Airplane

It was released on June 27, 1980, and was written and directed by the trio of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (known as ZAZ) in their feature directorial debut.

Not entirely. It closely spoofs the 1957 disaster film Zero Hour!, which the ZAZ trio reportedly discovered by accident while taping late-night TV for comedy material and found to be, as Jerry Zucker put it, a perfectly classically structured film worth parodying.

Yes, hugely. Made on a budget of about $3.5 million, it earned roughly $171 million worldwide and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1980.

That was the joke. Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves had never done comedy before, and David Zucker felt they were much funnier than the actual comedians of the era.

It is Leslie Nielsen’s reply after being told "Surely you can’t be serious": "I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley." The line ranked 79th on the AFI list of the 100 best movie quotes.

Reportedly yes. Nielsen used a hidden farting device between takes to keep the rest of the cast off-balance.

Robert Hays, then co-starring on the ABC sitcom Angie, played Ted Striker, and Julie Hagerty played Elaine Dickinson in her film debut.

No. David Letterman screen-tested for the role but declined, and Chevy Chase, Barry Manilow, Bill Murray, and Fred Willard were also considered.

Yes. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played co-pilot Roger Murdock. He later reprised the role in a 2014 Delta Air Lines safety video.

Otto is the inflatable autopilot that flies the plane, and he is playfully listed in the credits as "Otto as Himself."

Barbara Billingsley, famous as the wholesome mom from Leave It to Beaver, was cast against type as the "Jive Lady" who speaks the passengers’ vernacular.

Yes. Ethel Merman made her final on-screen appearance as Lt. Hurwitz, a shellshocked soldier who believes he is Ethel Merman.

It was. The original cut ran about 115 minutes and was trimmed to 87 minutes after college test screenings, and one deleted scene reportedly featured Jose Feliciano as a blind "Air Poland" pilot.

Yes. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 2010 for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and in 2007 Channel 4 in the UK ranked it the second-greatest comedy ever, behind only Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

Reportedly during the 2008 Qantas Flight 72 incident, the captain recited Lloyd Bridges’ lines from the film to relieve tension while landing the damaged aircraft.