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Writer, producer and director James S. 'Jim' Abrahams was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, to lawyer Norman Sidney Abrahams (1913-1965) and his wife Louise (née Ogens, 1915-2012), a University of Michigan graduate. Along with childhood friends and future collaborators Jerry Zucker and David Zucker, Abrahams studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1971, the trio --who would later be known simply as 'ZAZ'-- set up the small Kentucky Fried Theater to showcase their sketch comedies. Material for their first film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), was trialed by their improvisational troupe in front of a local audience. In the absence of approval from the big Hollywood studios, ZAZ decided to produce the film independently. Having managed to secure investors for the budget of $650,000, the picture proved a box office hit and ended up making $7.1 million in domestic rentals.

Influenced by the work of Mel Brooks, Abrahams and the Zucker brothers would eventually gain a cult following for creating an imperishable series of absurdist screwball comedies, spoofing genre movies through the blending of outrageous sight gags, witty (often risqué) rapid-fire dialogue peppered with quotable catchphrases and a smattering of pop culture references. They began the process by taping late night movies on television, often cliché-ridden or poorly acted B-grade productions. Abrahams explained: "In one day, we took a look at what was on our video machine, and there was this movie called "Zero Hour!," which is a 1957 melodrama. So you got this script, then, full of jokes, but you get actors who aren't known for telling jokes, who aren't comedians." To this, the team added the opening scene which parodied the beginning of Jaws (1975), effectively setting the tone for their disaster spoof Airplane! (1980). The cast was made up of 'serious' actors, who would deliver their lines in deadpan fashion, adding a surreal comic element to the proceedings. Leslie Nielsen, who had before been typecast as stern authority figures and villains, turned out to be a 'closet comedian', who pranked members of the cast in-between takes. Robert Stack, Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges, who had made their reputations as stalwart, unsmiling protagonists in TV action dramas, had to be persuaded to lampoon their heroic screen image (especially Graves, who initially rejected the script as 'garbage'). Some who declined to be cast later rued their decision (horror star Christopher Lee, in particular), while others who auditioned didn't make the cut (David Letterman for the Robert Hays role, Shelley Long and Sigourney Weaver for that of Julie Hagerty).

'Airplane!' was shot in nine weeks on a $3.5 million budget and ended up grossing $158 million worldwide. Nominated for a BAFTA, it won a 1981 Writer's Guild of America Award for 'Best Comedy Adapted from another Medium' and has been added to the National Film Registry as a significant work by the Library of Congress. It has also become one of the most quotable movies ever made ((Hays): "Surely, you can't be serious?" (Nielsen): "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."). In today's world of political correctness, Airplane would hardly be allowed to take off. Even so, new generations of film goers continue to find this and other ZAZ productions irresistibly funny.

 The Abrahams/Zucker team followed up their success with the TV series Police Squad! (1982) (which, in turn, spawned the popular 'Naked Gun' series of movies). Police Squad was a hilarious send-up of procedural crime dramas, with the vintage M Squad (1957) and The Felony Squad (1966) serving as templates. It fully established Leslie Nielsen as a comedy star in the role of bumbling Detective Frank Dreben. Unaccountably, ABC cancelled Police Squad after just one season, ostensibly because "the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it", a rationale TV Guide magazine subsequently described as "the most stupid reason a network ever gave for ending a series".

Later work by the ZAZ team included Top Secret! (1984), a zany, gag-filled spoof of Cold War espionage thrillers and Elvis Presley musicals; and the Top Gun (1986) burlesques Hot Shots! (1991) and Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993). The trio also directed the black comedy Ruthless People (1986), another palpable box office hit, described by critic Roger Ebert as being "made out of good performances, a script of diabolical ingenuity and a whole lot of silliness." A plot idea for an Airplane Sequel was also floated. Titled 'Airplane II: The Godfather', it would have featured Stack, Bridges, Graves and Nielsen as 'mob guys'. Though the idea was initially endorsed by Paramount studio bosses Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, it was ultimately given the thumbs down by Francis Ford Coppola who could not be dissuaded from his projected The Godfather Part III (1990).

In October 2023, ZAZ published their new book "Surely You Can't Be Serious", which provides an in-depth look at the making of Airplane!, complete with personal anecdotes and many not previously revealed snippets of information.

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Jim Abrahams

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