Disaster films were the rage in the 1970s and as the decade wore on the films got even more star studded and the stakes got higher, the script flabbier and our square jawed heroes getting even more po faced with each impending disaster.
Surely this could not continue and after Airplane it did not, as it burst the disaster film bubble and stop calling me Shirley!
Airplane with its deadpan humour, jokes with double meanings and risqué gags both visual and spoken broke the mould.
Even more than 30 years later it entices a new generation even though some of the topical references (Gerald Ford, Ethel Merman) might be meaningless to some new viewers.
The real beauty of Airplane was getting solid actors to play their part straight. Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen shine in their roles, totally ignoring the mayhem around them.
For Neilsen a man known for playing solid drama roles, it gave him a lucrative extension in his career as a slapstick comedy actor.
Airplane is just plane crazy.
