All 5 Naked Gun Movies & Shows Ranked
(Photo by Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection. THE NAKED GUN.)
After Airplane!, ground zero of the modern American parody, directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ to you) and born-again comedian Leslie Nielsen had the movie world in the grip of their 39 fingers. Naturally, they went to television.
The show? Police Squad! The result? Cancellation!
In Police Squad!, a parody of cop procedurals, Nielsen stars as detective lieutenant Frank Drebin, perfecting his Airplane!-style deadpan delivery in tango with ZAZ’s trademark frame-filling visual gags, rapid-fire wordplay and puns, and good ol’ fashioned slapstick.
ABC executives infamously nailed Police Squad! as a doomed show since it demanded viewer attention in order to get all the jokes. Unfortunately, there simply wasn’t space for that kind of smart comedy on network TV at the time, and UPN was still over a decade away. So the six episodes in 1982 was all America got, but PS! would be hugely influential on future single-camera comedies like Arrested Development, The Wire, and Hulk Hogan’s sex tape.
But that was not to be the end of Drebin. Like a white bronco galloping out of a Burbank backlot stable, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! rammed into theaters in 1988. A blockbuster hit with critics and audiences, its success proved to network suits that, yes, audiences are sophisticated enough for a nice beaver joke. Along with Nielsen, the cast is rounded out with Priscilla Presley (Drebin’s equal opportunity fool and romantic foil), George Kennedy (as Drebin’s police captain), and O.J. Simpson (who is dead).
And in a true act of creative defiance against the status quo, they made sequels. We got a big whiff of The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear in 1991, and then came back for the rest in 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. The series ended there, as it was now time for Pauly Shore to shine.
But 30 years is long enough for Hollywood to break a promise. Just like how there was never a movie titled Superman until the James Gunn version, there’s never actually been a movie just called The Naked Gun, which is enough reason to make it.
The Naked Gun features Frank Drebin Jr., played by Liam Neeson, moving into the realm of feature-length parody now that he’s conquered improvisational comedy, stand-up, funny monologues, crazy characters, and sketches. Directing duties has been palmed off to Akiva Schaffer, a reliable pedigree name in comedy, having strung together a beloved platter of box office bombs like Hot Rod and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
The country is hungry for comedies like these. We want to laugh. We want to cry. We want to see grown adults in full-body prophylactics. (Alex Vo)
Police Squad!: Season 1
91%
95%
The Naked Gun
(2025)
90%
The Naked Gun
(1988)
88%
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear
(1991)
77%
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
(1994)
65%
