
Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami
Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash
Bibliothèque IHEID, Genève, Switzerland
Surely You Can't Be Serious is an in-depth and hysterical look at the making of 1980's comedy classic Airplane! by the legendary writers and directors of the hit film.
Airplane! premiered on July 2nd, 1980. With a budget of $3.5 million it went on to make nearly $200 million in sales and has influenced a multitude of comedians on both sides of the camera.
Surely You Can’t Be Serious is the first-ever oral history of the making of Airplane! by the creators, and of the beginnings of the ZAZ trio (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) – charting the rise of their comedy troupe Kentucky Fried Theater in Madison, Wisconsin all the way to premiere night. The directors explain what drew them to filmmaking and in particular, comedy. With anecdotes, behind the scenes trivia, and never-before-revealed factoids – these titans of comedy filmmaking unpack everything from how they persuaded Peter Graves to be in the movie after he thought the script was a piece of garbage, how Lorna Patterson auditioned for the stewardess role in the back seat of Jerry’s Volvo, and how Leslie Nielsen’s pranks got the entire crew into trouble, to who really wrote the jive talk. The book also features testimonials and personal anecdotes from well-known faces in the film, television, and comedy sphere – proving how influential Airplane! has been from day one.
Four decades after its release, Airplane! continues to make new generations laugh. Its many one-liners and visual gags have worked their way into the mainstream culture. This fully organic expansion of the ZAZ trio’s fan-base, prompted solely by word-of-mouth, comes as no surprise to longtime fans. When all around us is in flux – laughter is priceless.
“The multiple-voiced, oral history approach works so well for relaying the making-of story of a big comedy project because funny films are collaborative and often, as such books demonstrate, chaotic. It’s the best way possible to tell the comprehensive tale of Airplane!, the monumental 1980 comedy film that changed the game.” ―Vulture
“The Zucker brothers and Abrahams debut with a rollicking oral history unpacking how their 1980 comedy Airplane! was made … This is a must-read for anyone who loves the film.” ―Publishers Weekly
“This delightful book, like Airplane! and many other ZAZ productions, is multilayered, incisive, and surprising … A hilarious, well-structured account of and tribute to a significant film.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“[A]n affectionate oral history … Fans of the film will likely enjoy this engaging behind-the-scenes look.” ―Library Journal
"This is a wonderful book, full of laughs, surprises, high drama, low comedy, and that delightful feeling of excitement when the underdog scores big. For fans of the movie, a must-read. Ditto for fans of making-of books." ―Booklist
“‘Airplane!’” is one of the most beloved and influential comedies to ever hit the silver screen. Surely you want to know more about it. The new book “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of ‘Airplane!,’” is an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how the iconic 1980 movie was made … The book is chock full of fun facts and stories that fans will no doubt find fascinating.” ―Today.com
“The book is a gift for anyone remotely interested in the art of comedy .. wonderfully vivid.” ―Haaretz
“If some day they ever wrote a book about how Airplane! got made, I’m sure it would be a bestseller.” ―The Pittsburg Picayune
"When you make a list of the best movies of all time, you’re always going to put Airplane! on it. And if movies like that aren’t being made right now, it’s because people aren’t smart enough or funny enough to make them." ―Judd Apatow
"Seeing the movie for the first time taught me a great lesson: You’ve got to play comedy as if it’s deadly serious. You’ve got to play weirdness as if it’s the most normal thing in the world." ―Patton Oswalt
"Airplane! changed comedy...It was such a specific genre of comedy that no one really has been quite able to rip off, astonishingly." ―Sarah Silverman
"Honestly, Airplane! was sort of the Star Wars of comedy...We went to see it several times, with different friends and everything. It was a big deal." ―Trey Parker & Matt Stone
"It’s weird. It’s unexpected. It’s absurd. And it never pauses for a laugh, because there’s always another one coming." ―The Guardian
"Within months of its release in July 1980 “Airplane!” became one of the highest-grossing comedies in box office history. And it remains one of the most influential... a compact, even classical piece of filmmaking. " ―The New York Times
"Frequently imitated but never surpassed, this seriously funny disaster flick made a mockery of itself...a nonstop parade of jokes―absurdist, frequently childish, some certainly in poor taste by contemporary standards, but mostly just…funny." ―Smithsonian Magazine
"[A]side from still being ridiculously funny, it’s the rare Hollywood comedy that doesn’t rely on quickly-dated pop culture references for its humor. It’s both of its time and of no time. More than anything, it’s a satire of a certain style of acting―a wooden earnestness that will always come with a bullseye pinned on its back. After all, as long as there are actors who take themselves too seriously, puncturing and deflating them will never go out of style. Like Airplane! itself, it’s timeless." ―Esquire
All books are NEW and in EXCELLENT condition.
MZS.Press is the online arts bookstore founded by author, critic, and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz and Directed by Judith Carter. It offers new, used, signed, collectible, and rare books on film, TV, music, photography, and the visual arts. The store was launched in 2019 on a different platform and has expanded to incorporate arts books published by MZSPress's private imprint: titles currently include Seitz's The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon and Dreams of Deadwood, about the HBO Western, and Walter Chaw's A Walter Hill Film.
Our deepest wish is to promote, encourage, and distribute work by small presses, academic presses, and individuals. Extraordinary work tends to get swallowed up on giant platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The titles featured here are personally selected by a group of curators and advisors, including Seitz and an array of critics, artists, journalists, educators, publishers, and arts mavens who are known for their ability to suss out what Seitz's jazz musician dad liked to call "the good sh*t."
In Honor of the greatest auteur of our time, Judith is using one of her favorite quotes by him.
"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present"
David Lynch (January 20, 1946-January 15, 2025)
Matt Zoller Seitz
Critic, Author, Filmmaker, MZS Press Creator
Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large and film critic of RogerEbert.com; Features Writer for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, Contributing Writer for D Magazine and Texas Highways as well as finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. His writing on film and TV has appeared in Sight and Sound, The New York Times, Salon.com, The New Republic and Rolling Stone. Seitz is the founder and original editor of the influential film blog The House Next Door, now a part of Slant Magazine.
Seitz has written, narrated, edited or produced over a hundred hours’ worth of video essays about cinema history and style for The Museum of the Moving Image, Salon.com and Vulture, among other outlets such as Texas Highways and AARP. His five-part 2009 video essay Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style was spun off into the hardcover book The Wes Anderson Collection. This book and its follow-up, The Wes Anderson Collection: Grand Budapest Hotel were New York Times bestsellers.
Other Seitz books include the New York Times bestsellers The Sopranos Sessions and Mad Men Carousel; TV (The Book), The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon, The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch and the new The Wes Anderson Collection: Asteroid City. He is also an interviewer, moderator, and film programmer who has curated and hosted film and TV presentations for the Museum of the Moving Image, IFC Center, San Francisco's Roxie Cinema, and other venues. In October 2024 he brought the legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone back to Dallas for a historic return to the city and the Texas Theatre, considered the biggest film event of Dallas in 2024 by Dallas Observer!
Judith Carter was in the Upscale and Luxury Hospitality Industry for most of her life. In 2004 she had a beautiful baby boy with Special Needs and put the pause on her career until 2017 to dedicate herself to him and then others, assisting and volunteering as a legal advocate ensuring the best medical care, evaluations and educations for Special Needs children and their families.
Matt and Judith were family friends for over 20 years. She was there with her family in support when his wife Jen passed away suddenly in 2006. Then just 6 weeks later while Matt was in Dallas; he and his Father, Dave, and Step-Mother, Genie, were there as support, when Judith was alone and her son received the first of many diagnoses that changed the trajectory of their lives. So it made sense in the turbulent year of 2020, Matt asked Judith to take over running the online store that has become MZS.press. The rest as they say is, "Their"-story.