Word: zucker
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...inevitable question about The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! has to be: Is it as funny as Airplane! (which also came from the writing/production team of David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Robert Weiss)? The answer is a qualified yes. At best, The Naked Gun has Airplane!'s same irreverent looniness characterized by sight gags and puns. But it's a smaller project, not so much a movie as a long episode of the 1982 TV series Police Squad! on which it is based...
...Luckily, Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker had the good sense to end the movie when it starts to wind down. It was reduced in test screenings from 105 to 85 minutes and is still a bit drawn out. Naked Gun is no epic and does not claim to be one. It's not quite Airplane!, but it still flies...
Weiss, who produced the film, is a jovial wiseguy, as are his frequent collaborators David Zucker and Jim Abrahams. When I told them I would be reviewing the movie, Zucker, in a facetious attempt to influence my opinion, said, "Really? That's a nice sweater you have on." When Abrahams arrived a few minutes later, I told him the same thing and he retorted, without prompting from Zucker, "Lovely shirt you're wearing...
...David Zucker and his brother Jerry met Abrahams in the early 1970s in Madison, Wisconsin, where they all were students. Together they worked up a show comprised of some video and live skits they called Kentucky Fried Theater. Weiss hooked up with the "ZAZ" (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker) team when he went to see the show and loved it, returning again and again. That production went on to be the basis for their low-budget cult classic, Kentucky Fried Movie...
Naked Gun is the result of the original idea for the Police Squad! TV series. ZAZ wanted to make a feature film out of the idea but, as Zucker says, "we had no story." Instead, they created a half-hour television show. When the show was cancelled after only four weeks, they were dismayed but somewhat relieved...