The Shocking True Story of the Making of Airplane! & The Naked Gun | David Zucker

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Shocking True Story of the Making of Airplane! & The Naked Gun | David Zucker

Podcast Information

• Title: The Rubin Report
• Host: Dave Rubin
• Guest: David Zucker
• Episode Title: The Shocking True Story of the Making of Airplane! & The Naked Gun
• Release Date: April 26, 2025

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Introduction In this episode of The Rubin Report, host Dave Rubin sits down with legendary director, writer, and producer David Zucker. Zucker, renowned for his work on iconic comedies such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun series, delves into the creative processes, challenges, and anecdotes behind these timeless films.

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Early Career and Formation of Zucker's Comedy Style (00:00 - 07:02)

David Zucker begins by reminiscing about the inception of his career in comedy. Originating from Milwaukee, Zucker and his collaborators aimed to create a unique brand of farce comedy.

"[We] just wanted to make a career out of being the class clowns."
— David Zucker [00:36]

He emphasizes the importance of letting the script drive the humor, allowing the lines to "do the work."

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Breakthrough with Airplane! (07:02 - 26:34)

Zucker discusses the conception of Airplane!, a masterpiece that started as a script before Kentucky Fried Movie. Initially struggling to secure funding and actors, Zucker recounts the challenges faced in casting, notably with Robert Stack.

"We just wanted to take the piss out of any normal airplane disaster movie."
— David Zucker [13:24]

Despite initial rejections, Airplane! became a colossal success, turning a modest $3.5 million budget into over $170 million at the domestic box office. Zucker credits this success to their relentless pursuit of a distinctive comedic style.

"All my flops are classics. I never had a flop."
— David Zucker [01:12]

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Transition to Naked Gun and Collaborations (26:34 - 35:15)

Following the success of Airplane!, Zucker and his team ventured into the television space with Police Squad. Although critically acclaimed, the show struggled with ratings and was short-lived. This experience led to the creation of The Naked Gun film series.

"We pitched Police Squad as a movie, and Frank Mancuso at Paramount was all for it."
— David Zucker [35:08]

The collaboration with Leslie Nielsen proved pivotal. Nielsen’s ability to play the role of Frank Drebin with deadpan humor became the cornerstone of the series.

"Leslie was great. He just knows what to do."
— David Zucker [55:15]

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Challenges and Flops: Top Secret and Basketball (35:15 - 50:17)

Zucker candidly shares the setbacks faced post-Naked Gun, including films like Top Secret! and Basketball. Despite their initial failure at the box office, these movies have since gained cult classic status.

"All my flops are classics, right? They say, I never had a flop."
— David Zucker [30:20]

He attributes these flops to various factors, including character development and audience expectations, yet remains optimistic about their enduring humor.

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Attempted Reboots and Industry Changes (50:17 - 70:44)

Discussing the evolving film industry, Zucker addresses the challenges of rebooting beloved franchises. He shares his frustration over Naked Gun 4, which he scripted but was passed over in favor of Seth MacFarlane’s vision.

"I never wanted to do another Airplane! movie, but we found a way that resembled our style."
— David Zucker [35:08]

Zucker critiques the modern approach to comedy reboots, emphasizing the importance of adhering to established comedic rules and styles that made the originals successful.

"We have rules. We have a method to writing the joke."
— David Zucker [74:31]

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Defamation and Controversial References (70:44 - 76:19)

The conversation takes a sensitive turn when Zucker briefly mentions O.J. Simpson’s involvement in his projects, avoiding deep dives into potentially defamatory territory.

"I don't really want to talk about O.J., the whole O.J. thing, if you don't mind."
— David Zucker [41:26]

Zucker maintains a neutral stance, focusing instead on his creative endeavors and the comedic legacy he aims to uphold.

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Future Projects and Legacy (76:19 - End)

Looking forward, Zucker discusses potential future projects, including Star of Malta and possible revivals of his classic series. He remains hopeful about reclaiming creative control and ensuring that future comedies stay true to the foundational elements that made his earlier works resonate.

"We're going to have to raise the money from billionaires."
— David Zucker [67:24]

Zucker concludes by highlighting the importance of maintaining comedic integrity and staying true to the unique humor that defines his films.

"There are rules, and I think they would help if somebody who is attempting to write a spoof would actually know these, you know, these few rules."
— David Zucker [75:43]

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Notable Quotes

• "Let the lines do the work."
  David Zucker [00:50]

• "All my flops are classics. I never had a flop."
  David Zucker [01:12]

• "Leslie was great. He just knows what to do."
  David Zucker [55:15]

• "We have rules. We have a method to writing the joke."
  David Zucker [74:31]

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Conclusion

David Zucker's reflections offer an intimate look into the making of some of comedy's greatest films. From the groundbreaking success of Airplane! to the enduring legacy of The Naked Gun, Zucker emphasizes the importance of innovative storytelling, strict adherence to a unique comedic style, and the challenges of maintaining creative control in Hollywood. His insights not only celebrate his achievements but also provide valuable lessons for aspiring filmmakers and comedians.

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Note: This summary is based on the provided transcript and aims to encapsulate the essence of the conversation between Dave Rubin and David Zucker without including non-content segments such as advertisements, intros, or outros.

Transcript

[David Zucker]

From the creator that brought you Naked Gun and Airplane.

[Dave Rubin]

David Zucker. It's Zucker, but I always call you David Zucker.

[David Zucker]

Zucker. Okay. You can call me anything. It's fine. And Dave Rubin, sit down in an intense interview.

[Dave Rubin]

So you did have a guy by the name of OJ Simpson who is in these things.

[David Zucker]

I don't really want to talk about it. O.J. the whole O.J. thing, if you don't mind. I mean, I'll just tell you this.

[Dave Rubin]

You guys decide to do this crazy farce comedy. How does that happen?

[David Zucker]

We just wanted to make a career out of being the class of clowns. We evolved a very specific style that we would not acknowledge jolts. My biggest direction that I gave to actors the most was let the lines do the work.

[Dave Rubin]

So to get to Naked Guns, so Airplane crushes it. I have the numbers here. $3.5 million budget. It made over 170 million DOL. So at that point, you guys are feeling great.

[David Zucker]

And that's what I say. All my flops are classics. I never had a flop. I don't hear from my manager. I don't hear from my agent. Then I wake up to read that Naked Gun 4 is being done with. Seth MacFarlane has taken over the franchise.

[Dave Rubin]

So that you never got a no, you just never heard back from.

[David Zucker]

Never heard back. I don't think the studios get humor anymore. They don't know what good or bad is.

[Dave Rubin]

Today I'm sitting down with legendary director, writer, producer of some of the funniest movies of all time. Airplane, Naked Gun, and many more, David Zucker. But first, an important public service announcement.

[Unknown]

Whether we know it or not, chemicals play an important and ever increasing role in our daily life. One of the most widely used and oldest chemical compounds is zinc oxide. This policeman, this farmer and this housewife don't realize it, but they all depend on zinc oxide in their daily lives.

[David Zucker]

But how do I use zinc oxide?

[Unknown]

If it weren't for zinc oxide, you wouldn't have that bar of soap. The dish towels you use every day. Your toaster. That brassiere you're wearing. Your kitchen sink. Those curtain rods. The shelves in your refrigerator. Metal hooks. The heat control on your stove. The safety catch on your son's rifle. That fire extinguisher. The emergency brake on your car. All brakes. That blanket. How about sin? Yes, sin.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, my God.

[Unknown]

Your husband's pacemaker. Your artificial limb. Yes, Zinc oxide at work in our daily lives. Watch for science series number seven, rebuilding your home.

[Dave Rubin]

And now to a very special episode of the Rubin Report. We are going to bludgeon you with your life history right now. David, this is. This is going to be a lot for you. Are you ready?

[David Zucker]

Yes. Mr. Ralph Edwards.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

We're going to take. There's an old reference. Nobody knows what I was talking about.

[Dave Rubin]

There is literally zero chance.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, no, no chance.

[Dave Rubin]

They just think you made up a name, Right?

[David Zucker]

Yeah, but the average age of your audience is deceased, though, right? We have a very old, old audience. And they'll be fine. Yeah. Remember the Mickey Mouse Club? Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Look, first off, let me tell you, I normally do interviews with, you know, prime ministers and presidents and all these people, and I don't need any paper. I have never had this much paper in front of me for an interview.

[David Zucker]

What a contrast. I mean, I don't know anything.

[Dave Rubin]

We're gonna see about it. Okay.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So that clip, which I have shown to everyone in my life 4 billion times. Zinc oxide from your first movie, Kentucky Fried Movie. Like, first, let's just. Before we get into your history and all the movies and everything else, like, what is it like for you to watch old cl. Because people must. I know, I. We've had dinner many times, and I drill you with the references.

[David Zucker]

Well.

[Dave Rubin]

And it's just. At some point, you want to just start strangling people.

[David Zucker]

No, I mean, the good stuff. I. I mean, this was a. That was a good bit. But what I want to do is re edit everything. I want to recut the whole movie and cut out a lot of jokes that I don't think are. Were done well or still funny. But.

[Dave Rubin]

And in that movie, I mean, the whole movie was a giant edit, basically, because you're just jumping from scene to scene.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, we're just. Yeah. And it was no plot.

[Dave Rubin]

And did people think you were completely insane? We're talking about Kentucky Fried Movie, obviously. Did people. You guys were nuts. Like, what is this? It's not a movie. It's more of, like, just changing channels of things.

[David Zucker]

I don't know what people thought. I mean, we. We got some really bad reviews. I mean, there was some good reviews, but like, Rex Reed said, you know, someone named John Landis directed this piece of garbage. And, you know, and, you know, worked.

[Dave Rubin]

Out for John Landis. It did.

[David Zucker]

You know, he had a good career. It was like his career was done at the time because he had just done a movie called Schlock, which he did with $60,000 of. And he was writing James Bond extra dialogue for Cubby Broccoli over at Fox. But he was the only director we knew because I saw him on Johnny Carson and so I called him up. That's how that's actually true.

[Dave Rubin]

You were like, that's the one guy I can think of.

[David Zucker]

Well, we didn't know anybody. So I called him and the first thing he said, how did you get this number? I said, well, the distributor was listed on the movie poster and he started quacking. I said, I finally calmed him down. I said, I don't want anything from you. I just want to invite you to see our show. And we were doing our Kentucky Fried Theater show called My Nose, which was on Pico. We did it on Pico Boulevard.

[Dave Rubin]

So it was a live show for.

[David Zucker]

And we called it that because. So our weekly LA Times calendar listing would say my Nose runs continuously. So that passed for humor at that time. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So let's. Before we do all the movies and all the clips and all of this, if I get out of this thing without a paper cut, it's gonna be a mirac. Um, you're from Milwaukee. Normal kid, normal brother. You guys decide to do this crazy farce comedy. How does that happen?

[David Zucker]

Yeah, well, you know, actually we weren't even the funniest characters in our class. I mean, There's. There were 10 guys who were really, really funny. It's just that they found jobs when they, you know, when they graduated. And we just wanted to make a career out of being the class clowns. So. And we did it. You know, we started out just really small. We had a little theater in the back of a bookst in Madison, right off the campus. And we did a show called Vegetables and that was a big hit. And then we did another show that same year called the Entire History of the Whole World, which was a year before Mel Brooks.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, that's.

[David Zucker]

Did his. Yeah, I'm sure.

[Dave Rubin]

Are you saying Mel Brooks maybe visited Milwaukee?

[David Zucker]

No, nobody ever visited Milwaukee. But no, he didn't. Sometimes things are just. We did another bit on stage that Woody Allen did in of his movies, but, you know, nobody. Nobody copies anybody except for, you know, Naked Gun 4.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, we will get to that.

[David Zucker]

We'll get to that. We will get to that. I'll be good. I'll be good.

[Dave Rubin]

Because you are not involved. I'm going to give a little teaser now. You are just. You are not involved in the rebooted Naked Gun is coming out.

[David Zucker]

There's a great story behind that.

[Dave Rubin]

We'll get to that in a little bit. We're going to make them wait. So you guys do Kentucky Fried Movie. Did it did it do well, box office wise?

[David Zucker]

Yeah, it was only. It only cost $600,000 to make, so. And that's our catering budget. And it opens and it makes back its entire budget in the first weekend. And the head of the. What wasn't a studio, it was United Artists Theater circuit, a exhibitor chain up in San Francisco. And this very scary Egyptian guy named Salah Hassanin ran it and he was just, you know, he backed our attorney into a corner once and, you know, about the deal and everything. And then suddenly he calls us on Sunday night and he said, oh, boys, you are so wonderful. You know, so it was. Everything was great. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. So then from that Airplane comes.

[David Zucker]

Well, we had actually written Airplane before we did Kentucky Fried Movie. We couldn't sell it. We, you know, we, we even called Robert Stack's agent saying, you know, from. Because we. The one guy in Airplane that we needed the part of Rex Kramer, had to be Robert Stack. So we called his agent and we said, oh, we're from Milwaukee and we did this movie and we want Robert Stack to play the lead. And he said, is this a go picture? And we said, what's a go picture? And he said, come back when you have the money. And we did years later and he was still hard to get.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. And I think in the book it talks about how his wife, basically, his.

[David Zucker]

Wife loved it and Peter Graves wife loved it. Peter Graves did not like the script. Yeah, he threw it across the room. Said, this is the worst piece of trash I've ever read was.

[Dave Rubin]

That was the hardest part. Trying to get these guys who were serious actors. And obviously. We'll talk about Leslie in a minute. But like that, these guys, Robert Stack, there was a reason you wanted him because he plays it so straight and so hardcore in everything he does. But to try to even get them to mentally be like, oh, this is going to be funny, but you're not really supposed to be funny.

[David Zucker]

Right. I don't know if they got the, they didn't get the script. Other. Other actors read it, who turned it down and thought, this is just a collect of puns, you know, and, and it was. But in this context, you know, with the serious actors, it, you know, it, it somehow worked.

[Dave Rubin]

How did you come up with that idea that you could just do joke after joke after joke, but still within a story that was going to make sense? Because that wasn't, that wasn't what Kentucky Pride movie was. Obviously.

[David Zucker]

No, they. But then, yeah, the pace came from our show and we were on stage, we weren't really actors. We weren't comics, but. But we could play it straight. And we never wanted to be on stage when they weren't laughing. We hated silence. So it just that kind of equated to three jokes a minute.

[Dave Rubin]

Well, I've got a lot of clips here. And now we're gonna start bludgeoning you. You ready? And it was impossible to pick these.

[David Zucker]

Dave, our deal was that you wouldn't show clips.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, but I read and egged on the deal. On the deal. What are you gonna do?

[David Zucker]

Other people have said that about you.

[Dave Rubin]

All right, let's go to. Let's go to the cockpit scene in Airplane.

[Unknown]

Ever been in a cockpit before?

No, sir. I've never been up in a plane before.

You ever seen a grown man naked?

Do you want me to check the weather, Clarence?

No, why don't you take care of it, Joey, you ever hang around the gymnasium?

[Dave Rubin]

We better get back now, Joey.

[Unknown]

No, Joey can stay here for a.

[David Zucker]

While if you'd like.

[Unknown]

Could I?

[David Zucker]

Okay, if you don't get in the way.

[Unknown]

Flight two, zero niner to Denver radio. Climbing to cruise at 42,000. We'll report again over Lincoln. Over and out.

Wait a minute. I know you. You're Kareem Abdul Jabbar. You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.

I'm sorry, son, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdoch. I'm the co pilot.

You are Kareem. I've seen you play. My dad's got season tickets.

I think you should go back to your seat now, Joy. Right, Clarence.

Oh, he's not bothering anyone. Let him stay here.

All right, but just remember, my name is Roger Murdoch. I'm an airline pilot.

I think you're the greatest. But my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try except during the playoff.

The hell I don't. Listen, kid, I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at ucla. I'm out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.

Join you like movies about gladiators.

[Dave Rubin]

Have you ever been to a Turkish prison? I mean, there's just so much there. So first off, the juxtaposition of Peter Graves, this very serious guy you guys somehow bring in Kareem. Like, where in the world did that even all come from?

[David Zucker]

It all came. You know, we just wanted to take the piss out of any normal airplane disaster movie. And the image of airline pilots in movies is these pristine white guys who are just, you know, totally squeaky clean. And then it turns out he's a pedophile. I mean, it was. That was our first thought.

[Dave Rubin]

But you really talk about this book. I mean, you guys had to nail that because had it. It doesn't come off creepy. It's. He's obviously, it's. Well, first of all, weirdly sexual, obviously, but it's somehow like, done that you feel clean after or something.

[David Zucker]

That was the most precise directions we've ever given an actor. Because if you go and watch it again, he says, joey, have you ever. You know, it's just like he. And then he, you know, we just said, you have to turn. Look at him say the line, look back, you know, really precise. Usually we don't give that precise directions for anything.

[Dave Rubin]

And how did Karine get involved in this whole thing?

[David Zucker]

Well, actually, we couldn't get Pete Rose, but that was a very. Yeah, very unfortunate occurrence. We. Because he was somehow. We didn't think of Kareem. We thought Pete Rose. And it didn't go into anything personal about. It was before the gambling stuff. So he was just going to play. Yeah, we were shooting. Yeah, we were shooting during. Yeah, we were shooting during summer. And he was managing and playing with the. With the red legs, I guess. Is that the team he was on?

[Dave Rubin]

The Reds? The Reds, yeah, the Reds, yeah.

[David Zucker]

So. So then we went to Kareem and the trouble with Kareem. Kareem read the script and we heard that he just passed. He turned it down. And we are. Our producer, our executive producer, Howard Koch, called his agent, said, what the hell's going on? Why does he want it? He said, well, Karim wants $5,000 more. There's a rug that he wants, and I keep a close watch on his finances. And he wants to buy this rug. It's $30,000. You're offering him 25. And so we just gave him. And, and, and we just thought this was the most clever agent. You know, it's another clever agent. However, a couple of months later, we in Time magazine, they did a feature on Kareem, and he's displaying this rug he's got.

[Dave Rubin]

He was very proud of the rug.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, he was very proud of the rug that he bought from.

[Dave Rubin]

Did he ever. Did he ever invite you to the house to see the rug?

[David Zucker]

No, you know, I just.

[Dave Rubin]

That really makes you wonder.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, I've been invited here more times. Kareem and then we were invited to Robert Sack's house. Yeah, that was fun. And he had these stools that were elephants feet.

[Dave Rubin]

Literal elephants feet.

[David Zucker]

Literal elephant's feet. Yeah. And you could sit on them. He's a very nice guy.

[Dave Rubin]

You could get away with that in.

[David Zucker]

Hollywood in those days. Yes, this was the early 80s before.

[Dave Rubin]

It went completely psychotic. Yeah, yeah. We'll talk a bit about how psychotic Hollywood has gone when we get to the.

[David Zucker]

Oh, yeah, we can talk about that.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, we're gonna talk about that. So when Peter Graves shoots this. And we'll get to Leslie in a second. And Robert Zak, did they realize it was funny at the time? So you give them lines. They planned it straight. But were they like, what the hell am I doing? Like, when you're on set, did they feel like it was working?

[David Zucker]

Well, Peter Graves knew it was supposed to be funny, but he really didn't have much faith that it would work. And he was taking a big risk because, you know, and when he first read the script, I later learned from being a director that when you're casting actors, all they do is read their own parts. So Peter Graves didn't read the whole script. He just read his own parts. And I think it appeared to him that he was playing a pedophile. I don't know why, but. And so, but our executive producer, Howard Koch, this old line, he was the head president of the Academy, past president of Paramount. He called, he said, peter, come in and meet the guys, the boys, as we were. So, you know, we had him into the office at Paramount, and I think we kind of surprised him because we were just very preppy Wisconsin guys, not the drugged out guys that he. Weirdos that he expected. So. And then Stack, Stack, I guess he thought it was funny, but he just. He knew he'd be making fun of himself and he just wasn't sure. He didn't want to be the oldest, the only one. So he said, who else is coming to the party? So we were able to tell him, Graves, Nielsen. Right.

[Dave Rubin]

So then it made sense, because then it made sense.

[David Zucker]

You have other people. But Stack really got it. He knew exactly. Because Lloyd Bridges didn't get it. And Lloyd Bridges was trying to make sense out of his dialogue and also playing it, kind of winking in the rehearsals. And Stack finally said, lloyd, just, you know, they're not looking at us. They're. Spears are hitting the wall, Watermelons are crashing in behind us. Just keep talking.

[Dave Rubin]

Just.

[David Zucker]

Just keep talking, Lloyd.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, I just think it's so interesting because if you go to a comedy set now, you know, it's all these comics on set and all these people that are at least purported to be funny, where you had all these like kind of serious people on set and you're making the most ludicrous thing ever. So just like the tone of the set just had to be just so wildly different.

[David Zucker]

Well, it's a complete departure, the whole thing. And that's why the actors, very rightly, were a little bit nervous about it. But Stack was great. He got right into it and Lloyd got into it. But I always think that when you look at Lloyd's performance, there's a little bit. It's 2% of winking, where with Leslie, you can't tell at all. Stack, you can't tell. Graves is completely straight. And then. But Lloyd was great. And just because, you know, his lines were great and he was good. So in Hot Shots, he was playing the President.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

With Jim Abrams. And it was, it was terrific.

[Dave Rubin]

You. Right. And that basically, although you didn't do Hot Shots yourself, your brother did.

[David Zucker]

But no, Jim Abrams did.

[Dave Rubin]

Jim Abrams did. Sorry.

[David Zucker]

And Pat Proft. Right.

[Dave Rubin]

Who you worked with.

[David Zucker]

Pat Proft has worked on everything, even since Kentucky Fried Theater.

[Dave Rubin]

And they really, they really killed it with Bridges basically predicting Joe Biden, you know, the President.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Brain is completely gone.

[David Zucker]

It was unbelievable. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Let's let Lloyd Bridges show it himself.

[David Zucker]

Good idea. Sure is quiet out there.

[Unknown]

Too quiet.

[David Zucker]

Looks like I picked the wrong wink. Quit sniffing blue.

[Dave Rubin]

So that. That's what you mean by he winked a little bit more.

[David Zucker]

There's just a.

[Dave Rubin]

Where you can see it's not just a little bit.

[David Zucker]

You know, I like to have the actors do it as though they don't realize they're in a comedy.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So. All right, so let's get to Leslie, because when I found out years ago, you talk about this in the book, obviously, and now people know. When I found out years ago that Leslie was not always a comic actor, I could not believe it because I only knew him from Airplane and Naked Gun. And yet you pluck this guy who really had done a like, almost like a 40 year career of serious cop movies and murder mysteries and all of this stuff. Had. Had he literally done anything with humor in it at all that you know of before that?

[David Zucker]

Not that we knew of. However, in our. When we met him in our interview, he said, well, you know, I did a mash, you know, and we. Oh, God, we'll pretend we didn't hear that. Not a mash guy.

[Dave Rubin]

Not A mash guy?

[David Zucker]

Yeah, no, we. No, no, no. I love mash, but it just, we didn't want any comedy in it. So, you know, had he been on anything, I. I didn't want to have any comedy in the whole thing. It just had. And Robert Stack, I just, all I knew him from was from his movies and TV shows, and I just figured he was as humorless a human as he was in the movies. But, you know, comes out of the set, he's fun, he's joking, he's, you know, kept telling stories about being directed by Spielberg in 1942. It was called.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, in the movie 1942. Definitely without a year. 1942.

[David Zucker]

He was in the movie 1942, and he thought that would be a big. That hadn't been released yet.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, right. Well, here is Leslie. There's a million Leslie lines. But this is the. Well, the book is the line, and everyone knows this line. And I have done it on the show a million times and I tweet it once a week and everything else. Here's Leslie.

[David Zucker]

Ok. Okay.

[Unknown]

Can you fly this plane and land it? Surely you can't be serious. I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

[David Zucker]

I mean, that became a famous line, I guess.

[Dave Rubin]

But were you shocked that that was the line that, like, really, of all of the lines, that's the one that probably is more quoted than anything else. Over and over, 40 plus years later.

[David Zucker]

It became emblematic of the whole movie, I guess. But, you know, we just. And, you know, Jerry and Jim and I don't even remember who thought of it. We don't remember which individual joke was thought of by whom. So is that general?

[Dave Rubin]

For all the jokes?

[David Zucker]

All the jokes and all the movies we did together, we never considered that personal credit was important. And so that's how collaboration works best, is when we do no personal ownership.

[Dave Rubin]

So when you now see Leslie just crushing it in this thing, were you already like, oh, this is a guy we've got to build some other stuff around?

[David Zucker]

No, we didn't. You know, we just. Our first thought when we did the Police Squad. Yeah. Was Robert Stack. We actually thought Robert Stack.

[Dave Rubin]

Wait, so what year did Police squad come out?

[David Zucker]

82. 80.

[Dave Rubin]

So this is like what that. That's about three years after airplane.

[David Zucker]

No, five years, two years after airplane. So. And, and. But Stack was busy doing Unsolved Mysteries or something, so we went to Leslie and Leslie was game, and it really turned out to be the best choice. He was. You know, things were always corrected for us by. I don't know whom. But, you know, we just. We had that kind of luck.

[Dave Rubin]

But it wasn't always luck because.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, well, it was luck that Pete Rose couldn't do it. Right.

[Dave Rubin]

But Police Squad, which now people can watch on YouTube, it only had what, six episodes?

[David Zucker]

Six episodes. And it only aired for four in its original run. They couldn't cancel it fast enough. And, you know, the critics were.

[Dave Rubin]

For people that don't realize. And we'll play a little B roll of Police Squad, basically is the sitcom that. That. Do you like. I know you don't love the word sitcom. What would you call it? Do you like.

[David Zucker]

It was a sitcom.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, it was. It was a sitcom. I know you don't love. Well, you don't like, like sort of like canned laughter, sitcom stuff.

[David Zucker]

But in those days, you couldn't do anything without canned laughter. I think MASH may have been without. I don't. I can't remember.

[Dave Rubin]

No, I think. I think MASH did have.

[David Zucker]

Probably did. Yeah. But we were doing a comedy without canned laughter. And we had a meeting with Tony Thermopoulos, the head of abc. We actually felt bad for him. Cause he was right. It needed a laugh track to be successful. But we couldn't admit that it was funny.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, but it was wickedly funny. And you did all of these crazy things. Like I remember seeing Police Squad after I had seen Naked Gun. So I'm going back and watching and just. Even the way you guys would do things with the cameras where they'd be walking through the office and the camera would see the other side of the wall, like showing people you're on and you didn't acknowledge. Obviously, you don't acknowledge it or anything. Like all of these. It wasn't just. There were things that you were doing in terms of how you filmed it also, that were.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, we evolved a very specific style that we would not acknowledge jokes. The characters would be non comedians. Just let the. My. My biggest direction that I gave to actors the most was let the lines do the work. You know, when I first met with Priscilla Presley in the first table read of Naked Gun, she was very nervous. She said, I don't know how to be funny. And I said, you don't have to be funny. Just let. And just kind of blurted out, let the lines do the work. And she understood it. And I'm telling you, I did not need to direct her at all. She really had it naturally just to play that character.

[Dave Rubin]

So to get to Naked Gun. So Airplane crushes it. I have the numbers here. I Mean, the numbers are insane. You guys had a $3.5 million budget. It made over $170 million. So at that point, you guys are feeling great. Like, suddenly, like, everyone loved the freaking movie. It made a ton of money. You're, like, in Hollywood now.

[David Zucker]

Basically, Paramount. Paramount was not expecting this. It was a routine programmer for the studio. And because of that, it was such a surprise, they couldn't hide the money fast enough. So we actually did see profit, and we actually sent out in questionable taste. Announcement, engraved thing saying, Zucker, Abraham Zucker, are pleased to announce the receipt of the first $2 million in profit participation of the movie. So we would just do. Who did you send that in Hollywood? Every agent, you know, studio, in case they hadn't heard. In case they hadn't heard. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay, so. So Airplane crushes it. Then you do Police Squad, but Police Squad only gets four of the six out. Were you like, oh, man, maybe we lost it? Like that just wasn't going to translate. Or was it that you felt maybe it didn't translate to tv?

[David Zucker]

We absolutely knew that it didn't translate to TV because we would go to places where they were showing it, and there were crowds of people watching it. And. And I was shocked that people would talk to each other and they would be talking through jokes or the phone rang. I mean, that's the way people watch tv. It's radio with pictures. So I said, no, we don't have a chance. And the critics were kind of angry because of this philistine network canceled this great show that they thought. And Tony Thermopoulos had to have a press conference. And he said Police Squad didn't work because you had to watch it. So it really. And he wasn't wrong.

[Dave Rubin]

But you know how much Naked Gun has affected my entire life. I mean, when I watch it back, it's like you're. It's all the pieces. All the pieces are there that Then you were able to put the legs right.

[David Zucker]

And we used some of the best. Our favorite jokes from the squad. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

You didn't feel like we were stealing from yourself?

[David Zucker]

No, we just thought, nobody saw these. Cause the show failed. It flopped. It was canceled. So we could use those jokes. And we did. In the first Naked Gun, we used all my favorite jokes.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay, so before we get to Naked Gun, which literally changed my life, and I saw it when I was in seventh grade in the theater. And then I was like, I could not believe that anything could possibly be that funny. You do a couple other things in the meantime, you Do Top Secret, which was still similar in style, and it also didn't do that well.

[David Zucker]

Right. Well, we thought Top Secret be a huge hit. We were thinking, who's not going to see this? This is the greatest thing ever. And it contains some of the cleverest, funniest jokes we've ever done. But what we learned later was that it was kind of our fault. We neglected to give Val Kilmer a character. So. And we learned later that in a. It's easier in television. You can do a half hour and get away with crazy stuff, but in a movie where people have to sit for, you know, actually three half hours, usually the first half hour, you have to establish a character with a problem. And then the second act, he works on solving the problem. In the third act, he solves a problem. And we did it completely right in Airplane, because Arthur Haley wrote. We did it an adaptation of Zero Hour 1957 Black and White noir movie.

[Dave Rubin]

All right, so Top Secret doesn't crush.

[David Zucker]

It now, but it's. Since it's, like, now it's a classic, and that's what I say. All my flops are classics, right? They say, I never had a flop.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, well, they somehow become something.

[David Zucker]

Basketball is another one.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, wait, we'll get to it. But Basketball not do well originally did not do well.

[David Zucker]

Right? Cause that's a.

[Dave Rubin]

All right. That's a great movie, too. So, all right, so hold on. So then. Okay, so now Top Secret doesn't do that well. This is on the heels of Police Squad not doing that well. So now the studios basically hand you something. Was that weird for you to be like, oh, I'm gonna do something that we didn't have the entire.

[David Zucker]

We didn't know. We were so lost. We had a friend of ours pitch that we wanted to do another movie because we thought, well, we're good at movies, so we should pitch something. So a friend of ours came in and gave us an idea, and we. I don't think we understood it. I mean, we were so lost. We went into Disney to pitch it to Eisner and Katzenberg, and.

[Dave Rubin]

We do.

[David Zucker]

This whole pitch, and Eisner looks at Katzenberg and said, they're kidding. Right. It was the most embarrassing thing ever.

[Dave Rubin]

Wait, which script was that?

[David Zucker]

It was called Bachelor of the Month.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, so this is. Was never even made. Okay, Never made. So this is what gets you to Ruthless People.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. And so we go out into the parking lot, and we just. We fell on the pavement laughing. We just. That was like the end of Top Secret. That Was the. And so we didn't know what to do. So Katzenberg called, said, I've got the script by Dale Launer called Ruthless People. Wasn't a spoof. It's a farce. And it would star, you know, comic actors Bette Midler and. And.

[Dave Rubin]

And.

[David Zucker]

And Danny DeVito.

[Dave Rubin]

Not just like them. You actually got.

[David Zucker]

Well, we. We went through some other, you know, we actually flew to New York and met with Madonna.

[Dave Rubin]

And she could have done that part. I think maybe that could have worked. Maybe.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. But she was nice. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Here's part of the trailer.

[David Zucker]

Okay.

[Unknown]

Meet Mr. Stone. He wanted to kill Mrs. Stone.

[David Zucker]

My only regret, Carol, is that the.

[Unknown]

Plan isn't more violent until something wonderful happened.

[Dave Rubin]

Mr. Stone, we have kidnapped your wife.

[David Zucker]

Imagine someone demanding money from me to keep Barbara alive. Idiots.

[Unknown]

Now he's doing everything inhumanly possible so she'll never come back.

[Dave Rubin]

Don't you consider throwing a body off a cliff in the dead of night violent?

[David Zucker]

No. She'll be unconscious.

[Dave Rubin]

He's going to pay.

[David Zucker]

He's going to pay. Bad chance.

[Unknown]

I'm gonna drop the price to $10,000.

[David Zucker]

I'm being marked down. That woman ain't coming back. Ruthless People, when I look at that.

[Dave Rubin]

It'S like that, to me is sort of like the beginning of the 80s. Making 500 movies that were all basically good comedies with good actors.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. And it was a nice experience, you know, And Bet and Danny were great, and they were funny. I mean, we could actually turn the camera on them and they would be funny. New experience.

[Dave Rubin]

But did it feel weird to you in that you didn't write it and that you were just handwriting?

[David Zucker]

Well, we wrote on a lot of it, you know, maybe a quarter of it. We. Well, or we didn't write it ourselves, but we took Dale through a rewrite. We. I think we added the. The whole videotape plot that. With Bill Pullman, played a guy, and the reason why he looks like that, with his hair colored like that, is because he came into his retirement to the reading looking like that because he was growing out. He had dyed his hair for something, and he was halfway through. Anyways, he looked funny, so we said, keep it that way.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay, so now you get through Ruthless People. Does this get us to Naked Gun.

[David Zucker]

Or is it something.

[Dave Rubin]

Did anything else happen in your life? I don't know. Maybe you had a kid or. I don't know. Now you're making some money.

[David Zucker]

No, I was still far away from being married.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. Okay, so you're single, You've had some hits, some things that weren't quite.

[David Zucker]

Ruthless People was a hit.

[Dave Rubin]

And then Ruthless. Yeah, Ruthless People was a hit.

[David Zucker]

So then we thought.

[Dave Rubin]

But.

[David Zucker]

But then, even though Ruthless People was a hit, our deal didn't throw any money off. We didn't get any profit participation. So then we decided, why don't we direct by this time? We didn't want to carry three guys around on every movie, so we just. We decided we'll go off on our own. And so I wanted to do. I wanted to do Naked Gun. And so. So the four of us wrote it. Jerry, Jim, me, and Pat Proft.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

And I directed it. And that's how Naked Gun happened.

[Dave Rubin]

Did the studios think you were nuts? That you were going back to a show that had six episodes and only four even aired? Like, why were they like, okay, let's do this?

[David Zucker]

No, it was the easiest pitch we ever had. Frank Mancuso had taken over at Paramount, and, boy, I mean, Eisner and Katzenberg were great. And then Frank Mancuso takes over. He's great. I had nothing but great executives in those days. And we just pitched it to him, we want to do Police Squad as a movie. And he said, sure, do it.

[Dave Rubin]

God, that's great. And Leslie was on board immediately.

[David Zucker]

Leslie was on board immediately. And, yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So, yes, I saw it probably opening weekend. When did. It was probably summer of 89. Does that sound about right to you? Let's really test the limits here. We're going to test the limits when I make it go summer of 88.

[David Zucker]

It was summer. Okay. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So was it summer of 88? Is that right? Yeah, that sounds right to me. So I'm 12 years old. I see this thing. Sold out theater. I've told you this a million times. I will never forget. I was sitting in an aisle seat, and there was a huge fat man sitting in front of me. And during the scene when Leslie's in, when Drebin is in Ludwig's office and he pulls down, you know, he's catching all the stuff, and the piano's playing. And then eventually, the concrete dildo, the man. Everyone was laughing so hard, the fat man fell out of his chair and rolled down the aisle. I remember thinking, nothing could possibly be funnier than this. Like, it fully changed my life.

[David Zucker]

It worked.

[Dave Rubin]

I can see you feeling very awkward as I'm saying that, because you're like, what could have your life have been?

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Without Naked Gun, I mean. Yeah, they were all fun. I would do it for nothing. I just, you know, I mean, I Need to pay my mortgage.

[Dave Rubin]

But let's make you watch a scene from Naked Gun. Why don't we do go to the end of Naked Gun first? I mean, the whole baseball scene, there's so much of it. But let's go.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the.

[David Zucker]

California Angels and the city of Los.

[Unknown]

Angeles, on the occasion of Her Majesty's.

[David Zucker]

Royal visit, please welcome internationally renowned opera star, Enrico Palazzo.

[Unknown]

So, ladies and gentlemen, let us Honor America as Mr. Palazzo will now sing our national anthem. O sing. Can you sing? By the dawn's early light what so proudly we hail in bright stripes and broad stars in the perilous night.

[Dave Rubin]

I mean, there's just so much there. I mean, first off, the George Kennedy is there, obviously. Ricardo Montalban was cast so freaking perfectly. Was that kind of the same way as Robert Stack and some of the other guys? Like, he was a serious guy in a Cadillac before that.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Was it a Cadillac?

[Dave Rubin]

What was the car?

[David Zucker]

Maybe Corinthian leather?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

Chrysler.

[Dave Rubin]

Chrysler. Chrysler. Yeah.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Soft Corinthian leather. Yeah. So I don't think we made any jokes on the set about that.

[Dave Rubin]

There was not.

[David Zucker]

But there was a joke.

[Dave Rubin]

But he made it to the movie.

[David Zucker]

There was a joke that he didn't want to do. He said he's. Leslie says he's recuperating. The name of the hospital was Our lady of the Never had the Pickle. And so that became that lady of the lady of the Worthless Miracle, because Ricardo thought he's a devout Catholic, and so he wanted to change it. So we did.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. There's also a great. Which maybe we'll add it. Maybe we'll do it as the cold close of the show. But there's a great cut scene from the movie where when Leslie goes to visit O.J. simpson, who we'll talk about in a moment. Nordberg in the hospital. But it gets cut out of the original movie where he rushes to the nurse and he tells her, call in, call in. There's a murder or something. Call in. There's an attempted murder. Call in. A 405. And he can't remember the number that he's telling him.

[David Zucker]

Oh, yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And they go through, like, this laundry list of things, and. Are you saying there's a regicide, A queen has been killed? Like, it was just that in the.

[David Zucker]

That we didn't. That wasn't in the movie. I think it was in the extra.

[Dave Rubin]

No, that's what I'm saying. Like, you had great stuff that didn't even make it into the movie?

[David Zucker]

Well, I. I mean, it didn't get a laugh. That's why it's not in the movie. It's funny. Yeah. I mean, good thing they saved that stuff.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay, so. All right, so Leslie's back in. I mean, just the opening scene, of course, the. The opening scene, which takes place in Lebanon, which is probably more politically incorrect now. Maybe that then. It was even back then, just all brilliant. And you did this on what. What was the budget like?

[David Zucker]

Oh, 14 and a half million.

[Dave Rubin]

Crazy. And how much did Dake a Gun.

[David Zucker]

Make that also made 80 million, 82 million? Something like that?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. So just.

[David Zucker]

And then it makes it as much foreign internationally as it did. So that was a huge profit for Paramount.

[Dave Rubin]

So you did have a guy by the name of OJ Simpson who was in these things. He played Nordberg. He played Frank Drebin's partner. This is a few years before he got famous. For other reasons. But first, why did you choose, before we show a clip, why did you choose OJ and you had this thing with athletes, and you've done this with Shaq and other movies.

[David Zucker]

Well, I. Aside from that, I don't really want to talk about it. O.J. the whole O.J. thing.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay.

[David Zucker]

If you. If you don't mind, I. I mean, I. I'll. I'll just tell you this. The last time I saw him was at the rap party for the Last Naked Gun. I said goodbye, shook hands, I sold him my knife collection, and that was the last that I saw. I never saw him again. Okay, That's.

[Dave Rubin]

You were scaring me. Zucker.

[David Zucker]

Zucker, yes. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

That was the last time you saw him. The knife collection.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. So, yeah. Anyways, your question was, why did we cast them? We needed a celebrity. I think sports stars are very economical. You don't pay them an arm and a leg, and it's great. And. Whereas we actually did in Airplane, we said, you're not the character, you're a sports star.

[Dave Rubin]

Right.

[David Zucker]

We didn't do that with O.J. we just, you know, because we had done that joke. That's the other thing. I don't want to do the same joke over again. So. But. But he was. He, you know, he wasn't bad. He actually improved with each movie. I mean, you know, actually, his. His acting was a lot like his murdering. He got away with it, but no one believed him.

[Dave Rubin]

So here's his opening scene in Naked Guy. Yeah, that's good.

[David Zucker]

That's good.

[Unknown]

Please throw down your guns.

[David Zucker]

Kill him. Oh, no.

[Dave Rubin]

And that's the guy you Sold the knives to.

[David Zucker]

Yes. Well, who knew at the time? Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So Naked Gun, just huge hit again. You're feeling good about all these things. Should I show you something else from Naked Gun? You want to see another one? Naked Gun? Let's do. Let's do Punch up. Oh, no. All right, let's jump to Naked Gun 3 for a second. So you do two and a half. Do you have a favorite of the three?

[David Zucker]

Oh, the first one. Yeah. First one's the best. And then the second one, I did not direct the third one, but, you know, it still has, you know, one of the best endings we've ever done the Oscars, I think.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. So let's. Let's throw that. And you do make a cameo in the third one.

[David Zucker]

I do. I actually get to play a scene with Leslie Nielsen.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, you are. Wait, do you have snot on your shoe? Are you the one who had snot on your shoe? Or you're just the cameraman?

[David Zucker]

No, I was the guy with the camera, the. The teleprompter man.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, right. Oh, right. You're pointing to that. Okay, so let's jump for a second to n gun 33 and a third, and we'll go to the. The. This is just like you just. Guys did every. You did everything at once in the end at the Academy Awards. About 62.

[David Zucker]

Kind of look like Phil Donahue. Yeah, that's the guy. Get it. Get it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome internationally renowned actress and singing star Pia Zadora. You're walking along this street or you're at a party. There he is. Excuse me.

[Unknown]

Think that's not on your shoe?

[Dave Rubin]

It's not there. Oh, Austin.

[David Zucker]

Got to be here someplace.

[Dave Rubin]

I'll stay here. You check the wings.

[David Zucker]

This could be the start of something big. There's no. Oh, no, not him again.

[Dave Rubin]

Please, God. Who knows what's written in that magic book?

[David Zucker]

When I love you, Discover at the gate, my friend. Invite him in without a second watching the San.

[Dave Rubin]

Your mind, I mean, it's big. It's like, that must have just been so much fun. Did Pia Zadora.

[David Zucker]

Like, it's just. It was fun, and, you know, it was. I love those, you know, big, nationally, internationally televised settings for third act.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, the ending always has to feel big, right? Like, that's the baseball game.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, well, when we start out writing, the first thing we say, what's the relationship of the boy and the girl? And in this case, you know, Leslie and Priscilla. So that's different in each one. And what's the final third act? So. And we always kind of point to that.

[Dave Rubin]

Did you want to do more after 33 and a third?

[David Zucker]

No. By that time, we were at. We had a deal with Sony, so. And. And so, yeah, I was kind of. I didn't want to do more Leslie Nielsen movies. So I want to do other. I always want to do something new. I don't want to do the. Go back to the same stuff.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. What. What did you make of Leslie going from that? And then he did, you know, like six or eight or maybe even ten kind farce things. He did, obviously, Dracula with Mel Brooks.

[David Zucker]

Well, the thing is, a lot.

[Dave Rubin]

There were a couple things that were not as commercially successful. Some of them are.

[David Zucker]

Well, a lot of directors watch Naked Gun and their takeaway from it. Oh, this guy's funny. Let's cast him. But people don't get what goes into it. We have rules. We have a method to writing the joke. We have Pat Proft. There's a lot that goes into it that. A lot of it came from behind the camera. And Leslie was great at what he did. But you can't just say, you know, be funny.

[Dave Rubin]

Watch what I'm gonna do right now because I just asked you if you wanted to do more Naked Guns. And I'm gonna tease what we're gonna get to later because I said I had a lot of papers on my desk. And what I have here is the real script for Naked Gun 4, or the Naked Gun reboot, which is apparently coming out on August 1st. Right. But does not involve you nor your script. This is your script for the rebooted, which, as you know, I have read, and it's quite hilarious. That's a little teaser for people to keep watching in a little bit.

[David Zucker]

Yes, right there.

[Dave Rubin]

That's what we do on the.

[David Zucker]

I'll probably talk about that when we come back.

[Dave Rubin]

We'll probably get you to. We're not even going to commercial. I just sort of led us to a commercial where there's no commercial right now. We're just going to keep going.

[David Zucker]

So you can see. I know nothing about this either do I.

[Dave Rubin]

So it's fine.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So. All right, so then get me to, like, the next. The next phase, really? Because it feels like Naked Gunther 3 comes out or 33.

[David Zucker]

Well, I didn't want to.

[Dave Rubin]

And then it was just a new.

[David Zucker]

I didn't want to do the same thing, so. So I did High School High. I produced that. Another director. And then I did basketball, which was a real game that we played on my driveway.

[Dave Rubin]

But you told Me. So I didn't realize baseball did not do well commercially.

[David Zucker]

So I think it has a classic, but it's another. It just didn't.

[Dave Rubin]

And that was with Matt and Trey, obviously.

[David Zucker]

Matt and Trey, who were so good. I mean, and they wrote a third of it. You know, a lot of this stuff I couldn't even write myself. But they were great. I thought, you know, their acting, their comic acting was excell. Excellent. And. But it didn't. It didn't perform. But now it's. It's had a new life and nobody realizes that it really didn't perform very well when it. When it opened. Yeah, so.

[Dave Rubin]

So ba. So that's got to be what, like 90.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. So then I was in. Yeah, that was in 90. 98 was basketball. So then you know what? When you have a flop, you go into director jail. And so I. I did a. I. Then I did a. My, my. At the time, Gil Netter got a deal at NBC to do television pilots. So we did a thing called Hud starring Steve Carell. And it was great. Really funny. You may be able to see that somewhere.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, I gotta find that.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, I gotta find it. Some really funny things. And Steve Carell was. He was Steve Carell. However, it was before he was Steve Carell. So the studio said, what is this? We're not. Yeah, it's funny, but who's Steve Carell?

[Dave Rubin]

What was the purpose of the show? Like, what was it.

[David Zucker]

It a sitcom, you know, but. But without a laugh track. But a kind of a secret agent.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, okay.

[David Zucker]

He was a secret agent. And because they were going to take a. An existing government agency, but useless agency like hud, and you know, that's the. That was the new secret agent because it was too much publicity surrounding the FBI and the CIA.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, right.

[David Zucker]

So I got to find. So that flopped. Then. Then I was just on my back. And so Gil Netter again got me a job directing an Ashton Kutcher movie for Bob Weinstein. And that was called My Boss's Daughter. And it was, I think, the only Ashton Kutcher movie that flopped. So I wasn't doing too great.

[Dave Rubin]

But how did you like directing things that you didn't write?

[David Zucker]

I just like directing. I like making movies. It was fun. You know, I had a good time. Ashton was great. Tara Reid was in it. He was great. And, you know, we had Michael Madsen from Quentin, the Tarantino movies. Everybody told me, oh, my, he's going to eat you a lot. He's a big problem or anything, but he came into the first table read and I just somehow I naturally just started insulting him and saying, you call this acting? He, he cracked up. He. We were, we were, we got along great. And so anyways, that movie was so bad it was unreleasable. So that's not going to become a cult classic.

[Dave Rubin]

We will not put a clip up there right now.

[David Zucker]

So then the, the Wayans did the first two scary movies. They did a great job. Studio made a lot of money on them. But for the third one, I think they couldn't make a deal with Bob Weinstein at Dimension something. So they went and did a movie for Joe Roth at some Joe Ross company, whatever it was. And Bob called me and he said, my boss's daughter. He said, Zucker, you're a better director than your material. So he actually thought I was good at directing. So he wanted me to do Scary Movie the next Scary Movie. And he said we want to do it on, on Signs. Want to do a spoof on Signs in the Ring. Yep. And so I kind of nodded because I never, I didn't know. I don't really go to see movies unless five people tell me you have to go see it. I don't like horror movies anyways. So, you know, so. And I said, is there a script? There was a script, but it was written by the guys who did the Date Movie and all this other stuff.

[Dave Rubin]

Right. Because at that time there were a couple of those type of movies that.

[David Zucker]

Were just total spoofs. Wouldn't work. They didn't know what they were doing. And so I said, I can get Pat Proft and my producer Bob Weiss recruited Craig Mason and that was our writing team and boy those guys were terrific. And scary3 broke all records and it was a huge hit. So I was back out of director's.

[Dave Rubin]

Jail and so it had nothing to do with the original team that did the first two because the first two were pretty great. And you mentioned to me last night that you really like the weigh ins.

[David Zucker]

I love the weigh ins. I think they're funny. But they do are rated movies. They're funny and it's a completely different style. They're not try. They never try to do our style. I would never try to do their style. And so it's the same thing with Mike Myers. He did a spoof called Austin Powers and not what I would have done at all, but it was good. I mean he was. And it's not an accident that it was successful. He did switch move in his way. He didn't. So anyways, that those guys are fine.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

So we do. We do the. The Scary Movie three and then we did four.

[Dave Rubin]

And you brought Leslie back in four, Right?

[David Zucker]

We put Leslie in three and four. The President.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

And he was great.

[Dave Rubin]

Also, like a slight precursor to Biden, you know? Yeah, Fumbling, right?

[David Zucker]

Yeah, it was. It was great.

[Dave Rubin]

How did that feel to bring him back and work with him again?

[David Zucker]

Oh, great. No, no, it was, you know, Leslie is like drunk driving a really fancy souped up car. Same thing with Charlie Sheen. Great. He just knows what to do. I don't have to direct too much. And it just. Yeah. I always loved working with Leslie and Anna Faris was great too. And the cast of the scary movies was Regina Hall. Yeah, yeah, Regina Hall. They were great team. And it was different and it was.

[Dave Rubin]

Just like a wacky.

[David Zucker]

And they were acting funny. They weren't Robert Stack, but, you know, it. It worked.

[Dave Rubin]

So then you're feeling good again. You got.

[David Zucker]

I'm feeling good again. And then after that, so. But then I. I wrote a movie called oh, then I wanted to go back and do Naked Gun. I thought, why not reboot Naked Gun?

[Dave Rubin]

So this is like early 2000s, right?

[David Zucker]

Early 2000s. Well, I did one movie in between. It's called American Carol, which is with it politics. We actually making fun of the left. And I wrote it with one of my best friends from high school, Louis Friedman, who's to the left of Castro. And we both. We will love making movies together. He's the funniest person I know.

[Dave Rubin]

Outside of Pat.

[David Zucker]

Prof. Probably.

[Dave Rubin]

But he's a lefty who could take a joke.

[David Zucker]

Oh, you know, absolutely. We can laugh. No, we can laugh. He writes for Robert De Niro and all these people, and he's really, really funny.

[Dave Rubin]

So I have to concede, I have not seen it. I saw the trailer.

[David Zucker]

Make fun of Michael Moore. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And Zach Levy's in it, right?

[David Zucker]

Zach Levy's in it. Yeah, a bunch of. Oh, Kelsey Grammer's in it. John Voight. All right, all right. It's got a. It's got a pretty neat cast anyway, so. But that was a buzz saw. It's like, you know, the left, as you know, they don't have a sense of humor about themselves and Republicans don't go to see movies. So I was. That was. That's the end of that. So that's now my. You think I'm still in director jail?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. So anyway, in and out, basically. Yeah. Just as I'm doing great, I sabotaged my own career. But then Then Pat, Pat Proft and I and Mike McManus got a hold of this old film noir movie called Detour. And we said this is the, a great start to a movie. It didn't have an ending and it didn't have a character. We, we used about 10 move 10 film noir movies and put together together that script which is called the Star of Malta.

[Dave Rubin]

The Unmade at the Unmade Star of Malta, which I have also read and is hilarious. And it's sitting here. So this is a 50s style film noir.

[David Zucker]

So that was a hard thing to get to get made. So then we said why don't we do. Why don't we reboot Naked Gun? I may be getting the chronology wrong. The reboot to Naked Gun script could have been first, but I'm elderly.

[Dave Rubin]

Unless you're fact checking yourself, everything's wrong.

[David Zucker]

And I, I actually didn't direct Naked Donald. No, no, no. I've got a but. And so, so we thought. But we didn't want to do the, the, the old cop, the Leslie 60 year old in, in a cop station in LA. I've done that. I didn't want to do the third one even. Right. So what we did is. But the sense of humor is the same. If we can do our, our spoof, our good jokes, why not have. It's the son of Leslie Nielsen, as you probably read in it. He's. He's a security guard somewhere and he. Then he gets mixed up in with the CIA and he goes. He does a Mission Impossible mission.

[Dave Rubin]

Right. So it becomes more of a Mission Impossible spoof in A Born Identity and Bond.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that works and that.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, and that is this.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And is. Do we even say the name now or. We'll keep the name secret because you can't. Because it's not Naked Gun anymore. Are we shifting to that portion of the conversation?

[David Zucker]

Well, we called it. Well, the first thing we said, we called it Naked Gun 4. Nordberg did it. That was our title. And then we changed it to Naked Impossible and we brought that script into Paramount and this is around 2018, I think. And the head of production and John Gonda read it and we heard through other people that he was laughing so hard all through the script that his either his wife or girlfriend at the time came in and said, what the hell's going on? What are you reading?

[Dave Rubin]

It was hilarious. I mean, I read it on a plane.

[David Zucker]

I told you.

[Dave Rubin]

The woman next to me was like, what in the world are you reading from page one. I was hysterical.

[David Zucker]

And the story is great. Everything I've learned has gone into this. Anyway, so then we had a meeting at Paramount with Ganda and the woman who was the president of Paramount. And things were going okay. Although she was, this woman was a little frightened because we had some very mild joke about the girl had a breast reduction because to fit into the Kevlar vest. It's like not the funniest joke, but she said, I don't know if you can do that.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, there's a joke in there.

[David Zucker]

Anyway, so time passes. I don't hear from my manager, I don't hear from my agent. And then I wake up to read that Naked Gun 4 is being done with Seth MacFarland has taken over the franchise.

[Dave Rubin]

So it's. Okay. So this is what, like two years ago or so?

[David Zucker]

Two or three years.

[Dave Rubin]

Two or three years ago. So that you never got to know. You just never heard back from.

[David Zucker]

Never heard back.

[Dave Rubin]

You are the creator of the entire thing. You would say maybe, yeah, you had the script. You, by all accounts, they like the script. I'm telling you, this is a fucking funny script. That was my 1. F bomb for the. You're not a big F bomb guy in comedy.

[David Zucker]

No, I, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't, I, I, I, I want to be judicious about my use.

[Dave Rubin]

That was my one.

[David Zucker]

And I don't like to have my kids say it either. So. Yeah, yeah, I've trained.

[Dave Rubin]

You dropped one earlier, I think.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, yeah, just for emphasis, to really illustrate the point.

[Dave Rubin]

So, okay, so then you, you find out that they've, they're going to do it. So Warner Brothers is going to do it?

[David Zucker]

No, Paramount.

[Dave Rubin]

Paramount is going to do it. Sorry, Paramount is going to do it. I really was going to blow your mind just then. War to do it.

[David Zucker]

Actually, that's new news.

[Dave Rubin]

Paramount is going to do it. And was it immediately announced who was going to do it?

[David Zucker]

No, it was Seth McFarland. Yeah, so, okay, so McFarland had come in and he was going to hire a director and young writers. Everything was, you know, young. As opposed to old guys. Yeah, except that, you know, in my story where we're not doing a 60 year old actor, we're refreshing it with a young actor. It would have been Andy Samberg, you know, some young comic guy.

[Dave Rubin]

So what do you think has happened here? And am I gonna actually bludgeon you and make you watch part of that trailer? What do you think?

[David Zucker]

You know, I don't wanna see it again. I Didn't wanna see it the first time because, you know, there's certain things that you can't unsee once you see em. And that's why I never saw this thing that occurred on the Internet years ago. It was called Two Girls, One Cup. And I. I heard about it, and I. But I didn't want to see it because you. You can't unsee that stuff.

[Dave Rubin]

Should we show him that too?

[David Zucker]

Oh, God, you really hate me.

[Dave Rubin]

To your credit, I completely glossed over it. But you also did not do Airplane two.

[David Zucker]

That's right.

[Dave Rubin]

For virtually the same reason you talked about now. Yeah. Which was many years ago. And you. You were. That was coming off the heels of a massive money maker.

[David Zucker]

But in defense of the Paramount executives, then again, again, it was Eisner and Katzenberg, and they came to us, please, will you do Airplane too? You can really maximize your profit by doing a sequel. And we didn't really. We didn't want to do another Airplane movie. But then the three of us came up with, wait a minute. There is a way we could do this. And it's very much like our plan for Naked Gun 4. And that was. Was to Bob and Julie fly down the plane, and he takes her home to meet his family, and it's the Godfather. And it would have been.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, that would have been brilliant.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. The poster would have been the marionette with a twisted plane.

[Dave Rubin]

Because then it's a whole other thing.

[David Zucker]

It's a whole other thing. Then we're doing the Godfather.

[Dave Rubin]

So did you pitch that to them or.

[David Zucker]

They already pitch it to Eisenhower.

[Dave Rubin]

That's a great idea.

[David Zucker]

Interestingly enough, they loved it, but they said they better go to Francis to see if it was okay. And Coppola said, no, he. He didn't want us to do it because he wanted to do Godfather 3. Now, looking back on it, everyone would have been better off had we done, you know, Airplane to the Godfather. Right.

[Dave Rubin]

And eventually they did make a Godfather spoof, which was with Jay Moore.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, right. But that's. Wasn't a good. By that time, it was too old anyway. So Airplane 2 opened, and predictably, they didn't know what they were doing. They didn't know the rules. They didn't know nothing. So it. It opened Let these things do, and then quickly dropped off one pe once people went and saw that it was, you know, mediocrely funny.

[Dave Rubin]

So now getting us back to where we're at at the moment. So this freaking trailer comes out like a month ago for the new one. You're not involved. I watched it. It's. I'm not going to bludgeon you with it. I kind of watch. Want to, but I'm not going to do it to you. I'm just not going to do it to you. It's terrible. It's. So they get. All right, so Liam Neeson, which I think they just chose because it sounds like Leslie Nielsen. That feels. And there's a similar serious.

[David Zucker]

They're going back to the old model. And, you know, so I've given a lot of interviews about this, and the headlines are, naked Gun director says he would never have cast Liam Neeson. Now, this is really nothing against Liam. Liam is a perfectly fine actor. It's the whole concept that I say shouldn't be done is like going back to the old Leslie Nielsen model.

[Dave Rubin]

Right. All right, so I won't bludgeon you with it, but there will b. Roll it while we're talking. So you don't even have to look over there.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, I won't.

[Dave Rubin]

But there's.

[David Zucker]

I won't watch it. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Where they show they use CGI blood in a stabbing. And I thought just that in and of itself is so profoundly different than what anything that you guys would have done. Not just because there wasn't that much CGI when you were doing the originals. There were some, but just like the. The seriousness of it or something is just lost.

[David Zucker]

Right. And I mean, we also, you know, they. We didn't. We never made Frank Drebin, Leslie Nielsen, into a clown. And even in the trailer, I mean, he's wearing these boxers that are silly. It's. You know, this is why I don't want to see it again.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

All right, so then I will not.

[Dave Rubin]

Do it to you, but you can.

[David Zucker]

Show it to your audience. I don't care about your audience. Audience.

[Dave Rubin]

I care about my audience. So I decided not. No, I made an executive decision. Now we're not going to show.

[David Zucker]

You're not even going to bludgeon your audience?

[Dave Rubin]

No, no, no, no. We're not going to. All right, so. So, all right, you've got Malta here, which to me seems to be like the. The passion project that you never got to do. And then. And then you have. And again is the name.

[David Zucker]

We changed the name so you had counterintelligence spelled with one L and a J.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay. So that. That's what this is right here. But this is the real Naked Gun.

[David Zucker]

That's the one, I think, that you read. Yes.

[Dave Rubin]

How many people have read this?

[David Zucker]

You know, so we've We've given it to some agents, production company. You know, it's like, I don't think the. The studios get humor anymore. They don't. They don't know what good or bad is.

[Dave Rubin]

So.

[David Zucker]

So we're going to have to raise the money from billionaires.

[Dave Rubin]

But I know you're not pissed about it. I know you're not because we had dinner last night. You're not pissed about it. Like, it's like, okay, they gave it to him, so be it. And Seth McFarland is kind of social justice warrior and whatever. Some people like family guys, some people don't. Or, or why do you think they did not give it to you?

[David Zucker]

I think because Seth MacFarlane, you are.

[Dave Rubin]

As thought of as a scary conservative these days or something. You did something with Prageru.

[David Zucker]

I mean, and I did that movie American Carol. But still I don't think it's that. I mean, I may be wrong. Maybe they're saying. They are saying that, but I think it's more because Seth MacFarland has. Between family guy and Ted and some of the other. How he has bigger grosses than I did. But that's probably adjusted for, you know, 20. $20.

[Dave Rubin]

Sure.

[David Zucker]

But. And he's Seth McFarland. It's like, it's. When you say Seth McFarland, you can hear the chorus. Ah. And so I think when he came in, they figure, you know, it's that like that line in Fiddler on the Roof. When you're rich, they think you really know.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

And you know, they went with. It's all. It's like the Godfather. It's the smart move. It was the smart move. Tessio.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, Exactly.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. But. So. But it didn't make sense. And Tessio, of course, paid the price.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, exactly.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't know if you just. That was a direct death threat, right. That you made right there.

[David Zucker]

But it could be intern, you know. Oh, I. First I hear it.

[Dave Rubin]

I want to make this freaking movie.

[David Zucker]

I don't know. I'd love to.

[Dave Rubin]

I want to make this movie. Like, I'll give you some money, but I don't have that kind of cash.

[David Zucker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Like, I mean, I can move some things around, but.

[David Zucker]

Move some things around and. Well, here the lower hanging fruit is Stara Malta.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. But wait, wait, wait. Before we get there. So what do you think's gonna happen? So, okay, so they're gonna put this movie out. It's coming out on August 1st. As you know, I disappear for a month on August 1st. Which in this Case is probably a good idea.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, well.

[Dave Rubin]

But what do you think is.

[David Zucker]

I'll tell you what's gonna happen.

[Dave Rubin]

I did not see one person that watched the trailer.

[David Zucker]

I think it's gonna open fine. Because people wanna see Naked Gun. And. And I don't think the word gets out. And Paramount certainly isn't advertising the fact that they excluded the original creators. And Paramount would say, well, these guys are too old anyways. They're best in a nursing home. And so. And I'm still, as you know, I'm still some years away from that. No, no, no.

[Dave Rubin]

Dinner last night.

[David Zucker]

We had dinner. I ate. I had wiping your mouth, a minimum of drooling.

[Dave Rubin]

I'm fine.

[David Zucker]

I'm fine. Right. But they're not gonna tell people that it's. And nobody will know until opening weekend, so. Okay, so.

[Dave Rubin]

So if it doesn't go that. Look, if it go. If it's. If it ends up being a hit for one reason or another, if it's.

[David Zucker]

Great and funny, then, you know, I'll. Obviously, I was wrong.

[Dave Rubin]

And we'll delete this episode.

[David Zucker]

And we'll delete this episode.

[Dave Rubin]

It'll be the first deleted episode.

[David Zucker]

Cannot see this. It's like.

[Dave Rubin]

This will be like our episode five of Police Squad.

[David Zucker]

That's right. No one will ever see this.

[Dave Rubin]

Gone completely.

[David Zucker]

But I still. I'm still in print saying it's gonn.

[Dave Rubin]

Right, Right.

[David Zucker]

I actually didn't say that, but yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay. But if. If it's a hit and it ends up being fun.

[David Zucker]

Right.

[Dave Rubin]

Okay, fine. It is. You still want to make.

[David Zucker]

I still could make this. This is still good. It's a completely different thing.

[Dave Rubin]

We got to make this movie.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't know who I'm going to call, but I'm going to call.

[David Zucker]

I think the budget is. I think I mentioned it's probably around 25 to 30.

[Dave Rubin]

Right.

[David Zucker]

So, you know, that's. But I always figured we get the money for Star Malta first, so. But I. I could be wrong.

[Dave Rubin]

Right. And this you can do on a smaller budget.

[David Zucker]

Smaller budget in six weeks and shoot it all in la. And there's two, actually two production companies that are really behind it now. So we may in fact get this made. And if this gets made, then I think the counterintelligence will get made and then the story will be. This would have been Naked Gun. Cause it's obviously a father son story.

[Dave Rubin]

So that's. So the beauty of all of this, for a guy that likes the story with the jokes, not just the jokes, is that If Naked gun from Seth MacFarlane fails that, it's like, I had it all along.

[David Zucker]

I had it on here.

[Dave Rubin]

You. I did it twice.

[David Zucker]

I'm not as angry as you are. I'm pissed. I know you're pissed and I enjoy your. Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

It takes a lot to get me pissed. People don't see me pissed, but I'm pissed. This is the real deal. You're the creator, you're the writer. It's your baby. It's your right.

[David Zucker]

But. And it's hard to get, you know, Seth MacFarlane. I mean, he, he refused to meet with me.

[Dave Rubin]

He didn't care about Seth.

[David Zucker]

But he also called me. He called me. Yeah. And we had this 15 minute conversation where he just told me how much he worships the Naked Gun, top secret airplane, everything. But yet, what am I. It's just like. And so I kind of said gently, but that, you know, Seth, I had a script. And he said it was the first he heard of it, but first he heard of it.

[Dave Rubin]

At last you heard of him.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, last I heard of him. But anyway, they wanted me to put my name on it as executive producer. Offered me, you know, a bunch of money, but it wasn't, you know. Well, that's not interesting.

[Dave Rubin]

So. So purely just for integrity. It's not yours. You didn't you. Because you could. I have no idea how much they were going to offer you, but it's Hollywood. They're going to offer you a decent chunk.

[David Zucker]

It was discussed. It just put a couple hundred K. So.

[Dave Rubin]

A couple hundred K to basically do nothing.

[David Zucker]

Do nothing and just put my, you know, executive producer, David Zucker.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. And you show up to the set once you have a bagel and.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Notice I pronounced the name wrong.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, I got it. I got it.

[David Zucker]

I don't have to spell it out for you, do I?

[Dave Rubin]

Zucker.

[David Zucker]

Zucker. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Zucker. David Zucker.

[David Zucker]

You're wonderful.

[Dave Rubin]

Every time I've been around you, I call you David Zucker.

[David Zucker]

I know. And I just pass it over. I just say, I don't know. You know, he doesn't know any better.

[Dave Rubin]

And we have the same first name, so. I got that, right.

[David Zucker]

That's right. You got that. And. But I'm David. You know, my, my friends used to call me and. And my mom would answer the phone and. Because those days there was only one phone in the whole downstairs. And I would hear her say, well, there's no David here. There's no Dave here. We have a David, but there's no Dave.

[Dave Rubin]

I get that. My parents still call me David. No one else does. My parents call me David. I'm going to make this movie somehow. I'm going to be involved. I'm telling you right now, even if you're not angry about it, I'm pissed. I don't care what happens with that other thing. I think we could crowdfund this thing. I think the Internet, especially if the other one fails, the Internet is going to say, David Zucker.

[David Zucker]

This would have. Yeah, I should have done this. Should have been Naked Gun. I had the script for N. It would have rebooted the franchise. We could have made three of these with this kid.

[Dave Rubin]

It smells.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, right?

[Dave Rubin]

That famous smell.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. But what I am doing is doing the chorus, you know, so. Because, you know, it was inspired. Inspired by. These people are doing it and they don't know the rules. So I'm doing. It's called Mastercraft.

[Dave Rubin]

So let's throw to a bit of Master Crash because maybe if Seth MacFarlane is watching today and he's got a little time to edit, maybe he can fix some of this stuff.

[David Zucker]

Hi. I'm just like, I don't think I can do this. We kind of, over the years assembled 15 rules that helped to guide us. Now, I have to say they're only our rules, but they do apply to anybody who's attempting to do this kind of spoof. All these people, when they try to imitate our style, probably less successful because they are not aware. Aware of the rules. The 15 rules. Jim Abrams is probably looking down at me and saying, oh, God, is David trying to take himself seriously? No, I'm not. And it's none of your business.

[Dave Rubin]

So even that, in some sense is a spoof of Master Class. Like you're making a spoof of the thing you're spoofing while you're spoofing it.

[David Zucker]

Right.

[Dave Rubin]

Pretty.

[David Zucker]

I can't help it because you can't take this stuff seriously.

[Dave Rubin]

Right.

[David Zucker]

And so, I mean, I'm teaching comedy, but you can't do that. It's horrible. God, it's. It's. You can't. But there are rules, and I think they would help if somebody who is attempting to write a spoof would actually know these, you know, these few rules.

[Dave Rubin]

Do you know how much the course costs?

[David Zucker]

Well, I don't know yet, but we're gonna. We're going to announce that.

[Dave Rubin]

All right, well, here's what I'm going to do. Not only am I going to figure out a way whether we have to crowdfund it, what if maybe I will get. You need about 25 mil.

[David Zucker]

25 mil to that script.

[Dave Rubin]

So I have about 3 million subscribers on YouTube alone. That means if every subscriber neighbor of mine grows in about four bucks, you'll have a little extra change to work on.

[David Zucker]

That would be great. That would be something.

[Dave Rubin]

So we'll see if we can figure this thing out. That's one thing. But I will also. Let's say you charge, I don't know, maybe 100 bucks for master Crash.

[David Zucker]

It'll be a lot more than that.

[Dave Rubin]

A lot more than that. All right. I will put in the thousand dollars to have that sent directly to Seth McFarland so that maybe.

[David Zucker]

Oh, oh, that's great.

[Dave Rubin]

That's what you should do.

[David Zucker]

Yeah. Send it to all. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Can't you, you could have a box set of that just sent to his door.

[David Zucker]

You know, I'm not that vindictive really.

[Dave Rubin]

I just, I, not either, but I'm vindictive for you.

[David Zucker]

I know.

[Dave Rubin]

I've never felt this before.

[David Zucker]

Yeah, I, I, Yeah. I just think I, I'll, I always win in the end.

[Dave Rubin]

What else? Anything else? Did we do it all?

[David Zucker]

I think we did it all. This was great. Yeah. Can you, we got all the information out.

[Dave Rubin]

Is there any comedy lesson that you think I need to learn to apply to the Daily Reuben Report show of which I know you're a big fan. How am I doing? Doing okay.

[David Zucker]

Well, good. And, and I sometimes send in suggestions.

[Dave Rubin]

You do?

[David Zucker]

And you guys are taking them. And you know, I, I, I'm particularly aware of the hysteria of the left.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[David Zucker]

So I wish you would, whenever you mention it, you just put in that, just a one second of airplane, all the passengers going. That's what they're doing. You know, it's just like, oh, my God. There's so much where, you know, you know, it was particularly hysterical. Is that woman from Massachusetts. Oh, Elizabeth Warren.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, she's.

[David Zucker]

And he says, you think they're, they're going for illegal aliens next. They're coming for you. That's hysteria.

[Dave Rubin]

Right.

[David Zucker]

And so it's, so it's, we're all gonna die. We're all gonna die.

[Dave Rubin]

Wait, I can't end this talking about politics. We've talked about comedy and success and the story of life and we're going to end this with Elizabeth Warren.

[David Zucker]

No, that's such a downer.

[Dave Rubin]

We have to end this some other.

[David Zucker]

Why did you bring her up?

[Dave Rubin]

I think you brought her up, but either way, we have to get out of this. Come on. You're a great writer. I'm a decent talk show host. Let's figure this out together. Leslie Nielsen was a wonderful comedic actor.

[David Zucker]

Leslie Nielsen was a wonderful. And I was sad that he died. I went to his wake and his. And I met one of his. Somebody who knew him, this lady and her husband, and she was a fan of airplanes. So the first thing she did at Leslie's wake is show me a picture of her daughter, who is an actress. So. And of course, I was a good boy, and I consented to meet with her. And you were dating her for six years. And I dated her for a year. And so this was. This is. This is. See, this is why I'm not all that angry.

[Dave Rubin]

Because it all worked out.

[David Zucker]

It all works out. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And Leslie Nielsen married Bea Arthur in the last episode of the Golden Girl.

[David Zucker]

That's right. For you. That was your fantasy. And. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Your fantasy was the. Was the daughter.

[David Zucker]

Was the daughter absolutely hot? Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Mine was watching two 7 year olds I never met get married.

[David Zucker]

That's right. But I, like, love visiting you.

[Unknown]

Where's the police officer who's on guard at that door? Oh, Lieutenant Drebin called and sent him home. Lieutenant Drebman, call police guard. Tell them that 411 is in progress.

[Dave Rubin]

411.

[David Zucker]

Oh, my God. Fire.

[Unknown]

No, no, no. 1411.

[David Zucker]

1411. Oh, my God. A car is a gas leak. No.