslie Nielsen had been in Forbidden Flant Forbidden Planet, the
weird sci fi fifties thing, and then Robert Stack was
Elliott nas and the old Untouchables series that was on TV.
Speaker 3: Yes, one hundred nineteen episodes of the Who the whole Run?
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I think so?
Speaker 3: Okay, So here I have a funny story about Robert Stack. Okay,
this is true. This is a true story. I don't
know how if it's truth or not. But we're watching Airplane, okay,
at my grandparents' house. Okay, okay, I'm little, I'm not little,
I'm young. And my granddad goes, I know that guy,
he'd pointing in a TV. And I'm like, I'm what,
I'm Airplane?
Speaker 2: I'm like, who do you know Robert Stack?
Speaker 3: He knew Robert Stack. They served together in the military
during World War Two. Now, I don't know if that's
true or not.
Speaker 2: It was your grandfather's name. Stranker gets sorry, Well, well,
we'll go and check Robert Stack's military record and see
if things check out or not. He's the unsolved mysteries guy.
That's how he Yes, that's how I know it. Yeah,
he'd always be in that kind of trench coat dark alley.
Here's the story.
Speaker 3: It was a Dark Knight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then so we as we said, Peter Graves
came from Mission Impossible, the TV series in the sixties
as well. And then Lloyd Bridges came from Sea Hunt,
which which is a big show that I didn't I
mean well before my time a couple of decades.
Speaker 3: And you see the original Mission Possible television show.
Speaker 2: You've never seen it. Oh, it's good. They have the
masks like they do the thing with the pull in
their face off mask. That's where it comes from in
the Tom's Tom Cruise series as well. Cool. And so
then Lloyd Bridges also was in a Police Story which
was another TV series later on. Was kind of the
main character in that, and I believe it's spin off
of that afterwards. But uh, these guys were all serious
actors from TV who kind of were beyond their prime
at the time that that this movie came out.
Speaker 3: Yep. Absolutely, we have.
Speaker 2: Anything else to say in the actors.
Speaker 3: Okay, So we're to the final wrap up of Airplane.
Speaker 2: Right, because I can't think of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
So I'm trying to think. Okay, so Leslie Nielsen, I
can't do it. I'll have to We'll have to take
a pause and I'll think about it.
Speaker 3: Let me let me give this a track, okay while
we're on Thereah, go for it all right. Leslie Nielsen
to George Kennedy Okay in Naked Gun. Yes, George Kennedy
to Clint Eastwood.
Speaker 2: In the Eiger Sanction Wow.
Speaker 3: Okay, Clint Eastwood to Charlie Sheen in The Rookie Yes,
Charlie Sheen to Tom Cruise in Ah, Charlie Sheen to
Emilio Estevez and network or Young Guns right, the best
of best to Tom Cruise in The Outsiders Tom Cruise
to Kevin Macon and a few.
Speaker 2: Given seven you didn't make it?
Speaker 3: Did make it?
Speaker 4: In seven?
Speaker 3: Seven?
Speaker 2: You didn't make it? Okay. So let me let me
think about that real quick, okay. So okay, So I
had a little time to think this over, Okay, but
I didn't really take the time to think it over.
Speaker 3: But that would be cheating, right, that would be cheating.
Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't search. I am to be. I
literally thought of this as I just went to the
bathroom and came back. Okay, get you ready, Julie Haggerty, Yes,
from airplane Okay to Bill Murray in What About Bob.
Bill Murray to Rick Moranas in Ghostbusters. Rick moranis to
Steve Martin in Blue, My Blue Heaven, My Blue Heaven,
Thank You, My belue having Steve Martin to Kevin Bacon
in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Speaker 3: Oh good one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because Kevin Kevin Bacon is just in a a
very brief spot there. But he was filming a movie
with John Hughes all I kind of at the same time,
and so the movies were supposed to be linked up.
Speaker 3: That's good, Okay, cool.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now we are moving on to comments on
that movie. This is a sleeper hit. I mean, we
you had a movie that was done by guys who
had only done one movie before that was kind of
a well, I mean, well it was a really low
budget movie, right, and then even Airplane was very low budget,
but they knocked it out of the park.
Speaker 3: They crushed it.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it is a timeless movie. This is
not what I've watched with the kids. Yet. You got
nineteen eighties PG ratings which featured boobies. So I don't
you know, my gonna have the kids watch that?
Speaker 3: Man. I can tell you a story about the movies
in airplane.
Speaker 2: Those specific movies. Tell me those particular tell me the
movie story.
Speaker 3: Okay, So this was a I watched young because my
dad thought it was funny, Okay, but he was trying
to keep me from seeing there's one scene where a
woman is wearing no shirt and shoe just walks directly
from the camera and then walks off screen and that's it, right,
So basically you have half a second it's just out
of nowhere boobs and then they're gone. Right, And so
he was trying to watch this movie with me. Yes,
protect me, protect my eyes from well, you've gotta you've
got to know exactly or it's they're there and then
gone and then it's over. And he was the best.
And so that was my first on screen flash of skin.
Speaker 2: Yeah really, like the first time you ever saw naked
boobies on TV?
Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: It's a special day. So Dad, thank you. I know
it wasn't your purpose. Mom, sorry about that.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your aptitude. That's awesome. Okay, So I
literally I can't There is nothing bad I can say
about this movie. I have no criticism at all. It
is brilliant from beginning to end, there's I will say this, Okay,
so there are a couple of jokes in there that
I still don't get. Okay, So you remember, like midway
through the movie, just as things are kind of going crazy,
all of a sudden, as they're talking about the bad
stuff that can happen, this spear comes out of nowhere
and the yeah on the map. I have no idea
what that was about. I don't know why it's funny.
It was just kind of random. It was, I mean,
their stuff is really random already, but that was so
random that I was just like, I don't even understand
how this is a joke.
Speaker 3: That movie is so funny that and they have such
rabid fire jokes. Yeah that that spear doesn't even cause
me pause because I'm already moving on. And there's something
funny right after that.
Speaker 2: Somebody was looking at how many jokes there, and they
are literally like ninety jokes per minute in just any
given scene that you have in this movie, which is
just I mean, it's too much to keep up with.
These guys tried to fit something in every second. And
then the other joke that I didn't get, excuse me,
the other joke that I didn't get was the watermelon
falling from the sky onto the desk. I don't It
was just like the water I don't remember. Yeah, I mean,
it's just like the watermelon. Just I mean, they're just
in they're in the control area and they're all talking,
and it's like things are going to go bad and boom,
watermelon falls and busts apart all over the desk. Huh.
And I looked it up. I tried to find it,
and nobody knows what those things mean. And I think
even the guys in the commentary are just like, you know,
I really wish these jokes had gotten a little more play.
And I was just like, I don't understand the joke.
Nobody does, and you're not explained.
Speaker 3: Mean, how about this one, okay, Johnny Johnny Johnny, Yes,
so he's hilarious.
Speaker 2: He's funny, Steve, I think, But yes.
Speaker 3: He knocks it out of the park. He's still seeing
he crushes it. And I have even quoted this the Rapunzel, right, Rabunzel, Rabunzel.
It's funny. I don't know what he's talking about, but
it's funny.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I have anything more.
Speaker 3: The only thing I would say is I have no critiques.
I have no critiques of this. I think it's perfectly funny,
deliciously naughty, you know, a little bit off humor, which
makes it even funnier. Right, And if somebody said, what
a million dollars more to the budget made it make
it any more funny? And I don't think it would. No,
there's nothing more that they could have done with another
million bucks.
Speaker 2: The lack of technical savvy on the special effects makes
it a little bit more funny. The fact that you
can tell it's a model airplane as it lands makes
it more funny. I bet that the I bet the
most expensive thing they did was running the actual plane
through the window. That probably was the most scene that
they probably shot.
Speaker 3: I will say, if you have I don't know if
we've talked about this, and I can't remember, but if
you've got the DVR remote and you can hit pause
in the nightclub scene when they're playing Staying Alive and
he's dancing with her and it's the disco scene, right,
she's flinging around by his feet and when she lets
him go, he does this big backflip right right, Well,
the the stunt person who does the back flip is
obviously not Robert Hayes. So it's this massive backflip. You
can see Robert Hayes hiding in the crowd pre back flip,
which is kind of a funny blooper if you're if
you've got the remote control. When he does this giant
backflip and lands, you can see Robert Hayes cowering in
the back, hiding among the people.
Speaker 2: That's funny. Well, I don't I'm trying to remember. Did
we talk about the very first scene where it's the
red zone is for loading and unloading and the white
zone is for a white zonationers. There's no stopping in
the white zong.
Speaker 3: No, the white zone is forming and unnoted, and there
is no stamping in the red zone.
Speaker 2: The red zong has always been for loading at a quoting.
Speaker 1: There's never stopping at a white song.
Speaker 3: Don't tell me which sell is for stopping and which cell.
Speaker 5: Is for mooting.
Speaker 2: Somebody, don't start off with your white zoon. It turns
out those are the actual people who recorded those pa
things that they played in all of the airports all
over the country for those things, and those two people
were actually husband and yeah, that's right, all right now,
it's time to jump into Spaceball one and travel at
ludicrous speed so we can warp ahead in time to
nineteen eighty seven when Spaceball's was released. So join us
next week for part two of the debate. Here's some
of what you're gonna hear. The actor who portrayed Prince
Vallium was Jim J. Bullet, who I remember from the
Hollywood Square Now. He was I think a lifetime member,
along with John Rivers, who does the voice for the
robot Dot Matrix Matrix. Yes, Vespa means wasp in Italians.
The very very white girl is Princess Wasp in sense
it's funny she doesn't look bush. And then the third
co writer is Ronnie Graham, who you will recognize from
the movie as the priest for the wedding.
Speaker 3: Every line he says, it's fun. Absolutely when they say
they say, I'm sorry, I'll be sorry to be quiet.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your support of the Shirley
You Can't Be Serious podcast.
Speaker 4: Don't Forget.
Speaker 3: We also love to discuss these on social media.
Speaker 2: So be sure to follow us at Shirley Podcast on Twitter,
Shirley Podcast on Facebook, email us at Shirley Podcast at
gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: Or check out the Shirley you Can't Be Serious podcast
channel on YouTube.
Speaker 2: And as always, please hit the subscribe button now so
that you never miss an episode of the Shirley you
Can't Be Serious podcast.
Speaker 3: What happened? Where are they?
Speaker 1: I don't know, sir.
Speaker 4: They must have hypertests on that thing?
Speaker 3: And what do we got on this thing?
Speaker 4: A queasin ut?
Speaker 3: No, sir, we'll find them cast though, Yes, sir, prepare
shift for light speed?
Speaker 4: No, no, no, light speed.
Speaker 3: It's too slow. Lights speak too slow. Yes, we're gonna
have to go right to Ludicris speed.
Speaker 2: Ludacris speed.
Speaker 4: So we've never gone that fast before. I don't know
if the ship can take us.
Speaker 3: What's the matter, Colonel Sanders Chicken? Yeah.
Speaker 2: All music, images and movie clips are used for the
purposes of commentary and education in conjunction with the Fair
Use Agreement under the U S Copyright Law.