[00:00:00] Clip: Doctor. I've checked everyone. Mr. Stryker's the only one. What flying experience have you had?

Oh, I flew single engine fighters in the Air Force, but this plane has four engines. It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether. It's, it's an entirely different kind of flying.

Can you fly this plane and land it? Surely you can't be serious. I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

[00:00:36] Matthew: Hello and welcome to the Inter Millennium Media Project Podcast, the IMMP. My name is Matthew Porter. 

[00:00:43] Ian: And I'm Ian Porter. 

[00:00:44] Matthew: I'm his dad. He's my son, and we're still celebrating the new year and we're still celebrating the centenary of Leslie Nielsen. 

[00:00:55] Ian: Yes, but this is a very different thing. Oh my goodness.

The, the, the, the change between what we saw him in last time and what we see him in this time is immense. 

[00:01:09] Matthew: This is why I knew you had to revisit one of his older movies, like Forbidden Planet that we talked about last episode before we got into what a lot of people think of first when they think of Leslie Nielsen.

[00:01:22] Ian: Yeah. 

[00:01:22] Matthew: This later act of his career. 

[00:01:25] Ian: He went from suave leading man to face of comedy. 

[00:01:32] Matthew: You're right. But it really only works because of the history he had. Yes. At least getting into this, it was the fact that he had this presence of the, the calm, intelligent, commanding, responsible.

Professional, the kind of thing that got him cast for a tiny part in the Poseidon Adventure. You wanna look at somebody and instantly know he's the responsible captain for as long as he's alive. You cast Leslie Nielsen 

[00:02:05] Ian: At some point he figured out that being able to say things with such confident smoothness was its superpower in and of itself because that means he can tell you the silliest, most bewildering thing, as long as he can deliver it in that voice, it's gold.

[00:02:27] Matthew: And it, and it's also his, his his manner. I think I've heard him say things like this in interviews where the key to doing this is not to play it as comedy, just to take the script he's given and play it in this earnest way. 

[00:02:42] Ian: I've seen that interview I believe before where it's, him saying, the one thing I can't let the audience do is let them know how much I wanna make them laugh.

[00:02:50] Matthew: Yes. That's key.

We're, we're, we're going on here and we're talking about why we're watching this movie right now, but there are plenty of reasons why we had to revisit this movie at some point in this podcast.

And the movie we're talking about is, of course, the 1980 comedy AIRPLANE! 

[00:03:09] Ian: With an exclamation point. Gotta love it when a film title has punctuation. 

[00:03:16] Matthew: Very important. 

[00:03:17] Ian: Very important. Oh goodness. I'd seen this film before. 

[00:03:23] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:03:24] Ian: And the thing is, I know I'd seen this film twice before this, and I think one of them was you showing it to me, but at the same time, the other one, I so distinctly remember.

Because this lives in the same nebulous media era for my development as wildly enough callback, Donny Darko, because one of the things I found early on with that old laptop of mine was a brand new website called Hulu, and this was one of the movies in their, library So I watched this one night and was bewildered and laughing and bewildered overall.

[00:04:07] Matthew: Now, I don't think I did show this to you before because I remember several times thinking, oh, maybe we should, no, I don't think yet. I'm not sure Ian's gonna appreciate this yet. So once again, you, you watched this on your own when you were far too young to do so. Okay. I dunno where you got that.

[00:04:27] Ian: your, long Island Library and my internet are weirdly similar creatures, 

[00:04:34] Matthew: pretty much. 

[00:04:35] Ian: Oh goodness. 

[00:04:36] Matthew: And I, I first saw this, we, we sometimes talk about this later on in the episode, but I first saw this in a movie theater. It, oh. Might have been opening weekend, and I was, wow. 14 or 15. And occasionally if your, if your Uncle Jim, my brother was, he and his friends were doing something occasionally.

They were really cool about letting me tag along and they were going to see a movie. So, and, you know, I was with my brother, it was fine with my mom. And so we went to to, to the movies and we saw Airplane. 

[00:05:11] Ian: Oh boy. 

[00:05:12] Matthew: So this was, an odd movie to see in the company of these, you know, cool older kids in a movie theater.

First night it was showing and have, knowing nothing about it, having no idea as to what to expect from it, except it was some comedy. 

[00:05:28] Ian: Yeah. I mean, there's so many things where every time I've, every time this movie is like, oh goodness, I didn't catch that one last time. It is very much a, uh, did that gag, did that gag, did that joke not land for you?

Don't worry. Two more have happened in between you realizing that. 

[00:05:50] Matthew: Yep. 

[00:05:51] Ian: And it, and, and now it's like, it is constant barrage, but some of those are, We have multiple times talked about films and. Media being of its time and things being, oh, that was a different era and I feel like airplane gets a, it was a different era, it was a different time, and yet it's also making fun of absolutely everyone. 

[00:06:20] Matthew: Mm-hmm. 

[00:06:21] Ian: Such that it, it seems like the one movie that's aware of that fact and is willing to just deal with being dated in its own way because it's going to use that for a joke.

[00:06:33] Matthew: Yes. And there are things about this movie, there are jokes in this movie that do not age well for various reasons. And, and I think that we usually make the distinction as you're saying, that you have to recognize things are, are of their time. And it's not to say, well, because it was made 50 years ago and or a hundred years ago in some movies because it was made way back then, it's okay that this stuff is in there and this stuff is okay.

No, it's. Because it was made, then we can understand why this stuff is in there. We can think and talk about was it there due to some kind of malice or was it just part of the idiom at the time, or is it just, yeah, we know this is edgy, but at least they, we understand why they thought they could get away with it.

And in this case, like you say, they are, they, there is no target that they won't, set their sights on for a joke. Doesn't make every joke fine, but at least it gives you an idea of the style of humor. And I don't know that any of it was done with any kind of malice when it comes to this. They just wanted, if it's funny, throw it in there.

[00:07:38] Ian: Mm-hmm. 

[00:07:40] Matthew: And

you're right about the fact that even when it comes to, was it funny or not? Uh, if you didn't get it, don't worry. There's another joke, a millisecond later. And it's also, you know, did you find this joke offensive? Don't worry about it. You're gonna have five more jokes to make you forget about that one in just a moment. 

[00:07:56] Ian: It takes itself seriously as a story and then peppers in humor on every single thing. I don't think a single person in any scene gets away with not being insulted at least once. 

there's that weird, like, equality of insult it only works because this is the, it takes itself that seriously, and that means it never leans on one of those insults harder than any of the others.

[00:08:29] Matthew: And it taking itself seriously overall in terms of its story structure, it takes itself very seriously. It's a movie, like a lot of good parody. It is a movie that relies on that it only functions because it takes itself seriously every moment that it can take itself seriously. 

[00:08:50] Ian: Yes. 

[00:08:51] Matthew: And it throws in, it plays it straight as much as it can, and then it throws in the weirdness when it, uh, when it's going to be funny.

And one of the reasons why this is such a well-structured story, something that can be taken seriously is that it is a remake. 

[00:09:09] Ian: Yeah, I didn't realize that. 

[00:09:12] Matthew: This is a remake of the, I think it was 1957 movie, zero Hour. It is a beat for beat, sometimes line for line, shot for shot, remake of this post-war air disaster movie, zero hour.

And they, they bought the rights to that for like 2000 bucks and they did a remake and shoveled all this humor into it.

[00:09:37] Ian: That makes so much sense. And when I look at it every time I see, like based on, I'm like, based on, 

[00:09:44] Matthew: yeah, it won a Writer's Guild award for best adapted comedy. 

[00:09:49] Ian: What in the world? 

[00:09:51] Matthew: So it had this story, it had this structure, and then any little blank spot into which they could throw a joke.

They did. And the overall structure, it's a, solid story. As I've already shown you a number of seventies disaster movies. The Towering Inferno and, a Poseidon Adventure Disaster movies were very popular. The, the movie airport had been, uh, a big hit.

So the idea of a disaster movie and specifically a disaster movie, uh, involving airplanes was a good idea for a parody, and they built it from this. And so we've got a, an airliner going from LA to Chicago. There's a problem with some of the food on board. So all of the pilots, the two pilots in the Navigator are all deathly ill, as are a number of the passengers.

And the only other person on board who knows how to fly a plane of any kind is Ted Stryker and Ted Stryker, he doesn't wanna fly a plane because he was part of a disastrous mission when he was flying a, a single engine fighter during the war never wants to go near an airplane again.

The only reason he is on this airplane is so that he can talk to his love one more time because she wants to move on with life and he doesn't, and she's ready to call it quits. So he is caught between having this fear of flying, including piloting of course, and being the only person who can save the people on this airplane.

[00:11:28] Ian: Meanwhile, over in the Chicago airport, they're supposed to be landing at, They've gotten this radio that this flight that was incoming has this major issue. So they are trying to figure out how to get this plane safely. Is there another airport on the way that they could stop at? No, there's problems.

Well, what can we do to change things here? And it turns into they're shutting down everything, every flight to make sure that there's a clean runway. And this caused them calling in old other pilots. This has them, increasing the amount of, tension that's happening on their end. And of course, the media is getting involved.

So the word that there is a plane in a, disaster scenario is leaking out to the press. And the press are causing more pressure as well. 

[00:12:18] Matthew: And to make things even worse, the Chicago airport is socked in with fog. So it would, would be a hard landing for anybody, even in experienced. Multi-engine airliner pilot,

so most of the movie goes back and forth between Ted Stryker and the people on the plane, the people in Chicago trying to give them a chance to land. And that includes Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey, who's like the chief flight controller and Captain Rex Kramer, experienced airline pilot who they bring in.

Played by Robert Stack. And it turns out that Captain Kramer isn't just an airline pilot. He was Ted Stryker's commanding officer during the war. 

[00:13:00] Ian: Oh my goodness. 

[00:13:01] Matthew: So all of this melodrama built into this, functional disaster movie. 

[00:13:09] Ian: And that's the thing though, we also have all these wonderful sections.

We've got the airport, we've got the control tower. We've got the cockpit. We've got various different classing like classes of seating, first class, and the business passengers and everything else. And each of those is its own little stage for rapid fire humor. 

[00:13:33] Matthew: So we get airport jokes, everything from the, the onslaught of, donations seeking religious cultists, in the airport.

The argument between the different announcer voices telling you where you can and cannot park. weird little visual gags. Oh, somebody wants a smoking ticket. They are handed a ticket that is smoking. It's just, there's nothing too small and nothing too dumb to put into this movie. 

[00:14:00] Ian: And there is a careful balance in the way this is built.

Because that's the problem. We wind up just listing jokes, right. If we tried to dive too deep. But there's a careful balance in this film. Mm-hmm. Between a joke that they're going to do once, trust that you got it and keep going. And their other go-to type, which is the joke where they keep doing it again, ratcheting it up a little each time, which sometimes means they'll pass when your level was a couple of rounds ago.

[00:14:36] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:14:37] Ian: And yet the fact that they will go further beyond that is in itself rewarding. 

[00:14:44] Matthew: And the jokes that they'll just cram in because they have a moment. And there are a lot of those you were talking about. The, the different parts of the airplane itself being the stage for different kinds of jokes. All those jokes that involved the passengers and their interactions even before things go bad with this flight.

Those are the kind of things that work out fine because they just, they toss 'em in. They work for you or they don't, but before you can think about that, they're off to another joke. 

[00:15:09] Ian: Exactly. 

[00:15:11] Matthew: The jokes I think that, uh, that don't work as well are the ones that try to get too involved in the plot. There's a whole 

[00:15:22] Ian: Yeah.

[00:15:22] Matthew: Set of jokes around the autopilot and before they get Stryker into the cockpit, they activate the autopilot. And the autopilot is an inflatable pilot. 

[00:15:33] Ian: Yes. 

[00:15:34] Matthew: And there are there, and that's fine. That would've been a cool joke. But then we've got all these other jokes that are connected to that and they, it tries to build on that the autopilot idea, doesn't have enough.

Structure to it to support everything else they tried to do with it. And it was a another, various visual jokes, crude jokes, very things they needed to connect to that they would've been better off. 

[00:15:58] Ian: Yeah. 

[00:15:58] Matthew: That's an example of one where they would've been better off with their usual formula, which is a quick bit of weirdness and then move on to something else.

[00:16:06] Ian: I agree. And this is also one of those moments where I'm gonna note something. Watching it this time, it struck me how much, wait a minute. I know this joke. I've seen that joke before. But I think it was in reverence to this, not the other way around. 

[00:16:27] Matthew: Mm-hmm. 

[00:16:28] Ian: Because suddenly I'm flashing back to the Men In Black 2, and the self-driving car joke.

[00:16:34] Matthew: Ah. 

[00:16:35] Ian: And I realize how many jokes across a lot of other films are chunks out of airplane. Oh my goodness. 

[00:16:46] Matthew: This is definitely something that changed comedy when it came out. And, Abrams and Zucker and Zucker who made this, they went on to do a lot of other things, some of which we'll talk about in the future, but it really did change comedy.

And it's one of those on rare occasions where this came out on the decade, it was 1980 and it's this clear dividing line between seventies comedy, which is like early Saturday Night Live and, caddy Shack and things like that. And then eighties comedy, which starts with this movie. 

[00:17:21] Ian: Makes sense. 

[00:17:22] Matthew: And you're right, there are so many things that reference it either directly or indirectly as a style.

[00:17:30] Ian: iT's just got something of its own. Its tone wildly oscillates. So frequently that those jokes can stand on their own if needed. And yet it crams as many of 'em as it can in. And I will agree. Some of these jokes are horribly crass. 

[00:17:52] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:17:52] Ian: Oh my goodness. I cannot find a rating for this film and I don't always trust ratings.

'cause rating systems have changed so much over the years. And what, what is popular culture and what is considered appropriate culture are both fickle things. 

[00:18:09] Matthew: Yeah. Some of the movies that we've seen from way back when, and this is rated G. 

[00:18:15] Ian: Yeah. As in G goodness, you put this on a screen in front of children.

Um, but I can't find a rating for this. And I feel like that's more of a. More of an acknowledgement than any letter or a number combination. They could give it because it defies what I would consider rating systems because of that oscillation. it will go from weird visual gags straight into wildly inappropriate, not safe for work Jokes.

And then right into word play. 

[00:18:55] Matthew: This movie got a PG rating when it was released. 

[00:18:58] Ian: Oh, you okay. Where? Okay. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Really? 

[00:19:01] Matthew: Yes. And this was before there was the PG 13 rating. I think it would very definitely have received a PG 13 rating. Some people at the time thought that, this probably should get an R rating.

But I think they were very, very careful in constructing this because. There aren't a lot of harsh swear words. 

[00:19:24] Ian: No. 

[00:19:24] Matthew: A few in the context of jokes and there probably there was somebody counting them. There is a lot of crude sexual in innuendo. 

[00:19:35] Ian: Yes. 

[00:19:36] Matthew: But it is not, using crass language, it's the Oh, the nice little old lady is talking about sex things.

That's the joke. 

[00:19:47] Ian: Yes. 

[00:19:47] Matthew: The little kid acknowledging awareness of a sex thing. That's the joke. Things like that, which are not jokes that land too well. Uh, in retrospect, no, but, and one scene in which everybody in the plane is panicking and for absolutely no reason, you get about three and a half seconds of bare breasts on screen.

[00:20:12] Ian: Yeah, I was, 

[00:20:12] Matthew: you know, there was somebody in the editing room counting frames and knowing what they could get away with to keep their pg , rating. 

[00:20:20] Ian: That's the thing, like I come away, like this movie has, I, I'll, I'll try to remember back and I'll remember chunks and sections like that. And some of them I'm like, how was that in the same movie as these other pieces? And it's moments like that where it's like, oh, wait, yeah, that happened.

Okay. But yeah, they were very careful, I think with that because I, I had not seen the pg but I'm also trying to figure out like, was that, that was rated at the time, pg. 

[00:20:49] Matthew: Yep. That's how it was released. 

[00:20:53] Ian: Now I'm finding the IMDB listing I app. I appreciate Australia going from no rating to PG to M.

It's like that's the sort of like, it's gotten rerated by multiple of these places because over time it doesn't apply. 

[00:21:09] Matthew: So for all of these jokes that are in there, and it wouldn't be the same movie without all of these jokes. And I think anybody who's open to comedy is going to find enough jokes that land with them. 'cause there are just so many, the law of large numbers is gonna make that happen. Yes. But I do think it works best when the jokes are, are tied to the characters, but not trying to be intrinsic to the story.

Some of the, that makes sense. Some of the greatest recurring bits are about. Are actually little character, details like Ted with his drinking problem. 

[00:21:46] Ian: Yes. 

[00:21:47] Matthew: After the war, he developed a drinking problem. He keeps missing his mouth. 

[00:21:51] Ian: Yeah. That's the thing that's, that's the sort of wordplay that really makes this the best.

Where it's like when they, the or the classic. We used it in our opening. Don't the, the surely you must be joking. I'm not. And don't call me Shirley. 

[00:22:04] Matthew: Yeah, 

[00:22:04] Ian: it's classic. They are so clever. I love it when this movie is clever. 

[00:22:10] Matthew: And the, what is it? Joke. Headquarters. What is it? It's a big building where the generals are, but that's not important now. A hospital. Yes. What is it? Oh, it's a big building where there are doctors and patients, but that's not important. Now 

[00:22:21] Ian: those are the most clever and the best pieces. 

[00:22:24] Matthew: And then of course there is, Steve McCroskey, the head flight controller played by Lloyd Bridges, who, I don't know that we have seen anything with Lloyd Bridges yet.

There are some things, some old TV shows we're gonna have to watch at some point involve Lloyd Bridges, but 

[00:22:40] Ian: Okay. 

[00:22:40] Matthew: But like, Leslie Nielsen and also like Robert Stack playing Captain Kramer, they were also known for serious action and adventure and thriller kind of roles. So being able to bring that gravitas into a comedy just like Leslie Nielsen does as the doctor who's aboard the plane that helps make this work.

Yes. And yet we get from McCroskey, we get this running joke of, I looks, it looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking. Next. It's the wrong week to quit drinking. Eventually it's amphetamines and sniffing glue. It's like he was quitting all these things this week. Apparently 

[00:23:16] Ian: apparent. Yeah. It's like it keeps rat ratcheting up.

That's a fine example. It's like, by the time the glue, I'm like, it stopped really getting me, and yet I appreciated the effort it took to push that joke all the way to that level, 

[00:23:32] Matthew: and to me it was one of those, the fact that it didn't stop is part of what seemed funny about it. I almost was wondering, okay, what's next?

After sniffing glue? 

[00:23:42] Ian: Yeah. You start to wonder, 

[00:23:43] Matthew: And Robert Stack as tough as nails, senior airline pilot, air Force captain, he has the moves like taking off his sunglasses when he is going to make a point and he is got another pair of sunglasses on under them. Yes. Again, oh goodness. The dialogue could have been straight out of zero hour.

It's how they portray it and what they do with it 

[00:24:05] Ian: And some of those things like the sunglasses thing. It is comedy that is so. Consistent in pop culture that I remember things like that being done again on YouTube in the early days. 

[00:24:17] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:24:18] Ian: On Vine. 

[00:24:20] Matthew: And probably done by people who didn't necessarily connect them to this movie.

They were just a standing pop culture joke. 

[00:24:27] Ian: Exactly. Okay. we're gonna reference some of the jokes. There was one joke that told me how much they, they had fun with this in the weirdest way, and this is gonna be a weird one. It's the two guys who speak only in Jive. 

[00:24:45] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:24:46] Ian: And so we've got this constant thing of this like running translation as they speak in.

Jive Street lingo. But the thing that made the joke work for me is when they had the old lady played by Barbara Billingsley come over to Al White and Alexander Gibson's character and start speaking with them in the same way. And that right there tells you something of their like kind of everyone's having fun environment.

[00:25:13] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:25:14] Ian: And it's that same element of fun that leads these comedy things to be so impactful and feel so meaningful. 

[00:25:19] Matthew: Yes. And you could certainly look at that and say, okay, this is playing on racial stereotypes and it doesn't land as well as it did. And yet there was, there was a certain wholesomeness in this movie where this did not suggest to me, this is a portrayal of every one of a particular race.

It was, these were characters who were on this plane and somebody else happened to speak their language. So there are different ways to look at that. And it was A play on the, oh, there's someone who speaks a foreign language, but fortunately there's someone on the plane who can translate Well.

Yeah, 

[00:25:52] Ian: exactly. 

[00:25:54] Matthew: It's I speak jive. 

[00:25:56] Ian: Exactly. That's so clever. And that's so, I mean, they've got plenty of bits like this all in this. It's, it's really, I'm trying to figure out how to put it into words. You can feel the passion of the people Yes. Through every bit of this. And that's the, that's the piece that makes this sing.

[00:26:18] Matthew: And you talk about, um, the influence that this had and other things that reference back to things in airplane. You've read Mega Tokyo, right? 

[00:26:25] Ian: Yes. 

[00:26:26] Matthew: The early installments of Mega Tokyo. Does anybody here speak elite? I speak elite. 

[00:26:31] Ian: Yep. 

[00:26:32] Matthew: Same joke. 

[00:26:33] Ian: Exactly. So much of this is quintessential in a certain ways, I wanna say how this looks like it did really well as a film though market and everything else wise. I take it, 

[00:26:47] Matthew: it did it. 

[00:26:49] Ian: Okay. Yeah. Budget of 3.5 million box office of 171 million. 

[00:26:55] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:26:55] Ian: This was popular. 

[00:26:58] Matthew: It was super popular. I think a lot of people went to see it.

It stayed around in movie theaters for late night screenings for a long time. I don't think it ever really became a midnight movie that stuck around for years, specifically in midnight shows, but it did hang around in theaters longer than most, so it could bring in those late night screenings. And then of course, on home video, uh, it's like everybody who's ever seen this wants a copy of it, so they, it sold a great deal there.

Yeah.

[00:27:26] Ian: This was a movie that moved some VHS tapes, I take it. 

[00:27:30] Matthew: Oh, no question.

[00:27:32] Ian: I'm trying to figure out what more, like how else to go from here, because I know it's got a lot of other connections. So many of the, so many people in this movie are from long careers in one direction or another. So many people who worked on it kept going with this kind of stuff for a long time after.

[00:27:51] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:27:52] Ian: And this feels like an inflection point. I got a question, was this like the start of the Abrams and Zucker and Zucker kind of comedy series in that sense? Or? No, 

[00:28:03] Matthew: it was their first big breakout. They had been involved in comedy before. They were involved in, uh, a, a group called Kentucky Fried Theater, which was, I don't know, they were specifically improv, but they were a comedy group.

They were the writers and directors on this, but a number of the performers who were in this were also people they had worked with at Kentucky Fried. And there was actually a movie called Kentucky Fried Movie, which I think came out some years prior to this. And Kentucky Fried movie was, it was one of these like TV parody type movies.

[00:28:40] Ian: Okay. 

[00:28:41] Matthew: A comedy movie where it's like you're switching back and forth between goofy commercials and strange sci-fi movies and other things that you would find on tv, a little short hits. And I think that's kind of what they had in mind when they were making this. And they saw Zero Hour and decided, oh, we can turn this into a comedy.

They had recorded it off late night tv, and they were planning to insert commercials and things as if you were watching this movie on late night tv. And fortunately somebody convinced them, no, don't do that. Play this straight. And the comedy is better. So they had, that kind of experience before. I believe they had worked on Kentucky Fried Movie.

They definitely worked on, Kentucky Fried Theater. but this their big breakout. And after this they made a number of other movies in this same kind of, it's sort of a genre parody, but not quite in the same way as Mel Brooks' genre parodies.

[00:29:36] Ian: That makes, and honestly, that's the thing, it's the most similar to. It's got Mel Brooks' stuff is, has a very similar energy at times. 

[00:29:45] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:29:46] Ian: If you're looking for things in the IMMP, uh, catalog that have similar, I would also say that there's some very clear similarities between this and the court. Je 

[00:29:57] Matthew: Oh, that's, uh, that's interesting.

I would've made the connection with Young Frankenstein, but tell me more about how you connected with The Court Jester 

[00:30:06] Ian: port jester was playing off of the fantasy, the castles and knights kind of tropes in a lot of different ways. Yeah. It kept a through line, but it was, it had these individual scenes in these individual plot lines running in their own little circles, occasionally bumping into each other and coming to this grand head that, Danny Kaye kind of styling very much lines up with the stuff that Leslie Nielsen's doing here now playing it straight, trusting the ability of acting.

[00:30:40] Matthew: Hmm. 

[00:30:41] Ian: To make the absurdity land. 

[00:30:46] Matthew: I can see that. Yeah. They're, 

[00:30:49] Ian: yeah, 

[00:30:49] Matthew: they're using the tropes of the genre that they're parody. Yet they'll throw in non-sequitur jokes if they will be funny. 

[00:30:58] Ian: Exactly. 

[00:31:00] Matthew: And talking about some of the other performers and people that, Zucker and Zucker and Abrams had worked with before. To me, one of the most fun characters in this is played by Steven Stucker and he plays, air traffic controller Johnny 

[00:31:13] Ian: Goodness.

[00:31:14] Matthew: And he is this weird Johnny High energy, elfin kind of character who is just part of the, the scenes where we see McCrosky. Uh, and yet he brings this weird, manic, jokey energy to every one of those scenes. 

[00:31:30] Ian: There are some of these jokes where every single time they're just ratcheting something up.

He is doing that with his entire performance. And I gotta say, I can't, it's not super clear. He also keeps on making more and more bombastic theater references, and especially Wizard of Oz references till at the end he's yelling things about the tornadoes coming and everything. And I'm like, I can't tell.

I I, we don't know about him personally or anything else. although he did die early of aids, I'll say it's notable. I, 

[00:32:07] Matthew: yeah, that is sad. 

[00:32:08] Ian: There's something, there's something very much like, he's kind of playing off some stereotypes of the gay community at the time I take it, and the theater community they're in, which is weirdly kind in the plenty of people wouldn't even acknowledge them.

And yet, here's a community showing up on the list of. We make fun of everybody. You're included. 

[00:32:34] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:32:34] Ian: Which I think was, is really refreshing in this, in its own weird way, but the, even if, even if that's not clear, he's ratcheting things up every time, which is just fun to watch in the background. Until then he's like pulling electrical cords and then saying, oops, nevermind, and plugging things back in during the biggest moments.

[00:32:54] Matthew: You're right. He does kind of represent yet another kind of person that they're making jokes about, but it does seem like it's in a, a spirit of inclusion. 

[00:33:04] Ian: Exactly. 

[00:33:05] Matthew: And he is, gay coded in a way that yes, he's heavily gay coded and here's your code book. But that's, they don't make any jokes about that.

Yeah. There's no hint of a joke of Well, keep your eye on him. He's, he's one of those homosexuals, or there's no. Way in which his or orientation is part of any joke. This is just kind of who this character is, and it's the fact that he has weird, weird and funny things to say is what makes him a funny character.

I, I just think Johnny is great. 

[00:33:39] Ian: He is, he is just fun in the background. He is, he is a shot of espresso in the middle of even the dullest scenes. 

[00:33:46] Matthew: I mean, he's in the background making Big Valley references and it's just, you never know what's gonna come up. 

[00:33:51] Ian: Yeah. You never know.

[00:33:53] Matthew: But it's an, it's another example of how there's somebody who's, uh, who's comedy and acting chops. They trusted, he improvised a lot of the stuff that he had on screen, uh, punching all that up for, for the movie because they knew he's gonna bring in energy that we don't already have in this movie.

[00:34:09] Ian: Talk about energies though the actor we're here for on it. Leslie Nielsen playing the doctor. He gets to be the most, he is almost more serious than everyone else in the serious film. Every single piece is like, he puts so much energy into everything and he puts all that energy into like not moving. 

[00:34:36] Matthew: It's like he is the adult supervision in this movie and because he plays everything that way, his jokes are even funnier than they would be if he had a different take on them. 

[00:34:47] Ian: Yes.

Uh, and, and he knows how to, he's got such a skilled consistency. One of the last joke sets he has is brilliant, which is. Repeating the same exact scene three times, opening the door and you know, just letting you know, we're all counting on you close the door and he shows up and does that three times in the middle of other stuff going on.

Leslie Nielsen out here playing this like, it's a glitching Bethesda game. He's, he's got such serious sturdy energy and yet he can make something feel like the world's gone off in doing so.

[00:35:35] Matthew: And we've talked about members of the cast. I don't think we mentioned, Robert Hayes who plays Ted Stryker 

[00:35:42] Ian: Oh goodness. 

[00:35:43] Matthew: Manages to keep that character not quite matching the serious energy that. Leslie Nielsen has, but staying in the same ballpark. And that's kind of necessary for Ted because he's supposed to be such a troubled character.

[00:35:59] Ian: Every once in a while he's got a moment where he seems to, actually like pause and realize something was weird. Every once in a while he's an audience. Surrogate. Yeah, surrogate in that like, wait a minute. What, what was that? Just now kind of moment 

[00:36:18] Matthew: he'll be thinking and the thoughts will be echoing and then he'll notice that they're echoing 

[00:36:23] Ian: Yes!.

[00:36:23] Matthew: And the other lead, cast member here was Julie Haggerty as his girlfriend. Elaine? 

[00:36:29] Ian: Yes. 

[00:36:30] Matthew: Who I don't think she wasn't given as much to do. I think in many ways. Most of the humor beats that she was given had to do with, well, she seems like this very sweet and innocent person, 

same kind of joke we've seen elsewhere in this movie, but she does a good job with the roles that she's given. Could have been written more or better, but she does a good job with it. 

[00:36:52] Ian: Both Julie Haggerty and Lorna Patterson, who played the other stewardess, both have a very distinct role of the, take it at its word, like the absurdity should be treated with mundanity.

[00:37:06] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:37:07] Ian: Attitude. Where it's like, if you lift something that shouldn't be on an airplane, treat it like you show off how to deal with this in a security thing every single day. It's just like, oh yeah, here's a holding a live lobster. Kind of like in case of your live lobster, pull the tab here kind of attitude no matter what.

[00:37:28] Matthew: We've gotta also acknowledge James Hong sighting. 

[00:37:31] Ian: Yes. He shows up 

[00:37:32] Matthew: a little cameo by James Hong as a, a Japanese World War II general who happens to be on this flight and is literally bored to death by, uh, by Ted telling his sob story. 

[00:37:43] Ian: I will say that is one part I was, I I, I find awkward about this film.

There's a whole lot of implied casualties in awkward, creepy ways. 

[00:37:52] Matthew: Yeah, yeah. There is a lot of, a lot of suicidality in this movie. Um, 

[00:37:56] Ian: yeah. 

[00:37:57] Matthew: And there is this long flashback in which Ted is telling somebody about how he met Elaine in this waterfront dive bar when he was in the Navy. And that just goes on way too long, because 

[00:38:10] Ian: yes, 

[00:38:11] Matthew: they wanted to put in a disco parody of Saturday Night Fever, and it, it always stands out as, oh, this is the point at which we insert the parody of Saturday Night Fever.

And it's disconnected from the rest of the movie. They could have had a few good jokes given us the story we needed in the, the flashback and gotten out of there much more quickly than they did. 

[00:38:35] Ian: I appreciate that. That is early in this movie because it is an excellent time to go get your popcorn. 

[00:38:41] Matthew: Yes, 

[00:38:43] Ian: and that's the thing this, like, that it doesn't land everything.

We're complimenting so much of this thing's humor or, and it's it's skill in humor more so even than the humor itself. It's skill in humor. 

[00:38:56] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:38:57] Ian: And yet that does not mean it's a hundred percent hit rate. I, I honestly don't think, I think that this, this is a, a solid 65% of the jokes for me. 

[00:39:10] Matthew: I think 

[00:39:10] Ian: you, and that seems low.

[00:39:12] Matthew: Yeah. In terms of pure, you know, batting average, I'd say that's kind of how many hits. Some of them misses are really bad misses and some of the misses are. Really cringey watching them in in 2025. One of the things that was referenced and quoted, and it was such a popular string of jokes, was oh, another actor known for his straight dramatic stuff.

Peter Graves, who's playing the Yeah, the pilot. He is there, A little boy is brought up to the cockpit and see. He starts asking this little boy all kinds of weird, inappropriate questions about gladiator movies and seeing a grown man naked and things. And that was, yeah, that was considered so incredibly funny.

Um, I don't know here, as we record this towards the end of 2025 and the. The Epstein files are still very much in the news That is not landing funny anymore. 

[00:40:12] Ian: No, that is, that is highly creepy on numerous levels. Yeah. The, and that's the thing. This'll have its pile of hits and then it'll have its major misses.

[00:40:23] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:40:24] Ian: And the question is, is there enough hits to make up for the misses? And 

[00:40:31] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:40:32] Ian: Do you not care about the number of them that went right over your head? And the fact that the, the sheer quantity of jokes, the sheer, you know, gag per minute rate of this movie means that A 65 is still so many more jokes 

[00:40:49] Matthew: Yeah.

[00:40:51] Ian: Than even a lot of comedy movies nowadays that says something. That's something to note about watching this film. 

[00:40:59] Matthew: Well, these overall assessments are starting to make me think that we are headed for our final questions here. 

[00:41:04] Ian: I think we 

[00:41:05] Matthew: are. So, 

[00:41:06] Ian: yes. 

[00:41:08] Matthew: So stay tuned as we, uh, we make our recommendations about this movie and, uh, and think about what else might be done with this. 

But first, if you're enjoying the Inter Millennium Media project, please go to immproject.com because that's where you'll find all kinds of fun stuff related to the podcast. If you want more of the IMM project, you will find all of our back episodes there at immproject.com. If you like merchandise, you want t-shirts and coffee mugs and fun things like that related to the podcast or some of the movies and TV shows we've watched, you can find a link to our store there if you wanna support the IMMP podcast, you will find a link to our Patreon where, starting at $3 a month, you can get bonus audio content and at a higher level you can join the movie club and get, mystery DVDs in the mail every few months. And of course, we would love to hear from you. You go to IMMProject.com, you'll find our contact page where you can send us email.

You can also reach us on Blue Sky and you can send us honest to goodness mail at our PO Box. 

[00:42:14] Ian: Oh Dear Physical media

[00:42:18] Matthew: and Ian, where can people find you? 

[00:42:20] Ian: I can be found online as ItemCrafting. Be that ItemCrafting on blue sky ItemCrafting.com or ItemCraftingLive on Twitch. I try to stream most every Thursday, so, you know, come on over, hang out, play some games, make some crafts. 

[00:42:35] Matthew: Those are fun streams. 

[00:42:37] Ian: Thank you. And Dad, where can people find you?

[00:42:40] Matthew: Well, you can find me pretty much anywhere as by Matthew Porter. That's B-Y-M-A-T-T-H-E-W-P-O-R-T-E-R, all one word. So I am ByMatthewPorter on YouTube ByMatthewPorter on mastodon.social ByMatthewPorter on Blue Sky. And you can go to ByMatthewPorter.com to find links, for all of these. And, in addition to all of that regular info, I have got some exciting news I would like to share.

And that is about my book that is coming up. 

[00:43:08] Ian: Mm-hmm. 

[00:43:09] Matthew: It's gonna be out this spring. It's a novel called Questions for the Dead, and it is a mystery involving Denver Private Eye, Martin Rodak, and his collection of peculiar psychic friends. so the book is scheduled to launch in May, but there will be some fun things to share between now and then.

last week was our cover reveal. So if you go to ByMatthewPorter.com now, you'll see that terrific looking book cover. And while you're there, you can sign up from my newsletter. It's low traffic, zero spam, but I'll use it to keep you up to date on other things like pre-order availability, promotions, events, and, and more.

So, uh, been looking forward to sharing that with the folks who listen to this podcast. So go check it out, ByMatthewPorter.com. 

[00:43:51] Ian: It's a fun story and an interesting mystery, I think. 

[00:43:55] Matthew: And you read pieces of that earlier than anybody did. We had a summer of trading pages every day.

[00:44:02] Ian: Absolutely. That was fun. 

[00:44:03] Matthew: Yep.

So, 

[00:44:06] Ian: so 

[00:44:07] Matthew: final questions about airplane. Exclamation point. 

[00:44:11] Ian: Airplane. 

[00:44:13] Matthew: It's a movie, so screen or no screen. 

[00:44:15] Ian: It's so hard to say on this one,

[00:44:18] Matthew: isn't it? 

[00:44:18] Ian: 'cause so much of me wants to say screen because it's such a classic set of comedy, and yet there are pieces that have aged so poorly and comedy is so subjective. One person's funny is another person's unpleasant in ways that. Can't be quantified.

I honestly think this is a go check clips on YouTube and if you laugh enough screen, but you have to kind of do your own research, which makes it really hard to be a, to be a podcast that theoretically has a section suggesting films because this is a film that avoids suggestion. 

[00:45:02] Matthew: Yeah. Um, it's weird to say this, but I, I would say no screen, there's just so much of this that didn't age well and that for a short movie seems to take such a long time.

I have, I find it difficult to recommend that someone put in the time and energy to watch this movie, and yet, as I say that I'm thinking, oh, but if they don't watch this movie, they're not gonna see this joke and they're not gonna get this one thing. So yeah, I would say. A no screen. Maybe you look for highlights and if you see enough highlights Yeah.

That you really, really like, then ignore my no screen recommendation. 

[00:45:39] Ian: Yeah, that's a good, that's probably a good way to go about it. 

Our next question gets into some weird weeds on that

because it's, it's revive, reboot or rest in peace. And this is where I hop in and talk about sequels. But my goodness, this has so much spiritual sequel. 

[00:46:00] Matthew: It does. 

[00:46:02] Ian: And siblings. 'cause there is airplane two, the sequel 

[00:46:11] Matthew: There is. And that gets into a lot of science fiction tropes beyond the airline disaster movie tropes.

[00:46:19] Ian: And that's the thing, airplane two is tackling sci-fi, not disaster films. So if the connection between airplane and airplane two can be that flexible in terms of what it's parodying, you start to get into other things and then you start looking at what other pieces the crew, the, the people behind it have done.

Weirdly enough, I take it that airplane two might have had a very different crew 

It's starring Robert Hayes again, but 

[00:46:49] Matthew: Airplane two was not by, Zucker Abrams and Zucker. 

[00:46:54] Ian: Yeah. But what did Abrams and Zucker, they went off to do the naked Gun 

[00:47:01] Matthew: starting 

[00:47:02] Ian: and they went off to do 

[00:47:03] Matthew: the TV series. Police Squad. 

[00:47:05] Ian: Yeah. And they went off to do hot shots and eventually went off to do things like the scary movie franchise.

And that's when I realized they never stopped doing this. They just went to different genres. 

[00:47:25] Matthew: And I don't know if this was their reason, but I can understand if it was that we've already done an airplane movie. Yeah. Why would we do another airplane movie when there are all these other movies we can do?

[00:47:36] Ian: Exactly. And sometimes they worked together. Sometimes they were working on things in parallel at different times it looks like, but they spread out from here and continued the stylings. 

[00:47:48] Matthew: I would probably, when it comes to the movie airplane, just say rest in peace because we've got all of these spiritual sequels. I, there's not enough story continuity to make me really need a, another story in the continuity of airplane. 

[00:48:07] Ian: Yeah. 

[00:48:09] Matthew: Or, or if you wanted what was technically.

By our terms, a revival of airplane. Pick one of the random passengers and just tell a story about that passenger. What happens after they survive this harrowing flight to Chicago? 

[00:48:27] Ian: Absolutely. I, I think that there's a lot, but at the same time, I'm gonna say they're, they've, they're going back now to some of these things.

[00:48:34] Matthew: Mm-hmm. 

[00:48:35] Ian: There is a new naked gun movie that came out. 

[00:48:37] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:48:39] Ian: And I gotta say, airplane is a specific era of time when it comes to flight and commercial airlines. One of the airplane was based on zero hour, but it's noted that it draws a lot from a different series called Airport. 

[00:49:00] Matthew: Yes. Very popular disaster Movies starting in the seventies.

[00:49:04] Ian: I look at this and say, oh my goodness, you could do another airplane film. Never get on the plane. Throw this kind of humor group at the TSA 

[00:49:18] Matthew: interesting, 

[00:49:18] Ian: throw this kind of humor group at arriving in an Uber and trying to check your bags. The airplane experience is very different than in airplane. You could still play with this.

There is still potential to be pulled from this kind of setup. 

[00:49:39] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:49:40] Ian: And I'm then really wondering, does that mean I want another airplane film or do I just want other people to remember how airplane was made? 

[00:49:50] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:49:50] Ian: And make their own thing. And so I think I'm landing on a rest in peace there myself as well.

But it comes with this very much, don't forget the recipe. 

[00:50:00] Matthew: Yes. 

[00:50:01] Ian: Right. This, this is a recipe we can, we've proven we can do multiple other times. Apply it and don't be afraid to apply it to this topic again. 

[00:50:11] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:50:11] Ian: You just have to space it between times you serve that. 

[00:50:15] Matthew: Yeah. That's about where I am. I think rest in peace, but be ready to revisit it when needed for a little, um, reminder of things.

[00:50:22] Ian: Exactly.

[00:50:23] Matthew: Well, this was fun. I'm glad that we talked about this because it does inform so much, of what we've previously talked about from the eighties, but also other things that we'll talk about in the future. Yeah. And I was interested to get your take on some of these jokes that I remember how they landed in 1980, but I was wondering how are they gonna land for you seeing them, a generation later?

[00:50:45] Ian: Yeah. And the answer I think is awkward. Is awkward. Yeah. And some awkward ages poorly. 

[00:50:50] Matthew: Yeah. 

[00:50:51] Ian: But clever has always been clever. 

[00:50:54] Matthew: But we're not done with strange comedies and we're not done with Leslie Nielsen either. 

[00:51:00] Ian: No. 'cause we, we, I know that we mentioned it. 'cause Leslie Nielsen leads another, another one of these projects, doesn't he?

[00:51:09] Matthew: Yes, he does. 

[00:51:10] Ian: I thought so. 

[00:51:11] Matthew: So we are going to see in the near future, how does this kind of thing translate to television? 

[00:51:19] Ian: Oh boy. 

[00:51:20] Matthew: listeners, we hope you enjoyed this and we hope you will join us in a couple of weeks as we talk about that. Hope the new year is treating you well and we look forward to being back with you.

[00:51:31] Ian: In the meantime, go find something new to watch.