"Airplane": Before Jerry Zucker Helped Ruin NBC, as NBC Became the Darth Vader--"Spaceballs" Version--of Tv Networks

Yes, Friday night I saw "Airplane" again on Turner Classic Movies. It is still so much funnier than modern movies (intentionally anyway). This is not because it is so intelligent a movie. It is SILLY, and could be blamed for partially creating the genre of gross, silly movies that afflict modern Hollywood.


But "Airplane" (rating 100 out of 100) is so FUNNY. The jokes come at you so fast you can't even keep track of them, including jokes in the background and in the closing credits--one AFTER the closing credits.


""Give me ham on five, and hold the Mayo" (referring to a phone call from a man named Ham on one line, while the Mayo clinic is on the other line).


Kareem Abdul Jabbar, as "Roger Murdock", co-pilot, being hauled unconscious out of his seat--showing the btttom part of his LAKER'S UNIFORM.


Yes, some of the jokes are lame, and even offensive (would get me in "trouble" on Newsvine):


a0 year old girl to 10 year old boy: I like my coffee black, like my men."


Doesn't matter. The movie is FUNNY. As I could never read/see another Gothic story with a straight face, after reading Jane Austen's send up of the Gothic novel, I could never see another disaster movie--after "Airplane"--without almost laughing.


Another thing. Notice how we have become a nation of PRIGS. In "Airplane", you still had SMOKING on airplanes (admittedly probably a bad idea). Now the anti-smoking Nazis won't even give you the choice to smoke is a BAR. Nor was that a joke. "Crash Landing" (another, straight disaster movie shown that night) showed SMOKING passengers as well. Now Philadelphia is putting a major TAX on soda pop with the express intention of making people NOT DRINK IT. I repeat: When did we become a nation of officious PRIGS?


Yes, "Airplane" shows that Jerry Zucker once had actual talent, before he became part of the disaster movie known as "NBC" (including, of course, MSNBC). Once, Jerry Zucker knew what he was doing. Once, NBC was not an evil, terrible network (especially when MSNBC is included).