‘Naked Gun’ Turns 35: Team on Adapting Failed TV Series, Leslie Nielsen’s Magic, Reboot Frustrations

Turning a short-lived parody TV series into a feature film was always going to involve taking a chance, but as the team behind the Naked Gun franchise learned, it wasn’t quite on the level of sticking your face in a fan.

Following the breakout success of the 1980 smash hit Airplane!, that film’s writer-director team — David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker — found themselves grounded when ABC promptly canceled their police-spoofing show Police Squad! in 1982. But the series’ co-creators refused to let the concept die and went on to adapt it for The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which Paramount Pictures released theatrically on Dec. 2, 1988. The movie, featuring Leslie Nielsen reprising his Police Squad! lead role as accident-prone police lieutenant Frank Drebin, also starred Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalbán, George Kennedy and O. J. Simpson.

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original Naked Gun film that collected $78 million ($204 million today) on its way to becoming an endlessly quotable comedy classic that spawned two sequels, The Hollywood Reporter chatted with director David Zucker and co-writer Pat Proft, who both worked on the script with Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. Interviewed separately, the pair explain why they immediately regretted making the project as a TV series, how Presley landed as the romantic lead instead of initial choice Bo Derek, the drama surrounding the filming of the pivotal baseball game, and why they aren’t involved in the planned Naked Gun reboot that Paramount is developing with producer Seth MacFarlane, filmmaker Akiva Schaffer and star Liam Neeson.

What inspired the series Police Squad!, and how did the movie materialize several years after the show’s cancellation?

David Zucker: We loved this 1950s black-and-white television series called M Squad, which stars Lee Marvin, and it’s the exact same thing as Police Squad! Our first idea was actually to do a movie based on M Squad, but we couldn’t figure out a plot. Instead, Paramount’s Michael Eisner — who was the only one who had seen any potential in Airplane! — said, “I can get you six episodes on the air if you do it as a half-hour TV show.” That’s what we decided to do, but we immediately thought better of it and said, “What are we doing? We don’t want to do a TV show.” So we came back to Eisner the next day and said, “We don’t want to do this,” and Eisner said, “No, I’ve already pitched it to ABC — they’re going to do it.” And we believed him.

Pat Proft: I was a story editor on Police Squad!, and I wrote an episode of it. The show [only lasted] six episodes, and I get a call about three weeks after that saying, “We’re going to do a movie version of this, and we want you to join us.” So that’s how we began writing films together.

Zucker: ABC couldn’t cancel it fast enough. It was canceled after four episodes. So then we did Top Secret! in 1984, and then Ruthless People in ’86. We really wanted to go back to doing what we most enjoyed, which was the Airplane!-style spoof. I thought we should do a movie of Police Squad! We just needed to reformulate it so that there was a love interest, and then by that time, we realized that you needed a character arc. We went in and pitched the idea for a movie to Frank Mancuso at Paramount. Easiest pitch we ever had.

What was the writing process like for the film?

Zucker: Jerry, Jim, Pat Proft and I wrote the first draft of the first script, and I wrote the 20 subsequent drafts on the set. Pat and I would rewrite every day on the set.

Proft: We just made each other laugh all day long. When “nice beaver” came up, we laughed for a day and a half. That was one of the stupidest things we ever came up with.

What made O.J. Simpson right for Nordberg?

Zucker: We always cast people in our movies precisely because they had not been in a comedy. When we cast Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!, he was the fourth choice; other actors turned the part down, and he was unknown. But we wanted somebody who had never been in a comedy. As a person, he was a very nice guy, a great actor, a prankster, kind of a closet anarchist.

What do you remember about working with Priscilla?

Zucker: First of all, a wonderful person, girl next door, the sweetest person. She was with Elvis, but she was like any girl that I knew in my high school. But what I remember most is the first table read. She was very nervous and said, “I don’t know how to be funny.” And I said, “You don’t have to worry about that at all. Just let the lines do the work. I want exactly the character that you played on Dallas.” Once she knew that, she was very comfortable doing it and needed next to no direction. This kind of spoof that we do is, it’s not comic timing. It’s dramatic timing. What Leslie did best was, he acted as though he didn’t know he was in a comedy.

Proft: Priscilla was perfect. It was just fun to write for her. Leslie loved working with her, and it shows.

Were others considered for Jane?

Zucker: Our first choice was Bo Derek. We offered it to her because she was a bigger name at the time, [but she turned it down]. I don’t know how Derek would have been, but Priscilla was fabulous, and she never had any qualms about doing it.

There are moments in Naked Gun that were taken directly from Police Squad!, like Frank’s line about taking a chance when you stick your face in the fan.

Zucker: It’s one of my favorite lines. When anybody in my real life says, “Well, that sounds pretty risky,” I immediately say that line, and it only gets a laugh half the time. Usually people just don’t even know what I’m talking about. We used a lot of [Police Squad! bits]. Al, the guy who is so tall that his head is out of frame, that whole routine that was taken right from Police Squad! I just figured, in the movie, people are seeing stuff for the first time, and I loved a lot of those lines from Police Squad!

I believe you had the third act figured out before the rest of the film?

Zucker: Yeah. In all the Naked Guns, we started off first with, what was the love story? And then the next most important thing was, what was the third act? The third act had to be a very public setting. So we had the baseball game, and we worked back from that and figured out the whole Queen plot — that the Queen would be visiting a baseball game, and that the assassination was to occur during that.

In terms of portraying the Queen, did you run that by the royal family?

Zucker: No, because they would have said no. We heard later that the royal family actually enjoyed it. And we had heard before that one of Prince Philip’s favorite movies was Airplane. I think the royal family always knew that we were not being mean-spirited.

With using the baseball stadium, were there particular challenges to make that happen?

Zucker: The Dodgers were very skittish about being associated with this. They said later that they didn’t like the rhubarb at the end, that all the players were fighting — as though that never occurs. They let us use Dodger Stadium, but we couldn’t say it was Dodger Stadium. We also wanted Vin Scully to be one of the announcers, and they wouldn’t let us use Vin Scully. The Angels were fine with it. And Major League Baseball said we had to use the Mariners because the Mariners were a really weak franchise at the time, and they wanted to promote them.

Proft: I was making up the words for the National Anthem, and we were just laughing about that. Enrico Pallazzo, which people bring up when they talk about The Naked Gun, it was a stupid name that I had, and it’s now become a thing.

Did the studio have notes?

Zucker: Very few. The studio was pretty much hands-off. What the studio was most concerned about was whether I made the days because we would fall behind the schedule a lot, and they would have a guy on set who was a studio goon. Finally, I just threw a rehearsed tantrum on set, and the guy never complained again.

Was “Weird Al” the top choice for that cameo?

Zucker: He was the only choice. He was a big fan of Airplane! and Top Secret!, and he got to know Bob Weiss, our producer. And so Weiss says, “How about ‘Weird Al’ to do this cameo?” And then we used him in every Naked Gun after that.

When did you know you had something special?

Zucker: Every first screening of every Naked Gun movie has been a disaster. Once we had the second and third previews, we knew they were great, and we knew with all three of the movies, they worked great.

Does it seem tougher now than in the past to get a comedy made?

Zucker: Yes, it is hard to get a comedy made with the studios. You have to get past them gatekeepers. So Pat and I, along with our third partner, Mike McManus, we wrote this film noir comedy parody called The Star of Malta, and we’re going to shoot that in the spring, probably on the Warner Bros. lot. We’re going to start pre-production in January. Not that the studios ever would have done it — it’s totally independent financing. [For the studios,] it’s only superhero movies and big franchises, Tom Cruise movies — which by the way, I love Tom Cruise movies, but those are $200 million budgets. Ours is a $10 million budget, which is probably Tom Cruise’s catering budget.

I know that a new Naked Gun movie is in the works with Liam Neeson starring and Seth MacFarlane producing. Was it ever a possibility that you would be involved?

Zucker: Pat, Mike and I wrote a script for Naked Gun 4, and we heard Jon Gonda at Paramount had read the script and laughed all the way through it. But somewhere along the line, they decided not to go with Pat and Mike and me. So that’s when they got Seth MacFarlane, and he has Akiva Schaffer directing Liam Neeson. I was never able to meet with Seth.

Proft: I’m not happy — and there’s a story with it. But I’m not pleased. It may come out and may be great — and good for that — but I sure as fuck should be writing it. I should have done this one.

Zucker: About four years ago, Pat and I had one meeting over at Paramount with the then-head of production there. It was a woman who complained about some joke that Pat and I wrote about a police officer having to adjust her Kevlar vest or have a breast reduction or something. It’s just a stupid, mild joke, but that was too much for them. So I can’t even imagine how they’re limiting whoever does Naked Gun 4, if they’re that frightened. We’re not involved, and we’ve repurposed what was going to be Naked Gun 4 — as we called it, Counterintelijence, spelled with one L and a J — and we’re going to go out with that one.

Proft: We’ve been totally blocked out of it. The unfortunate part of it is that Paramount owns it, so they can do what they fucking want. So that’s it.

Did Seth or Akiva reach out?

Zucker: Akiva did reach out and came to my house. I had a very nice meeting with him. He’s a great guy, and we just talked about comedy. At some point, maybe they were going to give me the script. They wanted me to be involved, but I never got a script, so nothing ever came of it.

How do you feel when you think back on the original Naked Gun?

Zucker: I’m happy that it’s lasted this long. It’s still funny, or that’s what they tell me, so I’m very proud of it. I’m happy to hear that people still are watching.

Proft: When we started writing it, I just knew that this thing is going to be funny. It just really felt great, and I think it’s a great movie. It clicks on humor. It just clicks.