The Kentucky Fried Movie

The Kentucky Fried Movie
High-top sneaker, with a Statue of Liberty sticking out of it, and a rocket pack on the side
Directed byJohn Landis
Written by
Produced byRobert K. Weiss
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byGeorge Folsey Jr.
Music byIgo Kantor
Production
company
Kentucky Fried Theater
Distributed byUnited Film Distribution Company
Release date
  • August 10, 1977 (1977-08-10)
Running time
83 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$650,000[2]
Box office$7.1 million[3][4]

The Kentucky Fried Movie is a 1977 American independent anthology sketch black comedy film, produced by Kim Jorgensen, Larry Kostroff, and Robert K. Weiss, and directed by John Landis. Among the numerous star cameos are George Lazenby, Bill Bixby, Henry Gibson, Barry Dennen, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, Stephen Bishop, and the voice of Shadoe Stevens. According to writer David Zucker on the DVD commentary track, David Letterman auditioned for the role of the newscaster, but was not selected. The film also features many former members of The Groundlings and The Second City. The "feature presentation" portion of the film stars Evan C. Kim and hapkido grand master Bong Soo Han. The Kentucky Fried Movie marked the first film appearances of a number of actors who later became famous, and launched the careers of the Zucker brothers, Abrahams and Landis.

Landis was recommended to direct National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 based on his work with The Kentucky Fried Movie.[5]

The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who subsequently wrote and directed Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its film spin-offs, The Naked Gun films.

  1. ^ "The Kentucky Fried Movie (18) (CUT)". British Board of Film Classification. December 4, 1978. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
  2. ^ Matthews, Jack. "'Fried Movie' Producer at it Again" Los Angeles Times (September 15, 1987+
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Litwak136 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 292. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  5. ^ Cammorata, Nicole & Duffy, James (July 25, 2006). "Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies of All Time". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2008.