Coyote Bus Lines is set to reveal their newest innovation in Bus travel with the unveiling of Cyclops, a two story nuclear powered superbus complete with all the luxuries of a cruise ship and promising a non-stop trip from New York City to Denver. When an act of industrial espionage takes out the driver and cp-driver of the inaugural journey, the injured/parking lot confined Professor Baxter (Harold Gould) enlists his daughter Kitty (Stockard Channing) to recruit Kitty's former fiancé and once great bus driver, Dan Torrance (Joseph Bologna), much to Kitty's reluctance. Dan has had a tough go in recent years due to an incident on Mount Diablo where 110 passengers were lost to Cannibalism of Dan's co-pilot, but because he accidentally ate stew made from a foot he carries the stigma. Dan Agrees to pilot the big bus unaware that saboteurs have insidious plans to keep it from reaching Denver.
Released in 1976, The Big Bus was released at the height of the 70s wave of Disaster films with Universal's Airport series only on its first sequel and the Charlton Heston fronted ensemble Earthquake only two years prior. Directed by noted TV director James Frawley of The Monkees (who would go on to direct The Muppet Movie) and written and produced by noted TV writers Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman of Gilligan's Island, Andy Griffith, and Bewitched, the movie went mostly ignored at the box office during its initial run and eventually became overshadowed by the much more successful Airplane! Four years later. The Big Bus aired infrequently on TV after its release, not exactly getting a second life but did attract a minor cult following from those who remember it, and rightly so because while not as tight or sharp as Airplane it's a very funny farce that plays up its silliness and camp in fun and inventive ways.
Watching The Big Bus it does almost feel like a first draft of Airplane! With Ted Striker's character in airplane nearly identical to Dan Torrance with them both being "great pilots with tragic backstories" and even individual gags such as panicking the passengers over the intercom are done in a near identical fashion here to how'd they be done in Airplane four years later. This can probably be written off as mere coincidence since most of these as delivered are funhouse mirror exaggerations of the tricks and tropes seen in films of the Irwin Allen variety or the Airport films, but it still is pretty glaring in terms of the similarity. While The Big Bus doesn't have the extra level of polish Airplane! Had, I think the movie still makes itself a worthwhile viewing even outside of its historical curiosity preceding Airplane!.
Much like the disaster epics it spoofs, The Big Bus features a veritable "who's who?" of talent with the likes of Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, René Auberjonois, Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, Ned Beatty, and too many other to mention who all play the collection of broad eccentrics with gusto fitting well in line with the cartoonish and anarchic tone set by the film. From Sally Kellerman andRichard Mulligan's on/off soon to be divorced couple who go from hurling insults at each other to going just shy of full intercourse on the bus floor, to Murphy Dunne as lounge piano player Tommy Joyce playing inappropriate commentary/music at the worst possible times, the movie knows it has a killer cast and does everything it can to put them in bits of sheer ridiculousness that'll crack a smile on even the most harsh of viewers. Everyone brings their "A" game treating the ridiculousness and madness with complete seriousness as if they're actually in an Irwin Allen film. The one downside would probably be in the film's antagonist, known only as "Ironman"(José Ferrer), who's just kind of there. His gimmick is spending all of his time in an Iron Lung and his exchanges with his henchman sabotaging the titular bus are unfortunately some of the major dead spots in the movie that curtail the film's momentum.
The Big Bus may not be as well known as Airplane!, but it is an enjoyable disaster farce that humorously treats its ridiculous nuclear powered bus with the same reverence and melodrama seen in the Airport films and turning the tropes on their heads into comic silver (not quite gold, but on the cusp). It's a shame the movie isn't more widely known because it runs at a quick clip keeping the sight gags, exchanges, and chaos coming to mostly successful effect save for the occasional dead spot. If you enjoyed Airpalne!, you owe it to yourself to see the film that cleared the way for it.
Released in 1976, The Big Bus was released at the height of the 70s wave of Disaster films with Universal's Airport series only on its first sequel and the Charlton Heston fronted ensemble Earthquake only two years prior. Directed by noted TV director James Frawley of The Monkees (who would go on to direct The Muppet Movie) and written and produced by noted TV writers Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman of Gilligan's Island, Andy Griffith, and Bewitched, the movie went mostly ignored at the box office during its initial run and eventually became overshadowed by the much more successful Airplane! Four years later. The Big Bus aired infrequently on TV after its release, not exactly getting a second life but did attract a minor cult following from those who remember it, and rightly so because while not as tight or sharp as Airplane it's a very funny farce that plays up its silliness and camp in fun and inventive ways.
Watching The Big Bus it does almost feel like a first draft of Airplane! With Ted Striker's character in airplane nearly identical to Dan Torrance with them both being "great pilots with tragic backstories" and even individual gags such as panicking the passengers over the intercom are done in a near identical fashion here to how'd they be done in Airplane four years later. This can probably be written off as mere coincidence since most of these as delivered are funhouse mirror exaggerations of the tricks and tropes seen in films of the Irwin Allen variety or the Airport films, but it still is pretty glaring in terms of the similarity. While The Big Bus doesn't have the extra level of polish Airplane! Had, I think the movie still makes itself a worthwhile viewing even outside of its historical curiosity preceding Airplane!.
Much like the disaster epics it spoofs, The Big Bus features a veritable "who's who?" of talent with the likes of Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, René Auberjonois, Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, Ned Beatty, and too many other to mention who all play the collection of broad eccentrics with gusto fitting well in line with the cartoonish and anarchic tone set by the film. From Sally Kellerman andRichard Mulligan's on/off soon to be divorced couple who go from hurling insults at each other to going just shy of full intercourse on the bus floor, to Murphy Dunne as lounge piano player Tommy Joyce playing inappropriate commentary/music at the worst possible times, the movie knows it has a killer cast and does everything it can to put them in bits of sheer ridiculousness that'll crack a smile on even the most harsh of viewers. Everyone brings their "A" game treating the ridiculousness and madness with complete seriousness as if they're actually in an Irwin Allen film. The one downside would probably be in the film's antagonist, known only as "Ironman"(José Ferrer), who's just kind of there. His gimmick is spending all of his time in an Iron Lung and his exchanges with his henchman sabotaging the titular bus are unfortunately some of the major dead spots in the movie that curtail the film's momentum.
The Big Bus may not be as well known as Airplane!, but it is an enjoyable disaster farce that humorously treats its ridiculous nuclear powered bus with the same reverence and melodrama seen in the Airport films and turning the tropes on their heads into comic silver (not quite gold, but on the cusp). It's a shame the movie isn't more widely known because it runs at a quick clip keeping the sight gags, exchanges, and chaos coming to mostly successful effect save for the occasional dead spot. If you enjoyed Airpalne!, you owe it to yourself to see the film that cleared the way for it.