12 Behind-the-Scenes Tales from Kentucky Fried Movie, the Comedy That Inspired Airplane and Animal House

      Without Kentucky Fried Movie, the debut film by Jim Abrahams and his collaborators, Jerry and David Zucker, we may never have experienced Animal House, Airplane!, or The Naked Gun series.

      It's also possible we wouldn't have had the Oscar-winning drama Out of Africa. (We're being totally sincere about that: Keep reading.)

      Here are 12 behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Kentucky Fried Movie, an essential comedy of the 1970s, as it paved the way for many future projects.

      But First

      United Film Distribution Company – Credit: C/O

      Released in 1977, Kentucky Fried Movie was the inaugural film penned by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trio, three self-described "nice Jewish boys from Milwaukee" who started a comedy theater in Wisconsin, moved it to Los Angeles in their 20s, and soon entered the film industry.

      However, their path was not smooth. They couldn't create the film they truly wanted to make — Airplane! — until they established their credibility with the outrageous and ridiculous Kentucky Fried Movie. The film also provided opportunities for director John Landis, who went on to helm Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Coming to America, and other comedy masterpieces.

      Here’s the story of how the daring and raucous Kentucky Fried Movie was made.

      Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker Developed Their Comedy Style by Parodying Serious Programs

      Future Airplane! star Robert Stack in The Untouchables. ABC – Credit: C/O

      Jim Abrahams and brothers Jerry and David Zucker were raised together, with their fathers being business partners in real estate.

      In their 2023 book Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!, Jerry Zucker explained that they spent countless hours as kids watching serious television like The Untouchables, Sea Hunt, and Mission: Impossible — “shows where the characters took themselves so seriously, and we’d shout out absurd lines for them to deliver.”

      In Airplane!, “we actually got those same tough-guy actors to say the lines we always wished they would have said.”

      This was the foundational basis of their comedic approach — to be completely serious while being utterly absurd.

      They Were Dedicated Fans of Leave It to Beaver as Well

      United Film Distribution Company – Credit: C/O

      Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker — known as ZAZ — also cherished Leave it to Beaver, a wholesome black-and-white family sitcom that ran from 1957-63. It featured Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver, Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver, Tony Dow as their teenage son Wally, and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver, or Theodore.

      ZAZ eagerly cast Tony Dow (above, left) for the courtroom scene in Kentucky Fried Movie, while Jerry Zucker played Theodore.

      In their subsequent film, Airplane!, they famously recruited Barbara Billingsley for the jive scene.

      They Inspired a Four-Time Oscar Nominee

      Willem Dafoe in American Psycho. Lionsgate. – Credit: C/O

      As young men, they established a comedy theater in Madison, Wisconsin with their friend Richard Chudnow, naming it Kentucky Fried Theater after the fast-food brand.

      A young Willem Dafoe was among those who attended an early Kentucky Fried Theater Show in the early 1970s, when his older sister Dee Dee took him to one at the University of Wisconsin.

      “That really made me think, ‘I could be doing this,’” he told Esquire in a 2018 profile. “You don’t have to be a card-carrying industry person.”

      Soon after, the team relocated to Los Angeles and began a new theater.

      The Fourth Member of ZAZ

      Credit: C/O

      Chudnow departed the Kentucky Fried team to pursue a relationship back in Wisconsin — a decision that later caused him some regret.

      When he returned to L.A. and spotted billboards for The Kentucky Fried Movie, he remarked, “that was hard. That took therapy to get over,” as shared in Surely You Can’t Be Serious.

      However, he bounced back by creating the cherished Comedy Sportz improv schools and theaters, which continue to thrive.

      They Were Unfamiliar with Scriptwriting

      Jenny Agutter in An American Werewolf in London. Universal. – Credit: C/O

      They had a concept for a disaster movie parody, influenced by the 1957 airplane drama Zero Hour, but were unsure how to proceed. Then, they saw John Landis on The Tonight Show in 1973 discussing his low-budget monster movie tribute Schlock, which Johnny Carson supported. Landis had produced that film at the age of 21.

      Zucker called him, invited him to a performance, and ZAZ explained their movie idea to Landis. However, lacking knowledge of screenplay writing, he provided them with a copy of his own An American Werewolf in London, which he would finally film in 1981.

      ZAZ used it