The ZAZ mourn Jim Abrahams: the director is dead

With David Zucker and Jerry Zucker, he directed the funniest and craziest comedies of the 1980s and 1990s, including Is There a Pilot on the Plane?

He is a legend of American comedy who has just left us. Jim Abrahams died and ZAZ of will be more. He was 80 years old. Abrahams died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, his son confirmed last night.

Co-director of Is there a pilot on the plane?director of Hot Shots!producer of Is there a cop, Jim Abrahams formed a resounding trio with David and Jerry Zucker at the end of the 20th century. The three friends met in their native Wisconsin to subsequently form this trio nicknamed ZAZ (for Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker).

Together, they revolutionized the comedy genre with such crazy films at the end of the 1970s. But everything changed in 1980 with the release of Is there a pilot on the plane? A pinnacle of excessive humor, where jokes and visual gags and other puns follow one another continuously for 1h30. A unique frenetic style, where the absurd is king. THE ZAZ made parody a genre in itself and paved the way for Scary Movies of all kinds that followed. Jim Abrahams had also written the screenplay for Scary Movie 4 (in 2004).

Michael Eisner, who headed Paramount at the time, told the Hollywood Reporter in 2012: “I don't know what motivated me to do Is There a Pilot on the Plane? at the time… I think everyone was making airplane films. Films like 747 in Jeopardy (1974) were ubiquitous in theaters, like superhero films today. And we found it funny to make fun of it.”

Is there a pilot on the plane? thus brought in 83.5 million dollars for a modest budget of 3.5 million dollars. At the time, it was the third highest-grossing comedy in history.