Looking back on his career in 2009, Leslie Nielsen said the best film he appeared in was "The Naked Gun", and that Zucker was his favorite director to work with. Nielsen said of him, "He came to me one time and said, 'Leslie, I'll never make you do anything that is not funny.' And he kept his word." Most consider his greatest work to be "Airplane!", which has brought on many accolades (including preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress).