Airplane! Airplane! Airplane! (alternatively titled Flying High!) is a 1980 American satirical disaster film written and directed by David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, 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. The film is a parody of the disaster film genre, particularly the 1957 Paramount film "Zero Hour!", from which it borrows the plot and the central characters, as well as many elements from "Airport 1975" and other films in the "Airport" film series. The film is known for its
Airplane! the doctor ordered". In 2008 "Airplane!" was selected by "Empire" magazine as one of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". It was also placed on a similar list by "The New York Times", a list of "The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made". MaximOnline.com named the airplane crash in "Airplane!" number four on its list of "Most Horrific Movie Plane Crashes." Leslie Nielsen's line (in response to Hays' question 'surely you can't be serious'), "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley", was 79th on AFI's list of the best 100 movie quotes. In 2000 the American Film Institute listed