Happy 80th Birthday to Mel Brooks!

To the man who gave the world Blazing Saddles which is still one of the funniest movies ever made and still stands up over the years. I feel he’s the writer-director who inspired many of the other great parody specialists such as the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker team with Airplane and The Naked Gun series and there’s touches of his influence in the Farrelly Brothers’ work with Kingpinand There’s Something about Mary. 
 
He’s also a very interesting man in his own right. A WWII Vet, combat engineer in Europe clearing mines, building bridges and all. After the War, he went on to write for Sid Caesar’s TV show which put him in the company of famous writers Neil Simon and Woody Allen. Recently, the wife and I watched My Favorite Year on TCM which has many characters with real-life counterparts (Alan Swann is Errol Flynn, King Kaiser = Sid Caesar, Carl Rojac = Jimmy Hoffa). One great thing about TCM is the introductions from Robert Osbourne who elaborated and clarified the film’s origin. According to him My Favorite Year is loosely based upon Mel Brooks’ experience of having to watch Errol Flynn for a week when Flynn was a guest on Your Show of Shows. Makes much more sense now and during the opening credits, Mel Brooks’ production company made the film so that clinched it. If I weren’t so busy this evening, I would watch Blazing Saddles but I’ll put it off until the weekend, then it’ll feel like a real birthday for an older relative.