You love “The Naked Gun.” I love “The Naked Gun.” Everyone loves “The Naked Gun.” And today, if you have the time, you can take some time to read Jason Foster’s in-depth story behind the making of the baseball scenes of “The Naked Gun” over at The Sporting News.
As anyone who has seen it — and maybe a lot of people who haven’t seen it — knows, the final third act of the 1988 cop movie parody takes place at Dodger Stadium where, for reasons explained in the article, the Mariners and the Angels meet up for a day game with Queen Elizabeth in attendance and features Reggie Jackson with murder on his brainwashed mind.
The story, featuring interviews with the movie’s writers/directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft, talks about how the movie came together and why they decided the final scenes had to take place at a ballgame. It also talks about the broadcasters and the players involved, who were a handful of actual minor league ballplayers who lent themselves out to movie productions which needed realistic baseball scenes. The group was managed by Ernie Banks’ son. Ernie Banks himself visited the set, and was quite impressed by Leslie Neilson’s handheld fart machine, after which he asked his son to purchase two for him. I am not making that up.
A great story about a great scene from a great movie. What more can you want on a slow news day?
