Jim Abrahams, the writer-director involved with the hit comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun, has died at the age of 80.
Here we take a look at the funniest moments from his most popular film and TV comedies.
‘Don’t call me Shirley’
Possibly one of the most quoted lines from any film of any genre, Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan delivery is put to its best effect in Abrahams’ Airplane! when he is asked: “Surely you can’t be serious?”
“I am serious,” replies Nielsen’s character, Dr Rumack, “… and don’t call me Shirley.”
‘Everywhere I look something reminds me of her’
Nielsen’s Frank Drebin, the hapless and inscrutable detective in Abrahams’ Police Squad series and Naked Gun movies, delivered silly moment after silly moment. Here in the first Naked Gun, Drebin is reminiscing wistfully about a former partner only to be reminded of her by suggestive architecture out the window of the police car.
‘Roy! Roy!’
Admiral Benson, a verging-on-senile US Air Force commander, played with scene-stealing hilarity by Lloyd Bridges, was the most memorable Abrahams creation in his Top Gun parody Hot Shots. Starring Charlie Sheen as the Maverick-esque Topper, the film and its sequel were popular in the 90s with its send-up of cultural juggernauts such as Top Gun and Rambo that took themselves very seriously. Here Benson is agitated by the too-quiet scene of an aircraft hangar outside his “window”…
‘I’m a locksmith and I’m a locksmith’
This quick quip from the Police Squad TV series, delivered by Nielsen’s Drebin, distills the joke-a-second energy of Abrahams’ creations. Not a scene or line was spared a joke.
‘And I’ll miss you most of all, scarecrow!’
Less well known than Naked Gun, Airplane! and Hot Shots!, Abrahams’ Top Secret! movie nevertheless developed a cult following with its daft send-up of musicals, second world war and spy films. Starring Val Kilmer in his debut role, in this scene the target is The Wizard of Oz …
