The Ultimate Zero Hour! vs. Airplane! Scene Comparison (Part 1 of 4)

The 1980 movie Airplane! is a comedy remake of the 1957 drama Zero Hour! This video shows scenes from the two films that are almost identical. Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker (collectively known as ZAZ) wrote Airplane! while they were performing with Kentucky Fried Theatre, a comedy sketch troupe they founded in 1971. To get material for sketches, they would record late-night television and watch the tapes the next day. Jim Abrahams said: "The way we used to get material for Kentucky Fried Theater was like seining for fish: We’d throw our net out at night and just record stuff—whatever was on TV, it didn’t matter—so that we’d have grist to make fun of. And one morning we just got to work and there was Zero Hour!" Jerry Zucker said: "We’d never heard of Zero Hour! before then, and at first, we were probably sort of just fast-forwarding to the commercials, or maybe looking at but mostly just waiting for the commercials—but then we started really watching it and getting into the movie. And, you know, Zero Hour! actually works." After ZAZ wrote the screenplay for Airplane!, they were concerned that they might get sued for copyright infringement, so they bought the rights to Zero Hour! The film was so obscure that they were able to buy the rights for only $2,500. Like ZAZ, most people had never heard of Zero Hour! When Airplane! was released, most moviegoers thought it was just a spoof of disaster films, such as Airport.