https://cordcuttersnews.com/45-years...fining-comedy/

45 years? Surely you can’t be serious!

For sure it would never come out today and it is a comedy film and no place for those films in 2025.

It took me over 40 years to learn that Airplane! was a direct spoof of Zero Hour. A film I’ve never heard of until this week. I promptly ordered the Warner Archive dvd.

There's a lot of Airport '75 in there as well.

Zero Hour is a hoot to watch because it's like watching an alt version of Airplane!

Agreed. I saw it on DVD, but I wish I could have seen it with an audience familiar with AIRPLANE! That would have been hilarious.

One of the best gags in Airplane! is using the propeller sound effects directly from Zero Hour every time they show the outside of the plane…a passenger jet that doesn’t have propellers.

I've seen Zero hour before but this is the perfect double feature.

I've never been a fan of Dana Andrews but he's ok in this. Sterling Hayden of course excellent although I almost busted a gut when he said "I picked the wrong week to quit smoking". Fortunately airplanes don't offer meals these days so I don't have to refuse the fish.

For Airplane it's refreshing to see a movie that isn't afraid to be silly and offensive. Another movie that wouldn't be made today. Too many funny bits to enumerate.

I had not noticed that on first viewing...next time it finally dawned on me. Hilarious at the brilliance of the movie and my lack of noticing.

They're rolling out screenings of an unreleased Director's Cut with Zucker and Robert Hayes. Hopefully we'll get this on disc one day.

The scene with Barbara Billingsley still holds up.

For fans of the movie, this book is a must. Got it a couple years ago and a bookstore in L.A. offered an autographed edition.

I saw Zero Hour a few years back and couldn't believe how closely Airplane! followed it - right down to the same dialogue at times. Then I learned the first episode of Police Squad! did the same thing. It was based off the season two premiere of a show I never heard of before - "M Squad."

I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.

(I can’t believe I got to post this!)

Side note on Zucker Brothers projects. I just found that John Belushi had filmed a guest star gag for the TV SHOW Police Squad, and he died the day after EP 1 was shown on TV so they replaced his part with William Shatner. Sadly the footage can not be found.

Saying that someone who spills on themselves has a "drinking problem" is one of my all-time lines. The whole movie is a classic, but I think my favorite gag is when they say they're on instruments and then they cutaway to them playing band instruments in the cockpit. It's so fucking funny.

I hate parody movies with a passion....I absolutely love Airplane, hell I like the second one too. It's pretty much a perfect movie.

I barely remember anything from Airplane II except Shatner’s rant about the beeping and flashing lights. It’s just as funny, if not funnier than anything in the first movie.