Comedy classic 'Airplane' opened in theaters across North America on this day in 1980. Written and directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, collectively known as ZAZ, 'Airplane' hilariously parodies the popular disaster movies of the 1970s.

The script, which had been completed in 1975, was picked up by Paramount who insisted the film be shot in colour rather than black-and-white as ZAZ had wanted and that they set it aboard a jet airliner and not a propeller plane to better identify with a modern audience.

In exchange Paramount agreed the filmmakers could cast serious actors in the film rather than comedians. Shot on a budget of just $3.5 million 'Airplane' went on to earn $171 million worldwide.