Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker

7th May 2024

David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker – together they created some truly classic comedies: “Airplane!,” “Top Secret,” and “The Naked Gun.” They recently wrote a book called “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!.” We’ve got Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker on the latest episodes to talk about the book and the rules of comedy. They also dive into why they cast Leslie Nielsen in their projects and what it was like to work with him.

Episode notes

(Photo: St. Martin’s Press)

The legendary comedy writers on ‘Airplane!,’ ‘The Naked Gun’ and more

David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker – together they created some truly classic comedies: The Kentucky Fried Movie, Top Secret, Ruthless People, and The Naked Gun

And of course, there’s Airplane!. The jokes in that film are basically perfect. Profoundly dumb, in almost every case, but perfect. Nobody else has been able to replicate that combination of unhinged silliness and dead dry sincerity. It’s a Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker original.

Together they recently wrote a book. It’s called Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!. It’s not strictly a book about that iconic comedy. 

It’s a book about a collaboration that’s lasted almost half a century. It’s a book about Z-A-Z’s triumphs and disappointments. It’s a book about how to make something funny for TV and film. There’s even a handy list of comedy rules. 

We’ve got David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker on the latest episodes to talk about the book. They dive into why they cast Leslie Nielsen in their projects and what it was like to work with him. They also share one weird trick to write good comedy for TV and movies. Actually, it’s many tricks, an entire list! 

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow
Video Editor

Guests

  • David Zucker
  • Jim Abrahams
  • Jerry Zucker

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Video Editor

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