Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (2026) s01e02 Episode Script

JUDD APATOW:
What is your diet and exercise
strategies these days?
MEL BROOKS: None, zero.
Get up,
stick my hands out
in front of me
in case there's something,
I'm going to hit something.
-JUDD: Yeah.
-You know?
And make my way to the bathroom,
take a shower
-JUDD: Mm-hmm.
-dress, and do
my mental exercises.
-JUDD: Mm-hmm.
-"What's your name?" "Melvin."
-(JUDD CHUCKLES)
-"Where are you?" "I'm at home."
"What are you gonna do now?"
"I'm gonna eat breakfast."
(JUDD CHUCKLES)
"Melvin,
what are you going to eat?"
"I'm gonna probably eat
some soft-boiled eggs."
"And anything else?" "Yes."
"What, Melvin?" "I'm thinking."
(JUDD CHUCKLES)
"Maybe English muffins
with some butter."
"Good, Melvin."
"Should you make your way down
to the breakfast room?"
"Thank you. That's a good idea."
And then I'd go
to the breakfast room,
and then I'd see people,
and I wouldn't have to talk
to myself anymore.
I'd have people to talk to.
But that's
what I do every morning.
-JUDD: You answer it correctly
you know
-MEL: Yeah.
-you can start your day.
-MEL: Right, right.
JUDD: You have all your marbles.
(FUNKY MELODY PLAYS, FADES) ♪
CREW MEMBER:
Five, four, three
INTERVIEWER: Mel Brooks,
let's talk about Blazing Saddles
for a moment.
-Um..
-(EXCLAIMS, BLOWS RASPBERRY)
Okay, I'm fine.
I just have to settle.
I'll just get that
out of my system. But
A lot of people thought
it was the laugh of the century,
and a lot of other people
thought it was the most crude
and vulgar piece of stupidity
-Yes.
-they'd ever seen.
I agree with the latter group.
I do.
But it made you a millionaire
all the same.
Yeah. I think Yes, we did
quite well at the box office.
And now this sort of spoof,
frightening, non-frightening
comic Frankenstein.
Why do you want to make a film
about Frankenstein?
How can Frankenstein be funny?
Because the very essence
of Frankenstein
is that it's frightening.
I mean, is yours frightening?
It's only frightening
when they're not laughing.
-(THUNDER RUMBLING)
-NARRATOR: It's coming.
(THRILLING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NARRATOR:
From the deep, dark recesses
of the mind of Mel Brooks.
I love him.
(READING PROMPT)
My name,
it's pronounced Fronkensteen.
CREW: Marker.
And
action!
Frankenstein Junior,
un film extraordinaire.
-Give my creation life!
-(ELECTRICITY CRACKLING)
MEL: Gene Wilder said,
"I have this idea
for a movie about
Baron Frankenstein's grandson.
Young Frankenstein."
Frankenstein?
You're putting me on.
I said, "That's a good idea.
That's genius."
GENE WILDER: He was preparing
Blazing Saddles.
It hadn't come out yet.
So when they offered him
Young Frankenstein,
and I would be doing the writing
and he would supervise,
it was very tempting,
and he said yes.
To the castle!
-The castle!
-The castle!
-MEL: Each night
-To the ca
-after I finished
-To the ca
in the editing room
on Blazing Saddles,
I'd go to Gene's hotel.
We wrote and we rewrote
and wrote and rewrote and wrote
and rewrote once again.
DANA GOULD: Gene Wilder
came to him with the idea.
They collaborated on the script.
But one of the reasons
that movie is so great
is something
that Mel brought to it,
which was the slavish accuracy
of the sets, the makeup,
the cinematography.
Knowing that he needs
to play it straight
as a heart attack up to here
so this stuff can work.
-(THUNDER BOOMING)
-It's alive! It's alive!
It's alive!
It's alive!
JOHNNY CARSON: Why did you
make this in black and white?
The crayons.
We lost all the crayons and
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
No, we Black and white
because James Whale.
It's a valentine, really,
to James Whale.
That body is not dead.
It has never lived.
MEL: James Whale
was the original director
of the first Frankenstein film.
I was five. I loved that movie.
It scared the shit out of me.
(GROWLING)
MEL:
It etched itself into my mind,
and James Whale,
he's just a brilliant,
brilliant movie maker.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
(SPEAKING INCOHERENTLY)
a Frankenstein!
CROWD: What?
Tonight
we shall ascend
into the heavens.
PATTON OSWALT:
It was one of those situations
like with Mad magazine,
where you see the parody
before you see the originals
and it kind of informs
how you look at the originals.
It's not because he's making fun
of something he hates,
he's making fun of things
he truly loves
and you see that, oh,
he got everything right
about these movies.
FREDERICK FRANKENSTEIN:
Put the candle back.
All right,
I think
I have it figured out now.
Take out the candle,
and I'll block the bookcase
with my body.
(LOUD CRASH)
FRANKENSTEIN: (IN MUFFLED VOICE)
Now listen to me very carefully.
Don't put the candle back.
Because it looked so
It was black and white,
the look of it, and I was young,
I didn't understand
it was a comedy
until she tells Gene Wilder,
"You haven't touched your food,"
and he goes
Now I've touched it.
"There, I've touched it."
(CHUCKLES) I was like
As a kid, you're like,
"Oh, shit, he touched his food."
I did see Young Frankenstein.
I was a little kid.
And I went there
with my brother.
We were at the
in my hometown,
it was called
the Jerry Lewis Theaters.
And we went there,
and me and my brother
stayed two in a row
after Young Frankenstein.
We saw it twice.
(KNOCK ECHOING)
ADAM SANDLER: It was the best.
Couldn't believe it.
Asked my brother
what knockers were.
What knockers.
Oh.
Thank you, Doctor.
I'm finding out
what knockers are
and just coming home like,
"Whoa. I love knockers."
That brain that you gave me,
was it Hans Delbrück's?
-No.
-Ah.
Good.
Uh
Would you mind telling me
whose brain
I did put in?
And you won't be angry?
I will not be angry.
Abby someone.
-JOSH GAD: Gene Wilder
-Abby someone?
Abby who?
Abby Normal.
JOSH: He's so unpredictable.
Abby Normal.
There's like this bubbling rage,
excitement.
I'm almost sure
that was the name.
(CHUCKLES)
JOSH: He is a little bit
of a psychopath.
Are you saying that I put
an abnormal brain
into
a seven-and-a-half-foot long,
54-inch wide
-(GASPING)
-(SHOUTING) gorilla?
-(CHOKING)
-Is that what you're telling me?
-Quick, quick, give him the--
-INGA: What?
It's up there with some
of the greatest performances
in any movie, in any genre.
It's just tour de force.
-(SPEAKING SPANISH)
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-Yes!
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC STING) ♪
And it was you
who left my grandfather's book
out for me to find.
-Yes!
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC STING) ♪
I think it's the funniest thing
I have ever been in in my life.
Then you and Victor were
Yes! Yes! Say it!
He was my boyfriend!
I was lucky.
I found Cloris in a bar,
half shy-- Yeah.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-And
(APPLAUSE)
And And then, you know, um
Gene told me
about this Teri Garr person.
Elevate me.
Now, right here?
I said, "She's absolutely
beautiful. Can she act?"
And Gene said-- Gene said,
"Who gives a shit?"
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
I thought I told you
never to interrupt me
while I'm working!
INTERVIEWER:
What do you play in the film?
I play the part of Igor.
No, it's pronounced I-gor.
Actually, a hunchback.
I don't have the hump with me
at the moment.
Where's your hump?
Never with tails.
-(BELL JINGLING)
-(GROWLING)
-Thank you, Lord.
-MEL: When we were casting,
Gene Wilder called me and said,
"What do you think
of Gene Hackman
for the blind man?"
And I said,
"What about Orson Welles
for the squirrel?"
-You know
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
"What do you mean? Gene Hackman,
he gets a million bucks.
You can't Gene Hackman."
He said,
"Gene Hackman wants to play it."
-Mm-hmm.
-BLIND MAN: Wait.
(SLURPING)
A toast.
A toast to, yes,
long friendship.
-(CUP CLATTERS)
-(GROANS)
-How hungry you must have been.
-(GRUNTS)
And now, and now,
now for a little surprise.
For a special occasion,
I've been saving
cigars.
I can't imagine making movies
without having watched
his movies,
because as a kid
Just hold it right there.
Young Frankenstein
Don't inhale
until the tip glows.
it was
just the funniest movie ever.
(SCREAMS)
(GROANING LOUDLY IN PAIN)
(SCREAMING)
When I went forward
and started making stuff,
you know,
that was sort of the vernacular.
MAURY BALLSTEIN:
You're the laughingstock
of the entire fashion world.
BEN STILLER: When I started
on Zoolander, I think
What do we do
when we fall off the horse?
Young Frankenstein
was very clearly in my mind.
We get back on.
Sorry, Maury. I'm not a gymnast.
That's how I convinced myself
how to commit to the tone,
I was thinking,
"Well, if Mel Brooks
could do that
(GROANING)
-I could try to do that."
-Calm down.
BEN: And then I remember
just like the sex jokes
I'm a I
that were happening
for a kid at that time.
Oh, my God.
Woof!
Like, I remember
it was very confusing
when Frankenstein,
when Peter Boyle
would get aroused.
I'm engaged.
And once, he took my
But I didn't It was never
All the
(MOANS) Oh, I (MOANING)
(SINGING)
Oh, sweet mystery of life ♪
At last I found you ♪
-MEL: And action!
-(GROWLING)
BEN: And I've seen some
of the outtakes.
(GROWLING)
-Stop that! Now just stop that.
-BEN: You know, it's so much fun
to see them
cracking each other up.
Drop it!
(CAST LAUGHING)
But there was
an incredible commitment
-(ROARS)
-to the genre.
Everybody was playing it
so real.
Let me out. Let me out of here.
Get me the hell out of here.
And for the next,
like, 20 years,
it affected everything.
-(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-MEL: And action!
FRANKENSTEIN:
Five, six, seven, eight.
MEL:
The one thing I wouldn't do
Ladies and gentlemen,
up until now you've seen
with Young Frankenstein
was "Putting on the Ritz."
the creature perform
the simple mechanics
of motor activity.
MEL:
He thought it was a great idea.
I said, "No, it will tear it.
It's over the top."
Into the realm of genius.
GENE: And Mel said
May I now present
a cultured, sophisticated
man about town.
"Are you crazy?
You're going
to have all of our work
go down the drain?"
And I argued why it was valid.
I was close to rage and tears.
And right in mid-sentence,
Mel says, “Okay, it's in.”
And I didn't know
if he was joking or not.
And I said, “What do you mean?”
He says, “It's in.”
“What, why did you put me
through this?”
And he said, “I wasn't sure
if it was right
or terribly wrong.
I didn't know.
And I wanted to see
how hard you'd fight for it.
And I knew
if you fought hard enough,
it was right.
And you did. So it's in.”
And it was
never mentioned again.
If you're blue
And you don't know ♪
Where to go to ♪
Why don't you go
Where fashion sits? ♪
(IN STRAINED VOICE)
Putting on the Ritz ♪
Different types
Who wear a day coat ♪
Pants with stripes
Or cutaway coat ♪
Perfect fits ♪
(IN STRAINED VOICE)
Putting on the Ritz ♪
Dressed up like a ♪
In one year, 1974,
Blazing Saddles
and Young Frank--
both of them number one
in movie charts.
It was just
it was a miracle year, 1974.
Very good for me.
Not so good for Richard Nixon.
(IN STRAINED VOICE)
Putting on the Ritz ♪
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NICHOLAS BROOKS:
When Blazing Saddles
and Young Frank hit,
it transformed my dad
from "Mel Who" or
"I I think I know you,"
to "Mel Brooks."
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
NICHOLAS: But for our family,
those movies
changed the picture entirely.
Because when he went out to L.A.
to work on Blazing Saddles,
he moved out there.
Max was two
or something like that
when they moved.
But, you know,
my dad had been this presence,
this physical presence
in our lives,
and then suddenly
the visits stopped.
I think for a while
I was a little angry.
Occasionally he would fly in,
or we would fly out to L.A.,
but, um,
it wasn't the same rhythm
of connection.
(UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Mel Brooks.
MAX BROOKS:
The truth about my childhood was
it was
an immigrant community.
Immigrants to California.
Most of them were also
first-generation Americans.
So it really was about people
setting up a life
in this new city.
But anxiety was constant.
And I think part of it was
when you spend
your formative years
with nothing,
you assume
that the nothing
is always there.
So there was always that fear
that it was going
to be taken away.
And it was the 1970s.
This is when
a whole new generation
of celebrities around them
sometimes got caught up
in the bad press.
So my parents
were very much about,
"Be careful
who you associate with.
Know people, trust people.
It's always better
to have a few very close,
deep friendships."
Where the hell are you going?
Here, there
MAX:
But my dad was always my dad.
Why are you so busy?
Why don't you stand still?
MAX: And I got
extremely lucky that
the kind of craziness
that you see
in the character of Mel Brooks
was exactly what I got at home.
INTERVIEWER: I know your mother
lives on Miami Beach.
Would you like to say hello?
Hello, Mother. How are you?
Hello. And my brother Lenny
lives in Fort Lauderdale.
Leonard Kaminsky.
Hello, Leonard.
Thank you for-- Thank you for
for not changing the name.
Somebody had to keep the name.
And my mother, Kate Kaminsky.
Oh, wait a minute.
Can you bring the camera down
a little bit? Look at me.
Now that's a little better.
Hello, Mom. Now she can see me.
Hello, Mom. How are you?
I love you.
Thanks. Thanks for producing me.
(CREW LAUGHING)
JUDD:
How long did your mom live?
MEL: Not bad. Ninety-two.
JUDD: So, she got to see it all.
MEL: She got to see a lot of it.
How excited about your career
was she?
MEL: She was very excited.
-Every time I won something
-JUDD: Mm-hmm.
whether it was an Emmy
or an Oscar,
or whatever that I won,
I would send it to her.
Yeah.
MEL: She'd put it on her TV set.
The whole building would come
through her apartment,
she served tea and cookies,
-to see the Emmy or whatever.
-Yeah.
And I once went down there.
I had a very strange,
very weird, strange incident.
Anne and I went down,
and I hired a big, beautiful
Lincoln Town Car.
This car (LAUGHS)
It makes me laugh.
This car pulls up,
and the driver's
wearing a little cap.
And he says to me,
"Who you got?"
(JUDD CHUCKLES)
I said,
"What do you mean?"
"Who you driving? Who you got?"
And I said,
"Oh." I got it right away,
so I said, "Mel Brooks."
-He said, "Wow
-(JUDD CHUCKLLES)
Mel Brooks.
Is he a good tipper?"
I said, "The best."
(MEL AND JUDD CHUCKLING)
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MEL:
I started life as a drummer.
I'm sorry I stopped.
Because it was the best
and the loudest way
of calling attention to myself.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
MEL: But I think I'm primarily
an observer of life
who formalizes the observations
by writing them down.
Some of us have no ego
or other need
to tell anybody else
about those observations.
But I needed
to pronounce myself.
A film has to be
about something.
I used a western
to say other things.
I did use Young Frankenstein
to say a lot of other things.
Everything I have to say,
every serious comment
I have to make
on the human condition,
our behavior,
I can make through comedy.
Um, now I'm going
to tell you something
I shouldn't tell you.
There's a girl in Cleveland,
her name is Sheila.
No, no, I made-- That--
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Is this sort of humor of yours,
is it a fixture or is it a fad?
I hope (CLEARS THROAT)
that my contribution,
cinematically, comically,
to the world
will be durable.
As a matter of fact,
um, comedy as an art form
is not saluted, really.
The Academy Awards, they--
it's Towering Inferno time,
do you know what I mean?
And, uh,
comedy is never even listed
as the best picture.
And the ones,
the films that seem to live
for 40 or 50 years
are comedies,
are the Chaplin,
the great Chaplin comedies
and W. C. Fields and--
INTERVIEWER: What's the title
of your next film?
Silent Movie Madness.
And that's completely silent?
It's a very noisy silent movie.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MEL: Gene Wilder was busy,
so I said,
I'll split leading men.
It'll be me, Marty Feldman,
and Dom DeLuise.
I even stuck Sid Caesar
in the movie.
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
MEL: Silent Movie
made a curious comment
on Hollywood,
on the usurpation
and the swallowing up
of small artistic film studios
by corporate giants
who make baked potatoes,
rubber tires, and movies.
So Silent Movie
gives me a chance to vent
my hatred
for these corporate pirates.
Mel wrote a book
a couple of years ago
and he gave me credit
for bringing him
the idea for his silent movie.
He also said
he had a stroke of genius
when he thought
of Marcel Marceau.
Non!
RON CLARK: So I called him.
I said, "Mel, you mentioned
Marcel Marceau as your idea.
Don't you remember
that when I had the idea
for the film,
it was Marceau was the key?"
And he said
He said,
"It was such a good idea.
I figured it had to be mine."
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JUDD: Was it fun to suddenly be
the lead of the movies?
MEL: It was great. It was great.
I was so happy.
JUDD: I mean, I was trying
to explain to my daughter
that era this morning.
I was like,
"Mel Brooks in that moment
-was like Beyoncé."
-MEL: Yeah.
JUDD: You became the superstar.
(APPLAUSE)
Will you take your seat, please.
(MEL MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY)
It's all right.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-Just a joke.
-Okay.
You have fans
all over the world.
They're waiting every year
to see a new Mel Brooks film.
But you take such a long time
-to make a film.
-Well, you know
INTERVIEWER: Where is it?
-To make a good film
-INTERVIEWER: How do you do it?
To make a good film, here,
here's how you do it.
You take
You're you're doing it--
You take your sugar,
you take it like this,
put it all together.
Then the bones tell you.
(IN EXAGGERATED YIDDISH ACCENT)
Yes, yes, a gypsy.
I do a film, a gypsy.
The government
There's two governments.
The French government,
Romanian government,
Hungarian government.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-Here is three government.
I take the government, I make
a film. I make three government.
The common market
is a government.
(IN NORMAL VOICE)
See, it's more complicated
than that, I assure you.
What I'm trying to illustrate
in the very comic sense is
that the planning of a film
is often the largest part of it.
That is the writing.
A concept,
uh, captured in a script
is the most important part
of a film.
The rest of it is important too,
-but the script is 90 percent.
-Yeah.
Yeah, I know a lot.
I've been around.
-I'm very sophisticated.
-Are you sure?
Yes, I drink white wine
with fish.
-I know everything.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
There's nothing more delicate
in certain ways than a comedy.
I mean, it's very delicate,
'cause you can take
a particular joke,
and if it's not presented
in the proper way,
it doesn't work.
(PLAYFUL TUNE PLAYING) ♪
BARRY LEVINSON:
I'd say on one particular gag
in Silent Movie,
I think we must have recut it
-about ten times.
-(CHOMPS)
-(LOUD BOING ECHOING)
-(SMOOCHES)
(SOFT BOING ECHOING)
You know, it's a little laugh.
It's not big enough.
It's a big laugh.
-There's a big laugh here.
-(SPRINGS BOINGING)
And then he would go,
"What about," et cetera,
and then suddenly
(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
There it was.
Not a little
(CHUCKLES HALF-HEARTEDLY)
JUDD: Yeah.
(CHUCKLES)
You know, he always
He wanted
"I want to see people
doubled up,
that they can't breathe."
I do remember once
on High Anxiety,
I was thinking
in terms of Psycho.
(GLASS SHATTERING)
Do you fellas
want to see your rooms or not?
Barry Levinson,
who looks just like you,
-I swear to God.
-Yeah?
Barry Levinson,
who is the bellboy.
Here's your key.
I'll bring your bag in a minute.
He's the bellboy in the hotel,
and he attacks me in the shower,
like Psycho.
I was making fun of it one day,
and I was saying, like--
the bellhop was going
(HIGH-PITCHED SCREAMS)
(HIGH-PITCHED SCREAMS)
(HIGH-PITCHED SCREAMS)
With the newspaper
(SCREAMS) Here’s your paper,
here’s your paper,
here’s your paper!
(SCREAMING) Happy now? Happy?
Happy now?
BARRY:
If it was a worthwhile idea,
then he would run with it.
If it wasn't,
then you'd move on
to something else.
But he was very open to that.
That kid gets no tip.
BARRY: We didn't just write it.
We were there on the set
when it was being shot.
So we were there
every day of the shoot.
There'd be a moment
and you thought,
"Well, maybe that
could be better," you know,
and you go over to Mel,
"Mel, I was wondering"
And then he would go like,
"Hold it, we're not moving on.
Barry's not happy."
You know,
and so you feel embarrassed.
(CHUCKLES)
ANNE BANCROFT:
What kind of roles do you think
you would have gotten
if you weren't writing your own?
MEL: Oh, my favorite roll
would be the King of Germany,
the Kaiser roll.
-(ANNE LAUGHS)
-MEL: That would be-- No.
(PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
High anxiety ♪
I made myself a leading man
in High Anxiety
because I always wanted
to imitate Frank Sinatra.
High anxiety ♪
I guess I made myself
a leading man because
in real life I knew
I could never be a leading man.
My heart's afraid to fly ♪
It's crashed before ♪
But then you take my hand ♪
My heart starts
To soar once more ♪
High anxiety ♪
JUDD:
Where you grew up, there weren't
a lot of Jewish kids.
So, what did it mean
that there was the guy like Mel
out there,
just this Jewish performer,
writer,
director, producer?
There's not anybody
our age or up
that didn't have the pride
of Mel being Jewish
and being like,
"You know that dude
you quote all the time?
He's one of us."
High anxiety ♪
SARAH SILVERMAN: I had just
never seen anything like it.
You know, like being Jewish
in a lot of communities
is like something
that you come out.
It's almost like being gay,
you know, like, uh
to be
proud of it, it would be--
is like-- seems crazy.
He was so Jewish,
but he was kind of cool.
Like, he was cooler to me than,
like, Woody Allen,
uh, for any number of reasons.
But, um (CHUCKLES)
He didn't You know,
he looked the way he looked,
but he had so much charisma
and he was very confident.
That's the thing I got from him.
He was super confident,
and he had no problem
going for it.
MEL: That I blame ♪
Mel was the kind of guy
that you felt like Sinatra
would be like,
“Holy shit. Let me say hi
to Mel Brooks, man.”
He just was the shit.
I've got to give in ♪
High anxiety ♪
And remember, folks,
be good to your parents.
They've been good to you.
You win ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DINAH SHORE: I didn't talk
to you about working
in a movie with Mel.
ANNE: For years, we never wanted
to work together,
'cause we thought
it would be terrible.
-(MUSIC CUTS OFF) ♪
-(SHUFFLING)
It wound up being two weeks,
the happiest of my whole life,
'cause I loved
working with him.
-Yeah?
-Oh, I Yes, I just loved it.
You hear that, honey?
Write me a part. (CHUCKLES)
(TANGO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
(CRASHING)
(LAUGHING)
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
MEL: (CHUCKLES) Oh, God.
It's hard for me to watch her.
She was so good.
Look at her eyes. She does it.
She matches him.
She's amazing.
And she did that
as a favor to me.
-JUDD: Yeah. (CHUCKLES)
-(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
That's probably why
you fell in love with Annie.
You didn't know
that she could do that weird
No, it's true. I found that out
much later in our marriage.
One day,
she was putting on her makeup,
and I was like, you know
how men like to do that,
to watch how they do it
so they can do it later
-when women go out of town.
-JOHNNY: That's right.
So, I was
I was watching,
and she was doing everything,
and then suddenly she did that.
She crossed her eyes,
and I said,
"One day
I'm going to do a movie,
and you're going to do that
in the movie."
And she said, "Oh yeah, sure."
You know.
-JOHNNY: And she did it.
-And she did it,
and it was really incredible.
We couldn't believe it.
Marty couldn't believe it.
Marty Feldman,
who has one eye--
one in Chicago,
one in Cincinnati.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
-Oh!
-Oh my goodness.
-(APPLAUSE)
-Anne Bancroft.
-(WHOOPS)
-(APPLAUSE CONTINUES)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Are you coming for dinner? Yes.
-Yes!
-Did you see
-Anne Bancroft!
Did you see me?
(LAUGHING)
I mean, all of you out there
who are married know.
This is the first time
we've ever been
on television together.
No. No, on The Carson Show
they always point to you
in your seat.
But never talking like this,
and close like this.
-We don't allow you. No, no, no.
-Never. Yes.
-(INTERVIEWER
SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
-This is history.
-Yes, history.
-My darling.
-(LAUGHING)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
INTERVIEWER:
You didn't know that your wife
was coming on here, did you?
I had no idea. I had no idea
my wife was coming on,
but it's always a pleasure
to see my wife.
You want to do, uh
-What was the--
-(LAUGHS) Oh, no!
No, what was the big one
we used to do years ago?
The, uh
They say
They're falling in love ♪
-We never did that.
-No, no, no. Uh
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(SCATS MUSIC NOTES) ♪
(VOCALISING) ♪
Oh, that's so--
That key is so high.
-That's your other wife.
-That's-- No, no.
Now, we can do a little
of "Bells Are Ringing."
(CLEARS THROAT)
Okay, here we go.
-The-- ♪
-The bells are ♪
-It's me. It's my part.
-You did But I'll do the
We got a microphone here.
You mean I've been doing this
without a microphone?
No, no. But you're in here.
The bell ♪
(BOTH) The bells are ringing ♪
For me and my gal ♪
-The birds are singing ♪
-Singing ♪
(BOTH) For me and my gal ♪
INTERVIEWER: This is the end
of the doubles match
which pitted Penny Marshall
and Mel Brooks
against Carl Reiner
and guess who?
(EXCLAIMS)
(CHEERING)
UMPIRE: Point, set, match.
Marshall and Brooks,
they win four games
to three in the tiebreaker.
-INTERVIEWER:
Could I ask you a question?
-What?
When you and Mel spend
a quiet evening at home,
is it as animated as I see you?
When I talk to Mel,
it's very animated and you..
I don't think we've ever
really talked.
You know what I mean?
We never sit down and say,
"Well, what did you do today?"
INTERVIEWER: How do you know
the marriage is working?
I don't. I don't know.
-Tell me, is it?
-(LAUGHS)
I don't even know
if he likes me.
Oh! Ooh!
I'll sell you his interview.
You want to buy it?
Oh!
INTERVIEWER:
Oh, does he like you.
Well, that's so nice to know.
(SPEAKING ITALIAN DOUBLE-TALK)
He said--
He says the girl took the fuzz
off the ball.
(SPEAKING ITALIAN DOUBLE-TALK)
topspin, topspin
(CONTINUES ITALIAN DOUBLE-TALK)
Ball, the ball, the ball!
He says because he is bald,
he has no topspin.
(SPEAKING ITALIAN DOUBLE-TALK)
(SPEAKING ITALIAN DOUBLE-TALK)
Sexual activity in room 412.
-(BYSTANDERS LAUGHING)
-(APPLAUSE)
ROB REINER: My father used
to refer to him as a doctor
because he read
more medical journals
I mean, if you didn't have
the money to go visit a doctor,
you could go to Mel.
And I always thought,
even though,
Mel was only like four years
younger than my dad,
I think he looked to my dad
as like a father figure.
JUDD: Rob was saying that
he thought in some ways
Carl was almost like
a father figure to you.
Yeah, well, I lost my father
when I was two years old.
JUDD: Yeah.
And I was always,
I think, unconsciously
searching for some guidance
from an older man, you know.
JUDD: Yeah.
And Carl was nice and tall.
(JUDD CHUCKLES)
-I literally looked up to Carl.
-JUDD: Yeah.
And Carl, for all his
schtick and insanity,
was wise
-JUDD: Yeah.
-and loving.
And I just said,
"That's my father."
JUDD: Wow.
I just felt that Carl was there
and I was very close to him.
JUDD: And then when you hear
all these stories about Mel
with your dad and Norman Lear
and Dom DeLuise
and Larry Gelbart
and this incredible
group of people
-who hung out.
-ROB: Yeah, yeah.
And they
would spend weekends together
and they each had their own
comedy skill set that would
It was like, you know,
"Just let's make each other
laugh and have fun."
CARL REINER:
It was the most laughter
I've ever been involved with,
ever, ever, ever in my life.
Nobody ever laughed like that.
And we realized there's a club.
We decided to call ourselves
Yenem Velt.
Yenem Velt,
which is a Yiddish term
for "the other world."
I knew the guy
who had the houses
and invited us
to take them anytime.
I put it together.
Five bedrooms.
And one bedroom
was about four inches larger
-than the other bedroom.
-(INTERVIEWER LAUGHS)
MEL: It was much bigger.
NORMAN LEAR:
And I took that bedroom.
He never stopped resenting it.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-All right.
-He told us--
He told me at lunch
just a few years ago.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Mel thought
when he got slapped on the ass
by the doctor who delivered him
that that was applause.
And he has not stopped
performing since.
There was not
and there is nobody like Mel.
INTERVIEWER:
What do you think of Mel Brooks?
I can say that I think
he is the only
authentic genius
that I've ever met.
The reasons why
(SMACKING LOUDLY)
But I'm not here.
(CHUCKLES)
I had the greatest
theatrical experiences
of my life
working with him.
MEL: And sexual.
And sexual experiences.
And, um,
on Young Frankenstein,
we did something
that was unique.
We both wrote,
he directed, I starred.
And I feel that now, with Mel
directing and acting,
the scripts that he's written,
he is gearing those scripts
for himself as a performer.
So those scripts are shaped
according to his talent,
what he wants to do
as a performer.
For me to just step in,
it would be a little bit crazy
because it wouldn't be right
for me.
And I've come to the conclusion
that the only way
that it will be right
for us to create magic again
will be for us both to write,
him to direct, and me to star.
And since I'm one
of the few people in the world
who want nothing from him,
I'm going to wait
until that day comes
when he says, "I'm ready."
I've come
on the most urgent of business.
It is said
that the people are revolting.
You said it. They stink on ice.
No, Your Majesty,
this is a very serious problem.
The peasants feel
you have no regard for them.
What? I have no regard
for the peasants?
They are my people.
I am their sovereign.
I love them.
Pull!
-(GUNSHOT)
-(MAN SCREAMING)
Drifting to the left.
You must always go
for the essence of the film.
Pull!
-(GUNSHOT)
-(MAN EMITS SHORT SCREAM)
Fell like a stone.
What is the film about?
Shall we continue
to build palace after palace
for the rich?
Or shall we aspire
to a more noble purpose
and build decent housing
for the poor?
GROUP: Fuck the poor!
The next movie I'm making,
it's behind me on the wall here,
is Mel Brooks's
History of the World, Part I.
(ADVENTUROUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
This will be the Stone Age.
And the first man
will masturbate.
(MEN GRUNTING)
MEL: We will freeze
the frame and say,
"Our forefathers."
(GRUNTING CONTINUES)
All pay heed!
The Lord, the Lord Jehovah,
has given unto you these 15
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
Oy.
Ten! Ten commandments!
MEL: And then we'll land
and the next bit
will be the Roman Empire.
-CLERK: Occupation?
-COMICUS: Stand-up philosopher.
I coalesce the vapor
of human experience
into a viable
and logical comprehension.
Oh.
A bullshit artist.
(GRUMBLES)
MEL: And we continue to show
that the administrators
Oh, Caesar!
(BURPS)
the leaders, the kings,
are animals and brutal.
That's just
a little philosophical point.
Say when.
8:30.
MEL: We move
from the Roman Empire
For now begins the Inquisition.
over
to the Spanish Inquisition.
("THE INQUISITION"
BY MEL BROOKS PLAYING) ♪
-The Inquisition ♪
-Let's begin ♪
-The Inquisition ♪
-Look out, sin ♪
We have a mission ♪
To convert the Jews ♪
Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew
Jew, Jew, Jew ♪
MEL:
It was a man called Torquemada
who came and took Jews,
put them on racks,
broke their bones.
And we're gonna make
a Busby Berkeley musical number
out of the Spanish Inquisition.
-Confess, don't be boring ♪
-Confess, confess ♪
-Say yes, don't be dull ♪
-Say yes, say yes ♪
-A fact you're ignoring ♪
-A fact you're ignoring ♪
It's better
To lose your skullcap ♪
Than your skull ♪
Oy oy gevalt ♪
The Inquisition, yeah ♪
(SINGING INDISTINCTLY)
Oh, "The Inquisition."
Shit, we didn't talk about that.
This is fucking batshit,
and it is
the most delightful thing
I've ever seen in my life.
It's full-on, truly brilliant
musical theater Broadway level.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Scit, scat, and voodoo-lee-vat
And doodle-dee-day ♪
Will you convert? ♪
No, no, no, no ♪
Will you confess? ♪
No, no, no, no ♪
Will you revert? ♪
No, no, no, no ♪
Will you say yes? ♪
No, no, no, no ♪
Now, I asked in a nice way
I said pretty please ♪
I bent their ears
Now, I'll work on their knees ♪
(DYNAMIC MELODY PLAYING) ♪
-(SCREAMS)
-Ha-ha!
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
He got bad reviews, of course.
You know, you just,
you don't hear that.
You know, like the Beatles
got bad reviews.
History of the World was
a really big deal in my house.
The jokes
about the Spanish Inquisition
-and "It's Good to Be the King."
-It's good to be the King.
-The Inquisition
What a show ♪
-What a show ♪
AMY SCHUMER: Even as
that grotesque character,
you still loved Mel Brooks.
Death, hump, death, hump, death.
Your time is running out.
'Cause he was making fun
of ultimate privilege and power.
Oh, please. Listen to me.
I'm not the king!
CROWD: Bullshit!
It's a very hard crowd.
Because
The Inquisition's here ♪
And it's here to ♪
Stay ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
You know, and the eunuchs,
castrated men.
Well, wait, the eunuchs
Is it-- That's not castration
if you just cut their balls off,
is it?
That's still castration?
JUDD:
I think that is castration.
God, I've been doing it wrong
all these years.
We had hoped to have,
and I think I mentioned this
last night,
Rex Reed
of the New York Daily News,
who hated Mel Brooks's picture.
And Rex, I thought
it might have been nice
if Rex had been here
to confront Mel
and give him face-to-face
his review of the picture,
The History of the World,
Part I.
But we had a call
from Rex Reed today,
and unfortunately,
he is not able to make it.
Something about a toothache,
or
I wished Oh, I wanted
Rex Reed to be here tonight.
Oh, so, so much. But
-(TOM SNYDER LAUGHS)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
TOM: You mean
for a little conversation,
a little chat. Exactly.
I like face-to-face
confrontation.
I don't like writing things,
scrawling little hate messages.
"How do I hate thee?
Let me count the ways."
But I mean, sometimes
the critics put things down
because it puts them up.
It is self-righteous.
They're hypocritical.
They don't break wind.
-They don't
-(AUDIENCE MEMBERS LAUGH)
I mean, they don't have sex.
People laugh at Jew jokes,
Polish jokes,
passing gas jokes,
going to the bathroom jokes,
all that stuff in private.
And then
we get to the movie theater
and we're supposed
to make believe
that nobody ever does that.
It's ridiculous, frankly.
I'm writing a movie
to please the critics.
People will have no orifices.
These
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
TOM:
How are we gonna breathe?
Things will
Everything will be sealed.
Everything will be clean.
We will
You will not hear the sound
of breaking wind
across the prairie.
It will be the cleanest,
nicest movie.
And only the critics
will see it,
-unfortunately.
-TOM: Yeah, yeah.
I don't think we'll get
an audience for it.
-Yeah.
-I'm a rum runner.
I'm a rum runner.
I have terrific rum.
It's 110-proof rum.
It's funny rum. It's good rum.
It's hot rum.
Some people like
that kind of rum.
I gotta get that rum
to the people.
I'm trying to get it.
Now, there's a picket line,
a picket line of critics.
"It stinks. It's tall.
It's short.
It's Jewish. It's funny.
It's smart. It's twisted.
It's a bagel.
It's a tagel. It's a ragel."
I mean, they don't
They don't let you
But for some reason,
the initial basic
wonderful contract
is with the filmmaker
and the people.
And the only thing
that makes a picture live
is time.
We will outlive all the critics.
(MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MAX: My father is beloved
by the people
and he is worshipped
by comedians.
NARRATOR:
Here, in a cave
somewhere
in the North American continent,
the first artist was born.
MAX: But the intelligentsia
never really embraced him,
never saw him as a genius.
(GRUNTING)
MAX: He was never wise,
he was never insightful.
He was always just commercial
and silly and slapstick.
NARRATOR: And of course,
with the birth of the artist
came the inevitable afterbirth.
The critic.
(GRUNTING)
There is a production number
in History of the World, Part I
that
It is, I think,
the highlight of the movie.
Now, everybody has different--
I was I was
I think
it is a stroke of genius.
Some people hate it.
I loved it.
Short, dumb people hate it.
(LAUGHS)
Tall, interesting,
handsome people
like it.
MAURY POVICH: There are people
who got disgusted,
walked out of theaters.
Some gossip columnist
said that you
were making terrible fun
-Right, they--
-of a tragic time in history.
Exactly.
They thought
that the Inquisition
was not the subject matter
for comedy.
And I maintain seriously that
there is nothing that is not
the subject matter for comedy
because comedy is a sensational
and sometimes spectacular
political weapon.
Pauline Kael, a great critic
of The New Yorker
who had disliked
his earlier films,
came around on this one
and said, "This is brilliant."
Her opening paragraph
in The New Yorker was,
"If Mel Brooks
doesn't go too far,
he hasn't moved."
It shocked me.
I panned the movie in 1981
in New York magazine
'cause I thought
it went too far.
And when I saw it again
and again,
it struck me
as this is the most daring,
the craziest thing
he's ever done.
It pushes art
in almost
a kind of modernist way,
like theater of cruelty way,
push the thing
as far as it can go.
And it's borderline hostile
to the audience
until you realize
what he's doing and you reset.
And then after you see it
the second and third time,
I think there's
an immense release,
the release of anguish.
Um, "Yes, I can laugh at this."
CHARLIE ROSE: How much of comedy
comes out of anger,
out of your own anger,
your rage?
You're right.
A lot comes out of passion.
-What are you angry about today?
-A lot.
Where's the rage today
when you look at America?
Not your movies,
but when you look at America
and say,
"That is wrong and that's going
to take America to the"
What gets me crazy and angry
is that a couple of guys
in Washington
will sit around a table
and decide
to spend billions
and billions of dollars
for an antique aircraft carrier
while truly needy programs
have been completely wiped away
by an administration
that is not
-(APPLAUSE)
-A woman.
A woman
doing the same job as a man
gets a raw deal
because she's a woman.
There are many
real horrible things.
A person,
because of the color of his skin
or because
of his religious beliefs,
is put down.
I mean, there are many things,
that we're not
addressing ourselves to,
that have to be addressed
in some artistic form.
If the government's
not gonna pay attention,
art must pay attention.
As a comic, uh,
as an artist
yeah, you have to be
a little bit fearless.
You have to be
a little bit fearless.
When you feel
you have to say something,
you gotta say it.
And you gotta be able to live
with the consequences.
Like, if you're gonna do it,
you have to go hard
in the pain.
Right? You can't half-ass
political satire.
Like, what's the point of that?
If you're gonna do it,
if you're gonna say something
about awful people,
you have to go all in.
I think that's
one of the big things
that separates satire
from just yelling in a crowd
is you have to be
Go hard,
but you have to make sure
it's also funny.
(FILM REEL WHIRRING)
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
VIEWER 1:
Is that who I think it is?
VIEWER 2: Yes, that's
Adolf Hitler in a home movie.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
VIEWER 1:
Looks a little like Mel Brooks.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
MAN 1: Who's taking the picture?
MAN 2: Eva. Eva Braun.
And not too many people know it,
but he was a secret admirer
of Charlie Chaplin.
Now this is
extremely rare footage.
At least with sound.
-(SPEAKING GERMAN DOUBLE-TALK)
-Mm!
(SPEAKING GERMAN) That?
-Apple sauce.
-Apple sauce. Apple sauce
(SPEAKER GERMAN DOUBLE-TALK)
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Danke.
(WHISTLING
"SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER") ♪
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
JUDD: What do you think
was his instinct
to go hard at Nazis so much?
Well, I think it's
what we Jews do
as survival.
You know, it's you take
He had in Twelve Chairs,
I think there's a line
where he says, um,
"Hope for the best,
expect the worst."
And it's this thing
It's a survival mechanism
of comedy.
Humor is a way to keep you going
and keep you, uh
keep those Nazis at bay.
It was a bug.
A bug. You killed a bug.
A bug, a living thing,
you just take its life away.
Boom, that's it, it's over.
Boom.
CONAN O'BRIEN:
People have been critical
You just don't kill things.
What's the matter with you?
about Mel putting a comb
under his nose
and pretending to be Hitler
or making light of the Nazis
or making light of all this.
And I always remember
he could hear German soldiers
across the river.
He was fighting the Germans.
If you fought the Germans
in World War II,
you're allowed to do
whatever the fuck you want.
And what better way
to overcome a tyrant
than to ridicule him?
When people are doing
cruel and crazy
and terrible things,
it's important
to remind everyone
that they're cruel
and terrible things.
And if you don't,
perhaps we become
acclimated to it.
And, you know, for me,
I do feel like it's a little bit
of a release valve
for people to, um,
see the powers that be
made fun of,
but also I think
it's a good reminder.
It's good to remind people
that this isn't normal.
The greatest threat
to these types of people
is to not be taken seriously.
Vladimir Putin
does not allow comedians
to make fun of him.
That is an arrestable offense.
You don't get arrested for that
because he
doesn't like the joke.
You get arrested because
he knows the joke is dangerous.
Comedy helps minimize
terrifying things
so that you can move forward
in the face
of something terrifying.
It feels good
to say those things.
It feels good
to hear those things.
MEL: See "Hitler on Ice!"
(WALTZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MEL: Sometimes my comedy
is just to celebrate
the joy of being alive.
Here comes the mustache.
Here is the face.
MEL: And sometimes
it is philosophical
and ideological,
and I use it as skillfully
as I know how.
Comedy ridicules.
Comedy demotes.
Comedy destroys
the dignity of the enemy.
ALAN KING: Does Mel Brooks want
to be taken seriously?
On occasion, I do.
Yeah, on occasion.
I would like to have
the largesse, the ability
to do
a profoundly serious movie,
as well as an antic,
silly comedy.
Our business
is a very tough business,
and once you gain
a reputation for something,
the public and the critics
stick a siphon into you,
and they say, "Give us that,
give us that."
They want nothing else,
and they'll drain that
until you're dead.
And I said, "There's more to me
than just being a zany comic."
So, I created a company
called Brooksfilms.
The patient has been called
"The Elephant Man."
MEL:
When I read this wonderful story
of the Elephant Man,
I knew that under the banner
of Brooksfilms
I could make
this beautiful picture.
(APPLAUSE)
After I finished
my first feature, Eraserhead
-(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(HEAD BOINGS)
I got a phone call from a guy
named Stuart Cornfeld.
And Stuart Cornfeld
worked for a man
named Mel Brooks.
And at that time,
I was getting married
to my second wife.
And my new mother-in-law
uh, told my then-wife,
"David isn't working much.
Maybe it's time to light a fire
under this, you know, bozo
and get him to make some money,
right? And take care of you."
So, I called Stuart.
And I just wanted
I don't know why,
I just took a chance.
I said, "Stuart,
do you know of any films
that I could direct?"
And he said, "The Elephant Man."
And a bomb went off in my head.
And this bomb
had been off in my head
a couple of times before
in my life,
but it's a huge thing.
From that millisecond on,
I said, "That's it,
that's what I wanna do."
But what happened was
they called me and said,
"Mel wants to see Eraserhead."
And I got the gist,
if he didn't like it, I was out.
And I said,
"Well, it's been great
knowing you guys."
So, Mel set up a screening
at 20th Century Fox,
and the film ended,
and the doors blew open,
and Mel came rushing toward me.
He embraced me and said,
"You're a madman.
I love you. You're in."
And that was it.
INTERVIEWER:
Did you pick the director
for The Elephant Man?
MEL: Absolutely. I found him.
INTERVIEWER:
That was a stroke of genius.
MEL: There's a great deal
of beauty in him
and a great deal
of understanding
of the grotesque.
And he has great compassion
for the grotesque.
And I knew he would be
the perfect director.
(GASPING)
We've decided.
We're gonna get out of here,
all right?
Oh, Mr. Merrick,
you're not
an elephant man at all.
DAVID LYNCH: Anne Bancroft
was like working with royalty.
You're Romeo.
DAVID:
And Mel is a smart fellow.
He knows about human nature
so much.
And he's just
Mel's got
a lot going on
in that mind of his.
He's real, real
um, busy
and sees so much.
And, somehow,
he saw this in Eraserhead.
He's the perfect person
to see that film.
And it
Now, it makes sense to me
that he liked it
and would pick me,
but it doesn't really make
any sense.
And Mel put me on the map
with that,
you know, offering me to direct
The Elephant Man,
and backing me up
all along the way.
I didn't have final cut
with Mel Brooks,
but in a sense,
I would say he gave it to me.
I am not an animal!
I am a human being.
To me that's the most
selfless act of producing
anybody's ever done.
The fact that Mel, you know,
said that if people see
"produced by Mel Brooks"
and The Elephant Man,
they're gonna expect a comedy.
And he wanted the movie
to stand alone.
And so he took his name off it.
And that's, I mean,
that's such an amazing thing
for a producer to do.
That is Mel sort of at his
sort of financial
deal-making peak,
when he can pull strings
and make stuff happen.
And the fact
that he went to the mat
for this goofy kid out of AFI
-who had made a midnight movie.
-Yeah.
And basically,
going to the studio
saying, "I'm gonna back him.
And you can trust me,
the movie
won't spin out of control,
-but the kid is directing
this movie."
-Right.
It's astonishing,
and in black and white.
LARRY KARASZEWSKI:
In black and white, yeah.
I mean, wow. I mean,
that is awesome producing.
He's backing Cronenberg.
No one ever
really thinks about that,
that we would
not have the careers
of David Cronenberg
and David Lynch
if it wasn't for Mel Brooks.
JUDD: The success rate
at Brooksfilms is crazy.
Please don't kill me.
JUDD: The Fly is a classic.
Get your clothes on.
-JUDD: He did Frances.
-You've got no right!
MEL:
Frances was a beautiful film.
You know, 84 Charing Cross Road,
and My Favorite Year.
I am fat!
MEL: And Anne's picture, Fatso.
Beautiful, really rich, deep,
-serious comedy.
-Fat! I am fat!
MEL: All of them had real merit.
JUDD: Were you super involved
or controlling,
or how were you as a producer?
Hands off until
I saw something
that I thought I could help,
then it was hands-on.
Brooksfilms is a company
that enables me
to bite off and chew things
that normally the critics
and the public
would not allow Mel Brooks
to do.
So, I feel
I'm doing a great service
to mankind
by bringing important ideas
in the form of great art
to the public.
And in return,
all I want is a lot of money.
He has this serious side.
He has this very deep
thinking side of him.
And I think,
like lots of creative people,
they're afraid to put that part
of themselves out there
because, "That's not the brand.
That's not what people
want from me.
But I can do it in things
like The Elephant Man
and Frances."
That's the way he found
to express himself
in a different way.
TERRY WOGAN: You are known
as the master of bad taste.
-Yes, I am, I am.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Is this justified,
or are you sorry now?
No, no, no, it's justified.
And I
I am known
for my exquisitely bad taste.
In America, people say,
"Mr. Brooks,
you are in bad taste."
I say, "Up yours."
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
You know, I've been watching
this show from the wings.
I'm not going to criticize it.
I love it.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
The cameras seem to have
some problems knowing when
you are going to speak
and when your guest
is going to speak.
So, it occurred to me
to warn them,
so that they don't come in
on a second syllable
or a second word.
If you say, "Ba-ba"
and then talk,
on the ba-ba,
they will cut to you.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
If I'm going to talk,
I will say, "Ba-ba"
and they will cut to me.
Of course, this is where you--
That's why you're a director
and producer,
and I'm just
a common or garden
Ba-ba! I'll tell you, Terry
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
(APPLAUSE)
Ba-ba!
I hadn't finished.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(LAUGHS)
You know
what Jewish foreplay is?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Let me tell you
what Jewish foreplay is.
-May I?
-TERRY: Please.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Twenty minutes of begging.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-TERRY: Ba-ba.
And yet you married an Italian.
Ba-ba, yes.
How did you lure this actress
into this kind of dross
With a giant Jew magnet.
I said, "Come this way.
You're mine.
You're mine." Ba-ba, schmuck.
"You're mine."
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
She adores me because I'm
the other side of her life.
I'm merriment. I'm fun.
I'm silly.
When are we going to see
that side of you?
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(LAUGHS)
Yes, miss.
I've heard
that you're married to
the most beautiful woman
in the world.
Is that true, Mr. Brooks?
No,
I'm married to Anne Bancroft.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(APPLAUSE)
My beautiful wife.
Thank you.
-In
-(APPLAUSE)
We are starring together,
starring together
in a major motion picture
for the first time.
A motion picture called
To Be or Not to Be,
which should be
in your neighborhood theaters
in about an hour and a half.
Why don't we sing
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
a little Polish for these--
Yes.
Let me get up there.
Come on, folks,
let's encourage her.
(APPLAUSE)
Yes.
-(ANNE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
-Yeah.
Don't worry, don't worry,
you can do it.
ANNE: No, I can't.
I got cue cards.
What are you worried about?
Remember, it’s not so important,
just a TV show.
It doesn't have to be good,
they're not paying for this.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(SINGING IN POLISH) ♪
Sweet Georgia Brown ♪
(SINGING IN POLISH) ♪
Sweet Georgia Brown ♪
MEL:
For years, I had been looking
for a vehicle
that would contain
Quick! Let's rehearse the scene.
-the majesty
-Hail Hitler.
Heil Hitler.
All right, I've got it.
of my talent
with the tap-dancing ability
of my wife.
(SINGING IN POLISH) ♪
Do we love each other?
Tell them. I mean
Well, I mean, do you know
what it means anymore?
All we know, all we know is that
we are rafts in the ocean
and we swim to each other
and cling
because life is filled
with all kinds of fraught,
with all kinds of disaster
and certainly unhappiness.
And at least
we have each other to
Look, as far as I'm concerned
Is that how you feel?
Marriage is a retail store.
Somebody has to
watch the register.
(CHUCKLES)
And somebody has to get
the pretzels down for the kids.
I mean, it's hard. I mean,
look, life is very hard.
I think you need a partner
that you love and who loves you
to get through it.
INTERVIEWER: But you're content
to be with each other.
I'm more than content.
I mean, when he comes home
at night,
when that key goes
in the door, I mean,
my heart starts fluttering.
-I am so happy he's home.
-You're so nice.
-(CHUCKLES)
-You know, I mean,
it's like the party's
going to start, you know?
And I get my hat.
I get my party hat
from New York.
-(LAUGHS)
-I throw confetti, and I run in.
-(LAUGHS)
-(VOCALIZES)
And we dance all night.
MAX:
My parents always had a rule.
Never go to bed angry.
Get it all out.
So, they got it all out.
What happens if you have
a disagreement of some sort?
I've got to know.
She goes after me
with a half a scissor.
What do you mean?
INTERVIEWER:
With a half a scissor?
Yeah, you know, the Italians.
(SPEAKING ITALIAN)
Oh, yeah. What do you do?
You run?
-No, no, no. We sit and we talk.
-That's right.
We sit and we say,
"Darling,
if there's any problem,
you know, let's talk it out."
And we talk
for about two minutes,
and then she goes
(SPEAKING ITALIAN)
They fought
about a lot of little things,
a lot of big things.
Sometimes she would just
yell at him,
especially with his career,
because she was very much about
making him do what she knew
he wanted to do.
My dad is a procrastinator.
And so my mother
was very clear about like,
"Mel, go write that."
I don't think I can do it.
I don't think
I can get away with it.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. You can.
You can.
You can, you can,
you can and you will.
You're a great actor.
You were born to do it.
You even look like Siletski.
Big nose, beady eyes.
You'll be a better Siletski
than Siletski.
I hope so. He's dead.
Beady eyes.
Sorry, sweetheart.
MEL: She's always pushed me.
She's always been
an inspiration.
She always thought
I was talented.
And she believed in me
right from the beginning,
whatever I wanted to do.
She said, you can do it.
MAX: When I was growing up,
that was at his height.
So, even though
I saw him constantly,
he was busy being Mel Brooks.
Hiya. Wie geht's?
This is my little cottage.
This is my bathtub.
It's a whirlpool bath.
It has 17 jets.
The jets of water hit you
everywhere.
It's a pleasure. (LAUGHS)
Ah!
We are now in my son Max's room.
I have a son, Max.
He's 11 years old
and he needs a room.
Come here.
MAX: My dad had no idea
how to be a dad.
He can have all this space here.
MAX:
And was very honest about that.
We only made one small mistake.
We didn't build Max a toilet,
so he will have to go outside.
MAX: And my dad was very nervous
and very protective,
even in places
he had no right to be.
I'll never forget the phrase,
"What if I wake up tomorrow
and you're dead?"
This was when I wanted
to go camping in the backyard.
And we had to, like,
meet with the family shrink,
and the shrink
had to talk to my dad.
"Well, Mel, what do you think
would happen?"
"Well, I don't know.
How do I know?
What if I wake up tomorrow
and you're dead?"
So, yes,
there was always those fights.
And eventually I won
because I'm here
in my own house.
(BEEP)
Flamethrowers!
(AIR HISSING)
Flamethrowers!
Yeah, now it works.
And last but not least
dolls.
Here's a new one of me
and I talk.
Let's ride your bike.
Blow it out your ass.
(CAST LAUGHING)
Cut.
("SPACEBALLS" THEME PLAYING) ♪
Spaceballs?
Oh, shit.
There goes the planet.
I said I've satirized
almost every kind of--
but I have not done space.
If you're gonna do space,
you better do Star Wars.
(GASPS)
I can't breathe in this thing!
MEL: In Spaceballs,
we have used up the air.
There is no air left
on Planet Spaceball.
Because of an ignorant
and foolish president.
-What's the combination?
-One, two, three, four, five.
-One, two, three, four, five?
-Yes.
That's amazing.
I've got the same combination
on my luggage.
He doesn't care
about the environment.
He doesn't care about people.
He doesn't care
about trade deficits.
He is just a good looking
He's kind of an actor.
You know, he smiles a lot and
But-- And that's the guy I'm--
I can't think of who I
I am, you know,
modeling the role after.
I mean
-President Skroob.
-What is it?
ZIRCON: I have an urgent message
from Lord Helmet.
He's lost the princess.
-Where?
-Somewhere in the sands of Vega.
Tell him to comb the desert,
do you hear me?
Comb the desert!
Found anything yet?
Nothing yet, sir!
DARK HELMET: How about you?
Not a thing, sir.
DARK HELMET:
What about you guys?
We ain't found shit.
NARRATOR:
Another jab at movie clichés
from a 60-year-old actor,
writer, producer,
director, and comedian
by the name of Mel Brooks.
Helmet, what's going on?
Sandurz, what's going on?
It's Mega Maid.
-She's gone from suck to blow.
-(GASPS)
NARRATOR:
Spaceballs is another example
that with Brooks,
there are no sacred movie cows.
Stand up!
Captain, we've got them!
Spectacular stunt, my friends.
But all for naught.
Turn around, please.
So, princess,
you thought you could outwit
the imperious force of
(GASPS)
You idiots!
These are not them!
You've captured
their stunt doubles!
INTERVIEWER:
You're parodying Star Wars,
and many of the characters
are very similar.
DARK HELMET: I see
your Schwartz is as big as mine.
So, you knew
George Lucas's lawyers
might even be able
to stop this movie.
You didn't want that, so
Lucas liked me,
he liked my work,
and he said,
"Mel, the only thing
you can't do.
You can't do
the merchandising."
What is it that you do here?
Merchandising.
To this day, I haven't.
But in case
there's another Spaceballs
Who knows?
I mean, that's an old contract,
you know?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
YOGURT: Walk this way.
Take a look.
Merchandising,
merchandising.
Where the real money
from the movie is made.
Spaceballs the T-shirt.
Spaceballs the coloring book.
Spaceballs the lunchbox.
Spaceballs the breakfast cereal.
Spaceballs the flamethrower.
-(GASPING)
-The kids love this one.
I was doing a play,
and Mel and, uh,
Anne Bancroft
came to see the play
while they were considering me
for Spaceballs.
So, I had done one movie,
which was Ruthless People
in a small part.
He was is quite bl--
you know, direct and everything.
He said, "You know what?
We tried to get a Tom.
We tried Tom Cruise
and Tom Hanks,
but instead we got a Bill."
(CHUCKLES)
(ADVENTUROUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BILL PULLMAN: You know,
it was clear that John and Rick
had established careers,
and that they were
the money cast,
you know, the ones
that helped
make the movie happen.
At that point, there was a lot
of discussion, I remember,
about old comedy and new comedy,
and Rick and John
were new comedy,
and Mel was the old one.
He was able
to kind of include them,
and I remember Rick Moranis
working out a lot of business.
Now you are going to die!
Pfft. Oh!
Doing the dolls.
DARK HELMET:
(IMITATING PRINCESS VESPA)
Oh, your helmet is so big.
And John, too.
And that allowed us
to kind of improvise
a lot of things that weren't
-Clapping!
-planned.
About to clap!
BILL: You know,
like our little handshake.
(WAILING)
That was not, you know,
Mel's style,
but he was incorporating
John Candy's instincts.
Oh, you were the worst
on that take.
CREW: He always does that.
I don't know, Mel. You must not
have been directing as good.
DAPHNE ZUNIGA: That atmosphere,
you sort of, like, by osmosis,
take in
like, what would work,
what wouldn't
for your character.
I'm not shooting this thing.
I hate guns.
DAPHNE: In the script,
I was just meant to say,
"I hate guns," and then I escape
into the Winnebago.
Well, I was like,
"What if I say,
'Ew, I hate guns,'
and then they shoot my hair?"
He shot my hair!
Son of a bitch.
(RAY GUN POWERING ON)
Holy shit.
MEL: And action.
I am the writer, the director,
the producer, and the star.
Sometimes
I have a little problem.
INTERVIEWER: Why is that?
As the actor,
I ask for a little more money.
As the director, I say,
"What, are you crazy? You stink.
I'm not going to pay
that kind of money."
And as the actor, I say,
"I'm walking."
The director says, "Walk.
I don't have to take that junk
from you."
And we fight a little bit.
I send myself a dozen roses.
I make up.
I come back on the set.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
("SPACEBALLS" THEME PLAYING) ♪
MEL: Spaceballs went on
to become
one of the biggest hits
in the Mel Brooks
cinematic universe.
I think I've autographed
more Spaceballs posters
than for any other
Mel Brooks film.
JUDD: That one's really
turned into a big thing
over the years.
It seems like
it gets bigger every year.
I know.
You never know
what's gonna blossom
and spread its wings and fly.
Will we ever
see each other again?
Who knows?
God willing,
we'll all meet again
in Spaceballs II:
The Search for More Money.
MEL:
I'm still not ruling it out.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC
INTENSIFIES, CONCLUDES) ♪
LARRY KING: Is it harder
to do a Young Frankenstein
than an Elephant Man?
MEL: Yes, it is. Because
you've got to do the same thing.
The dramatic structure
is the same.
And then on top of that,
you have to make people laugh.
It's a lot easier
to make them cry
than to make them laugh.
To make them cry,
what we gotta do
is step on their foot, hard.
And boy, they cry.
But making them laugh
is very hard
because it's at what moment
they will give themselves
to you.
What moment?
What is the critical moment
that the audience will abandon
its dignity
and its self-respect?
Young Frankenstein,
right on this street.
See?
Authorized personnel only.
I can go in here. They know me.
I am authorized.
I live at Fox. I work at Fox.
I'm very important at Fox.
Wait here.
(MEL SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)
Fuck you Don't tell me
-(MEL SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)
-(BANGING)
Fuck you. Never mind.
When I did
The Tracey Ullman Show at Fox,
he was on the lot.
Get off the fucking curb!
And he would come around
when you're eating
in the Fox commissary.
"Hey, how you doing?"
And he would come up to you
and just say something funny,
and then he'd go,
"Nice working your table."
(CACKLES) In the commissary,
we loved that.
We'd go,
"Oh, he's gonna work our table."
Hey, Miranda.
TRACEY ULLMAN:
He asked to be on my show
when I started out.
-How do you do?
-How do you do?
I decided to be Kathleen Turner.
It's so hot.
Let me just say,
I have enormous misgivings
about your talent.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
TRACEY: It was almost like he
had a comedy tape measure.
He'd look at the distance
from the window to the chair.
If he had a prop, if he went,
"I want a chair that slips."
Miranda, I assure you, I--
(EXCLAIMS)
(EXCLAIMS)
And he would just have
things on his desk,
like he had a dog poop.
And I went, "Ugh!"
You know, as me. I went,
"Ugh, Mel, that's horrible."
He went,
"Don't knock a classic."
You can forget about my promise
to help you.
No, wait, wait, wait
TRACEY:
So, when he asked me to be
in Robin Hood: Men in Tights,
I knew
I wanted to play the part,
because he showed me
a bit of the script,
-and he says
-Such an unusual name, Latrine.
And then I say, "Oh, I used
to be called Shit House."
Yeah, used to be Shit House.
(CHUCKLES)
It was a terrible big joke.
(CACKLING)
ALL: We're men
We're men in tights ♪
"We roam around the forest
looking for fights"
We're men ♪
We're men
In tights, tight tights ♪
GROUP: Always on guard ♪
Defending
The people's rights ♪
When you're in a fix ♪
Just call
For the men in tights ♪
We're butch! ♪
We may look like pansies ♪
Yeah, I remember
I was embarrassed.
But also, it was so silly,
and Mel got a kick out of it,
which also made it more fun.
We all grew up on Mel Brooks.
That's no different in England.
Yeah, everyone thinks it's
a uniquely American phenomenon,
that Mel Brooks is not
a worldwide phenomenon.
He's a worldwide phenomenon.
You know, in England,
we were learning his movies,
and learning the dialogue,
and repeating it back,
just like Monty Python.
Mohel, he's
a very important guy.
He makes circumcisions.
What, pray tell, sir,
is a circumcision?
It's a snap.
I take my little machine
I take your little thing, see?
I put it
into this little hole here,
and nip the tip.
(GROUP GASPING)
I remember my first take.
He comes up to me and he goes,
"Okay, that was good.
In this next take, suck less.
All right, let's try it again."
MEL: You're all quiet now.
CARY ELWES: And not much time
to learn archery.
Suddenly, Mel's like,
"Uh, we're gonna
do the bullseye next."
I went, "What? What?"
"Just remember, we have to break
for lunch,
so we have to get this quickly."
No pressure.
Goodbye.
CARY: I fire the first one,
misses the target altogether.
And Mel goes, "Cut, cut, okay.
Another one, just another one.
Just remember,
everybody's hungry.
Okay, let's go again."
I do the second one.
-That misses.
-(GROANS)
"I'm hungry."
-GROUP: Oh!
-CARY: Thank God
the third one
landed in the bullseye,
and you can see the shock
on my face.
Hey, wait a minute, Robin,
you just said that you--
-MEL: Cool it.
-Chilled.
MEL: I need time in between.
Don't say "chilled" so fast.
Yes, yes, sir.
MEL: Okay.
And next, we pick it up.
DAVE CHAPPELLE:
When I was on set, I was 19.
Mel Brooks was
one of the first famous people
I ever spent time with.
And he was a good shepherd.
You know, like a lot of times,
while he was directing,
he'd be like, "Dave, come on,
have a seat."
And then he would just
do the takes.
This was on scenes
that I wasn't in.
But I didn't realize the gift
that he was giving me.
He was letting me
watch him cook.
We didn't land
on Sherwood Forest.
Sherwood Forest landed on us.
CROWD: Yeah!
DAVE:
You know, sometimes,
he'd take me to lunch,
and his old friend, Carl Reiner,
was directing a movie
on the next soundstage.
And then at some point,
and he knew that I'd be like
The two of them started doing
The 2000 Year Old Man.
The greatest comic routine
by two of the greatest comics,
and me as the audience.
I'll never forget it.
And then I met his wife.
She comes, and she says,
"Oh, Mel says so many
wonderful things about you."
She goes on and on and gushes
about how much he likes me.
And then I go,
"You're not trying to seduce me,
are you, Mrs. Robinson?"
And not thinking that she's
heard that joke a million times,
nothing, silence.
And all you could hear was
(CHUCKLES)
Dom DeLuise's labored breath.
(WHEEZES)
That was really fucking terrible
and hilarious.
A new sheriff of Rottingham.
CROWD: A Black sheriff?
And why not?
It worked in Blazing Saddles.
CROWD: Oh, yeah.
This is wonderful.
(GROUP LAUGHS)
L'chaim and cut.
(MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-INTERVIEWER: You're back.
-MEL: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you go?
Did you slump? Did you--
MEL: No, no, no!
What I tried to do is
I tried to marry Brooksfilms
with Mel Brooks.
JUDD: Life Stinks,
what made you write that?
MEL: Nobody had done a movie
about homelessness.
Look out, sailor.
Well, there goes
the neighborhood.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
MEL: I said
if I could show their plight
and make it funny
Yeah, that better?
maybe the message
would get through.
It didn't get through.
And I made one giant mistake.
The title, Life Stinks.
I should have said,
"Please, don't come."
Silly, stupid.
INTERVIEWER: Do you then
put more pressure on yourself?
MEL: Yes, of course.
INTERVIEWER: So, when you
were doing Robin Hood,
were you saying to yourself,
"It's gotta be good.
It's gotta be good?"
"Gotta make it, gotta make it,
gotta make it."
Come on over, you look
like Donald Trump tonight.
Things haven't been good, John.
-What are you do--
-Things have not been good.
I'm telling you,
-I'm very unhappy.
-(JOHNNY LAUGHS)
I'm very unhappy
ever since Spaceballs.
I mean
-(JOHNNY LAUGHS)
-(AUDIENCCE LAUGHING)
MAX: His career plateaued.
But my dad
never stopped fighting.
Whenever he'd get a bad review,
whenever movies didn't do
as well as he wanted,
he was always thinking,
"I'll show 'em.
I'll show 'em next time,
or I'll find a way
to make this a hit."
Wait!
Now!
Oh, my
God!
MAX: My father would never
tell me about his bad days.
He never liked to dwell.
So, my mother
would always be there
to explain
why he was in a bad mood,
and it wasn't my fault,
it wasn't anything
I said or did.
She would say, "Listen,
he just went into a meeting
to try to get a movie sold,
and there's a new studio head
who is younger than him
and doesn't respect him
and doesn't know him."
But people
were still pushing him
to do something.
I've got something
I want you to see.
What? Oh, no!
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
This is a contract.
It's for The Producers.
We're taking it to Broadway,
and I want
(AUDIENCE CHEERING,
APPLAUDING)
NATHAN LANE:
I wanna be a producer ♪
With a hit show
On Broadway ♪
NARRATOR:
It's the hottest ticket in town
with an all-star cast
starring Tony winners
Nathan Lane
and Matthew Broderick.
Brooks wrote
the music and lyrics
based on his 1968
cult classic film.
Let's hear it for Mel Brooks,
folks.
(CHEERING)
NATHAN:
I wanna be a producer ♪
WOMAN: So, is anybody waiting
to see Mel Brooks?
CROWD: We want Mel! We want Mel!
It sounds like a sure thing
in a way now,
but I think at the time,
nobody was sure
it was gonna work out
-making a stage version
-NATHAN: Right.
of this beloved thing.
Matthew said
that we came off stage
after the first show
and he said, "Well,
they even liked the bad stuff."
I'm gonna be a producer ♪
MEL: Thank you.
These people have no taste
at all.
(LAUGHTER)
(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
Aren't you happy?
-Look how happy they are.
-Hello.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
MEL:
My uncle Joe was a cab driver.
And one day, he came to me
and said, "Melvin, listen,
I got two tickets
to the matinee of Anything Goes
with William Gaxton
and Ethel Merman."
-("YOU'RE THE TOP"
BY ETHEL MERMAN PLAYING) ♪
-I'm nine years old,
and I'm listening
to just the overture,
it's fantastic.
Ethel Merman comes out
and sings,
"You're the top,
you're the top."
And we're about
three miles away,
she's still too loud.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
ETHEL MERMAN:
You're the top ♪
MEL:
When I left the theater, I said,
"Uncle Joe, I'm gonna write
a Broadway show."
And 60 years later,
here we have
The Producers on Broadway
with an entire score
(GLISSANDO PLAYING ON PIANO) ♪
by Mel Brooks.
Oh, it's bad luck
To say "good luck" ♪
On opening night if you do ♪
You're serious,
this is the way you write?
I write into a tape recorder.
NARRATOR:
And into his tape recorder,
he has sung the music and lyrics
to some 16 new songs,
and along with his collaborator,
Tom Meehan,
he's written the script
for the show.
Last December,
in a Broadway rehearsal hall,
the cast and crew gathered
for the first time.
MATTHEW BRODERICK:
Matthew Broderick, Leo Bloom.
Nathan Lane, Max.
Mel Brooks, Jew extraordinaire.
(CAST LAUGHING)
I got the call
about meeting him.
I didn't really know
what it was about.
And there was a knock
on the door,
and I opened the door,
but instead of saying "hello,"
Mel launched into a song.
That face, that face
That fabulous face ♪
And he walked right past me,
down my hallway,
into my living room,
singing that song full out,
ends up on top of the sofa,
looks down at me and says,
"Hello, I'm Mel Brooks."
Is it "Wanna be a producer,"
or, "I'm gonna be"?
MATTHEW: I think it's
"wanna be a" there.
I'm never sure.
It should be "Wanna be" there,
because it's everything I'm not.
SUSAN STROMAN:
Let's do "wanna" there.
I think we might
I wanna be ♪
SUSAN: My husband and I,
they came to us as a team first,
but soon after they came to us,
Mike was diagnosed
with leukemia,
and
we thought he would get over it,
we thought
he would get through it.
But after he was diagnosed,
he passed about 18 months later.
We had worked on the show,
but then it stopped.
Two months after Mike passed,
Mel and Tom came to my door.
Mel said,
"You've got to do this."
He said,
"You have to do this.
You will
cry in the morning,
and you will cry at night,
but in between, you will laugh,
and I will make you laugh.
That's why
you have to do this."
So, uh, after he said that, I
I said yes, and we were off.
Stop. Keep your feet still.
And then we'll go ahead.
And he was right.
I would cry in the morning
and cry at night,
but from 10:00 to 06:00
in that rehearsal room,
I would laugh
with Mel Brooks,
and the funniest cast
on Broadway.
MEL: In between takes,
Matthew likes to work out.
(CAST LAUGHING)
SUSAN:
And it ended up saving me.
Totally saving me.
I used to be the king ♪
The king! ♪
The king of old Broadway ♪
It's good to be the king.
NATHAN: My praises ♪
MAX: The best moment
of his career, for me,
on the sidelines,
was watching him
do The Producers.
It reminded me of the Mel Brooks
that my mother told me about
when she first met him,
the guy who was just excited
to create something
from nothing.
It was the first time in my life
I saw Mel Brooks, the artist.
ALL: We believe each word
We've heard ♪
There was a time
When I was young and gay ♪
But straight ♪
I was able to have
a third-row seat
to The Producers,
and it changed my life.
It showed me the potential
of what musical comedy
could be again.
NATHAN: I touched
Would turn to gold ♪
JOSH: Without The Producers,
Book of Mormon doesn't exist.
It was built on the back of,
once again, Mel Brooks
taking a sledgehammer
to what we understood
musical comedy theater to be,
and showing us a whole new way.
NATHAN: That's the time
To stand up on your two feet ♪
And shout ♪
Who do you have to fuck
To get a break in this town? ♪
CROWD: Yeah!
JUDD: Was that more fun
than everything you ever did?
MEL: It was downright thrilling.
Thrilling.
JUDD:
Isn't it just months and months
of rewrites and previews, and
Yeah, well,
I'm very talented.
When you got
a talented guy like me,
you don't need many rewrites.
The true payment is never money.
It's the joy of seeing your show
on the stage,
and having people laugh and cry
and applaud.
I mean, there's no greater
payment in the world.
And I realized
that my true passion,
the reason
I got into show business
was for that.
Bialystock will be on top ♪
-Again ♪
-Fame is in his sights again ♪
He'll take
Those fancy flights again ♪
He's gonna
Scale the heights again ♪
-I'll be on top again, hey! ♪
-I'll be on top again, hey! ♪
By the way, The Producers won
a few awards.
It actually has 12 Tonys.
Still more than any other
Broadway show ever.
JUDD: Hamilton got close.
Eleven. Scared me.
(JUDD CHUCKLES)
MEL: The other night,
I sang at the karaoke club,
and then you got up.
Yeah, he was-- Right.
MEL: And the audience went
pretty wild for me.
And then you sang "Swanee,"
and they went crazy.
I want you, Larry David,
to be the next Max Bialystock
on Broadway.
MEL: After we laughed
Thank God.
Thank God what?
Thank God
this show is coming to an end.
-This show is coming to an end.
-Oh, God, yes, right.
-Oh, honey.
-What?
-ANNE: Stick that hair up.
-Oh.
-(CREW LAUGHING)
-CREW 1: Here we go.
-Is it there? Still there?
-ANNE: No, it's gone.
-CREW 2: Ready?
-CREW 3: Ready.
-(MEL CHUCKLES)
-CREW 1: Action.
(MEL AND ANNE LAUGHING)
Did you see
the look on their faces?
(LAUGHING)
When Larry David
forgot every line, he
-(ANNE LAUGHS LOUDLY)
-he went up in smoke.
Oh my
Thank God. Thank God
this show is gonna be over.
Thank God. Oh, God.
CHARLIE: You and Mr. Brooks
have one
of the great relationships.
Oh!
CHARLIE: You had-- No one's ever
mentioned this to you?
-No.
-CHARLIE:
That there is this assumption?
-Let me tell you something.
-CHARLIE: All right.
-You know what magic is?
-CHARLIE: What?
-Hard work.
-CHARLIE: It is?
That's what magic is.
Yeah, it's hard work.
We'll be able to sleep in,
you and me together, babe,
-like it used to be.
-Yes. Yes.
-Without calls late at night.
-Oh, God.
-(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
-(ANNE LAUGHS)
ANNE: You have to be aware,
and you have to want to say,
"How are you?"
And really wanna listen
to what he's got to say.
You can't just say,
"How are you?" (HUMMING)
You know, and go off
and do something else
-while he's telling you.
-CHARLIE: Yeah, right.
You really have to care,
and you have to be interested.
And I think I am.
I'm very interested in him.
And he's
I hope, very interested in me.
The marriage itself,
people would have bet
against it.
-Right.
-Jewish lunatic.
-Yeah, right.
-Right?
An Italian tempestuous woman
who's a great--
-Absolutely.
-LARRY KING: Great actress.
-Right.
-But it's worked.
-MEL: It's worked for--
-What's the secret?
MEL: We fight, we yell
at each other, we get it out.
We never go to bed angry.
And we love each other.
She's the greatest woman
that ever lived.
Here's to the death
of The Producers.
-To the death!
-Thank you, Larry David.
(CHUCKLES)
-(SIGHS)
-(EXHALES DEEPLY)
(BOTH LAUGHING)
(ANNE LAUGHING)
ADAM: I was in a movie
that Anne Bancroft was in,
Spanglish.
I got to know her, rehearsed,
did lots of rehearsal,
and then lots of shooting.
And she knew Mel.
There was something extra
about that.
It's like, "You get
to hang out with Mel every day,
and he loves you?"
And, "Wow, man."
JUDD: It gives us hope,
a woman like that loves Mel?
Yes.
Yeah, he opened the door
for all of us ugly guys,
especially you.
(JUDD AND ADAM LAUGH)
ADAM: But then Anne got sick.
And, um, Cloris Leachman
ended up
taking over for her part.
And that was devastating.
JUDD:
She didn't know she was sick
when you guys started?
Started, everything's fine,
and then something
over the weekend,
had some tests and stuff,
and then that was-- It was
better for her
not to be there anymore,
and just be home
with the family.
MAX: She had had cancer.
She beat it.
It came back.
It was a slow, horrible,
lingering time,
and anybody
who's ever lost a loved one
to cancer knows exactly what
I'm talking about.
The peaks, the valleys,
the false hopes,
the waiting for tests,
the horrible despair
when your tests come back,
and two things lit up.
That's what my dad
That's the phrase
he always repeats.
Two things lit up
when they were talking
about one of her scans.
"We got a bad break."
And that's how he refers to it.
"We got a bad break."
EDDIE BROOKS:
Oh, all the light went out.
I mean,
he was not in a good place.
You know, we just
we never dreamed that
Anne would either get sick,
and ultimately pass away, and
he just worshipped her.
She was incredibly supportive
of these chances
that he was taking,
and she was the one to say,
"I believe in it,
and I believe in you.
Of course
you can write the songs.
You're a songwriter."
And he'd be like, "Oh, yeah,
I am a songwriter."
And so, if it came from her,
then it was like the Gospel.
"Okay, I can do it."
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She was his best friend.
It was the two of them
against the world.
My dad was the water,
my mother was the glass.
And when the glass shattered,
I was worried the water
was gonna go everywhere.
NATHAN:
There was a memorial for her.
People spoke very movingly
about her.
And he came out, and he said,
"Thank you very much
for being here."
He said, "It was
she would have
really loved this."
And he said,
"Some people spoke beautifully.
Some people talked
a little too long."
(BOTH CHUCKLING)
And he said
"Do me a favor.
If you see me
uh
don't come up and tell me
don't cry and don't tell me,
uh, how terrible
you feel because
I have enough fucking tears
of my own."
Hello.
MEL: Okay.
JERRY SEINFELD: You're ready
for Jeopardy, I can see.
ALEX TREBEK: (OVER TV)
We're gonna take a break.
-CARL: Did you bring food?
-JERRY: I did.
-Look who's here, Mel.
-Hi, Mel.
-What did you bring? Come on.
-JERRY: I don't know.
Relay.
They know Jews are eating it,
so they give you extra napkins.
-And look
-MEL: Is that true?
JERRY: Hey, look at this.
There's Mel on the cover
of the DGA Quarterly.
Ah, see, I put it there thinking
you might--
What a great shot.
You gotta love that.
MEL:
I have never been recognized
by the DGA, or by Hollywood
as being a director.
I'm always recognized
as a comic,
as a producer,
as an entrepreneur,
as a pain in the ass.
I have never been, ever,
recognized as director.
They finally came
have come to their senses,
and realized I've directed
a couple of dozen movies.
-JERRY: Yeah.
-So, maybe I'm a director too.
JERRY: Does it mean anything
at this point or screw them?
I can get a job. I can get a job
as a director out of that.
Where's the mustard?
I don't see any mustard.
SARAH: Mel lost his wife,
and then Carl lost his wife,
and every night,
they spent together at Carl's
in his little living room
with TV trays, eating dinner,
and watching a different movie
every night.
I just love
that kind of friendship.
Hitler had that mustache
because he admired Chaplin.
-Is that possible?
-Oh, yeah, Chaplin had it first.
I would say that statement
is utter nonsense.
SARAH:
When people go, like,
"Where do you see yourself
in five years and ten years?
What's your goal?"
I wanna be able to have
that kind of community
with comics that they had
with each other.
Mel, tell me about this ritual
a little bit,
because I have to say,
just personally,
I find it fascinating
and comforting
that you have this routine.
I think men
are very comforted
by their routines.
Especially their bowels.
Yeah. (CHUCKLES)
We always used to go
to Carl's house, right?
And they'd just fall asleep,
but never at the same time.
So, one would fall asleep,
and then the other one
would go
-(MEL SNORING)
-Jesus Christ.
-(MEL SNORING)
-(JERRY CHUCKLES)
Then they'd fall asleep,
the other one would wake up,
and go
(MEL SNORING)
-All right, well
-Okay.
It was a little invasive
on my part to ask,
but what a great thing
that that exists, you know?
You get to see what they did,
where a lifetime
of gigantic achievements
leads you.
A living room
with deli sandwiches,
watching Wheel of Fortune.
That's where you get
if you succeed
in every possible way in life.
Okay, turn it off already.
-CARL: Turn it off.
-(LAUGHS)
We're following him out.
Come on, Carl, let's get
CARL: He's got a good--
Mel, did you see his green car?
I've been away from you
A long time ♪
I never thought ♪
Somehow I feel
Your love is real near you ♪
Is it really? ♪
I wanna be ♪
JERRY: Let's go, everybody out.
MEL: No, no, no, wait.
CARL: Well, we have to
sing L'chaim first.
L’chaim! L'chaim! ♪
Jerry, what's the difference
between a Jew and a Frenchman?
A Frenchman leaves
without saying goodbye.
-JERRY: Yeah.
-CARL: And a Jew
-Says goodbye and never leaves.
-JERRY: Says goodbye and
JERRY: (CHUCKLES) That's great.
MEL:
Carl, where did you hear that?
JERRY: That was great.
Did you ever hear that joke?
CARL:
Mel, we have to watch Jeopardy.
MEL: Okay.
CARL: That was a perfect ending.
There was no question
that he's gonna--
Whatever he decides to do,
when he decides to do,
it's gonna work,
because there was a,
what I call,
he hates the word,
is a genius mind at work.
And I use the word "genius"
not lightly.
I understand the word.
Genius has to
not only produce
something really good,
but a volume of it.
And Mel, look at the volume
he's produced.
Goodnight, everybody.
Wonderful working with you.
CARL:
And if somebody wants to argue,
they can, but they won't win.
Sooner or later,
you've gotta stop.
And you know what?
It's like an addiction.
ROB:
Mel was there when my dad died.
My dad was in the bathroom,
and he just collapsed
in the bathroom.
And Mel came back and realized,
"Uh-oh, something's wrong."
And my dad died, like,
right after that.
For months, months, months,
he would come to the house
after my father died.
He would come to the house,
sit there, watch television,
and have dinner.
And he did that for months.
And he told us, the family,
he said,
"You don't-- Let me know
when you're gonna
sell the house."
I mean, you know, at some point
we're gonna sell the house.
And I said, "Yeah, yeah."
And then I said,
"Well, maybe it's better
you just
you know, we'll stage the house
with you in it, you know?
Maybe it'll up the value.
You know, you get-- Mel Brooks
is sitting here, you can"
But he was that close to my dad
where he kept--
He wanted to be close to him
even when my dad was gone.
You were with Carl
in his final moments.
That's a beautiful thing
for Carl, isn't it?
I was still hoping
that they would,
you know, put the stuff on him,
-and boom, you know, and
-JUDD: Yeah.
get him up.
And I kept
I kept yelling at them,
"Keep it up, keep it up."
And they thought I was crazy
after an hour
of yelling at them,
"Keep it up.
Keep that machine on him.
Keep it up."
I wouldn't--
-I just didn't want him to go.
-JUDD: Yeah.
I just couldn't--
Well, I wouldn't accept it.
I loved him so much.
INTERVIEWER:
You said a lovely thing once,
"Comedy
is the opposite of death."
What did you mean by that?
Well, when you're dead,
you're very it's very quiet.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
It's very-- You can hardly--
You never go anywhere, you know?
-No one could. Yeah.
-MEL: You never see anything.
But-- I mean--
But comedy is lively.
Comedy is joy, you know?
And that's what keeps us going.
I mean,
we've gotta look forward to
to little happinesses,
you know, little joys.
My very first question.
Samantha's my granddaughter,
by the way.
Right, yeah.
We're also very good friends.
Yeah, and we're good friends,
and we like each other.
(SIGHS) Do I call you enough?
Um, when you call me,
you talk a lot,
and it's great.
But I would like more calls,
and I don't get a chance
to see you enough of you.
What he loves so much
about being a grandparent,
which he tells me all the time,
is that
your grandchildren love you
no matter what.
They love you unconditionally,
which is true, we do.
What is your dating advice
for me, your granddaughter?
If you got
a smart guy with looks, great.
-But looks second, looks third.
-SAMANTHA BROOKS: Yeah.
Creativity, humor,
joie de vivre, you know,
"love of life,"
that's who you should be
attracted to.
People who could see that
in you,
'cause you got it. You know,
they gotta see it in you.
My grandpa talks about Annie,
my grandmother,
a lot more now than he used to.
When she passed
when I was quite young,
it just wasn't something
anybody really talked about.
And, recently,
my grandpa and I
were just sitting on the couch
at his house, and he said,
"I wanna show you the movie
To Be or Not to Be."
And we watched it together,
and we got
to watch her singing
and performing,
and being herself together.
And that felt like it
healed something
I didn't even know was broken.
My grandmother's presence
in that home
is such a sacred space.
And Carl's home was that too.
And that's the hard part
about living that long is
he's lost so many friends.
JUDD: Where does your strength
come from?
You've had a lot of loss
in your life.
Where do you go to handle
all of that?
There's no answer to that.
You just find
something in you
-JUDD: Yeah.
-that gives you the grit
and the courage
to get through
JUDD: Yeah.
the bad times that come
after somebody you love
passes away.
JUDD: What do you miss most
about Anne?
-Too many things.
-JUDD: Yeah, just everything.
Things that nobody in the world
would understand.
-JUDD: Mm-hmm.
-Uh
When faced with
an unhappy moment
the look on her face.
When making up her mind
to go somewhere,
how fast she turned and moved.
It's hard to explain.
I mean, you just--
JUDD: Yeah.
There are some things that stay
with you forever, you know.
You can't indulge yourself
in being
incredibly unhappy
and miserable
JUDD: Yeah.
'cause it
doesn't make the pain
go away or or better.
You don't have to pay
God, or the world, or spirits
-for losing somebody great.
-JUDD: Yeah.
You don't have to pay for it.
(ZANY PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Hey, hello.
MAX: My father
is having a wonderful
fourth or fifth act,
depending on how you judge it.
Would any of you like
to see Spaceballs 2?
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)
MAX: Because there's now
all this interest
in redoing his former projects.
We asked,
"What do the fans want?"
But instead,
we're making this movie.
MAX:
So, he's having this amazing
career renaissance.
It's the most powerful
Jewish person
in the universe, Jesus Christ!
Well, the second most powerful.
Also, I brought cream cheese.
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
BARACK OBAMA:
He was born Melvin Kaminsky,
or as Mel Brooks explains it,
"Look at Jewish history.
Unrelieved lamenting
would be intolerable."
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
"So, every (CHUCKLES)
Every ten Jews,
God designed one to be crazy
and amuse the others."
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
OBAMA:
He's described his work as
"unearthing the truth
that is all around us."
And by illuminating
uncomfortable truths
about racism and sexism
and antisemitism,
he's been called our jester,
asking us to see ourselves
as we really are,
determined
that we laugh ourselves sane.
I love it.
OBAMA: Writer, director, actor,
producer, composer.
Okay, okay.
OBAMA: For his success
and for his psychoanalysis,
we honor Mel Brooks.
(APPLAUSE)
MAX: My dad's story is the story
of everything America could be.
You've got this kid
from an immigrant tribe
who lost his father,
grew up in poverty,
fought in a World War,
came home,
and built one
of the great pillars
of American culture.
Comedy.
(APPLAUSE)
MAX: And he gets up every day
So, this crazy audience
has asked you some questions.
And there's somebody
waiting to talk to him
about being Mel Brooks.
-Keith wants to know
-Yes.
where did you
get your sense of humor?
From a guy in New Jersey.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-I mean, when
They're pretty funny guys.
I've learned that people
are dying for communication.
They're dying for a brush stroke
of sweetness in their lives.
When are you gonna play
Max Bialystock for me?
And when you give it to them,
they really respond.
I mean,
the biggest laugh I ever got
was, I was on stage,
and I got a question
from the audience.
"What do you wear,
boxers or briefs?"
Boxers or briefs?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
The answer, Joanne, is
depends.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Gotta be safe.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(APPLAUSE)
That laugh
will stay with me forever.
It was the greatest,
biggest laugh I ever got.
HOST:
The one and only, Mel Brooks.
MEL: So, it's quid pro quo.
You give them
a little sweetness,
you get it back.
I wasn't sure
when they said,
"You've won a Peabody Award."
I said, "Oh, no shit."
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
MEL: I'd like to say
I humbly acc--
But I'm not humble.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
JUDD: You've said to me before,
like, your main advice
is to be kind.
MEL: Yeah, just be kind.
That's enough advice
for anybody.
You know,
and it's so easy to hurt people.
Just-- We, you know--
Don't, you know?
But do you ever just, like,
look at everything and go,
"What the hell is going on
with all of this?"
Yeah, "What are we supposed
to do here, you know?"
Well, I found out
I'm supposed
to make people laugh, so
I do that, you know?
No salute to Carl Reiner
or his career
would be complete
without a few words from
his illegitimate son,
Mel Brooks.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, let's tell the truth, huh?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
The truth is, ladies and Jews,
you know the truth.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
The truth is,
I don't know
if he deserves this, do you?
A lot of people
don't agree with this.
I'd like to cut right now.
Cut outside
and see the demonstration
against Carl Reiner.
Go, cut outside now.
Let's see the truth.
Damn it, let's see it.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(CARL LAUGHING LOUDLY)
That's what's
really happening here. This!
And now,
while we're telling the truth
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(CARL LAUGHING LOUDLY)
let's tell it all.
For 25 years,
he made me out
to be The 2,000--
to be this Jewish person.
And there was money in it,
and I went along with it.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Hold it, hold it.
And now, tonight, here,
in this stupid place
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
I'm gonna re
I'm gonna reveal.
I am really a Gentile
born in Waco, Texas.
This is not my nose.
Look carefully. Watch. Watch me.
This is not, this is not,
this is
Twenty-five years,
I'm wearing this nose.
-(APPLAUSE)
-(LAUGHING)
MEL: I've put up with this.
I love you. I love you.
(MUMBLES INDISTINCTLY)
That's the best I've ever seen,
Brooks.
That's the best I've ever--
It was worth it.
It was worth it. Oh, God.
(JAZZ VERSION OF "SPRINGTIME
FOR HITLER" PLAYING) ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪