{"id":818,"date":"2024-12-04T17:07:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=818"},"modified":"2024-12-04T17:07:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:07:18","slug":"jim-abrahams-iconic-writer-director-of-airplane-and-the-naked-gun-dies-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=818","title":{"rendered":"Jim Abrahams, Iconic Writer-Director of \u2018Airplane!\u2019 and \u2018The Naked Gun,\u2019 Dies at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-460\" class=\"post-460 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-stars\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>Jim Abrahams, the comedy genius behind classics like Airplane!, the Naked Gun films, and Police Squad!, has passed away at the age of 80 from natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, California. Abrahams, alongside Jerry and David Zucker, formed the legendary \u201cZAZ\u201d trio, revolutionizing comedy with their unique blend of absurdity and deadpan humor. Their 1980 disaster-film spoof Airplane! became a cultural phenomenon, earning $83 million worldwide on a $3.5 million budget and delivering iconic moments like Leslie Nielsen\u2019s deadpan exchange, \u201cSurely, you can\u2019t be serious.\u201d \u201cI am serious \u2026 and don\u2019t call me Shirley.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beyond Airplane!, Abrahams co-created Police Squad!, which inspired the hit Naked Gun series starring Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin, and co-wrote other comedy staples like Top Secret!, Ruthless People, and the Hot Shots! films. He also directed solo projects such as Mafia! and Scary Movie 4. Abrahams is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy Cocuzzo; their children, Joseph, Charlie, and Jamie; and three grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-819\" src=\"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot_20241204_180609_Facebook-171x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"171\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot_20241204_180609_Facebook-171x300.jpg 171w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot_20241204_180609_Facebook-584x1024.jpg 584w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot_20241204_180609_Facebook-768x1346.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot_20241204_180609_Facebook-876x1536.jpg 876w, https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot_20241204_180609_Facebook.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 171px) 100vw, 171px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Abrahams, the comedy genius behind classics like Airplane!, the Naked Gun films, and Police Squad!, has passed away at the age of 80 from natural causes&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}