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Leslie Nielsen landed a role on Police Squad because of his acting in Airplane!

By: Catchy Comedy Staff Posted: January 4, 2025, 8:00AM

In the '80s, Leslie Nielsen was flying high, and he had the movie Airplane! (1980) to thank for it. Nielsen had a major role in the feature comedy, which quickly became a box-office smash.

So, when the Airplane! producers said they had a new, off-beat police comedy series, Nielsen was the first actor they called.

The result was ABC's Police Squad!. Six episodes were shot during the first season of the series, and if it did well against Mork and Mindy in the Nielsen ratings, it would be scheduled to come back for a second season.

"I have my own Nielsen ratings and I think it's great," Nielsen said in a 1982 interview with The Hamilton Spectator. "In fact, I've never had so much fun in my life."

Before Police Squad, Nielsen only had a few very brief roles in television. One of those roles was a very short-lived, but incredibly memorable role in an early episode of M*A*S*H titled "The Ringbanger."

Besides a few small roles across television, Police Squad was something entirely different for him. Nielsen was nervous.

"This is an entirely new area for me," Nielsen said. "It's not everyone's brand of humor, there's no doubt about that. It's a very specific kind of humor, visual as well as verbal. But we're the only major comedy series I know of that doesn't use a laugh track. We don't tell people what's funny, we leave them alone to make up their own minds."

He played the role of Detective Frank Drebin, where puns and sight gags swirled around his character. Usually, there is nothing funny about law enforcement, but when Det. Frank Drebin was behind the badge it was all fun and games. Police Squad brought us the same deadpan humor as seen in Airplane!.

"'Airplane!' never tried to say anything funny," Nielsen said in a 1982 interview with Asbury Park Press. "They just ran everything out like a gigantic buffet. They never said this is funny. You were left to decide yourself. Airplane and Police Squad deals with surprises. It's funny, but it's also believable. We're using drama directors rather than comedy directors to keep it straight."

Producers Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker chose Nielsen as the man for the job after seeing his performance and rise to stardom in Airplane! They were familiar with his work and trusted him to deliver them another hit series.

Although Nielsen got his role in Police Squad because of his time in Airplane!, Nielsen added: "I would have paid to be in this. I'm on the same wavelength with these guys. They know exactly what they want and what they're doing."