The Kentucky Fried Movie is a 1977 independently made American anthology comedy film, produced by Kim Jorgensen, Larry Kostroff, and Robert K. Weiss and directed by John Landis. Among the numerous star cameos are George Lazenby, Bill Bixby, Henry Gibson, Barry Dennen, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, Stephen Bishop, and the voice of Shadoe Stevens. According to David Zucker on the DVD commentary track, David Letterman auditioned for the role of the newscaster but was not selected. The film also features many former members of The Groundlings and The Second City. The "feature presentation" portion of the film stars Evan C. Kim and hapkido Grand Master Bong Soo Han. The Kentucky Fried Movie marked the first film appearances of a number of actors who later became famous, as well as being the vehicle that launched the careers of the Zucker brothers, Abrahams, and Landis.
Landis' work on the film was responsible for his being recommended to direct National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978.
The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, who went on to write and direct Airplane!, Top Secret!, and the Police Squad! television series and its film spin-offs, The Naked Gun films.