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The Rubin Report

The Shocking True Story of the Making of Airplane! & The Naked Gun | David Zucker

The Rubin Report

Emma Dog Productions

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.513.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to the creator of Airplane! and The Naked Gun, David Zucker about how he and his brother went from being class clowns in Milwaukee to launching a hit comedy troupe in a bookstore theater; how his first movie The Kentucky Fried Movie became a huge success that made its money back on opening weekend; the struggle to sell Airplane! and why they insisted on casting serious actors like Robert Stack and Peter Graves; how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar landed his role because he wanted a $30K rug; how directing required precise comedic timing; how veteran actors were skeptical of the film until the end; the real origin of The Naked Gun; why Zucker and his team decided to direct their films, how the failed Police Squad! series evolved into The Naked Gun movie; how he was able to remake serious actor Leslie Nielsen into a perfect comedian; why Ricardo Montalbán forced him to rewrite certain jokes; what it was like to work with O.J. Simpson; the original idea to reboot Naked Gun as a Mission: Impossible spoof featuring Leslie Nielsen’s son; how Paramount execs initially loved the script but then gave the project to Seth MacFarlane; why Zucker wouldn’t cast Liam Neeson and disagrees with the reboot's tone and CGI; why Hollywood no longer understands comedy; and much more. Check out the NEW RUBIN REPORT MERCH here: https://daverubin.store/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

From the creator that brought you naked gun and airplane, David Zucker.

0:06.0

It's Zucker.

0:08.0

But I always call you David.

0:10.0

Zucker.

0:12.0

Zooker.

0:13.0

Okay. And you can call me anything. It's fine.

0:15.0

And Dave Ruben, sit down in an intense interview.

0:19.0

So you did have a guy by the name of O.J. Simpson who is in these things.

0:23.6

I don't really want to talk about it.

0:25.6

O.J. The whole O.J. thing.

0:27.6

If you don't mind, I mean, I'll just tell you this.

0:31.6

You guys decide to do this crazy farce comedy. How does that happen?

0:36.6

We just wanted to make a career out of being the

0:39.4

class clowns. We evolved a very specific style that we would not acknowledge jokes. My biggest direction

0:45.7

that I gave to actors the most was let the lines do the work. So to get to naked guns, so airplane

0:51.8

crushes it. I have the numbers here. 3..5 million budget. It made over $170 million.

0:57.4

So at that point, you guys are feeling great.

0:59.0

And that's what I say. All my flops are classics.

1:01.8

I never had a flop. I don't hear from my manager. I don't hear from my agent.

1:05.4

Then I wake up to read that Naked Gun 4 is being done with Seth Macfarlane

1:11.0

has taken over the franchise

1:12.2

so that you never got to know

...

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