12 Tales of Kentucky Fried Movie, the Comedy That Gave Rise to Airplane and Animal House

      Without Kentucky Fried Movie, the inaugural film from Jim Abrahams and his partners, Jerry and David Zucker, we may not have seen the creation of Animal House, Airplane!, or The Naked Gun series.

      We might also have missed out on the Oscar-winning drama Out of Africa. (We’re serious about this: Keep reading.)

      Here are 12 behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Kentucky Fried Movie, a pivotal comedy of the 1970s, credited with opening numerous doors.

      But First

      United Film Distribution Company – Credit: C/O

      Released in 1977, Kentucky Fried Movie was the first film scripted by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trio, who described themselves as “nice Jewish boys from Milwaukee.” They initially started a comedy theater in Wisconsin, moved to Los Angeles in their twenties, and soon entered the film industry.

      However, the journey was not smooth. They couldn’t create their desired project — Airplane! — until they proved their talent with the outrageous Kentucky Fried Movie. The film also paved the way for director John Landis, who later directed classics like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and Coming to America.

      Here’s how the daring and risqué Kentucky Fried Movie came to fruition.

      Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker Started by Mocking Serious Shows

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

      Jim Abrahams and brothers Jerry and David Zucker grew up together while their fathers were business partners in real estate.

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

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

      This was the foundation of their comedic style — completely straight yet utterly absurd.

      They Were Big Fans of Leave It to Beaver

      United Film Distribution Company – Credit: C/O

      Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, known collectively as ZAZ, were also enthusiastic fans of Leave It to Beaver, the family-friendly black-and-white sitcom that aired 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.

      They happily invited Tony Dow (above, left) to be part of the courtroom scene in Kentucky Fried Movie, with Jerry Zucker portraying Theodore.

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

      They Inspired a Four-Time Oscar Nominee

      Willem Dafoe in American Psycho. Lionsgate.

      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 chain.

      A young Willem Dafoe attended an early Kentucky Fried Theater show in the early 1970s, brought by his older sister Dee Dee to 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.”

      The team later moved to Los Angeles and founded a new theater.

      The Fourth ZAZ

      Credit: C/O

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

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

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

      They Were Unsure How to Write a Script

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

      They envisioned a disaster movie parody inspired by the 1957 airplane drama Zero Hour, but struggled to find a starting point. They then saw John Landis on The Tonight Show in 1973 discussing his low-budget monster movie, Schlock, which Johnny Carson endorsed. Landis had completed the film at the young age of 21.

      Zucker called him, invited him to a show, and shared their movie idea with Landis. Lacking scriptwriting experience, he provided them with his own An American Werewolf in London, which he would eventually produce in 1981.

      ZAZ used it as a model to write Airplane!, but when they couldn’t secure funding for Airplane!, they opted to create a film based on their live comedy sketches — which evolved into Kentucky Fried Movie.

      Credit: Paramount

      “The day the check cleared for Kentucky Fried Movie