RIP Jim Abrahams
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Jim Abrahams, the writer-director who with brothers Jerry and David Zucker turned the comedy genre on its ear with such zany efforts as Airplane!, Police Squad! and The Naked Gun films, died Tuesday. He was 80.
Abrahams died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, his son Joseph told The Hollywood Reporter.
The trio made their first mainstream impression by writing the sketch-filled Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), directed by John Landis in his prelude to Animal House, and they also combined for Top Secret! (1984), starring a young Val Kilmer, and Ruthless People (1986), featuring Bette Midler and Danny DeVito.
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Sad… Great movies…
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2013 - 30th anniversary reunion.
Trivia:
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David Letterman read for the part of Ted Striker
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Kareem Abdul Jabbars role as Roger Murdock was originally written for Pete Rose.
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The film producers received permission from The Bee Gees to speed up Stayin Alive in the bar scene by 10%.
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For the argument between announcers concerning the white and red zones at the airport, the producers hired the same people who made the real announcements at Los Angeles International Airport. They were also married to each other in real life.
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The three directors had a long battle with the Directors Guild of America, who initially refused to allow for a three director credit. Jim Abrahams legally changed his name to [Abrahams and Zuckers] in order to ensure credit was given to all three directors in the credits. The Guild ultimately allowed the three director credit.
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Otto, the automatic pilot, ultimately disintegrated after spending several years in Jerry Zuckers garage.
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The movie cost $3.5 million and only took 34 days to make.
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The role of the Jive Lady was originally intended for Harriet Nelson, who had played the mother in the 1950s sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952). She turned down the role because she was concerned about the movie's adult language. She was replaced with Barbara Billingsley who played the mother in the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver (1957). Nelson later admitted to Robert Hays that she regretted not taking the role.
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Lloyd Bridges had a great deal of questions trying to understand his character, his motivation, and his dialogue, and Robert Stack pointed out that the visual gags were so frequent and nonsensical that no one in the audience was going to care. "Lloyd, we are the joke," said Stack to Lloyd.
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