The Naked Gun

We know we're in a 1988 film when we're invited to laugh at O.J. Simpson in an opening slapstick sequence. We can also pinpoint the year of production when hard-nosed cop Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), during a scuffle with the world's leading dictators, wipes the wine-colored birthmark off the head ...more

In 1982, the creators of Airplane!, Jim Abrahams and brothers Jerry Zucker and David Zucker, were asked to translate the success of their disaster movie spoof into a weekly television series. The result was the inspired Police Squad!, a dead-on parody of prime-time cop dramas starring a veteran of series TV, the stone-faced Leslie Nielsen. Perhaps their aim was too accurate: viewers didn't respond to the deadpan wit, and the series was cancelled after only six episodes. But the show remained ...more