Monday, June 9, 2014

Flick Pick: The Naked Gun

The Naked Gun
(Paramount, 1990)

Starting as a TV series (Police Squad!) by Paramount TV in 1982, bought by ABC knowing full well the rapid-fire sight gags, satire, and relentless puns and one-liners the producers were famous for, then witlessly cancelled by ABC after 6 brilliant episodes, "because the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it."
Really, swear to Buddha, a direct quote from the ABC head chimpanzee  head of ABC Entertainment, a dumber excuse than which no other is possible, to this day.
Unimpressed with the admission that the network execs were stupider than the audience, Messrs. Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker with Pat Proft, trotted the entire concept right over to the movie side of the house, and raked in a mere $78M on a $12M budget, then followed it up with two more sequels for a total gross of about $217M in box office over three movies and 6 years. Because network TV executives are so smart, and obviously no one in the audience would ever get this kind of comedy.

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