More than four decades after its release, Airplane is still held up as the standard other spoof movies are compared against. Its sequel, unfortunately, is not held in such high regards. The underwhelming follow-up is sometimes still cited as a cautionary tale for continuing a franchise without its creators, which makes sense, given its creators actually had a fantastic idea for the second round. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up happening, not because Paramount wasn’t interested but because Francis Ford Coppola put his foot down.
Recently, we got a chance to sit down with Airplane’s David Zucker, who just launched MasterCrash, an online course that outlines the rules of making a good spoof movie. He’s talked in the past about being frustrated about what happened with the sequel, and let the record show, he’s still not a happy flyer.
He, of course, wrote and directed the beloved original alongside his brother Jeff Zucker and collaborator Jim Abrahams. Initially, they didn’t have any plans to return for another Airplane, but after the movie made more than $170M at the box office (which was a staggering amount in 1980), they were pressured by Paramount execs David Katzenberg and Michael Eisner to do a sequel.
The Zuckers and Abrahams talked things out amongst themselves and decided on a framework. It would follow original leads Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty. She would meet his family for the first time ahead of a wedding, and it would turn into a spoof of The Godfather, with the movie literally being called Airplane II: The Godfather. Paramount loved it, but when they asked Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola for his take, he apparently told them not to do it. Here’s a portion of Zucker’s quote…
He takes her home to meet his family and get married, and it’s The Godfather. So, it would have been the marionette holding the twisted plane. Katzenberg and Eisner loved it… They said, ‘This is great. We’re gonna do it, and you guys are gonna write it and direct it. We just gotta run it by Francis to see if it’s okay with him.’ Coppola said, ‘No. Don’t do this. I want to do Godfather III.’ It’s tragic because I think everybody would have been better off if we did Airplane II: The Godfather.
Look: I’m not going to say how people should or shouldn’t feel about spoofs and parodies of their work. I get that it’s an emotionally complicated thing. I also get that Paramount obviously wanted to make more Godfather movies with Coppola, and if he was going to make Godfather III, they wouldn’t want to upset him. I work with enough creative types to know you need to tread carefully in that situation.
In retrospect, however, what’s unfortunate is that Godfather III didn’t actually end up coming out until 1990. That’s a full eight years after Airplane II was released, and had everyone known that, I doubt there would have been as many concerns about making a spoof movie, given it would have been completely out of everyone’s minds by the time Godfather III came out.
That’s not how things worked out though. Instead, the Zuckers and Abrahams decided not to return for the sequel (and never even watched it). Paramount moved forward with a different team. Hayes and Hagerty reprised their roles, along with a few other cast members, but there was a pretty negative public perception before the movie even came out. Reviews were mostly middling to slightly negative, and the film only did a fraction of the business its predecessor did.
As for Zucker, he went on to have an extremely successful career making other spoof movies. Most notably, he co-created the Naked Gun franchise, though he’s not involved in the remake. He also directed other memorable titles like BASEketball and Scary Movie 3. He’ll always wonder what could have been with Airplane II, and now I will too.
If you want to get more of Zucker’s thoughts on his career and comedy, you can check out MasterCrash, which is currently available to spoof fans.