Leslie Nielsen was the living vessel of the punchlines and sardonic soliloquies put forth by Abrams/Zucker/Zucker, and it is impossible to underestimate the impact he had on the comedy being created today.
While he is most known for his role of Dr. Rumack in Airplane! (1980) it was Police Squad that gave rise to his finest moments. When the show debuted in 1982 it was like a blow to the belly of television, which at that time was mired in CHiPs and Dukes of Hazard mediocrity. (Cheers would debut that same season, so ’82 was a banner year).
Police Squad only lasted six episodes, probably because the humor was too smart and weird for audiences at the time (in some ways it was the Arrested Development of its day). But it did give birth to the character of Frank Drebin, which Nielsen would go on to reprise in a trio Naked Gun films. The movies were funny, but they didn’t have the random darkness of the television show. Watch this clip and you’ll get a sense of what I mean.
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