Airplane!

Airplane! 1980 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty
Also Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Lorna Patterson, Stephen Stucker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, etc.
Written and Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker
Buy Airplane! (Don't Call Me Shirley edition) at Amazon.

Ted Striker (Hays), a traumatized ex-fighter pilot, has just been dumped by his stewardess girlfriend Elaine (Hagerty), but he ends up boarding a flight to Chicago that she's working on to try to win her back. It's up to Striker to take command, and to conquer his fear of flying when the flight crew and many passengers fall victim to food poisoning. With the help of Steve McCrosky (Bridges) and Rex Kramer (Stack) on the ground trying to talk him down, can Striker save the day and win back the heart of Elaine?

Airplane! borrowed its major characters and most of its storyline from a 1957 drama called Zero Hour! Directors and writers Abraham, Zucker and Zucker discovered that film while looking for late night commercials to tape, and they quickly bought the rights to it.

One of the truly great American comedies. You can thank Airplane! for Leslie Nielsen's career revival as a comedic actor. Surely I can't be serious about that one. Regardless, highly, highly recommended!

And stay away from the fish for dinner, 'kay?