Seriously, why did they even put Joe Patroni in the Airport sequels?

[taterguy]

In the first one he was great: a terrific character perfectly portrayed by George Kennedy. Only Patroni could have gotten that runway cleared in time.

In the following ones all he does is sit around and offer occasional bits of advice and encouragement. Wanna know where the pressure points are on a 747? Why not call Boeing instead of fucking Patroni?

Why, why why?

Would someone please explain that to me?

[Taverner]

1. Wasn't that one of the things parodied in the "Airplane" movies?

[trof]

2. Patroni was modeled on TWA's Chicago head of maintenance.

His name escapes me now.

[blogslut]

3. Marquee candy

Part of the formula for those disaster movies was the "all-star" cast. As well, Mr. Kennedy's casting provided a thread of consistency throughout the sequels and I'm sure he was thrilled to take the money.

[taterguy]

6. Kennedy was famous, but not really a movie star, kind of like Robert Shaw in Jaws

Who, it should be noted, did not appear in any of the sequels.

I'm not questioning Kennedy for appearing in the sequels. I'm sure they paid great, especially for the amount of work he had to do.

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. "HE CAN'T STOP 'ER"!

Worst acted line Kennedy ever gave, in my opinion.

That's from "Airport 1975" when the guy is landing the 747 at Salt Lake and can't get it to reverse thrust. Kennedy is chasing it down the runway, standing in the back of a pickup truck, squinting into the wind.

Thanks, Petroni. We couldn't tell he can't stop her, even though he's still doing 120 with 1000' of runway left!


My favorite bit with Kennedy in that series was in the first one when he firewalls the throttles and drives the 707 out of the position it is in.

"That's not in the manual!"

"That's the good thing about a 707. It can't read the manual"

(Paraphrased)

[taterguy]

5. Exactly

Great in the first one.

A parody of himself in the ones that followed.