He and boyhood friends Jerry and David Zucker got their start with 'The Kentucky Fried Movie,' and they also were behind 'Top Secret!' and 'Ruthless People.'
Jim Abrahams, the writer-director who with brothers Jerry and David Zucker turned the comedy genre on its ear with such zany efforts asJoke-filled and laden with sight gags and puns, the humor of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, or ZAZ as they came to be known, was fast, frenetic and just downright silly. Parody was their specialty. Everything was ripe for ridicule — the more absurd, the better.
Instead of employing comedians, ZAZ used familiar TV drama actors Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen to deliver their tongue-in-cheek dialogue. They knew it would sound much funnier if delivered deadpan by performers known for their serious work.. “At first, Paramount was resistant to that idea. They didn’t quite understand why we wanted to do something like that. There was something very endearing about those four actors spoofing themselves in the movie.
With Nielsen reprising his role as Drebin alongside squadmates played by George Kennedy and O.J. Simpson, the comedy generated two sequels —James Steven Abrahams was born May 10, 1944, in Shorewood, Wisconsin. His father, Norman, was a lawyer, and his mother, Louise, an educational researcher. “There were a bunch of groups in that era who were making political jokes, and there were lots of easy, obvious targets,” Abrahams said. “But that was just never our instinct. Our instinct was always to watch a movie and say, ‘Isn’t’ that silly?'”
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