Jim Abrahams, the writer-director who helped create comedy classics such as 'Airplane!', the 'Naked Gun' movies, and the TV series 'Police Squad!' has died. He was 80.
Together with his boyhood friends Jerry and David Zucker, Abrahams ushered in a new wave of zany Hollywood comedies beginning with 1977's sketch-comedy 'Kentucky Fried Movie,' directed by John Landis.
The trio - a k a 'ZAZ,' Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker - would continue to work together throughout the 1980s, partnering for 'Top Secret!' (1984), 'Ruthless People' (1986) and the 'Top Gun' sendups 'Hot Shots!' and 'Hot Shots! Part Deux.'
Working in the same vein as comedy legend Mel Brooks, Abrahams and the Zucker brothers had a knack for combining absurd situations with deadpan writing.
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