I have never attempted to make a secret of my love for Airplane! There is a great deal that can be said of me, but not that I ever concealed or minimized my affection for this most excellent of films. Last year at the Turner Classic Film festival at least two of the Zs in ZAZ and Robert Hays were on a panel discussing Airplane! before a late-night showing. I was there with my dad, as is…

Airplane! is one of my favorite movies. I am not an unreconstructed ZAZ fan; I think The Naked Gun is overrated and there are parts of Police Squad! that could have been improved upon, but Airplane! remains in my mind one of the most consistently funny movies of the last thirty years. You know how one of the reasons everyone loved 30 Rock so much was the astonishing rate of jokes per minute? That's Airplane!, but with the added benefit…