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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Feb 25, 2010 13:46:10 GMT -5
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Post by Defender on Feb 25, 2010 15:59:11 GMT -5
Lovely Tom! That's made my day.
Bill
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Post by capflyer on Feb 25, 2010 20:47:35 GMT -5
Yep. Known of that connection for years. I just like the way that Airplane! told the story better...  Even more to the point, Airplane! is such a copy of Zero Hour that they used the same droning piston airliner background track in the movie. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2010 23:14:12 GMT -5
LOL. I never knew that Airplane was a spoof of Zero Hour. Many thanks for the link, Tom. ;D
Brian
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Post by Ricardo Miranda on Feb 26, 2010 9:35:23 GMT -5
Hi! Just to tie the ends: the producers of Airplane bought the rights of Zero Hour for a miserable sum so they could copy the script without any problem!  Soft Landings! |
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Post by Pixel Pilot on Feb 26, 2010 11:28:24 GMT -5
Lots of laughs Tom. Thanks for the link.
Ed
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Post by Wolfgang on Feb 26, 2010 15:11:46 GMT -5
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Post by chris_c on Feb 26, 2010 22:51:40 GMT -5
Talk about art imitating life, Friday 5 March on Turner Classic Movies, an evening of aviation flicks. All times Pacific Standard. 5:00 PM The Crowded Sky: 1960 www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=265907:00 PM Airplane: 1980 8:45 PM Zero Hour: 1957 10:15 PM Crash Landing: 1958 www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=71707I am not at all familier with the first and the last which look to have the potential to be Really Bad and sitting through Zero Hour after Airplane might be a bit of a trial. Still, for those that get TCM might have some fun. Chris |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Feb 27, 2010 10:47:30 GMT -5
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Post by Tom Test on Mar 6, 2010 22:25:25 GMT -5
I watched all three last night, back to back.
Seeing Zero Hour right after Airplane! was interesting, because so much of what I thought so campy in Airplane! came directly from the earlier movie, particularly the behavior of the doctor (lecturing Striker, slapping the hysterical passenger) and the way the Captain was handling the boy. I found wife Ellen a much stronger character than girlfriend Elaine; indeed, the most puzzling thing about the Airplane! plot was trying to understand why Striker was trying to keep that relationship going.
I though Crash Landing was the best of the three, with the Captain becoming increasingly demanding of his crew as the situation deteriorated, yet still able to consider their expertise as he made their decisions.
It was interesting to watch the flight engineer work. I've never understood the position of the FE in the later DC's, not having his own workstation (as the FE did in contemporary transports from Boeing, Lockheed, and even the military Douglas transports). It is as if Douglas went as far as it could, with arrangement of instruments and controls, to help the airlines make the FE role redundant, but the airlines were unable do it politically.
It was interesting also to see the FE do seat swaps, as Captain or FO got up to take care of other business. I know it was an issue, during the postwar period, whether or not the FE would be trained as a pilot, or be an engineering or mechanical specialist. There was a major struggle over this between pilots' union and the engineers' union, which the FE's eventually lost, and then it came down to "do we really need a third pilot?"
I suspect that one factor in an airline's choice of equipment was their intention toward eliminating the FE crew position, which ultimately didn't happen until cockpit automation made the change inevitable.
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Post by chris_c on Mar 6, 2010 23:24:39 GMT -5
Got to see Crowded Sky but Friday night's the Wife owns the TV and sadly it's not up for negotiations. I watch so little TV that it's seldom an issue and instead I did Ciampino - Cairo in a TWA L-749. Noted all the introspective flashbacks in the movie so I suspect the Zucker Brothers modeled some of the Airplane scenes from Crowded Sky even if most of the gags are from Zero Hour. Zero Hour was based on an Arthur Hailey teleplay called Flight into Danger aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1956 and staring James Doohan, Scotty from the Star Trek franchise. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_into_DangerChris |
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Mar 7, 2010 11:07:41 GMT -5
Hi, All very interesting, thanks. I've seen all but Crash Landing so far. Still on DVR for today. Yes Crowded Sky was very instructional, watching the crew of the DC-6B actually work. The FE's position behind the pedestal was clearly demonstrated. BTW, Douglas *did* try to get the DC-4 certificated with only two pilots, but the CAA objected to the pilot workload and Douglas added the FE jump seat. Thanks, |
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Post by chris_c on Mar 7, 2010 17:16:09 GMT -5
The workload aspect is interesting since I just finished reading Fly with the Stars, the story of British South American Airways (BSAA). They did away with the FE position in their aircraft (Yorks, Lancastrians and Tudors) and cross trained all the flight deck crew in navigation as well.
Typically a BSAA aircraft only had maximum of three pilots (sometimes only two) and one radio operator regardless of the length of the route segment.
Sorry to drift off topic but I wonder if this sort of crew saving cross-training in complex aircraft might not have been a bad idea particularly when things go wrong. It's not do difficult to imagine the workload becoming overwhelming in a crisis and perhap it factored into some of their accidents.
Chris
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