Airplane! - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Airplane! or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Airplane!

[kristina]

The only real source of tension between the filmmakers and then-Paramount head Michael Eisner were two key parts of the original filming plan: the movie was to take place on board a small prop plane instead of a larger Boeing 707 jetliner (forerunner to the Boeing 747), and it was to be filmed in black and white. Eisner told ZAZ that he respected their views but the movie would not be green-lit unless it was set on board a larger aircraft and filmed in color. He gave them a weekend to think it over, and on that Monday the filmmakers agreed to Eisner's requests. (The Boeing 707 was the world's leading commercial jet transport at the time, introduced in 1958.)

[amber]

Most of the jive talk between the two black passengers was improvised by the actors, Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs, as the ZAZ team weren't sufficiently "conversant" in black street language. In a bonus vignette for the "Don't Call Me Shirley" edition of the DVD, White and Gibbs explain how they came up with the dialect for the ZAZ team. Whenever the participants speak in regular English, the scene is subtitled in jive.

[bernard]

Zero Hour! (1957) was so obscure that Warner Brothers sold ZAZ the rights to use it as a resource for this film for only $2,500. This actually played a large part in the film getting made because the 1957 deal for Zero Hour! (1957) had been chopped into smaller segments that included a share of the film being owned by Paramount, which was how it got onto the radar of the studio's readers and eventually got Michael Eisner's attention and support.

[melinda]

Ethel Merman insisted on bringing her own hairdresser to set.

[harry]

The wheels shown on the landing gear while the plane is skidding down the runway after landing, look a lot like DU-BRO brand Smooth inflatable tires with positive seal air valves, for Radio Control planes.

[marc]

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.

[carla]

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.

[janice]

The Polish title of the movie is 'Is the pilot flying with us?' ('Czy leci z nami pilot?').

[elmer]

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 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970).

[jesse]

Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) dates the ill-fated Flight 209 to Chicago depicted here to [Wednesday] 5th March 1980.

[scarlett]

Robert Wuhl auditioned for the role of Ted Striker.

[tom]

The movie's title in Brazil is "Tighten your seat belts... The pilot is gone!" (Portuguese: Apertem os cintos... O Piloto Sumiu!)

[phyllis]

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.

[norma]

In an interview shortly after the death of Peter Graves in 2010, Ross Harris (Joey) said that Graves was extremely uncomfortable when the two were on set together; Graves avoided any contact with him when they were not filming. Harris also commented that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was "not acting" when he erupted and grabbed Joey following his relentless criticisms about Kareem's basketball performance. Harris said Kareem grabbed him very hard and Joey's fearful expression was quite real.

[ruby]

The film cost $3.5 million and only took 34 days to make.

[lonnie]

For the argument between announcers concerning the white and red zones at the airport, the producers hired the same voice artists who had made the real-world announcements at Los Angeles International Airport. At the real airport, the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only, and there's no stopping in the red zone (except for transit buses). They were also married to each other in real life.

[jeffrey]

According to directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker 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 that movie was aborted they expanded the story to this full-length feature.

[toni]

According to the DVD commentary, the song "Stayin' Alive" from the Bee Gees played in the Bar-Scene, was pitched to +10% its normal speed. As said, they had to get the permission from the record label to do so.

[gabriel]

The woman trying to apply makeup in the film is David Zucker and Jerry Zucker's actual mother, Charlotte. She would also have cameos in The Naked Gun films as well.