Humor can be the best medicine. That’s why my viewing lately has been featuring funny movies that have delighted me over the decades. Leslie Nielsen cracks me up every time I watch this film. In fact, Airplane (1980) was listed at #10 on the American Film Institute’s best comedies of all time.
With cameos by Rod Steiger, Lloyd Bridges, Kareem Abdul Jabar as well as the unforgettable Barbara Billingsley (aka, June Cleaver)–whose role as as a passenger who could “speak jive” makes me laugh every time I see it–Airplane produces more hilarity than most comedies.
Are you a fan of Airplane?
It’s pretty good! I’ve seen it two or three times so the laughs diminish with repetitions!
Bob, I have to be in a silly mood to watch AIRPLANE!
“I picked the wrong time to quite sniffing glue”. I love Airplane and the Naked Gun movies and Police Squad (coming to Blu-ray in a few weeks). They are all quite silly but they make me laugh
Steve, same here. I have the POLICE SQUAD Blu-ray on order.
Love it, love it, love it. My cousin Nancy is friends with a couple of the writers and was touting it from the moment it came out. I quote lines from it all the time, my favorite being, “And don’t call me Shirley.”
There was a famous conversation between Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack about one of their scenes, with Stack saying that he didn’t get the joke, and Bridges (supposedly) telling him, “We’re the joke.”
It was amazing how Lielie Nielsen was able to totally transform his career from a dull co-star to a deadpan comedy icon.
Jeff, you’re right. Leslie Nielsen was a so-so actor until he starred in wicked comedies like POLICE SQUAD, THE NAKED GUN, and AIRPLANE!
I remember loving Nielsen as Swamp Fox can even remember a bit of the theme song
Maggie, I loved THE SWAMP FOX as a kid, but when Disney left me hanging at the end of the series I was ticked off. Disney did the same thing with The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh where things are up-in-the-air at the end of the series.
Leslie
“Airplane” holds a special place in my heart and memories because it was the first movie I saw after I moved to Los Angeles in 1980. It was hilarious then and can still make me laugh today, even when I know which jokes are coming. Every time I see Leslie Neilson in one of his pre-“Airplane” roles (he was a fixture of 1960s/70s tv and movies), I keep expecting him to make some wisecrack and, when he doesn’t, he just seems sort of…boring.
Deb, you are so right about Leslie Neilson’s roles in Sixties TV episodes and movies. Dull and boring. I’m glad he found his true acting niche!
Hey, we’re old, Deb. I remember Leslie as the lead opposite Debbie Reynolds in TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR. Then a couple of years later, he starred in Disney’s THE SWAMP FOX, an 8 part miniseries about real life Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. It was OK, as I remember (vaguely), but it was no DAVY CROCKETT. I also remember THE NINE LIVES OF ELFEGO BACA (another real person), starring Robert Loggia.
*heads back to the geezer bus*
Jeff, I remember watching Leslie back in the Sixties in THE SWAMP FOX and being pissed off because the series ended with a cliffhanger. I waited for more episodes, but nothing appeared. I was miffed!
Although it doesn’t seem to generate the same passionate intensity as “Airplane” and its spin-offs or the Monty Python movies, my favorite modern comedy is “What’s Up Doc?”(1972), a paean to the great screwball comedies of the thirties and forties. And yes, I know a lot of people hate Barbra Streisand.
What’s up Doc holds up well for me. There was another one that I liked at the time, but didn’t hold up, something about a playground??
I liked Airplane as well, though haven’t watched it in years.
Maggie, some movies hold up over time…others don’t. The same with books.
Michael, I’ll have to dig out my copy of WHAT’S UP DOC? and review it in the weeks ahead. Thanks for the recommendation!
Loved it at the time and boy, I could use it now. Witty humor is not the relief that this sort of thing is.
Patti, I know what you mean. The type of comedy AIRPLANE! indulges in just tickles my Funny Bone!
I can tell you how The Swamp Fox ended, George! The colonies won and became the United States!
Bob, but as a kid I was hoping to see some of that action!
A classic version of the classics!
Dan, so true!