A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

I GOT AWAY WITH IT THEN. I DON'T KNOW IF I COULD GET AWAY WITH IT TODAY. BUT IF I DID IT, I CERTAINLY WOULD GO ALL THE WAY: Mel Brooks talks about a Blazing Saddles adaptation for Broadway and various and sundry other matters in advance of an HBO special tonight he did with Dick Cavett. Among other things, Brooks confirms something we discussed back in March 2008 about Richard Pryor's contributions to Blazing Saddles:

You would think that Richard Pryor would give you the black view. You know, the black guy’s torment and broken heart. But no, he loved Mongo. He wrote, “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” Brilliant. He loved Mongo, so a lot of Mongo was Richard Pryor. And I wrote a lot of the black stuff, always checking with Richard. “Can I say this? Can I say that?” Like, I would do some bad black jokes, and Richard would say, “Good, go with it, fine.” And every once in awhile, he’d say, “Yeah, that’s all right to say that. But that’s not funny.” He was terrific....

We just enjoyed each other’s company. And it turned out to be quite an unusual and crazy, funny, brave script. I kept saying to all the other writers, “Write anything you want. Write from the bottom of your heart. Write from your unconscious if you can get in there. Write everything you can, because this ain’t gonna get made, anyway.” [Laughs.] And strangely enough, Warner Bros. liked it.

Below the fold, Brooks on History of the World, Part II: Jews In Space.

AVC: With the ongoing fan base for Spaceballs, the time would seem to be right to finally do History Of The World, Part II: Jews In Space. 

MB: Well, I mean, that’s just a great title. But there’s nothing behind it, you know, except what you saw on the screen: a couple of guys with teffilins doing a hora. That’s about it. [Laughs.] There ain’t much to write about with Jews in space, because very few of them will venture into space. You can find them in lobbies. They’ll be in lobbies in any great hotel or office building. But you won’t find too many Jews in space. I found the only ones—there were maybe half a dozen of ’em—and I filmed them.