Celebrating Mel Brooks: ‘Get Smart’ to ‘Young Frankenstein,’ ‘The Producers’ and More

‘Caesar’s Hour’ (1954-57)

In the mid-’50s Mel was a part of the writing staff for Sid Caesar’s comedy show Caesar’s Hour, joining the ranks of Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner.

DALE STEWART: Mel and Sid had both worked as musician-entertainers in the Catskills during the early 1940s, but it was not until after the war that they became friends. When Sid moved to television in 1949 for what would become known as the famous Your Show of Shows, Mel turned up as a somewhat annoying presence outside of the writers’ room. Eventually the writers would throw him a bone by asking him to contribute, but it would not be until the second season of the program before he became an official writer on Your Show of Show. Although Sid once nearly tossed Mel out of a hotel room window high above the streets of Chicago, Mel would continue to write for Sid off and on into the 1960s for various programs and television specials. Sid would also appear in two of Mel’s films, Silent Movie and History of the World: Part I.

‘Get Smart’ (1965-70)

Don Adams and Barbara Feldon played, respectively, Maxwell Smart, Agent 86; and Agent 99 for CONTROL in this series that hit as Bondmania exploded in the 1960s.

DALE SHERMAN: Mel was bouncing between writing for Broadway shows and television when he was offered a chance to help create a pilot for a new series that was supposed to be “Inspector Clouseau meets James Bond.” Mel was teamed up with Buck Henry to come up with various concepts about the characters and show, with Mel contributing such factors as the main character being named Maxwell Smart and the title of the series, as well as the widely impractical shoe that also works as a phone. Mel only co-wrote three episodes in the first season of the program before moving on to other projects, but his name appears in every episode as one of the creators — and he was paid $200 a week as a consultant on the program, which helped keep him afloat while working on other projects.

‘2000 Year-Old-Man’

DALE SHERMAN: A character created by Mel along with writer/actor/producer Carl Reiner was a favorite at parties for the two, with Carl as an interviewer asking a 2000-Year-Old Man questions about various historical events and his aged wisdom. After writer/talk-show host Steve Allen suggested they record an album of their routines — and comedian George Burns warned them that he was going to steal their act if they didn’t record it — the pair would have their first album released in 1960. It would become amazingly popular and give Mel a golden opportunity to be in the spotlight on television playing the role, instead of just being the guy in the back writing the words for someone else to say. The pair would return to the concept for various records many times over the years, finally winning a Grammy in 1997 for the album The 2000-Year-Old Man in the Year 2000.

‘The Producers’ (1967)

DALE SHERMAN: Mel originally planned to write a novel about a Broadway producer who decides to find the worst musical possible so that he can fleece all his investors when it flops, only for the play to be a success. When told it was too talky, he made it a play. When told the play had too many scene changes, he made it a film script. It would be his first film script produced and his first time directing a movie. The movie did not do well, but earned Mel an Oscar for the screenplay and began seeing a profit by 1969, allowing Mel a chance to do another film. Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel star.

‘The Twelve Chairs’ (1970)

DALE SHERMAN: Mel’s follow-up to The Producers was based on a Russian novel that had been adapted many times over the years, although Mel was one of the few to try to place the film in the timeframe of the book rather than modernizing it. The story is about a former aristocrat (Ron Moody) who works with a conman (Frank Langella) to locate a chair — one of twelve — that has the family jewels hidden inside its cushion. It was the first film by Brooks to feature Dom DeLuise as well as showcase Mel himself in a small role. The film did not do well at the box office, but Mel has consistently stated that it is one of the top three films that he made. It is more understated than his others, without the sense of parody that would become the norm with his next movie, but if it had been a success, it is quite possible that Mel’s film career would have gone in a more serious comedic direction. Instead, his next movie would become one of the biggest comedies ever made.

‘Blazing Saddles’ (1974)

In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician (Harvey Korman) appoints a black Sheriff (Cleavon Little), who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary. Aiding the sheriff is the fastest gun in the west, the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder).

DALE SHERMAN: Mel was brought in to work on the script for the film, bringing with him several fellow writer to create the type of writers’ room he enjoyed in the Sid Caesar days, including Richard Pryor. The movie, a parody of movie westerns, would become one of the biggest comedy films of the 1970s and be the first film of Brooks to feature Madeline Kahn, and the second of his with Gene Wilder — who just so happened to be working on a script that would become Mel’s next movie.

‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974)

DALE SHERMAN: Mel had known Gene Wilder was working on a script that was to parody the various Frankenstein movies that came out in the 1930s and 1940s from Universal Pictures, but it was only as Blazing Saddles was wrapping production that Mel signed on to help co-write and direct the film. Columbia Pictures originally was to produce it, but backed out when Mel became adamant that the movie be filmed in black and white. Instead, 20^th Century Fox would take it on, and it became Mel’s home for many years to come. The film would be as big a success as Blazing Saddles, which came out in the same year. Naturally, this one-two punch of successful comedies led to many proclaiming Mel to be the new King of Comedy in Hollywood. It would be the last movie he would make of three with Gene Wilder, although there were always talk over the years — namely from Mel — of doing something together again.

‘When Things Were Rotten’ (1975)

When Things Were Rotten was a spoof of the legend of Robin Hood, starring Dick Gautier, probably best known as Hymie the Robot on Get Smart.

DALE SHERMAN: Brooks helped write the pilot script for this short-lived comedy series on ABC television in 1975. He also appears on-screen very briefly as a guard being manhandled by Little John at one point. The show initially had some success, but began to slip in the ratings and was pricier to film than most of ABC’s other comedies (Rotten was a one-camera filmed program with various unique one-off sets, while most of ABC’s comedies were three-camera shot-on-video with one or two sets at most). Many kids who watched still remembered the shows years later, leading to the entire series being released on DVD in 2013. Mel would return to television in 1989 for the short-lived series The Nutt House, but it, too, had trouble in the ratings and with network interference and would be cancelled after only a small number of episodes.

‘Silent Movie’ (1976)

DALE SHERMAN: An homage to silent film comedies, Silent Movie amazingly has a lot of musical moments in it. Mel originally planned to reunite with Madeline Kahn again, after using her in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, but Bernadette Peters played the female lead instead. The film is probably best known for all the cameos by popular stars, like Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, and Paul Newman. When Newman heard about the wheelchair race in the film, he was disappointed the chairs could only go up to 10-miles-an-hour. Instead, he offered suggestions to get the chairs up to 70 MPH and even test-drove one on a race track to prove it was functional.

‘High Anxiety’ (1977)

DALE SHERMAN: Mel’s tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s various thrillers from over the years. He spent time with Hitchcock when writing the script and even got some suggestions from the Master of Suspense on how to stage certain gags in the film. The movie was a success, although some critics were starting to feel that Hitchcock parodied himself so well over the years that Mel’s parody was unnecessary. By the way, writer/director Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam), one of the co-writers, plays the crazed bellhop in the film.

‘History of the World Part 1’

DALE SHERMAN: Originally, Mel planned to work with his usual stable of writers on a war movies parody called Bombs Away, but then got the idea of doing a film dealing with various historical moments. In the end, he would end up writing it on his own — the first of his career where he would write without other contributors. The film was a hit and would contain one of Mel’s best-known catchphrases, “It’s good to be the king.”

‘To Be Or Not to Be’ (1983)

DALE SHERMAN: The only Mel Brooks movie that is not a Mel Brooks movie. Based on the famous 1942 Ernst Lubitsch movie of the same name, the film had been planned by Mel since 1975 to star himself and his wife, Anne Bancroft (Gene Wilder also stated in a December 1977 interview that he had been offered a role in the film, but it was not to be). It was directed by Alan Johnson, who had worked with Mel since the days of The Producers, and written by Thomas Meehan and Ronny Graham, though Mel had a firm hand in editing the script and making suggestions in terms of directing. Some critics were upset that anyone would try to remake a Lubitsch film — especially one considered a classic — but some reviewers liked it. The film only did modestly at the box office, however, and it would be another four years before Mel Brooks would direct a new movie.

‘Spaceballs’ (1987)

DALE SHERMAN: A parody of science fiction movies, with an emphasis on Star Wars, Mel made a good connection with George Lucas, who was agreeable to have ILM help with effects on the film. The movie did poorly when it came out, only for kids to become its die-hard audience … and for those kids to grow up to show it to their kids. The film would eventually become one of Mel’s best loved movies and there had been rumors for years of a sequel, although in all probability it will never happen now.

‘Life Stinks’

DALE SHERMAN: A rare attempt for Mel to do a movie that wasn’t a parody of another film genre. This one deals with the topic of homelessness, albeit in a rather whitewashed manner. Perhaps because it is one of his rare films to not be making fun of other movies, Brooks has always considered it one of his personal best, although it did not do well at the box office.

‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights’

DALE SHERMAN: A parody of multiple Robin Hood movies that were coming out in the early 1990s, Robin Hood features an early appearance by comedian Dave Chappelle as Robin’s assistant. The movie did only modestly well, although, like Spaceballs before it, it has somewhat of a following among people who saw it when they were kids.

‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It’

DALE SHERMAN: Mel’s last film, which was a return to the horror parody genre that he had established with Young Frankenstein. Oddly enough, Mel had spearheaded the concept of parody films back in the 1970s only to find himself left behind when his Dracula film leaned towards a standard narrative instead of just a bunch of sight gags thrown at the screen. The film did not do well at the box office, although in reflection it is a rather charming film in many ways and certainly not a bad way to go out for a film director.

Leslie Nielsen, who became something of the parody king between the Airplane and Naked Gun films, expressed his disappointment over Dracula, feeling that he and Brooks were making two very different movies. 

Mel Brooks On Broadway

DALE SHERMAN: Of course, even if there would be no more movies, there was Broadway to conquer … finally. Mel had originally tried to get something on Broadway back in the 1950s and 1960s, but not much lasted very long. In 2001, his first film, The Producers — initially starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick — would be recreated as a musical for Broadway, leading to a six-year run and multiple Tony Awards. Mel would be involved every step of the way and can be seen in the movie version made in 2005. It would be followed by a musical take on Young Frankenstein that did not last quite as long, but continue to be revived around the world today.

Mel was first impacted by the entertainment business when he got to see a Broadway musical as a kid.  If he does nothing else, to have that success finally come to him on the Broadway stage at the other end of his career is a great way to go out.
For more exclusive content, sign up for our Closer Weekly newsletter!