Airplane! is a 1980 American disaster comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker in their directorial debuts, and produced by Jon Davison. It stars Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty and features Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Lorna Patterson. It is a parody of the disaster film genre, particularly the 1957 Paramount film Zero Hour!, from which it borrows its plot, central characters, and some dialogue. It also draws many elements from Airport 1975 and other films in the Airport series. It is known for its use of surreal humor and fast-paced slapstick comedy, including visual and verbal puns, gags, running jokes, and dark humor.
Leslie William Nielsen was a Canadian-American actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a 1988 American crime comedy film directed by David Zucker, and produced and released by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Leslie Nielsen as the bumbling police lieutenant Frank Drebin, who sets out to uncover a criminal plot involving people being mind controlled to assassinate targets. Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalbán, George Kennedy, and O. J. Simpson also star in supporting roles.
Columbo is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of The NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo then aired less frequently on ABC from 1989 to 2003.
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police drama television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit. Created by Paul Attanasio, it ran for seven seasons and 122 episodes on NBC from January 31, 1993, to May 21, 1999, and was succeeded by Homicide: The Movie (2000), which served as the series finale. The series was created by Paul Attanasio and based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). Many of the characters and stories used throughout the show were based on events depicted in the book.
Police Squad! is an American television crime comedy series that was broadcast on the ABC network in 1982. It was created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, starring Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin. A spoof of police procedurals and many other television shows and movies, the series features Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker's usual sight gags, wordplay, and non sequiturs. It resembles the Lee Marvin police show M Squad and the late 1960s series Felony Squad. It was canceled after six episodes, and yielded The Naked Gun film series from 1988 to 1994.
David Samuel Zucker is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Associated mostly with parody comedies, Zucker is recognized for collaborating with Jim Abrahams and his brother Jerry as part of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, with whom he wrote and directed the 1980 film Airplane! and created The Naked Gun franchise. As a solo filmmaker, Zucker also directed Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Scary Movie 4 (2006).
The Naked Gun 2+1⁄2: The Smell of Fear is a 1991 American crime comedy film. It is the sequel to the 1988 film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! and the second installment in The Naked Gun film series. The film stars Leslie Nielsen as the comically bumbling Police Lt. Frank Drebin of Police Squad!. Priscilla Presley plays the role of Jane, with O. J. Simpson as Nordberg and George Kennedy as police captain Ed Hocken. The film also features Robert Goulet as the villainous Quentin Hapsburg and Richard Griffiths as renewable fuel advocate Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer. Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mel Tormé and members of the Chicago Bears have cameo roles.
Pat Proft is an American comedy writer, actor, and director. Born in Minnesota in 1947, Proft began his career at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis in the mid-1960s. He went on to perform as a one-man comedy act in the late 1960s. In 1972, Proft began working at The Comedy Store in Hollywood which led to work in television and film writing for the Smothers Brothers and Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.
Wrongfully Accused is a 1998 satirical comedy film written, produced and directed by Pat Proft and starring Leslie Nielsen as a man who has been framed for murder and desperately attempts to expose the true culprits. The film is a parody of the 1993 film The Fugitive, and also parodies numerous other films. This was Richard Crenna's final film before his death in 2003.
Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult is a 1994 American crime comedy film directed by Peter Segal and written by Pat Proft, David Zucker and Robert LoCash. The film is the third and final installment in The Naked Gun film series, which was based on the television series Police Squad!.
Strangers is a British television crime drama series, principally written and created by Murray Smith, and first broadcast on ITV on 5 June 1978. The series, featuring the characters of Detective Sergeant George Bulman and his assistant Detective Constable Derek Willis, was a spin-off from the 1976 TV series The XYY Man, adapted from the novels of Kenneth Royce. The series was first suggested by Granada Television executives, who in 1977, outlined their plan to devise a new series to feature the regular characters of Bulman and Willis.
"... I was sent here to be a stranger in town, a face they didn't recognise ..." - George Bulman
Naked City is an American police procedural television series from Screen Gems that aired on ABC from 1958 to 1963. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture The Naked City and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format. As in the film, each episode concluded with a narrator intoning the iconic line: "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
Red Rock Cider was an alcoholic beverage produced by Taunton Cider Company and sold in the UK during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This brewery grew significantly after WWII due to an increase in inventory orders from other brewing industries who were merging during the 50s and 60s. Although it met its decline shortly after the UK Monopolies Commission required large breweries to break apart their monopolies, "The Taunton Cider Company" was successfully re-registered by cider enthusiasts in 2015, and began production in 2016. Its cider is produced in Somerset county which has a rich history of cider production, going back to the late 17th to 19th centuries where cider was considered a currency and farmers would sometimes be paid their daily wage with cider. Unusually, it is remembered most fondly for its advertisements, which had the strapline "It's not red, and there's no rocks in it". The original ending, "It doesn't taste like cider" was dropped.
The Naked Gun media franchise, also known as Police Squad!, consists of several American crime spoof-comedies, based on an original story written by the comedy filmmaking trio Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. The installments include one television series and three theatrical films. The plot centers on a police detective with a lot of heart, despite being less-than intelligent. Leslie Nielsen stars in each installment in the protagonist role of Detective Sergeant Franklin "Frank" Drebin, with a fourth film starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. is scheduled for release in 2025.
James Ira Newborn is an American musician, actor, orchestrator and composer, best known for his work composing motion picture soundtracks.
"A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)" is the first episode of the television series Police Squad!. It was written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker.
"Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)" is the third episode produced (but fifth episode broadcast) of the short-lived TV series Police Squad!. The episode was directed by Reza Badiyi and written by Nancy Steen and Neil Thompson. As usual, the episode was produced by Robert K. Weiss.
"Night of the Dead Living" is the ninth episode and first season finale of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 31, 1993. In the episode, the homicide squad works the night shift on a summer evening, but no calls come in, leaving the detectives to brood over their personal matters. The teleplay was written by Frank Pugliese based on a story he wrote along with executive producer Tom Fontana. It was directed by Michael Lehmann.
"Black and Blue" is the third episode of the second season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street, and the twelfth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 20, 1994. In the episode, Pembleton aggressively investigates what he believes to be a police-related shooting. Amid pressure from Gee to pursue civilian suspects, Pembleton elicits a successful confession from an innocent man, leaving Gee feeling conflicted. Directed by Chris Menaul, the episode's teleplay was written by James Yoshimura based on a story by series executive producer Tom Fontana.
