Big Bus (1976) – The Original Disaster Movie Parody

Mikl-em
October 25, 2010

Before Airplane! there was Big Bus. A recent post about the Vintage Mobile Cinema reminded me again of the original mock disaster movie.

Lampooning early 70’s star-studded, high drama flicks like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and Airport ’77, Big Bus came out a full four years before the Zucker Brothers & Jim Abrahams directed Airplane!. Tapping into the energy crisis & Cold War vibes by having the Bus be nuclear-powered was of course sheer genius.

Here’s another clip with a hilarious fight scene reminiscent of something out of the old Batman TV show, featuring Joseph Bologna and Vic Tayback:

Mikl-em

Actor, nerd, poet, producer, writer mikl-em made his name short so you wouldn't have to. In addition to his blog you can find his writing in "Hi Fructose" magazine and witness him almost life-sized in various plays at The Dark Room Theater in SF's Mission district.

He tends to write about theater, humor, San Francisco culture and history, and stuff that's just plain weird. He thanks Scott for sharing the keys to the Laughing Squid virtual HQ and promises to uphold whatever it is that the mirthful cephalopod would prefer to be uplifted.