Comedy legend Jim Abrahams has passed away at the age of 80. He will be remembered for his writing and producing of comedy classics such as Airplane!, The Naked Gun movies, Top Secret!, the two Hot Shots! movies, and The Kentucky Fried Movie.

Abrahams was part of the ZAZ team of filmmakers. ZAZ stands for the Zucker brothers, Jim and David, and Abrahams. The team released the sketch comedy classic The Kentucky Fried Movie in 1977. They stretched their irreverent comedy stylings into the disaster movie parody, Airplane! in 1980.

The ZAZ team had a penchant of taking serious actors and having them play comedy completely straight. Actor Leslie Nielsen owes the entire second half of his career to being cast in Airplane!

The ZAZ team even roped in Ricardo Montalbán. There's no coming back from this death scene. (WATCH)