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Reel world: Airplane! Don't Call Me Shirley Edition
Shirley, you want to buy this reissue
By Adam Goldstein
goldstea@mscd.edu

Airplane! Don’t Call Me Shirley Edition Rated PG 87 minutes $12.99

There’s a newly released DVD that revamps a classic comedy with commentary, deleted scenes and interviews.

A DVD? What is it?

It’s a shiny disc programmed with movies, but that’s not important right now.

What is important is Airplane! Don’t Call Me Shirley Edition, Paramount’s 25-plus year anniversary edition of a comedy milestone.

Directors and writers Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker broke new comedic ground in 1980 with Airplane!, their first big-budget film. Their Dadaist foray reveled in the ridiculous, poked fun at every B-movie convention and included a host of quotable lines. What’s more, the film introduced a new brand of post-modernist comedy and inspired an untold host of imitators.

The Don’t Call Me Shirley Edition details Abrahams’ and the Zuckers’ inspiration for the farce and highlights the mechanics of its production with in-depth interviews and commentary. One of the most surprising factoids to emerge from the hours of added features is that the film was inspired almost wholly by a 1957 B-movie. Although many tag Airplane! as simply a spoof of ’70s disaster films like Airport, the plot, music and dialogue are based largely on Zero Hour!, a film that features a main character named Lt. Ted Stryker and a plot that relies on poisoned airplane food. The clips and sound bytes from Zero Hour! included in the commentary help to enhance the humor of its spoof.

The extra features also include interviews with most of the surviving cast members, who all seem to express similar memories of misgivings at the filmmakers’ daring and outlandish brand of comedy. As Peter Graves, the stern, steadfast character actor who played the pilot, recalls, “I read the script … and it was some of the most tasteless comedy I’d ever seen.” Along with fellow B-movie heavies Leslie Nielsen and Robert Stack, Graves’ inherent seriousness helped to further enhance the underlying parody of the film.

Along with the commentary and interview clips, “The Long Haul” edition of the film features outtakes and cut scenes. Among these clips, no real gems stand out, and most of the editing choices make sense. Still, their inclusion adds depth and is sure to please hard-core fans of the film.

The added commentary and clips are secondary to the appeal of the film, which retains all of its freshness and shock value.

Though many of the film’s lines have become catchphrases among film fans, they have lost none of their power. Airplane! remains the holy grail of modern comedy, and its innovation stands out from its imitators.

Surely, this DVD is a worthwhile buy for casual and hard-core fans alike.

It is, and don’t call me Shirley.