Daily Dialogue — January 24, 2012

“It was a rough place, the seediest dive on the wharf. Populated with every reject and cutthroat from Bombay to Calcutta. It was worse than Detroit.”

— Ted Striker (Robert Hays), Airplane! (1980), written by David Zucker & Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is flashbacks, suggested by Alexander Gorelik. Today’s suggestion by Jeff Kirschner.

Trivia: To get the film green-lighted by Paramount, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker pitched it as “Animal House on a plane” — which, of course, was far from the truth, but the only way they could get the studio execs to understand it was a zany comedy.

Dialogue On Dialogue: ZAZ use the flashback to comedic effect by having Striker’s character go on… and on… and on about his past.