The Naked Gun 33 1/3: Was It Always Supposed to End the Franchise?

When the great Leslie Nielsen made the media rounds in 1996, promoting his James Bond spoof, Spy Hard, everyone wanted to know one thing. Was he shocked when O.J. Simpson was arrested for murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and Ron Goldman, and did he think he was guilty? Ever the Canadian gent, Nielsen retired the ever-present fart machine he enjoyed using in interviews, and tried to give a thoughtful answer. Basically, he said that the OJ he knew on set from the three Naked Gun movies they did together never gave him an inkling that he would be capable of murder, although, to read between the lines of his answer, it was clear Nielsen likely had serious doubts as to his innocence.

Indeed, when The Naked Gun 33 1/3rd came out on March 18th 1994, no one who went to see it – and I was one of them – would have ever thought that three months later, O.J Simpson would be arrested for murder, and, forever afterward, be known for something other than comedy- to put it mildly. Truth be told, there were far greater things at stake than the success of a film franchise. Namely, the lives of two innocent people and the collateral damage inflicted by the crime, which seemed to become a worldwide firestorm. However, it can’t be denied that his arrest was the final nail in the coffin of a film series that likely would have continued for several years under normal circumstances.

When OJ was hired to play the bumbling Nordberg in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, it wasn’t considered all that unusual as far as casting went. Granted, he wasn’t known for comedy, with him being one of the all-time greatest football players. He had branched out into acting, but typically played serious roles. A few years before, he came close to playing the title role in The Terminator. This was likely why he was cast, as no one in the movie other than Nielsen was known for their comic chops. This was all part of the gag, where the klutzy Frank Drebin is dropped into an otherwise serious film, only to inflict maximum, comic mayhem. Co-stars O.J. Simpson, George Kennedy, Ricardo Montalban and Priscilla Presley were all cast against type, just as Nielsen himself was when he first co-starred in Airplane.

The movie was made by the filmmaking team, Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker aka ZAZ, who were the masters of slapstick comedy during this era, and it was a spin-off of their short-lived series, Police Squad. When the movie came out and was a blockbuster, all the “serious” actors in the cast received critical kudos, with many singling out OJ’s hilarious performance as the much-abused Nordberg. As such, his role was expanded in the following films, with him and George Kennedy’s Ed Hocken and Nielsen’s Drebin becoming a comic trio. The sequel was almost as big a hit as the first, and a third movie was quickly made.

Now, some might say that the series would have still ended even if OJ hadn’t “allegedly” killed two people. There is some evidence to that, as the ZAZ team was starting to go their own way. Jerry Zucker became a serious director, having a smash hit with Ghost, while Abrahams had a hit with Hot Shots, which teamed him with another of the movie’s writers, Pat Proft. When it came time for a third movie, only David Zucker and Proft were involved, with the directorial reins passed to Peter Segal, who made his directorial debut. 

Despite the subtitle, The Final Insult, there’s no evidence that this was meant to be the last movie in the series. In this, it found a now-retired Drebin is bored with his life as a househusband, and agrees to go undercover in a prison to foil a terrorist for hire, played by Fred Ward of Remo Williams and Tremors. The storyline was actually pinched from the classic Warner Bros gangster film, White Heat. His wife, Jane, once again played by Priscilla Presley, leaves him for a cross-country trip with a friend, spoofing Thelma and Louise, only to get embroiled in his plot. At the height of her fame, Anna Nicole Smith would play the femme fatale, and the movie climaxed at the Academy Awards, where Leslie Nielsen’s long-standing joke about his resemblance to TV talk show host Phil Donahue becomes part of the plot. 

While not as fondly remembered as the previous Naked Gun movies, there’s much to like about this one. It opens with a dead-on spoof of the infamous train station shootout from The Untouchables, while the Academy Award climax probably isn’t grasped by younger viewers, as the joke is how B and C-list all the celebrities are, like Pia Zadora, Florence Henderson, and Mary Lou Retton. Some of the jokes, like “best actor in a Columbus film,” are nods to the state of the industry at the time, as the year before this came out, there were two Christopher Columbus movies that duelled at the box office, and both were giant disasters.

While a smaller hit than the other films in the series, The Naked Gun 33 1/3rd was a solid money maker, grossing $51 million in 1994 dollars. Since Nielsen spent years after this making more spoof movies, including Spy Hard and Wrongfully Accused, one would have imagined they would have made another had…well…OJ not “allegedly” killed those two people.

Indeed, OJ’s arrest put a damper on the film’s home video release, which was delayed and notably didn’t feature OJ’s likeness on the box. Nevertheless, it was a solid hit in stores and on cable, but a fourth movie never happened. In 2009, Paramount was keen to reboot the series and was preparing a DTV sequel that would have featured Nielsen cameoing as Drebin.It never happened, but Nielsen stayed active until shortly before his death in 2011, playing the president in two Scary Movie sequels directed by David Zucker and two more Naked Gun writers, Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft. He also appeared in a few other spoofs, such as Superhero Movie and Spanish Movie. He was also terrific in an against-type dramatic role in The Music Within, a movie about the passing of the Americans With Disabilities Act, as Nielsen was born legally deaf and wore hearing aids his whole life. When he passed away, his will demanded that the Naked Gun fanfare be played as he was being laid to rest. ESPN paid tribute to him by running an obituary for Enrico Pollazo, the cover name he took at the first movie’s climax.

Notably, a new Naked Gun movie is due out this summer, and rather than hide from the complicated legacy O.J. Simpson left behind, the new movie seems to be embracing it. In the trailer, as Neeson, as Frank Drebin Jr and Paul Walter Hauser, as Ed Hockin’s son, pay tearful tributes to their fathers, the son of Nordberg, looking at his father’s portrait, frowns at the screen, in a moment that’s already gone viral. While the director of the first two movies, David Zucker, has complained about the reboot happening, many praised the trailer, which promises Neeson might be brilliant playing against typecasting, paying homage to how the original Airplane made Nielsen a comic legend overnight. And truly, Nielsen’s performances have allowed these movies to stand the test of time, and if people can’t get over the fact that OJ’s in them – well, it’s their loss. 

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