#364 A Legendary Career in Comedy with Airplane and The Naked Gun’s David Zucker!

Jeff Dwoskin [00:00:00]: All right, everyone, I am excited to introduce my next guest. He has been part of the team that brought us Airplane. Top Secret Police Squad, Naked Gun, Scary Movie three, four Ruthless People. I could go on and on and on. Also author of Surely you Can't Be Serious. The True Story of Airplane. Please welcome to the show the legendary David Zuckerberg.

David Zucker [00:00:28]: Thank you. Properly, I need to be regarded as.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:00:32]: A legendary, legendary, iconic comedic.

David Zucker [00:00:37]: I won't apologize for that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:00:39]: Yeah, I think you've earned it.

David Zucker [00:00:42]: You would think. Although Paramount didn't think I was legendary enough to do Naked Gun Forest. So, you know.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:00:50]: Well, that's on them. I hit what happened, I think.

David Zucker [00:00:54]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:00:55]: So you're all right. So they're making this new one with Liam Neal.

David Zucker [00:00:59]: Liam Neeson, anyways. No, Pat Proft and Mike McManus and I, who have worked together for years, you know, we actually know what we're doing, although we are old. We had the idea, I don't know, seven years ago to do Naked Naked, Another Naked Gun. And so we had a great idea to revamp, reboot the franchise with a young star, you know would be Leslie Nielsen, Frank Drebit's son. And so we wrote. Wrote a script, and at first, Paramount loved it and everything, and then Seth McFarland swooped in and, you know, he's a, you know, big famous producer and did Family Guy and Ted and all this stuff and hired a young. A young director and they hired young writers. So I'm not going to comment anymore on what they've done, but it's obviously, you know, it's not what we would have done.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:01:54]: At some point, do you. Did you, I guess, assume you lose the rights to it or. It never.

David Zucker [00:01:59]: We never had the rights, you know, 35 years ago or whenever we made this original Naked Gun deal, it was 1988. You know, you just. In those days, maybe in these days, too, you just give away everything. All they. They own the IP for everything, so they can do what they want. If I. If I could go back and do. And say, you know, I would like to have said in 25 years, the rights revert to me or we get to split them something. But, you know, I asked my brother Jerry about this. He. He doesn't think that they ever would have given up any rights.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:02:34]: Hmm.

David Zucker [00:02:35]: That's just. That's how. That's Hollywood. That is my answer to all this, is, that's Hollywood. So we repurposed our script and, you know, we're going to raise independent money.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:02:46]: You're going to make your Own.

David Zucker [00:02:48]: Yeah, we'll make our own. It's called. We repurpose the script. It's called counterintelligence, spelled with one L and a J. And. And. And so we're going. And it's. It's not a LA detective thing like Naked Gun. That was done 35 years ago, and we didn't want to do the same thing. We also didn't want to try to replace Leslie Nielsen, because you can't. There's only one Leslie Nielsen. So, you know, we. We wanted to do a fresh start, but, you know, we're old and adjudged to be not competent enough to do this stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:03:24]: Oh, so in Hollywood's. In Hollywood, you guys have aged out. You're not.

David Zucker [00:03:29]: Well, yeah. Over 45. I think we're aged out, so. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:03:35]: Oh, well, that. That is just a shame.

David Zucker [00:03:38]: It's a shame. But. And, you know, I. You know, I try to keep on glass half full. You know, somehow these scripts will get done. We have another script, which is a film noir romantic comedy. Really? But it's film noir.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:03:55]: It's.

David Zucker [00:03:55]: It's Great. Set in 1949. It'll be black and white. We're working on that, too. I mean, we've done the script, so now we're trying to raise money. We may even do, you know, crowdfunding for it.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:04:08]: That would be. Well, that would be amazing. I. Yeah, it's. It's a shame that they didn't. So, like, you'd think I would. I would have guessed. And I don't know anything about anything.

David Zucker [00:04:16]: Other than I can tell that you don't know anything.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:04:19]: I don't know anything.

David Zucker [00:04:20]: Oh, at least we're starting from that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:04:21]: Yeah, at least we're starting from the same baseline. The. No, but like, a Seth MacFarlane would be, I would have thought, would have been, like, smart enough to go back and at least bring you guys in or like, something like thank you on a back end.

David Zucker [00:04:36]: I tried. I tried to get an audience with him, and. And. And the word came back. He didn't call me back personally, but the word came back from on high that, wait till he does the script. But that's like, you know, let's. Let's make sure the horses are there after they've left the barn. It's, you know, it's too late after the script is done. But I would have said don't cast Liam Neeson because that's trying to replace Leslie Nielsen. But, you know, I don't want to be so arrogant as to say that I'M right and they're wrong, but the proof will be in August when the movie comes out.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:05:18]: All right, well.

David Zucker [00:05:19]: And if it's great.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:05:20]: Gonna go see it? Are you gonna go see it?

David Zucker [00:05:22]: No. I didn't go see Airplane two either.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:05:25]: Right, I know that. I know. I'm just asking how we're talking, so I figured.

David Zucker [00:05:31]: No, no, I don't go. I don't go see every movie anyways. I only go see movies if three different people I trust say it's good, because otherwise I can't. I can't sit through movies.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:05:41]: It's hard to go to the theater these days because people, like, they're on their phones. It's like. It's like. It's. You can't even enjoy the experience.

David Zucker [00:05:48]: But, I mean, there have been some good movies. You know, I saw. What's that movie where the. Where Jim Caviezel goes to South America to find a kidnapped child? That was great. I mean, I don't go to see comedies that much, but there was another one where the Holdovers, I thought that was great. Just a great story and great acting, and I found myself laughing. And I'm such a comedy snob that I don't laugh at anything, so. But this. This was funny.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:06:20]: The Holdovers is great. The Holdover, yeah.

David Zucker [00:06:23]: Yeah. Al Giovanni is great.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:06:25]: Yeah, it was a delightful movie. Okay, so. Right. So you never. You never saw Airplane 2. But in the book, you do talk about that. You had a plan. You, like, had you been allowed to make a sequel to Airplane?

David Zucker [00:06:37]: Well, we. We were. I mean, look at the time. Michael Eisner and Jeff Katzenberg and Barry Diller ran the studio. They were determined to do Airplane 2, and they did come to us first. So to their credit, they said, okay, Zaz, what would you like to do? And we said, well, our first choice is not to do Airplane two. But then we thought about it and we said, yeah, we got an idea. And it's in the book. How. The idea we came up with was that a striker and Elaine fly down the plane and they kiss and they. They. They get married, and he takes her home to meet his family. And it's the Godfather. He's. He's essentially Michael Corleone. And that would have been a great idea. And Eisner and Katzenberg loved it. And so we were all, we're going to do it. And they. They. But they had to ask Coppola, and because. And Coppola said, no, I want to do Godfather iii. And so we couldn't do it. So they went ahead and again, they got, got people who. Young writers, you know, didn't know what they were doing. And you got Airplane, too. I, I, and I don't know that it was even that bad, but it, I think it opened as these things opened because of the name and then quickly died out. So. But in this case, it was not Eisner and Katzenberg and Paramount's fault for Naked Gun 4. It is completely Paramount's fault.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:08:16]: All right, well, hashtag boycott Naked Gun for it. The.

David Zucker [00:08:20]: Well, no, don't. I would say wait to. Wait to waste your money. Wait. Wait till you hear about it.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:08:27]: Right, right, right.

David Zucker [00:08:28]: I don't want to badmouth it because I don't know what they've done. They, it could be great. So. But I, I think there's, there's probably, there's a, there's a 50, 50 chance of it being great, but there's only a 10% chance of that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:08:44]: Well, I feel like it's, I mean, you inspire. I mean, your, your comedy. Zaz. Comedy inspired what has become the Family Guys and the Simpsons and the, the Non Sequiturs and the Cutaway.

David Zucker [00:08:58]: Right. And so, so I would say, you know, Seth MacFarlane, you know, he called me up, you know, after I talked to the director, who's also a very nice guy, and the director came to my house and we talked about it, and I just said, you know, we had written our own script, which we think would have been the best way to do this. And then, and then Seth MacFarlane. But I said I wouldn't put my name on it. They wanted me to put my name on for money, for. To be executive producer. And looking back at, I should have, I should have done it because I need the money now. You know, just this morning, my hot water heater broke. It's going to cost me $8,000. And so I could have used the $8,000 they were offering me, but I said no, because I have my, I have my standards and my morals and everything. So I said, I'm sorry, I can't do this because I can't put my name on anything I don't work on anyway. So four hours later, Seth calls me. Nicest guy in the world. He was very. Loves Naked Gun, Top Secret Airplane. They're big fans of mine, yet I'm not sure there's a disconnect there. They think that I'm, you know, kind of in a wheelchair. And on my last month of life, that's all I can figure out is they think I'm not funny anymore. And maybe I'm not, but I at least wanted the chance to do our script.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:10:27]: That would have been nice. All right, well, we'll see it as.

David Zucker [00:10:29]: Counterintelligence, so, yeah, we'll see it as counterintelligence. And the other one is called Star of Malta.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:10:36]: There you go. Well done.

David Zucker [00:10:37]: Which would be done in black and white. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful script. And look, I'm. I'm enthusiastic. I like. I. I want to do movies, and I love doing. We've read. You know, as John Davison, our producer on Airplane once said, I don't know what the context was, but he said, anyone can make a bad movie. So I want to do. I want to do my own material, and I'll wait till I'm able to raise the money. And I need to meet the right billionaire to finance this stuff because the studios won't do it.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:11:12]: Was it ever easy for you to raise money? I mean, because in the book, when we talked about Kentucky Fried Movie and then Airplane, like, it was quite a rigmarole.

David Zucker [00:11:21]: Yes. Once we did Airplane, then it was easy to raise money. As my brother, Jerry Zucker, his famous quote is that the. The movie business is impossible to get into or out of. You know, after Airplane, of course, they were falling all over. And then. And then even after we did Top Secret and it didn't really perform at the box office, now it's, of course, a cult classic and everything. Then it was still easy to get. My. Eisner and Katzenberg had moved to Disney. They said, will you do Ruthless People? We read it. We thought it was hysterically funny, and so we did that. And then we went back and we wanted to do our Police Squad television series, which was canceled after six episodes, that we wanted to turn to a movie, and we did. So, you know, that's. Then it was easy after Naked gotten to raise money. Of course, you know, if you do a flop, then you have to go into director jail. And. And that's. That takes 16 months.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:12:24]: Okay.

David Zucker [00:12:24]: To get out of 16. 16 months, yes. And so because I. After. After Naked Gun, I did high school high, and then basketball. Basketball was another flop, but I really never had a flop, only cult classics. And so everybody loves basketball now. So, in fact, as an idea, to turn it into a TV series, which would be a terrific idea.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:12:54]: Baseball is hilarious. And there's this one scene that sticks in my head. Well, probably just because I love Jenny McCarthy, but where she's holding the knob and like, she. It's like she's wiping her mouth because she had just cleaned.

David Zucker [00:13:07]: Oh, it's a trailer hitch.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:13:08]: There's a trailer. Trailer hitch. Yes. So funny. So funny. Was it easy to work with or fun to work with the south park guys, given this was your script and they're, they're probably the ones.

David Zucker [00:13:20]: Right?

Jeff Dwoskin [00:13:20]: This is probably a flip for you, right?

David Zucker [00:13:22]: Yeah. First of all, it was our script, but I think Matt and Trey, you know, to their credit, and they're so talented, they wrote a third of, they came up with a third of the stuff, which I, I never could have written, you know, like they write. So it was a good combination. And, you know, the fact that it would. It flopped was not their fault. And they were, they were acting in it and they were, they were so good, so talented. I don't think they thought they were great in it, but, but they were. If you, if you look, go look at their performance, they were, they were terrific. And I, I know the reasons why the flops I had, which were top secret in basketball, were. Did not perform. And there's. It's a whole other reason than. I mean, the jokes are fine, but, but what happened is you have to obey the laws of story and character. And the stories were good in both of them, but we didn't give Val Kilmer a character in the first act. He needed to have an intrinsic psychological problem. And also Matt and Trey did not either. We had, they were friends and then they, toward the, in the second act, they kind of went apart and they got back together. We thought that was enough. It wasn't. So it was really on us and I, I totally learned from that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:14:59]: Very interesting variant. Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's really kind of fascinating.

David Zucker [00:15:04]: But that's the reason. And you know, everybody says, oh, top secret. So great. And it is, it probably has the funniest jokes and also the weirdest stuff we've ever done. You know, we have the station leaving the train and all is weird. And we had the underwater fight scene and the scene in the Swedish bookstore, which is completely backward, just some wonderful things in it. But I think it doesn't matter if you don't have your character. If you don't give your character that, that really intrinsic problem in the beginning.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:15:44]: Would you, if you could go back in time, would you change it knowing it becomes a cult classic or.

David Zucker [00:15:50]: Well, no, if I. It's still gonna. Could have been. Well, I would trade in box office hit for cult classic any day. So. But I, of course I would go back and change it and I've talked about that with Jim Abrams many times. How, you know, we could have, we could have just changed a little bit and, and done that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:16:14]: They're so revered now. It's like, it's funny because, like, for me, a fan point of view, like when you look at those kind of things and it's like, you know, it's like, oh, I've always enjoyed it. I've always.

David Zucker [00:16:25]: Right. And you know, but ultimately I'm telling, I'm look it, I'm arguing against myself. But yeah, you know, in Top secret, as good as it was, at the end of the movie, you walk up the aisle of the theater and you didn't have the feeling that we won. It was like Alex Karras read a book and maybe this is, these are too old of references to talk about, but during the Lombardi years, the Lions would always play the packers. And Alex Kara said, and we were just beating the crap out of the packers up and down the field and then. But we looked up at the scoreboard at the end of the game and we lost. And that's. I just think about that analogy and that's, that's top secret.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:17:09]: Right? Well, your point of view would be completely different than mine in the sense that I said there. I love it. And now you're in jail for 16 months.

David Zucker [00:17:16]: Yeah, I had to be in jail, but actually not from, not from top secret because a baseball. Airplane was so overwhelming for basketball. I was in jail for 16 months.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:17:28]: Oh, man.

David Zucker [00:17:29]: But then I did. Then, then I did the scary, the scary movies I did. I directed Scary Movie 3 and 4, which were huge hits. So.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:17:40]: Right. So right. Keenan, Ivory, Wayne's, Matt and Trey, like you inspired. I mean, that was the interesting thing about. One of the interesting threads throughout the book was just Peter Farley, like all the quotes of the people that you inspired.

David Zucker [00:17:54]: Yeah, evidently. And you know, but looking at actually the weigh ins, I can see how they were inspired. I don't see how much. And Matt and Trey say south park is inspired or they were inspired by Airplane, but I don't see it in South Park. South park is amazing. And you know, the Wayans did more of that spoof kind of thing and they did a great job of it. You know, the first scary movie was great and I thought they did a terrific job. Who else did we mention? Oh, yeah, the Fairlies. Great, great work.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:18:33]: How did you end up taking over the Scary Movie franchise?

David Zucker [00:18:37]: Well, I was deep in jail for basketball, I guess. I had done a. My partner at the time, Gil Netter. We had Zucker, Netter Productions. We had an office in Santa Monica. He somehow got in. There was going to be a strike. So he got me this Ashton Kutcher movie called My Boss's Daughter. So I worked for Bob Weinstein for a movie and the movie wasn't that great, but Weinstein called me and said, zucker, you're a better director than your material. So I think he kind of wrote it down. So when somehow he wasn't able to make a deal with the Wayans for Scary Movie three, so he called me and he said, would you like to do scary movie 3? And the deal was great. And so I said, is there a script? He said, yes, there's a script. And it was some terrible script that they had. So we got Pat Proft and Craig Mason together and. And we wrote a completely new script based on Signs in the Ring.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:19:49]: Because you were able to rewrite it, was it.

David Zucker [00:19:52]: We didn't rewrite it. We started from scratch.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:19:54]: I'm sorry, because you were able to write it from scratch, was it then you didn't. It wasn't weird, like, to take over, like the franchise, like, you know, someone else's thing?

David Zucker [00:20:03]: Not at all, no. The Wayans were doing spoof, and spoof is. Although they didn't do. They wouldn't. They didn't do it the way we did it. First of all, they did it R rated, which was great for them. They're very talented and. But I do PG 13. So we, I think we broadened the audience well, probably got a lot more white people involved. But, you know, we did a PG 13. You know, it just worked. It just worked great because the combination of Craig Mason and Pat Proft was. Was wonderful. And we had Bob Weiss, who. Who produced the Naked Guns with me or for me, did the producing for the scary movies. And of course, you know, we had to deal with Bob Weinstein, who I grew to love. But, you know, it was a little bit contentious for a while and. But we, we got it done and I'm still friends with Bob.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:21:04]: You mentioned Jim Abrams. I know, we just. He just passed away, so. Sorry. I know you guys go back forever.

David Zucker [00:21:10]: Oh, we go back, yeah, to, you know, early high school and, you know, we had a long partnership and we just developed this humor together and. But Jim. Jim got. He had leukemia about 25 years ago and so. But they were able to, you know, cure him with blood bone marrow transplants. But, you know, after decades, it starts to. The side effects were that his lungs were affected and he really went downhill in the last year. They didn't even think he would last till the publication of the book, which was, you know, a year ago October.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:21:50]: Oh, wow. So, all right. So we got.

David Zucker [00:21:52]: But he got to see that. Yeah. And the book was very important to him because, you know, it was. He always said, this is. This is a legacy. And he wanted his. His kids to really understand because my kids didn't really know the story, you know, and our ex wives didn't know the story. So we really needed to get, you know, put that out there.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:22:15]: It was right then. Then the three of you would. Do you guys. Have you done a lot together recently or even just like.

David Zucker [00:22:21]: No.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:22:21]: His friends. I mean, but like, with this book, like, you're like a really good kind of capper then.

David Zucker [00:22:26]: Yeah, well, we hadn't collaborated. We hadn't collaborated since Naked Gun. In the first naked gun in 88. I did the other two to myself and. But then this book came along a couple of years ago, and it really gave us a chance to get back together and collaborate on one last project. And it kind of proved to me, you know, how. What a great partnership it was and how we needed all three of us. There was no. Not one guy. It was so equal. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:23:04]: Yeah. I love the stories. And I do want to say, just to tie back To Naked Gun 4, I saw on your Instagram you said, jerry and I are about Jim's passing. Jerry and I are heartbroken, but at least Jim won't have to see Naked Gun 4.

David Zucker [00:23:18]: Yeah, right. No, it's like. And the other thing that. I don't know if Jim taught us this, but Jim's main thing in life was not to take anything seriously. So I think Jim would have appreciated that quote. He could shrug things like this off, you know, and. And he would just shake his head just like I am, and say, that's. That's Hollywood. And, you know, and not to get. Not to be bitter about it. Of course I'm bitter about it, but, you know, I try to channel Jim and shrug it off and say that's just stupid Hollywood stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:23:58]: So in the book, when you talk about the three of you guys working together. Love the book, by the way. It was like I felt like I knew some things, and then there was just so much.

David Zucker [00:24:07]: Oh, yeah. There's so much that people don't know. And it makes a great Christmas gift. You know, just go to the airplane book.com or Amazon. And it's. It's not very expensive.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:24:20]: No. And it's. It really is great if. If you love like, which I love like, this is exactly the type of book that I actually love love. And I. It was very interesting to me how the whole Kentucky Fried Theater movie, how all that kind of weaved into the. It was just as much part of the story as everything else. But the one thing when you talk about the three of you guys was the fighting to get credit because it had never been done before for all three of you as directors for the film. Airplane.

David Zucker [00:24:49]: Right. The Directors Guild, Paramount was fine with it. I mean, they weren't fine with us directing. But we finally said, you know, we ain't giving you the script if we can't direct it. And we knew we had to direct it. So. But. But then the main problem was the GGA said, no, we're not giving three a three man director credit. So we kept having meetings and everything. And so one of the stories we tell in the book is how we weren't sure what to do because no way we're just going to choose one of us as the director. So what we did was Jerry went down to LA City hall and had his name legally changed to Abraham's N. Zucker's. And that would have been the director's credit and the DGA would have been completely embarrassed. So they held another kangaroo court meeting and we were supposed to bring new information and we, you know, brought something that they could hang their hat on and say, oh, we didn't know that. And they gave us the director credit. And only, only by one vote. And there was a. There was a great DGA board member, past president named Gil Cates, who, you know, was great. And he. He was the deciding vote. One vote. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:26:12]: The rest is history.

David Zucker [00:26:13]: And the rest is history.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:26:16]: So I was reading the book and then I was rewatching the movie again. I've seen it like a million times, like a million people have. And I remember seeing it in the theater when I was probably too young to see it. It was. I just, you know.

David Zucker [00:26:28]: And somebody had the bad judgment to take you to see that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:26:31]: Yeah, but it's one of those. It's always remain one of the greatest things ever. But what was fun about rewatching it is my wife who doesn't rewatch anything. She's sitting there watching it with me and just laughing her ass off as we're rewatching this thing. Because she probably hasn't seen it in forever. For Forever.

David Zucker [00:26:50]: Right.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:26:51]: And she's just. It was just fun hearing her laugh. The one thing that I don't Know how I never caught. Was Peter Graves at the very beginning, standing in front of the. The Wacky Materials sign. I just. I never saw that sign. I'm watching this one time and I was like, right there, but, yeah, so funny.

David Zucker [00:27:12]: The other thing that people don't see is when the airplane, know, breaks through the big glass window of the terminal and everybody runs away in panic. A woman throws up her baby. It's actually in there. Yeah. I think we. We show a still picture of it in the book and circle it so you see it.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:27:32]: I read. Yeah, I read that in the book. Now I got to go. Go back and rewatch.

David Zucker [00:27:38]: See it again and again and Paramount will make more money. Bless them.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:27:42]: Bless them.

David Zucker [00:27:45]: You know, Paramount was completely cooperative in, you know, getting us stills and everything. They were. They were great. It's just the. The people who are in charge of the movie business who. Yes.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:28:00]: The great thing about the book was that those stills that you would pull out and you would reference the movie. It was. I don't know. As I was going through the book, I was just like. I don't know, just each one of those, they just came back alive in my head. I mean, it was just. They were such the perfect images and captions to like, fully kind of replay that moment in my head. And they're so. Everything is so funny.

David Zucker [00:28:23]: And.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:28:24]: Love the book. Love the book.

David Zucker [00:28:25]: Thank you. And we were able to get a lot of stills, or at least enough from Zero Hour, which airplane is based on.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:28:33]: And. Yes. And the one thing I got from the book was that your use of the explanation Mark was from Zero Hour, but I don't think I really realized. Realized it was in everything until. Yeah, I read that and I'm like, oh, yeah, it is everywhere.

David Zucker [00:28:50]: It's everywhere. We. We couldn't stop. I. I don't think it was a naked gun, but it was. It was in top secret.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:28:56]: There was a Detroit joke in Airplane. I'm gonna say, didn't age.

David Zucker [00:29:00]: And in Kentucky and all through Kentucky Fried Movie. Yeah, it's always Detroit. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:29:06]: I'll have to admit, I started rewatching Kentucky Fried Movie, but I couldn't get through the whole thing because it's. My family was always around.

David Zucker [00:29:14]: Oh, yeah, it's. It's full of naked stuff. And. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:29:18]: My wife walks right in on the. The full porno spoof.

David Zucker [00:29:23]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:29:23]: And she's like, what are you watching? And it was just like, no matter how hard I tried, you're caught.

David Zucker [00:29:28]: Caught. Yeah. Catholic high school girls in trouble. Well, I showed my Son Charles Airplane. When he was 2 years old, you know, he was able to talk, but he said his favorite part was the movies.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:29:40]: Oh, before I forget, we were talking about basketball earlier.

David Zucker [00:29:44]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:29:45]: Cato Kalin. I was interviewing Cato Kaelin, and he couldn't say enough nice things about you. He said, like, his wedding was at your house.

David Zucker [00:29:52]: Yeah, I know. Yeah. Cato and I have been friends for, I don't know, for 30 years, something like that. Because he knew my wife's sister and he was. We just stayed friends. And also he's from Wisconsin and we both share OJ So. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:30:12]: Right.

David Zucker [00:30:13]: Yeah. It's, like, so crazy. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:30:16]: So John Landis, Kentucky Fried Movie. You learned a lot from John Landis and the script writing process from him. That was.

David Zucker [00:30:25]: And directing. We learned a lot from Landis. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:30:28]: Once you got the money. And then he's like, oh, I'll direct it. I'll help you with the script. I'll help you, I guess, in a way, tell you what a script is.

David Zucker [00:30:36]: Yeah. Well, we. We originally had the idea for Airplane, and we sat down, we wanted to write a script, and so. But we didn't know how to do it or any. The first thing. So we called John Landis, and so he came to see our show, and we agreed to have lunch next day at Hamburger Hamlet. And so then it's. And this is in the book. We tell the story. We said, we want to. We want to do a movie. And he said, well, first you need a script. And we said, yes, we know that, but what does one look like? That's how complete novices we were. And so he went back to his car and got a script out of his trunk, which was American Werewolf in London, which was, you know, years away from ever being shot. And so we use that to figure out what form to use, you know, the slug lines and dialogue and everything. And then Landis was going to direct the first version of Airplane. But, you know, it was a very crude version of Airplane. Although it was based on Zero Hour, we had Beaver Cleaver flying down the plane. It was. We didn't know what we were doing, so. And. And we couldn't raise any money for it, so we gave that up. In fact, we had cast ourselves out of the show, out of our Kentucky Fried Theater show. And we called our. The new show My Nose, just so our weekly listing in the LA Times would read, My Nose Runs Continuously. So Landis. We invited Landis to come and see that, and he said, yeah, it's impossible to raise money but why don't you do a. A lower budget movie based on your show? It was completely. Landis. His idea to do Kentucky Fried Movie. So. And we said, yeah, great. And. And Landis said, yeah, I'll direct it, which is fine. And that we were able to raise money for.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:32:30]: And this is where you learned that if you write something, you need to direct it.

David Zucker [00:32:34]: We need to direct it. Right. Because, you know, we had. And Landis was very. He was great because, you know, directors don't want three cubs constantly running up to him saying, can you do it this way? Do it. And, you know, he. And he tolerated us pretty well. And. But we wanted to win all the arguments. So, you know, we decided now that we knew how to direct. We saw what Landis was doing and we thought it was great. And also John added a lot of. A lot of great jokes to the movie. It was a great collaboration, but we wanted to do it at our own pace. And we finished cutting the movie and the movie was a hit. It was great. And especially we loved Fistful of Yen, the Bruce Lee parody. It was a forerunner of that airplane style. And then we went back, we rewrote Airplane. The airplane script. And then the movie was really a lot better, although it wasn't in its final form because when we got to Paramount, Paramount insisted that we do rewrites. And it really helped the script. They were absolutely right. It needed some more stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:33:51]: It was interesting too, how you described that when it was kind of done and you were doing the previews, like the original cut of it, I guess.

David Zucker [00:33:59]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:34:00]: Tanked like it would. Did not.

David Zucker [00:34:02]: Yeah, but that, that's happened with every movie. We, you know, the first cut and it's. We thought it was great, but when we actually played it and it was through for a very tough audience. It was for all the Paramount executives. They all saw it. The first half was okay. The second half was kind of silent. Only one guy laughed. And we had to. So we had to go back and recut the picture to that one guy. To one guy's laugh.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:34:28]: And I didn't mean it. It's like a negative thing. I just meant, like, it was interesting, the whole process, to be able to. You show it. And then. Because when you're doing stand up comedy, when you're writing, you edit, you know.

David Zucker [00:34:39]: You know, this happened on every movie after that. I mean, it really happened on Kentucky Fried Movie. Although it didn't seem as bad as that first airplane screening. The first airplane screening was definitely, obviously a bomb. And so one executive don Simpson, as he leaves the theater, he passed us. He said, that was interesting. But Katzenberg had faith in us. And he said, guys, don't even think about this. We're going to get into the cutting room. We're going to do it. Katzenberg was great. And so we did recut it. And then we had another preview at University of California. I forgot Davis. And that was the big breakthrough. Went great. And then we had. I don't know, we had four or five other previews across the country and continued to work on it and fine tune it. And that was the Airplane movie that you see today.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:35:42]: I love it. And like, one of the things, like, as I was reading it and it was just like, so brilliant, was that you, even. That you guys, all three of you saw this from Zero Hour, was the whole idea that get these actors, have them act like they're not in a comedy, and it will be the funniest thing ever.

David Zucker [00:36:03]: Yeah, well, that was. It was obvious to us. I don't think everybody else really got it. And a lot of actors turned down the script because they thought, well, this is just a collection of puns and stupid jokes. And in a way, I guess it was. But, you know, this was a whole different way of doing it. And, you know, so you have Leslie Nielsen delivering. It's actually a pretty stupid line. I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. And, you know, Said by. Said by Dom DeLuise just would not. Or a comedian, you know, I'm using comedians of the day like Harvey Corman would have been absolute. No, you can't. It wouldn't have been funny or had. Had Peter Graves been played by Chevy Chase or Bill Murray, you know, the. The pedophilia with the kid would have been merely creepy. And. And I think Bill Murray and Chevy Chase are superb comedians, either now or back in their day. They were amazing. You watched them work. They were terrific. But even at the height of their popularity, talent and. And celebrity, they would not have been right for Airplane. And in that case, you know, Paramount didn't really understand. They would have preferred to cast a star. I mean, to their credit, they had faith in the movie. They had a lot of faith in. In the script, in the. And the, the idea, but they didn't. I don't think they realized that, no, you can't. You can't cast comedians. And so we, you know, we held fast to that concept. And so our executive producer, Howard Koch, would call up, you know, when the. When the edict came down. We want to try for Bill Murray, he would call up their agent and say, you know, this is. You know, this is. These young guys have never done a movie before, and there are three of them. And. And they said, oh, okay, well, thank you. And so they weren't interested. So it was good.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:38:06]: There's something about a joke that you don't realize was a joke which makes it so funny. Like the whole, like, I am serious and don't call me Shirley, and then you, like. Because then you replay the whole thing in your head. It's like the end of Sixth Sense where you're like, oh, my God, he was dead the whole time. It's like, you know, you realize, oh, that was a joke, or. It's an entirely different experience altogether. It's an entirely different experience.

David Zucker [00:38:25]: It's an entirely different kind of flying. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:38:27]: Yeah.

David Zucker [00:38:29]: At the heart, they're really stupid. And then if you. If you watch, you know, all over YouTube and Jim always would call me or email me these things with, you know, teenagers or 20 somethings watching airplane for the first time, and they're laughing all through it, and they've never seen it, and they keep saying, this is so stupid. And, you know, but it's. I think that's what makes it still fresh.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:38:59]: Yeah. And like I said, like, I was. I just rewatched it and I laughed my ass off just as much as. Because we know the joke is being set up. It's. There's a. There's kind of a joy in watching those jokes being set up, knowing, you know, that the punchline is coming.

David Zucker [00:39:12]: It's exactly, you know. You know what's coming.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:39:14]: Yeah, I love the love. So the. The cream Abdul Jabbar. Yeah, that's. I mean, that's. That's such a great scene. Especially when they're dragging him off and he's wearing the shorts. The Laker. Beverly June Cleaver. Yeah.

David Zucker [00:39:33]: So trying to translate the jive talk. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:39:37]: Joyce Bulafont. And that whole scene. I know you did Lloyd Schwartz. I know in the book you talk about you did Big John, Little John, and she was the mom on that. And then. Yeah, just that scene in itself, it's like. It's one of those things where I feel like the whole scene's there, and then later they're not even there anymore.

David Zucker [00:39:57]: No, it's just that we're done. We're done with them. Well, we have a concept that we have in our 15 rules, which is that didn't happen. And so when. When he says they're on instruments and they're all in the cockpit playing instruments. And then the next time we're in the cockpit, everything's disappeared. And we do the same thing in Naked Gun when Leslie and George are eating pistachio nuts and they're talking about the stakeout and their lips are turning pink. And then in the next scene, when Leslie is in Ricardo Montalban's lair, it's all disappeared.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:40:37]: Right, right. Well, the other funny, really funny part about that is when he goes to open the door and.

David Zucker [00:40:44]: Oh, yeah. And the piles piled with nuts. So another stupid joke. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:40:49]: So funny.

David Zucker [00:40:50]: But I think in the context of it's a serious detective story and the actors are serious, so that's what makes the jokes play better.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:41:01]: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love Police Squad. Like, I remember watching Police Squad, and I know it's like one of those things. I had, like, a TV class at the time, and, like, it was like, you know, it gets canceled. And it was like, it was canceled because it was just too intelligent. You actually had to watch the show.

David Zucker [00:41:16]: Well, that's the famous quote from Tony Thermopoulos, who is the head of abc. And, you know, we never blamed him for that. You know, it was. You know, people were used to, you know, watching a family having a laugh track. That was before they did comedies regularly without laugh tracks. And he had us in for a meeting and he said, guys, can you put a laugh track on it? And we just. We just had to say no, because we can't. It's not supposed to be funny, if you could believe that. We can't acknowledge that it's trying to be funny. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:41:54]: In this quote that I found where he said that, were you guys really. It's kind of implied that some. Some people were relieved that the show had been canceled just because it may have been too hard to keep doing. Yeah.

David Zucker [00:42:06]: Here I think when we got into it, we didn't realize how much work it would be. And plus, when we weren't there to direct Lost and to write every episode in the pilot, Jim and Jerry and I wrote it and directed it, and it was 100% or hitting at least 95%. And then. But to do a weekly TV show, you know, we had to. It had to be every week. It was just. We couldn't maintain the quality with the writing and the. And the directing is too much stuff to keep up the quality. We thought. However, all I hear is that Police Squad is great. You know, all six episodes are great. So fine. It's like Top Secret is great, right?

Jeff Dwoskin [00:42:59]: It was. Well, I mean, you had Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln.

David Zucker [00:43:02]: Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:43:05]: Yeah, I read.

David Zucker [00:43:06]: And then he's never seen again.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:43:07]: Yeah, right, right. He's only in there.

David Zucker [00:43:09]: And then. And then the. The guest. Tonight's guest star, and the. Whoever it is, is killed off in the credits.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:43:15]: Was there one with John Belushi?

David Zucker [00:43:18]: Yes, there's one with John Belushi. When tonight's guest star, John Belushi, and he's, you know, sinking in a pool with, you know, can't breathe with. With bricks. Bricks for weights and stuff. So.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:43:33]: And then that didn't air because he.

David Zucker [00:43:35]: Actually died a month or so later.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:43:38]: Yeah, got it. Yeah, that. That was funny how you had Florence Henderson and Lauren Green and Robert. Yeah, a lot of really great things. So. Yeah. Love, love, please. So it's not. Then. So making the movies probably is a little. Not easier, but like, I mean, you're not doing it every week a whole different thing.

David Zucker [00:43:57]: Right. And so with any movies, you know, as I always said with Jim, you know, we handcrafted everything. It wasn't an assembly line. It wasn't. I mean, how Larry David and. And Jerry Seinfeld were able to do Seinfeld and keep up the quality for, I don't know, what was it, eight or nine years? It's one reason why I'll never try to do a sitcom. I could never top that. They. You know, that thing was brilliant. And now I know not to go out of my comfort zone. Those guys and Larry David, then he does. Curb your enthusiasm. That's great. You know, I have a crazy house here, and everybody says, oh, you should do a sitcom or a reality show out of your house. And no, I can't do that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:44:47]: So was Leslie the first choice for Frank Drebin for the. For. For Police Squad, or were you trying to get.

David Zucker [00:44:56]: No, he actually, actually wasn't. We. We went to Robert Stack first. Very few people know that. I don't know. Do we say that in the book?

Jeff Dwoskin [00:45:05]: No, I think I did a little research. I was just.

David Zucker [00:45:07]: Okay that only your audience is going to know because. But, I mean, look, everything works out for the best. It's. We just thought. We just loved Robert Stack and we thought he was the most humorless person on the planet. I mean, as his Persona in real life, he was a great guy. He was full of fun stories. Wonderful, wonderful man. But we thought that we just. He just made us laugh. But also Leslie made us laugh. It was. It was six of one. But. But Stack was not, as it turned out. So we went to Leslie.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:45:45]: Worked out. Worked out.

David Zucker [00:45:47]: It worked out. Leslie, you know, and then everybody, you know, now, Leslie Nielsen is a genius. So.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:45:52]: Yeah, I found this. I mean, in the original. In the. The Naked Gun from the Files of Police Squad, the first of the three movies of the original canon, the only canon when he passed away. There's a very nice obituary that you do, a eulogy that you wrote in the book.

David Zucker [00:46:10]: But.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:46:11]: But also it says that they actually. ESPN published an obituary for Enrico Palazzo.

David Zucker [00:46:17]: Oh, did that say that in the book?

Jeff Dwoskin [00:46:19]: No, no, I found that they actually did. Yeah.

David Zucker [00:46:23]: I haven't seen that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:46:25]: I'll define. It was like. Yeah. As the first and only Empire umpire to eject another umpire from major league game. It was a. So that that character in itself is. Is one of the funniest. And it's like the guy who screams, it's Enrico Palazzo. He's like, in a lot of things. He's like in. Yeah, he's like a little character actor and a lot of funny things and. Can you.

David Zucker [00:46:49]: Can you send me that? I haven't seen the ESPN eulogy.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:46:53]: Yeah, well, I'll send you what I. Yeah, I'll send you what I haven't seen yet. Yeah, that's.

David Zucker [00:46:59]: Put it in the next edition of Shirley. Can't be serious.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:47:02]: Perfect. Perfect. And then I'll waive any rights to.

David Zucker [00:47:06]: No, it's in its third. It's in its third printing already, so. Yes.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:47:10]: Oh, how much is it changing?

David Zucker [00:47:15]: I'm just.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:47:17]: How was it working with Ricardo Montablancas? He, to me, is like the greatest. He would be the.

David Zucker [00:47:23]: He was very. He was very nice man. And he was. He was terrific. He was, you know, no problem at all. Just. He's so good. I mean, that was one thing as a director that I. I had the luxury of working with Leslie, with Priscilla, who was like 100% perfect. Ricardo, George, all those people were just so such pros. And, you know, subsequently, on the scary movies, I got to work with Charlie Sheen and Anna Faris, who was just top notch. It was. It was great. I had. I had such good, good actors to work with.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:48:02]: Yeah. When I rewatched Naked Gun, OJ's not in it that much.

David Zucker [00:48:06]: No, he's not. Just at the beginning and the end and, you know, we kind of use him as the punching bag, so. As what we call the punching bag.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:48:15]: Yeah, right, right.

David Zucker [00:48:18]: In Naked Gun two and a half, it was. Barbara Bush was the punching bag. So. And at the. It's the ending kicker, which we call it is. It was with Barbara Bush. That always works.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:48:34]: Always. Steven Stucker. Like my. That's. My wife says that's her favorite. The pterodactyl and the brooch line.

David Zucker [00:48:43]: Yeah, those. We did that. Those lines on stage in. In Kentucky Fried Theater. And you know, he did. Somebody said, what can you make out of this? He said, well, I can make a brooch or a hat or. Yeah, yeah, he did that stuff. And. And there were some also other lines from the show. You know, when. When Leslie and Naked Gun does the. Maybe this will refresh your memory. That whole thing we did on stage.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:49:11]: Oh, with. With passing the. The $20. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love. That's one of the characters from. From Police Squad. The shoe shot guy.

David Zucker [00:49:23]: Johnny the shoe shine guy. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:49:25]: Who just knows everything. And then.

David Zucker [00:49:26]: Yeah, we couldn't find a place for him in. In Naked Gun. But that was just. That was just. In Police Squad.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:49:33]: Right, right, the TV show. He was in the TV show, right, he was in the TV show. Yeah, yeah. It's such a fun.

David Zucker [00:49:40]: But Al, the. The. The cop who's was too tall to be in frame. That was in the. In the Police Squad. In Police Squad. And a naked gun.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:49:50]: Right. Oh, you got something on your face. Other side.

David Zucker [00:49:52]: Yeah, other side. And exactly as it was in a tv. I love that joke. So we kept it.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:49:58]: It's a great joke. It's a great joke. Oh, man. So my. I mean, I could keep you for hours, but I know. I. I appreciate you spending this amount of time with me and sharing all these great stories. Sure.

David Zucker [00:50:10]: No, I. I have. I have time because, you know, no Hollywood studio, you know, will. Will give me a job. So I'm pretty much out of work until I can find the financing to do my scripts.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:50:23]: Well, let's. Let's spend the rest of the time playing together. Go fund me and we'll do.

David Zucker [00:50:28]: That's right. We'll do the go finding that's coming soon.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:50:30]: And I'm working on it with Ruthless people. Did you have a lot of say in the soundtrack to do it? Because there's a lot of big, big names in that soundtrack.

David Zucker [00:50:40]: Yeah, well, what we did. The studio hired Walter Yetnikov. You probably heard of him. He died a few years ago and he got Mick Jagger and Billy Joel and all those people to do the sounds. The soundtrack.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:50:57]: It's the only Billy Joel song I have a minor issue with. It's a great song, Modern Woman. But the fact that he Sundays. And after 1986, it dates the song. You know, you never think like piano mans from the 70s, when you hear it, it's just. It's a great song.

David Zucker [00:51:12]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:51:12]: Like, for some reason, when he says the date, and it's like, oh, that's.

David Zucker [00:51:15]: Yeah. Whenever they say the date and anything. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:51:18]: Yeah.

David Zucker [00:51:18]: But I don't. None of those songs ever became hits.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:51:22]: No, but I was, like, a really big Billy Joel fans. I would have been like, I would. I would have still listened to all of Dimension.

David Zucker [00:51:28]: I had. Last summer, I was in Montauk, and we were at a restaurant, and I had lunch with Billy Joel.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:51:35]: That's awesome.

David Zucker [00:51:37]: Well, I mean, Billy Joel didn't know about it, but he was at the next table. He. The very next table. And so we were getting seated, and I looked right at him, and I knew that my eyes were saying, you're Billy Joel, aren't you? And. And his eyes said, get the fuck away from me.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:52:00]: Well, that's because he didn't know who you were. If he knew who you were, he probably would have.

David Zucker [00:52:04]: But. And. And I was trying to think, should I have told him who I was? Because you never know. I didn't want to risk saying, I'm David Zucker. I directed Airplane, Naked Gun to all these things. And he. He could have said, yeah, so what? And so then. Then I would wish that I had a video of. Of that. I. I would have been great.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:52:26]: My guess would be, like, Billy. Because I find Billy Joel to be pretty hilarious when he kind of riffs and stuff. I bet he's a huge fan. I bet. Okay.

David Zucker [00:52:34]: You never know.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:52:34]: When he hears this, he's gonna go, I was having lunch with David Zucker and didn't even know it. Yeah.

David Zucker [00:52:39]: Because I. I heard he's a fan of your podcast, so he's going to see that. No, I. Absolutely. If I ever see him again, I'm going to definitely mention that you said, oh, you should have said something. But I. I'm. I'm starstruck. I just. You know, I was once in line buying a drill bit at Sears Roebuck, and right ahead of me was Harrison Ford. So I introduced myself, and he was happy to meet me. And I said, so I. I don't need your autograph or anything. So he was happy about that.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:53:15]: I was at a Shiva, and I'm standing there, and Sam Raimi is standing right next to me. Oh, but it's a Shiva. For those who don't know what that is, that's when somebody died. Right. So. Well, I know. You know, but, like, if somebody. The.

David Zucker [00:53:34]: Did I get that one right? Yes.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:53:36]: It's like awake or something. You know, someone dies. We're all there because someone passed away. And so as much as I want to, he's there and Ted Ramey's there. I'm not going to take a photo with him. I just didn't feel it was right. I didn't. Wasn't going to do anything, but I did. But you know what I'm saying, like, I'm often. Am I going to put up in the Sam Raimi, Right?

David Zucker [00:53:55]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:53:56]: And. And so he happens to stand right next to me. We're shoulder to shoulder. I said, sorry for your loss because I had found out that it was his cousin.

David Zucker [00:54:05]: Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:54:05]: He goes, thank you. I'm. He shakes my hand. He says, I'm Sam Raimi. In my head, I'm like, I know.

David Zucker [00:54:11]: Yeah. So what did you say?

Jeff Dwoskin [00:54:13]: I just. I just played it off like, very nice to meet you. Sorry for you. And I mean, I'm just cool about it, you know, I mean, probably.

David Zucker [00:54:19]: He walked away saying, why didn't that recognize me?

Jeff Dwoskin [00:54:22]: In my head, I'm like, spider man. Spider Man 2. The greatest superhero movie ever. Yeah, I know who you are.

David Zucker [00:54:28]: And so my. My agent 15 years ago was. Was partners with Sam Raimi, and I was able to get a Spider man poster signed by Sam Raimi for my son. And that was nice. Yeah. And he said something. What was the thing with great power? He did the old. With great power comes great responsibility. And my son was particularly irresponsible, so that was a good thing. No, I'm just kidding. I don't want to throw my son under the bus here.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:55:07]: One last funny thing that I thought was kind of in the book is Rex Reed's. Have you. I don't know if you ever bumped into Rex Reed after this, but you know, his review of Kentucky Pride movie in. In the book, and he didn't. He was not a fan.

David Zucker [00:55:22]: And.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:55:22]: But what was interesting was it he said, tries to be a mix of SNL and Harvard Lampoon. And where I would. From reading the book, I would have been like, that would have been the most grading line because, you know, Lorne Michaels went and saw Kentucky Fried.

David Zucker [00:55:36]: Yes.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:55:37]: Theater.

David Zucker [00:55:38]: Right. It was inspired. Yeah, it inspired Lorne Michaels, which I think is great. And, you know, we. Once we. We. We contacted Lorne Michaels for something or other, and he said, are those guys mad at me? Because he. He thought he stole the idea. But, you know, he. He. He did. He did fine. You know, it was whatever. We. We didn't want to do a television show. I mean. Oh, I mean, at one point, we thought we had the idea, but our agent said, no, that's a bad idea. Doing a. A variety show with a sketch group and musical acts. We did. We pitched the. Anyways, we. We learned not to listen to agents.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:56:21]: Right. Well, John Landis told you that, right?

David Zucker [00:56:24]: Yeah, John. John Landis said. And then he tells us hilarious story about agents in the book.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:56:29]: So everyone definitely should get the book. I mean, it's like, if you're a fan of comedy, of anything history, pop culture, this book is. Surely. You can't be serious. Is. Is amazing. And David did not pay me anything to say it specifically. He didn't even know I was going to read the book. But, like, I. Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. It was. Oh, thank you.

David Zucker [00:56:53]: Good. I'm glad you liked it.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:56:55]: Thank you so much for spending time with me.

David Zucker [00:56:58]: Sure.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:56:58]: This was fun, sharing your stories. It was so appreciated.

David Zucker [00:57:02]: Yes. There's probably enough stories for another book, so. Which I'll do.

Jeff Dwoskin [00:57:07]: Keep them coming. Keep them coming. Thank you. Thank you.

David Zucker [00:57:11]: Okay, thanks.