Embed Notice

@blogdiva @gulovsen My favorite bit of trivia about AIRPLANE! is that they originally tried to get Pete Rose as the Roger Murdock character. Filming was delayed until summer and Rose was out so they approached Kareem who was arguing with his accountant about if he could afford a really expensive Oriental rug. "If I do this movie, can I buy the rug?" The rest is history.

This parallels the casting in Zero Hour where Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch was cast in the same role (AIRPLANE! is a scene-for-scene parody of Zero Hour). Hirsch was a college football star and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin, alma mater of Abrams and the Zucker brothers.