Trivia and Quotes
Trivia
 David Letterman screen-tested for the role of Ted Striker. #
# Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey spoofs his role as Jim Conrad in the TV series "San Francisco International Airport" (1970).
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# Rex Kramer and Steve McCroskey were also character names in The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977).
William Tregoe, who plays Jack Kirkpatrick, the TV anchorman ("I say, let `em crash"), plays an almost identical character in the "Count/Pointercount" segment of The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977). His character name is the similar-sounding John Fitzsimmons, and he is arguing for "count." Both roles parody James J. Kilpatrick on "60 Minutes" (1968).
The airplane model used for the flying shots hangs in the museum at the Studios at Los Colinas (Texas).
All the exterior shots of the plane while flying use a sound track of a propeller plane although it is a jet because the studio would not let the producers use a propeller plane in the movie.
Final film of Ethel Merman.
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# Jill Whelan, who plays the sick child, also played the daughter of Capt. Stubing (Gavin MacLeod) on "The Love Boat" (1977). Joyce Bulifant, who plays her mother, played MacLeod`s wife on "Mary Tyler Moore" (1970).
The entire production took just over a month. Robert Hays was doing the television show "Angie" (1979) at the same time.
The Boeing 707 used in the movie was a re-painted TWA airliner.
The film is mostly a parody of Zero Hour! (1957), a film that had a main character named Ted Stryker and such famous "not meant to be funny" lines like "We have to find someone who can not only fly this plane, but who didn`t have fish for dinner."
The Jaws (1975) spoof in the beginning of the film was made of layers of cotton on a piece of plywood with a hidden wire track for the airplane to "fly" around.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar`s role was originally to be played by Pete Rose, but he was playing baseball at the time of the filming, so the part went to Kareem. He was offered $30,000 to appear in the film, but he asked for $35,000 to buy an oriental rug.
"Stayin` Alive" was sped up for the dance scene of the film. Permission from The Bee Gees had to be obtained to speed it up.
The film was specially geared to spoof the "Airport" series, but chiefly spoofs Airport 1975 (1974), where Karen Black is a stewardess forced to pilot a plane after both pilots are incapacitated, Linda Blair is a girl needing a kidney transplant, and Helen Reddy plays a singing nun.
Universal threatened to sue when they found out that the directors were trying to get Helen Reddy to repeat her role as the singing nun from Airport 1975 (1974). George Kennedy from the original Airport movies was also being courted for the film but thought better of running afoul of Universal.
The video game played by the air traffic controllers is the Atari 2600`s Basketball (1978) (VG).
# Director Cameo: [Jim Abrahams] as the second religious zealot who is pushed aside by Rex Kramer upon his arrival in the Chicago Airport terminal.
Singer/songwriter Barry Manilow was considered for the role of Ted Stryker before Robert Hays was hired.
The casting of professional basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a member of the flight crew was a reference to pro football player Elroy `Crazylegs` Hirsch`s role as a pilot in the serious airplane disaster film Zero Hour! (1957)
The producers bought the rights to the movie Zero Hour! (1957), the film that this movie is based on.
To get inspiration for the ZAZ Kentucky Fried Theatre skits, the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams would leave a videotape running all night, recording late night television with the aim of spoofing the commercials. One night they recorded the film Zero Hour! (1957), which ultimately acted as the main inspiration for Airplane! (1980).
The first draft for the movie was written in 1974. Even then, Robert Stack was first choice for the part of Rex Kramer.
Film debut of Julie Hagerty.
The doctor role was Leslie Nielsen`s first comedic part. He later said he was delighted to get the offer, fearing that he was getting too old for anything but "elderly grandfather" parts.
Co-writer/director David Zucker said that years after the movie`s release, Woody Allen came up to him at a New York Knicks game and told Zucker how much he loved the movie. Zucker said that, since he and the movie`s other writer-directors were heavily influenced by Allen`s early comedies, Zucker was very touched.
According to Jim Abrahams and the Zuckers in the DVD commentary, when pitching the movie to Robert Stack, they told him to do "Eliot Ness" in reference to Stack`s signature character on "The Untouchables" (1959). Capt. Kramer`s speeches were specifically written with the intention of hiring Stack and mocking Ness` "big speeches". Rather than being offended, Stack understood the joke and took the role. Coincidentally, Barbara Stuart`, who plays Kramer`s wife, had a guest role in an "Untouchables" episode, "The Untouchables: The George `Bugs` Moran Story (#1.4)" (1959).
According to Jim Abrahams and the Zuckers on the DVD commentary, the film was originally written to be a "movie within a movie" for a sequel to The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), but when the movie was aborted, they expanded the story to this full-length feature.
The film cost $3.5 million and only took 34 days to make.
Most of the jive talk between the two black passengers was improvised by the actors, as the ZAZ team weren`t sufficiently "conversant" in black street language.
In the Italian version, the talk between the two black passengers was dubbed in Neapolitan dialect.
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# In the German version, the talk between the two black passengers was dubbed in heavy Bavarian dialect (with subtitles in standard German).
CASTLE THUNDER: Heard every time lightning flashes during the storm sequence.
Despite featuring a spoof of the beach scene of From Here to Eternity (1953), none of the three directors had actually seen the original film.
Ethel Merman insisted on bringing her own hairdresser to set.
Otto, the automatic pilot, ultimately disintegrated after spending several years in Jerry Zucker`s garage.
The singing nun is Maureen McGovern who sings the theme song to the sitcom "Angie" (1979) which Robert Hays was co-starring in at the time of filming.
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# The obligatory copyright notice at the end of the film which warns against piracy or unauthorized duplication ends with the comment "So there!"
According to his autobiography, Christopher Lee turned down the role of Dr Rumack.
The music for the love scenes with Elaine and Ted was taken from The Hunters (1958) where Robert Mitchum plays a fighter pilot and May Britt his lover.
The movie`s dialog between Stricker and Rumack ("Surely you can`t be serious" "I am serious, and don`t call me Shirley") was voted as the #79 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
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# The Mustang used in the scene where Rex is being brought to the airport was owned by Robert Hays. He got paid $35 a day for its use and they used it for two days.
In the scene where the husband turns on the air for his sick wife, you see in the background a man wearing a large beard, it was supposed to fly off in the wind, but the adhesive they used wouldn`t let the beard come loose. The man can be seen moving his face back and forth and scrunching his face trying to help it come off.
The picture of the boy in the spinning newspaper that has the headline, "Boy Trapped In Refrigerator Eats Own Foot", is Billy Koch, the grandson of producer Howard W. Koch. His grandfather called him up one day and asked him for a photo of himself, so Billy grabbed his second grade school photo. It was only after the film came out that he found out why his grandfather wanted the photo.
In the scene with Johnny and Steve McCroskey, McCroskey says "Get me someone who won`t crack under pressure." Johnny responds "How about Mister Rogers?" If you look carefully that was dubbed in after. `Airplane!` was shot in August 1979. Stephen Stucker (Johnny) actually said "How about Mamie Eisenhower." The former First Lady died a few months later (in Nov. 1979) so the producers corrected it by dubbing in "Mister Rogers" out of respect for the Eisenhower family.
A disco station in the film is called WZAZ, a reference to filmmakers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. The same initials appear on one of the microphones in the scene with the reporters in the control tower.
When Striker takes control of the airplane, among the "voices" he hears is the announcement "Now batting for Pedro Borbon, Manny Mota... Mota... Mota..." Manny Mota was a pinch hitter for the Dodgers and Pirates - and was never on a team with Pedro Borbon.
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# Director Cameo: [Jerry Zucker and David Zucker] appear as the ground crew at the beginning of the film (they`re the ones that direct the plane into the window of the terminal).
To get the film green-lighted by Paramount, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker pitched it as "Animal House (1978) on a plane"--which, of course, was far from the truth, but the only way they could get the studio execs to understand it was a zany comedy.
The argument between the two P.A. voice-overs about an abortion comes from "a cheap, dime-store novel" according to the trivia track of the DVD version. That "novel" is actually Arthur Hailey`s "Airport" (which inspired the movie Airport (1970)).
The film`s title in Germany was "The Incredible Trip in a Crazy Airplane".
According to the soundtrack album cover (Regency Records, 1980), Johnny`s last name is Hinshaw.
In a 2008 interview on the Today Show, `Peter Graves` said he was initially insulted and offended by the script for `Airplane!`, but was convinced by friends and colleagues to do the movie.
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Julie Hagerty
(as Elaine)
with Robert Hays
(as Ted Striker)
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