A TV Gem I Discovered This Weekend

Saturday afternoon, following a silly decision to go jogging in the afternoon heat, I was sitting in my chair flipping through the TV channels. My wife was taking a well-deserved nap and our daughter was at an extended dance team practice.

In other words, I had good reason to be flipping through the channels with a clicker that I wield like a phaser on Star Trek.

And that’s when I came across a film on Turner Classic Movies that caught my eye.

Zero Hour!, produced in 1957, is a film I wouldn’t have paid much attention. I guess I’m a snob when it comes to pre-1960s movies, unless we’re talking Stalag 17 or some other black and white classic.

But the summary at the top of the screen said the following: a former World War II pilot must land a Canadian passenger plane when the pilots get food poisoning.

I started wondering where I’ve heard that plot before and then it hit me. I have read that the comedy classic Airplane! was based on a 1950’s movie and Zero Hour! was it.

So I spent the next hour and 20 minutes (short movie) watching Zero Hour! and laughing uncontrollably as if I was watching Airplane! for the first time nearly 30 years later.

Airplane! wasn’t based on Zero Hour!. Airplane! WAS Zero Hour!.

If you don’t believe me, check out the Zero Hour! trailer.

The Airplane! producers even took the exclamation point for the title. It was written by Arthur Hailey, who also penned the original Airport.

Among the amazing moments I got to relive on Saturday:

- The lead character’s name WAS Ted Stryker. Dana Andrews played the passenger-turned-pilot 23 years before Robert Hays got his shot. (It’s not like we’re talking portraying James Bond!)

- Little Joey did visit the cockpit and received a toy plane from the captain. There were no disturbing questions from the pilot ala Captain Over from the 1980 version.

- The co-pilot (not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) did pass out at the controls while the captain talked with the doctor (who wasn’t named Rumack).

- Captain Treleaven (not Rex Kramer) did have to talk Stryker “right down to the ground.“

- One character “picked the wrong week to quit smoking” while another was ordered “to get more coffee.“

- It WAS “an entirely different kind of flying, all together.“

- Stryker decided to ignore the tower instructions and land right away because “he’s in charge now.“

- And after Stryker lands the plane, Treleaven says “Ted, that was the probably the lousiest landing in the history of this airport. But a lot of people, particularly me, would like to shake your hand and buy you a drink.“

Zero Hour! was supposed to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It didn’t make it that way in 1957 and came across more like an episode of a TV drama.

And it was mercifully short at about an hour and 20 minutes, but Zero Hour! Is now one of the most unintentionally funny movies I’ve ever seen.