Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine DRAMA! COMEDY!!!

"Looks like I picked the wrong time to quit smoking cigarettes!"

Tonight, AMC ran ZERO HOUR! with Dana Andrews & Sterling Hadyn. It turns out this was the movie that AIRPLANE! was based on. Myself, I alwsys suspected it had been THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (with Robert Stack & John Wayne), but this was no loose inspiration. It was more like an EXACT REMAKE!!! Every scene, half the dialogue, even some character names, like "Ted Stryker". Wow!

I always said that AIRPLANE! was like a MAD-magazine parody of a movie-- but until tonight, I never knew exactly which one. I have a feeling maybe 10 times more people have seen the comedy remake than the serious original.

Over the years, there've been numerous instances of a "drama" inspiring a "comedy", and unusually, I wind up preferring the comedy. This was especially true with FAIL SAFE (with Henry Fonda as The President) and DR. STRANGELOVE (with Peter Sellers as The President). In this case, both were actually adapted from the SAME novel (RED ALERT) and filmed simultaneously-- and Sterling Hadyn was in the comedy version.

Any others come to anyone's mind?

There have been a few genre-spoofs, like Scary Movie and Yet Another Teenage Movie. I didn't know Airplane was based on one specific film, though.

Some years back I sat down with my Dad to watch THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. Another airplane disater movie, this one starred Robert Stack as a pilot who loses his nerve, and John Wayne as her former commanding officer who in the end helps him get his nerve back. Now, a lot of people who didn't know any better figured AIRPLANE! was inspired by AIRPORT-- but watching THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, the parallel between Robert Stack's character & Robert Hays' in the later film seemed too strong. Having Stack essentially play John Wayne's roll in the later film seemed a cool idea. However, all these years later I discover this other film that was SCENE-FOR-SCENE exactly the same. (So Robert Stack was really playing Sterling Hadyn's roll from ZERO HOUR!)

Earlier, the same 3 guys who did AIRPLANE! did an anthology film, KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE. IN the middle is a 30-minute segment titled A FISTFUL OF YEN. This is essentially the MAD-style parody of ENTER THE DRAGON ! My favorite bit in it must be when the villain announces the horrible fate for one of his enemies: "Take him to DETROIT!" "No! No! NOT Detroit!!!"

Then there's also INDEPENDENCE DAY / MARS ATTACKS! Basically, the same story-- except in this case, I'm SURE that the comedy was in the works long before the "serious" film was rushed into production to beat it to theatres. Once again, a case where I prefer the funny version. "Why can't we all just-- get along?"