Skip to main content

ASU partner joins LA mayor to discuss iconic film


man being presented with movie poster on stage

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (standing, right) is presented with an "Airplane!" poster during the "My Favorite Movie" series hosted by Zócalo Public Square and KCRW, Feb. 26, at the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown L.A.
Photo by: Aaron Salcido, Zócalo Public Square

February 27, 2015

Ever wondered what makes Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti laugh?

June Cleaver speaking jive, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a pilot and a bowl of Jell-O on a turbulent plane.

Garcetti hosted Zócalo and KCRW’s “My Favorite Movie” series at the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown L.A., Feb. 26. He chose the 1980 classic comedy "Airplane!"

Zócalo is an affiliate of Arizona State University and is based at the ASU Center in Santa Monica, California. The Zócalo Public Square ideas project is a multiplatform, multimedia conversation that brings together thinkers, leaders, public figures and Americans from all walks of life to explore layered questions about how our nation’s past can help us understand its present and imagine its future.

In introducing the movie, the mayor said that "Airplane!" appeals to his “goofy sensibility,” the ability “to laugh at yourself, laugh at the world.” Garcetti also chose the movie because it broke new comedic ground and because “for a nine-year-old it was an exciting movie on all sorts of levels.”

After a screening of "Airplane!" KCRW "Press Play" host Madeleine Brand interviewed Garcetti, as well as the movie’s writing-directing-producing trio, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker.

Brand opened the discussion by referring to one of the movie’s most famous jokes – the fact that the stewardess can’t understand what two black passengers are saying – and asked the mayor, “Do you speak jive?”

“It doesn’t seem incomprehensible anymore,” said Garcetti. He added, “There’s so many things you probably couldn’t get away with doing now” in the movie, yet it still feels fresh, he said. Garcetti said that he loves how the humor of Abrahams and the Zuckers “always seems well-intentioned” and comes from a good place.

Garcetti said that when it came time to choose his favorite movie, there was some debate in his office; people thought he needed to choose a classic Los Angeles movie like "L.A. Confidential" or "Chinatown." But "Airplane!" is also an L.A. movie, he said. And it gets at some important issues of contemporary L.A. as well.

“LAX hasn’t been improved since the movie,” said Garcetti.

Brand asked the filmmakers if, when they made the movie, they had any idea it would become so iconic.

“We were just excited that it did well when it opened, but never ever thought it would have this long a life," said Jerry Zucker.

Jim Abrahams recalled that VHS machines were new at the time of the movie's release in 1980. They won an award for the world’s top-selling VHS – with around 25,000 copies sold.

Brand asked why the filmmakers decided to cast against type, with leading men who were not known as comedians.

“It was the only way we could do the movie,” said David Zucker. “We thought comedians would ruin it.” The idea was that it would look and feel like an old movie – but with voices that had been redubbed without the actors knowing it.

The studio, Paramount, was a bit perplexed about the intentions of its three young filmmakers. But after executives watched dailies from the first day of shooting, which featured Leslie Nielsen’s most famous line in the movie, “I am serious … and don’t call me Shirley,” they finally got in on the joke.

Brand asked how Lakers basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ended up in the movie.

“That role was originally written for Pete Rose,” said Abrahams. But the movie was shot in the summer, and Rose was playing baseball, so they rewrote the part for Abdul-Jabbar.

The movie was shot on a shoestring budget of $3 million and made $80 million domestically and $80 million internationally. This was very unusual at the time, said Jerry Zucker. But "Airplane!" traveled well because people around the world had seen the disaster movies it spoofed.

The Zuckers and Abrahams love the very movies they make fun of in "Airplane!"

“When we’re picking something to satirize, not only do we need to find something that we think is kind of laughable but also something that we have affection for,” said Jerry Zucker.

Turning to Garcetti, Brand asked him how L.A. has changed from the city presented in the movie.

“It was a wild time, clearly, in the 70s,” said Garcetti. But joking aside, "Airplane!" reminds him of a more “free-spirited” and innocent time in L.A. Since 1980, Los Angeles has gone through “some really deep things as a city,” he said, like riots and earthquakes. But before all that, “we were kind of the center of the universe, but we were also humble and anonymous.”

Garcetti said that watching the movie, and recognizing how it changed humor – creating a deadpan, fast-paced rhythm that didn’t exist before – also reminded him of the more unformed Los Angeles of his childhood.

The moviemakers gave Garcetti a signed poster, and asked him to read the inscription to the audience.

“To Eric Garcetti, or Current Mayor of Los Angeles: We’re thrilled that 'Airplane!' is your favorite film. On the other hand, we’re terrified that someone of that mindset is running the city.”

Written by Sarah Rothbard, Zócalo Public Square

More Arts, humanities and education

 

Illustrated image of a person's silhouette blending into a DNA structure

ASU professors explore impact of STEM education in US prisons

Arizona State University professors Joe Lockard and Tsafrir Mor have spent years educating inside prisons.  From poetry…

March 27, 2024
Two people standing in front of a bookshelf smiling

Humanities Lab transforms in-class research into real-world impact

As fall 2024 humanities labs launch in the new semester, the Arizona State University Library and Humanities Lab commemorate an…

March 22, 2024
Graphic depicting four elements: fire, water, earth and air

New degree brings humanist approach to world issues

Paulina Soto isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life. But the third-year Arizona State University student knows one thing…

March 22, 2024