Just a reminder that PBS is debuting an episode of American Masters all about Mel Brooks tomorrow in most cities. I hear it's real good.
I'm not sure why but the TV Academy, which does these great oral histories of folks in the television business, has never done one with Brooks. They did around three hours with Sid Caesar. They did even longer with Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart. But no Mel. I've seen fifty Mel Brooks interviews but they're all of the "talk show" variety where the idea is for him to get to funny stories. I can't recall one that was just about his career and filmmaking and the people he worked with and his lesser-known endeavors.
Back around the time he was working on High Anxiety, I spent two weeks working at Twentieth-Century Fox helping punch up a comedy screenplay that was ultimately discarded and then completely rewritten by someone else. During those weeks, I was part of a writing room that didn't get a lot done because we were conscripted twice to go down the hall to Mel's office where he spread out over his couch and floor. Each time, he was giving an interview to some print journalist and each time, he wanted an audience in the room. Even when it was for print, he needed a laugh track. When he's interviewed and he doesn't have an audience there, he talks as if he did.
I assume he's been asked, probably many times, to a long and serious Q-and-A. I assume he's refused just as many times. I've always wanted to hear or read a long, not-for-entertanment interview of the man. If he's done one, I've missed it. But I'll be watching American Masters anyway because he's a funny Jew.