The Pentagon didn't want to help the producers of "Hot Shots" by allowing them to use an aircraft carrier, so the filmmakers did the next best thing: They built a wooden deck the length of a football field and laid it along the edge of a cliff in Palos Verdes.
"Very early on, Bob Badalato, the producer, sent the script to the Navy," said director and co-writer Jim Abrahams. "They said they loved it, but they wouldn't help us at all.""The jets we used are British acrobatic planes that are used in air shows," said Pat Proft, writer-executive producer. "The flying scenes are spectacular, because we had great pilots, and these are acrobatic planes."
The movie is about a charismatic Navy pilot trying to cope with the disgrace of his Navy-pilot father. He competes in the air and on the ground with another hot flier and woos the base psychiatrist, an alluring beauty.
A remake of "Top Gun"? No, "Hot Shots" mounts a comic attack on the Tom Cruise-Kelly McGillis movie, along with "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Test Pilot," "The Right Stuff," "A Wing and a Prayer" and 20 other films (including "Gone With the Wind" and "Biloxi Blues") the filmmakers list as sources of inspiration.
Abrahams and the Zucker brothers, Jerry and David, were the guys responsible for "Airplane!" and both "Naked Guns." Proft joined them in the writing of "Naked Gun 21/2." He also co-wrote the original "Police Academy" as well as the original "Naked Gun," the TV series "Police Squad," which is being revived on summer television.
"Hot Shots" opened nationally on July 31.