Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) is a veteran of the Police Squad led by Captain Ed Hocken. Each episode starts with the police siren and ends with the fake freeze frame. It's the team of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker who created the iconic Airplane! movie. After the show's quick cancellation, the team would take it to the big screen as the Naked Gun franchise. As silly as the ABC cancellation seems, it's probably for the best to move it to the theaters. It says more about the network brass than the audience at large who certainly got the humor in the movies. It's great that the guys can recycle some of the jokes into their movies.
The jokes come fast and furious. The Frank interviewing Sally scene is hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. It's as good as any "Who's on First" routine. Leslie's deadpan delivery gets me right away. The audience gets hit with that joke early in the first episode and it doesn't slow down. The jokes, both visual and verbal, are not going to stop. It's unlike anything I can recall during that TV era. It's Airplane! on steroids. Even now, the style of outrageous spoof is mostly in the animated field. It has few compatriots and no real competition. Peter Lupus is a bit stiff as Norberg although with hindsight, he's a much better choice than O.J. Simpson.
The jokes come fast and furious. The Frank interviewing Sally scene is hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. It's as good as any "Who's on First" routine. Leslie's deadpan delivery gets me right away. The audience gets hit with that joke early in the first episode and it doesn't slow down. The jokes, both visual and verbal, are not going to stop. It's unlike anything I can recall during that TV era. It's Airplane! on steroids. Even now, the style of outrageous spoof is mostly in the animated field. It has few compatriots and no real competition. Peter Lupus is a bit stiff as Norberg although with hindsight, he's a much better choice than O.J. Simpson.