"Airplane!" directors/writers/producers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams guest on March 15, 1982, and bring with them Dave's 1979 screen test for the role of Ted Striker. They also plug their new tv show "Police Squad."
While Hollywood churned out overblown bombs with overpaid SNL alumni, this trio had the simple idea of using inexpensive and iconic aging action stars playing straight face against the scripted madness. A solid gold formula.
The changing of jackets during comm breaks is funny, but my favorite part is at 15:10... Jerry Zucker is wearing Dave's jacket; He reaches into the coat pocket, finds some cash, and slips it into his pants pocket. Very droll.
When I first watched Airplane! and Police Squad, I was too young (plus not speaking a world of English) to get most of the jokes, but I do remember I knew I was watching something great. Few years later I watched them again (on VHS) and got few more jokes, and liked them even more. And so on. :)
@@davelanger, yes, its a satire of "AIRPORT"- type movies= airplane disaster movies. AIRPLANE 2 the sequel not written by the trio, is terrible. The Zuckers and Jim Abrahams knew what they were doing. So, yeah its based on other movies..BUT, ITS A SATIRE..naturally it would be based on another source such as movies, books, etc, or behavior/actions/practices by society, again, coming from another source. That is what SATIRE IS..making a point, and/or entertaining by farcical content that shows folly in our actions and behaviors, and practices, and it derives many times from our pop culture, etc..
The line at the end is pretty seriously obscure, where one of the Zucker Brothers mentions "starting a small religious school at Yavneh." In late antiquity (around the time of Jesus and such) Yavneh was a major seat of Jewish learning and the home of the Sanhedrin - which of course was also a wonderful bit in Kentucky Fried Movie where Bruce Bixby endorses a painkiller called Sanhedrin, presumably to the bafflement of anyone who hadn't spent significant time studying the Talmud.
Thank you for that. It’s learning stuff like this that is part of the reason I read comments to glean rate nuggets like this. (And just to be clear, given the nature of this video and the comments, I’m being sincere, not sarcastic.)
you don't know what you missed if you didn't see daytime letterman and the early stuff late nite--pure off the wall genius that was impossible to do at the end. All great shows are like that; you just can't do the energy and craziness for 30 years. And as you get older, you fade.
I THINK (again, THINK) the woman in the 'screen test' was Toni Kalem who also played Angie Bompinsaro (sp?) on the Sopranos. I've looked high & low but can't confirm that.
To all complaining about this interview: David Letterman had just started this show and was still relaxing into it. Enough said. As for the complaints about how awkward, unfunny, dull and terrible the three guests are: How are you enjoying their work? They exhibit the same dry humour, wordplay and wit here as you would see in their movies. The switching of clothes, dumb sight gags and casually pocketing David's money are just as much part of their comedy as responding all at once when asked if they directed together. It boggles the mind to think that anyone who enjoys their movies could watch this and come away thinking it was terrible.
@@Lost_n_Found_1 Exactly...but see how dave fucked up the stache joke? The funny part was how serious they kind of were and the stache would move from person to person instead of the jacket...or the jacket was gonna be another part as well.
Anybody notice that the jacket Abrahams walked out wearing was worn by Jerry Z. in the second segment and then worn by David Z. in the third segment and by Letterman at the end. The dark jacket Letterman wore was passed Jerry Z and Letterman is now wearing glasses, Dave's adjustment of the glasses @ 13:05 and the audience reaction are probably about the inside joke.
I was able to see a lot of the morning show (at work) and was hooked. When I heard that tickets were available for the rehearsal shows in '82 I snapped one up and loved it. These kinds of bits made the show the 'hit' it was but after a few years at CBS the edge was disappearing and I lost interest - as a large chunk of his audience did too. What they had going in 6A was like one of those basement 'theaters' you could find in the LES with all kinds of funky fare. Moving into the cavernous Sullivan theater and the 11:30 time slot changed all that and it was never the same.
+wiedep I couldn't agree more. There was an intimacy in 6A that was lost in the Ed. Are you on the facebook? We have a fb/afl group. Tonight I put up a 4-frame screen-shot of the four segments in this clip and mentioned the jacket transfer (crediting you for noticing it).
This must've been before the movie "Top Secret!" was released, since "skeet surfing" took place during the opening credits of the movie. These guys made hilarious movies, but they don't interview very well. You could tell they weren't involved with "Airplane II". That picture wasn't very funny and repeated a lot of the jokes from the first "Airplane".
Clifford Shafran yes, Airplane was the first of its kind released in 1980. Top Secret being the second (and my favorite comedy movie of all time, hands down) was released in 1984. “This is not.....Mel Torme” 😝 “Sir, you dropped your phony dog poo.....” “.....what phony dog poo??!!!...” Omg I could rattle of quite after quote from Top Secret, I freaking love that movie.
I think the interview was hilarious. Same style of humor as their films. People just expect a certain flow in talk show conversations. They did at least a dozen bits, some so subtle you might not have noticed. These guys epitomize irreverent and awkward, and that's what makes it funnier for some of us. ;)
Was about to watch Airplane for the 1001 time and thought, "Gee, (yes, I say gee to myself), I wonder if there's an interview with the creators?" And behold, on David Letterman, nevertheless.
it is interesting that it was not mentioned that the police squad clip shown is a near-verbatim (choreography and dialogue, minus the humor) take from an M squad episode.
look up "Zero Hour! vs Airplane! Comparison"; several videos do shot by shot comparisons of the two and they are hilarious. For 35 years I thought that Airplane! was a spoof of the Airport disaster movies but I was wrong.
Has anyone else mentioned that during the commercial breaks, they keep shifting the blazer and glasses from one person to another? And in the fourth cut, the blazer ends up on Dave?
It’s called capitalism: “We’re Paramount. We have the rights to any sequel. We can make it and reap all of the profits without having to involve or share any revenue with its creators.”
11:15 For one I don't believe they never saw the sequel, and in case of the very small chance that they truly haven't seen it, I think that they should see it. The sequel does the first one justice. Naked Gun was a classic series just like Airplane was.
No one on the staff back then was happy with the show being split up into 8 acts. That's why within a few months it was split up into 7, allowing more time for the interviews.
Jerry Zucker has an uncanny resemblance to Jerry Seinfeld. It seems God decided this is the best template for a comedian. So he just inflated it and made it perfect.
All the folks complaining about the trio being unfunny on live television must be Americans. The thing I found most grating was that after every three lines or so, it was time for a commercial break.
First time I've heard about this. I think I've expunged airplane 2 from my memory. Now I know why I never liked airplane 2 and was afraid to admit it to myself. The team who wrote and directed the original Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker) had no involvement with this sequel. Paramount, having faced a similar situation with Grease 2 earlier in that year, hired Finkleman, who wrote Grease 2, to write and direct Airplane II as well. As dave frequently says these movie and TV bosses are idiots.
Airplane 2 was terrible, and the hubris of those in charge of it deserve the shite they got for trying to do it without these 3 writers and their unique wit
The "skeet surfing” prank became part of the opening credits for their next movie, “Top Secret!” ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7f_19nxNfjs.html
@@dongiller I clicked over and watched that from here. At about a minute in, Jack jokes how he's a serious actor "like you" to Dave... obviously a callback to this interview! People commenting how awkward this seems: Maybe we were more used to this in talk shows of that time when they were a bit less planned and polished and the host was just trusted to carry his own. I find nothing outright wrong with this other than... these men aren't usually on camera so I automatically have different expectations of them, and fully appreciate the better "reality" of how this goes, when today we'd be much less likely to see film creators interviewed. More spontaneity then. And Don, since you seem to take an occasional request -- I wonder if you also have Conan archives from NBC? I remember hearing that he once interviewed Don Martin from MAD Magazine and I missed it, and so far have never found it posted anywhere....!
They were really funny in The Kentucky Fried Movie, but they knew they weren't the best people in the world for acting in their movies. They just had a really low budget to work with. After that, they were able to get much better budgets and hire top level actors. They are world class at making films but not at playing characters in them, and they are even less cut out for doing improvised comedy in front of cameras. I'm surprised they ever did an interview. It's not their thing.
@@StarfieldRailway exactly what i was thinking. great comic minds but on a show like this they fall flat. i mean i like dry comedy now and then but this was reallyyy ...bone dry. I think it just didn't translate well.
Starting a religious school in Yavne!? Wow. That was more obscure than a choice Dennis Miller rant. (And I think I actually got the reference - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yohanan_ben_Zakkai.
