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SpursRiot2012

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19 hours ago, Cousin Jim Bob said:

 

I like the employee smiling at him like "Isn't this fun ? Oh you have some dead bird on your face or is that a broken nose lol".

I'm still trying to find it, but I remember his comment at the time about the incident being in third person. Something about how this "proved the power of Fabio!".

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He was a properly serious actor until Airplane. I think that's why they cast him in it, because he was the straight man to all the madness going on around him. 

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I'm 90% sure that's a screen test for Cesare Danova and Nielsen is just a stand in to read the lines. Seems odd that he has his back to camera for the entire test, including when it cuts to a different take for the close up.

He also managed to yeet his spear into the floor judging by the noise it made

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29 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

He was a properly serious actor until Airplane. I think that's why they cast him in it, because he was the straight man to all the madness going on around him. 

Yeah, they wanted someone who was a serious actor, but would readily be associated with the kind of B-movie/disaster flick they were parodying - he'd done stuff like Day of The Animals and the Poseidon Adventure before Airplane. So much of Nielsen's later comedy career was hampered by the fact that he was getting cast to do broad, goofy jokes, when the brilliance of him in Airplane is that it's played completely straight, and his comic timing was impeccable for that. 

According to his autobiography, Christopher Lee was offered the role in Airplane, but his agent turned it down for him because they didn't feel the script was very funny, and because he was already doing 1941 for Steven Spielberg - he said it was one of his only regrets in his career. I don't know how true it is, as Leslie Nielsen had done a voice part for Kentucky Fried Movie, so was clearly already well on the radar of the Zucker brothers. 

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Neilsen turns up in two episodes of Columbo as well, playing is straight as an arrow. It's bizarre seeing him interact with Peter Falk and Patrick McGoohan. It's also funny to watch it and just imagine he's in his comedy mode as he does it. 

Right, I'll have to watch Airplane! now

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1 minute ago, Chili said:

Neilsen turns up in two episodes of Columbo as well, playing is straight as an arrow. It's bizarre seeing him interact with Peter Falk and Patrick McGoohan. It's also funny to watch it and just imagine he's in his comedy mode as he does it. 

Right, I'll have to watch Airplane! now

For a similarly surreal experience, check out the side-by-side comparison of Airplane and Zero Hour, the movie that inspired it. The original film has been rendered completely impossible to take seriously:

 

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5 hours ago, Just Some Guy said:

TIL That Max from comedy double act Max & Ivan was once the UK's youngest pro wrestler.

And that Max & Ivan have made a wrestling sitcom for ITV2. Can't be as bad as Rumble, surely.

There's a longish read from max here about his wrestling days

 https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a211/the-long-read-i-was-a-teenage-pro-wrestler/

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