Before Total Film even sits down and says a single word to Airplane! co-writer/ director Jim Abrahams, we've been punked. We should have known. Among the interview tidbits that accompanied the film in the 2005 Blu-ray release was an in-joke Abrahams shared with his co-writer/directors, brothers David and Jerry Zucker.
In one of the film's many classic sight gags, the nun (Maureen McGovern) on Trans American flight 209 is reading a magazine called Boy's Life. The film then cuts to little Joey (Rossie Harris) reading a magazine called Nun's Life, which shows a nun in full habit on the cover, riding a surfboard off the waters of Malibu.
While discussing how such a shot would simply be Photoshopped today, the trio talk about how Jim – a keen surfer back in the day – dressed as a nun and caught a few waves for the shot. So we start our interview by asking the now 71-year-old if that was fun. “I'm the surfer?” Abrahams asks with genuine surprise. “No, that's a lie.”
Turns out that whenever the three got together to do publicity for the film, they had a contest between them to see who could get the biggest lie printed in an interview. It not only entertained them mightily, it gave them the idea for their next film.
“TODAY WE'D SPOOF SAN ANDREAS. IT HAD ALL THE SAME CLICHÉS… THEY'RE RIDING ALONG IN SOME FLOOD IN DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO. IT WAS PRETTY RIDICULOUS”
