![]() ![]() So, on “The Naked Gun,” ZAZ and co-writer Pat Proft made sure to focus on the narrative. “Who knew what the end of that was about?” Abrahams said. “Top Secret!”, though, had major narrative and character issues. Although “Airplane!” was a joke- and gag-heavy enterprise, the film had an obvious story with three distinct acts, along with a main character who had a clear arc. Not that the story should be the main appeal of a parody, just that there must be a good story for the jokes to serve. “We just thought ‘Airplane!’ worked because it was a bunch of good jokes,” Abrahams said. The widespread success of “Airplane!” produced one small but significant downside for the comedy trio, collectively known as ZAZ: It led them to unwittingly favor jokes and gags over narrative and structure. ![]() That’s the lesson David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams learned from the success of “Airplane!” Or, more accurately, it’s what they learned from the box office failure of their follow-up parody, “Top Secret!” The story matters a lot, especially the third act. “The baseball game stuff is some of my most favorite stuff that we’ve done,” Proft said. Regardless of the motivation, the decision to end “The Naked Gun” at a baseball game was a winning one - and it still resonates with guffaws and meme-worthy pop culture content 30 years after its release. It was a finale born during serious contemplation in the years after the big success of “Airplane!” - a period that also included the filmmakers’ funny but shapeless war movie/Elvis musical mash-up parody “Top Secret!” Drebin, who has been kicked off the force after some questionable tactics, must find a way to stop it.īut what will he do? How will it be funny? These were among the questions that writers David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft considered as they wrote what became one of the more iconic set pieces in 1980s comedy. It’s going to happen at a baseball game, during the seventh inning stretch, and will be carried out by a mystery player. There’s an evil scheme to assassinate the visiting Queen Elizabeth. But not this movie, not in the hands of four baseball nuts with a penchant for zaniness.Īs we reach the third act, the stakes are high: One might expect a police parody to end with an over-the-top car chase or perhaps a crazy shootout. So, “The Naked Gun” plays like a feature-length version of “Police Squad!” and co-stars otherwise-serious performers including George Kennedy, Ricardo Montalban and Priscilla Presley. Frank Drebin, a bumbling but straight-faced police detective, and, much like “Airplane!”, relied heavily on humorous wordplay and zany sight gags. ![]() But the entire plot of this classic film hangs on hardball.Įvery joke, every sight gag, every frame of celluloid in the first 59 minutes 45 seconds is just a brick on the path that leads to one of the most inspired finales, combining sport and comedy, ever put on screen.įor the young or otherwise unaware, “The Naked Gun” is a 1988 slapstick parody based on the short-lived 1982 TV series “Police Squad!”, which was produced by the creative team behind the all-time-great parody “Airplane!” The series starred Leslie Nielsen as Lt. At no point during the first two acts of “The Naked Gun” is there any hint that viewers will spend the final minutes of the film caught up in the minutiae of a baseball game. ![]()
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