12 Behind-the-Scenes Tales from Kentucky Fried Movie, the Comedy That Gave Rise to Airplane! and Animal House

      Without Kentucky Fried Movie, the debut film from Jim Abrahams and his collaborators, Jerry and David Zucker, we might not have seen the emergence of Animal House, Airplane!, or The Naked Gun series.

      Additionally, we may not have had the Oscar-winning drama Out of Africa. (Seriously: Please read on.)

      Here are 12 behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Kentucky Fried Movie, a pivotal comedy from the 1970s that paved the way for many opportunities.

      But First

      United Film Distribution Company – Credit: C/O

      Released in 1977, Kentucky Fried Movie was the first film crafted by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy trio, who referred to themselves as “nice Jewish boys from Milwaukee.” They started a comedy theater in Wisconsin, brought it to Los Angeles in their twenties, and soon made their mark in the film industry.

      However, their journey was not smooth. They couldn't produce their desired project — Airplane! — until they demonstrated their capabilities with the outrageous Kentucky Fried Movie. The film also provided opportunities for director John Landis, who later directed Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Coming to America, and more comedy classics.

      Here's how the daring and outrageous Kentucky Fried Movie came to fruition.

      Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker Developed Their Style by Parodying Serious Shows

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

      Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers grew up together, with their fathers running a real estate business.

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

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

      This established the foundation of their comedic approach — mixing straight delivery with total absurdity.

      They Were Also Huge Fans of Leave It to Beaver

      United Film Distribution Company – Credit: C/O

      The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trio — known collectively as ZAZ — were also devoted fans of Leave It to Beaver, the wholesome black-and-white sitcom that aired from 1957-63, featuring 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.

      They recruited Tony Dow (pictured above, left) for the courtroom scene in Kentucky Fried Movie, while Jerry Zucker portrayed Theodore.

      In their following film, Airplane!, they famously featured Barbara Billingsley during the jive scene.

      They Influenced a Four-Time Oscar Nominee

      Willem Dafoe in American Psycho. Lionsgate.

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

      A young Willem Dafoe was among the audience members who attended an early performance at Kentucky Fried Theater in the early 1970s, thanks to his sister Dee Dee, who took him to a show at the University of Wisconsin.

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

      Eventually, the team relocated to Los Angeles and established a new theater.

      The Fourth Member of ZAZ

      Credit: C/O

      Chudnow departed from the Kentucky Fried team to focus on a relationship back in Wisconsin, which later caused him some regret.

      When he returned to L.A. and saw billboards for The Kentucky Fried Movie, “that was tough. I had to seek therapy to cope,” he recounted in Surely You Can’t Be Serious.

      However, he recovered by founding the popular Comedy Sportz improv schools and theaters, which are still thriving.

      They Did Not Know How to Write a Script

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

      They conceived a parody of disaster movies, inspired by the 1957 airplane drama Zero Hour, but didn’t know how to begin writing. After seeing John Landis on The Tonight Show in 1973 discussing his low-budget monster movie Schlock, which Johnny Carson favored, Zucker called him, invited him to a performance, and shared their movie idea with Landis.

      However, they lacked knowledge in screenplay writing, so he handed them a copy of his own An American Werewolf in London, which he would eventually produce in 1981.

      ZAZ utilized it as a foundation for writing Airplane. But when they struggled to secure funding for Airplane, they opted to make a film based on their live comedy sketches, leading to Kentucky Fried Movie.

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