Table of Contents
Introduction ix
1 We're Unrehearsed: The Early History of Mel Brooks in Ten Easy Lessons 1
2 Far Enough Out for You? The Beginning Caesar Years 17
3 Too Simple, Too Pure: Television Writing-the Freelance Years 38
4 And Loving It: Get Smart 49
5 The Difference Between Comedy and Tragedy: The Long Journey of the 2000War-Old Man 54
6 All American: Early Broadway Attempts 65
7 I'm Going There, Too: Anne Bancroft 77
8 Where Did I Go Right? The Producers 88
9 Tito Has the Car: The Twelve Chairs 116
10 You'd Do It for Randolph Scott: Blazing Saddles 128
11 Quiet Dignity and Grace: Young Frankenstein 157
12 Which One of You Is Funn? Silent Movie 187
13 I Got It: High Anxiety 207
14 They Stink on Ice! History of the World: Part I 223
15 And Nobody Saw It: To Be or Not to Be 239
16 Just Plain Yogurt: Spaceballs 254
17 A Bunch of Moments: Life Stinks 270
18 It Worked in Blazing Saddles: Robin Hood: Men in Tights 282
19 Would an Enema Help? Dracula: Dead and Loving It 299
20 They're All Oddballs: The Films of Brooksfilms 310
21 Talking in a Closet Under a Naked Lightbulb: The Later Television Series 323
22 You Be What's-His-Face: Guest Appearances 330
23 King of Broadway: Staging The Producers and Young Frankenstein 335
24 To Be or Not to Be: Projects Abandoned 348
Appendix: The Awards 361
Bibliography 363
Index 373