Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!

Extremely enjoyable oral history from Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker about the groundbreaking, joke-a-minute Airplane!, including interviews with the stars, bit players, production crew, and current comedians who were influenced by its unique brand of humor. The book also looks back at ZAZ's youth and college days in Wisconsin, where their dream of writing and directing a hit comedy movie flourished despite their lack of knowledge, money, or connections. Their unlikely journey (anyone remember Kentucky Fried Movie?) eventually led to the point where ZAZ were cold calling Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges and other Hollywood drama veterans and begging them to star in their bizarre movie, playing it completely straight while chaos reigned around them. Among the many fun facts I learned from the book: the Paramount studio heads wanted Barry Manilow (!) to play leading man Ted Striker instead of Robert Hays; Shelly Long of Cheers fame auditioned for Elaine's part; and most of the dueling PA announcers' lines were lifted verbatim from Arthur Hailey's blockbuster suspense novel [b:Airport 124918 Airport Arthur Hailey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309288724l/124918.SY75.jpg 120317]. It should be noted that the non-ZAZ interviews were conducted by Will Harris, a former writer for the A.V. Club, whose “Random Roles” columns were highlights of the pop culture site. Sadly, AVC is now a shell of what it used to be because Capitalism, but I relish seeing writers from its heyday securing plum jobs like this one.