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A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Mel Brooks blessed Star Wars fans with the ultimate parody… but he hasn’t kept up with the franchise since.

Josh Gad, who is developing a sequel to Brooks’ Spaceballs (1987), revealed that he had to explain the latest Star Wars installments when pitching his take on the follow-up to the beloved parody.

“Mel is incredibly involved,” he said on the Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast. “I’ll share a funny story that I haven’t yet shared. When we were pitching him the original conceit for what we wanted to do with the film, at the beginning he goes, ‘I’m just telling you now, I want you to really go into detail because I don’t know a lot about the new Star Wars films.’ And I said, ‘okay.'”

Gad said he pitched Brooks for “40 minutes,...

In a 1987 behind-the-scenes video, "Spaceballs" writer and director Mel Brooks referred to his comedy as an "appreciation of the human event." In that same interview, however, he admits that his humor can also skew toward the disgusting. After all, this was the man who filmed what might be the longest scene of human flatulence in film history. When it came time to satirize "Star Wars," Brooks was equally impish, making a fourth-wall-breaking classic farce full of slapstick ridiculousness and no small amount of blue humor. 

"Spaceballs" starred Bill Pullman as a Han Solo-like rogue named Lone Star who is tasked by the benevolent King Roland (Dick Van Patten) with retrieving the runaway Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga). The film takes Lone Star, Vespa, the dog-man Barf (John Candy), and the android Dot on an adventure fleeing the evil Spaceball empire led by the wicked Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). Despite the film's unending silliness,...

Mel Brooks' 1974 Western "Blazing Saddles" takes place in a town called Rockridge, a peaceful and very, very racist berg out on the edge of the Western frontier. The citizens, as described by Jim (Gene Wilder), are the common clay of the New West. "You know," he adds, "morons." In a cute gag, the citizens are named Olson Johnson, Howard Johnson, Harriett Johnson, Gabby Johnson, the Reverend Johnson, and Anal Johnson. On one hand, the similar surnames could just be an absurdist gag from a writer who opted to plug in generic names for the characters rather than invent new ones for each. On the other, it could have been Brooks making a cute joke about how literally incestuous Rockridge was. Are relatives marrying and having kids? It sure looks that way. This author prefers the second interpretation.

Flash forward 13 years later, Brooks wrote and directed "Spaceballs," a spoof of the "Star Wars" movies.

When Neil Patrick Harris returns to TV next week, he won't be cracking jokes in another sitcom. Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris (debuting on September 15th on NBC) marks the return — overdue or not — of the variety show, that long-dormant format in which kooky skits, musical guests, and frenzied production numbers are jammed into an hour of family-friendly entertainment. "When you think of the variety shows we all grew upon — Sonny and Cher and Donny and Marie — those [programs] all said, 'Sit on the couch, be entertained with a little song,...

Patty Andrews Returns: Bette Midler revives the ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B’ [See previous post: "Patty Andrews: The Andrews Sisters' Last Surviving Member Has Died."] In 1974, a year after Bette Midler repopularized "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B," Maxene and Patty Andrews reunited for the World War II Broadway musical Over Here. (Laverne Andrews had died in 1967.) With a score by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, and book by Will Holt, Over Here, a mix of rose-colored nostalgia and social criticism, ran for a year. (Photo: The older Patty Andrews.) Three years earlier, Patty Andrews had starred off-Broadway in the Sherman brothers’ Victory Canteen, a sort of prequel to Over Here. The show, also featuring Sherry Alberoni, Lorene Yarnell, and Anson Williams, ran for seven months. Rift between Maxene and Patty Andrews Following that last major hit, the two surviving Andrews sisters, both San Fernando Valley residents, went their own way. According to reports, in the two decades...

Once upon a time warp, way back on June 24, 1987, "Spaceballs" hit theaters -- unleashing the power of The Schwartz on moviegoers everywhere.The "Star Wars" parody, starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga and Rick Moranis, was released 25 years ago today. Hard to believe, right?While Candy and mime Lorene Yarnell (who wore the "Dot Matrix" suit while Joan Rivers supplied the voice) are no longer with us, the movie continues to make audiences laugh -- thanks to Mel Brooks' snappy script. To celebrate the movie's 25th anniversary, check out the gallery above to see what the stars of the flick have been up to since its 1987 release -- and what they look like today.And may The Schwartz be with you! Read more...

Shields & Yarnell were the rock stars of mime. Back in the 1970s, the then-husband-and-wife duo headlined in Las Vegas, worked with everybody from Dean Martin to the Muppets, and starred in their very own prime-time TV show.  Lorene Yarnell, the robotic Mrs. Clinker to Robert Shields' similarly programmed Mr. Clinker, passed away July 29 of a brain aneurysm in Norway, where she lived, Variety reported today. The couple divorced in 1985, but remained partners in mime. As Shields told a Florida newspaper in 1997: "We still do our act because we love it, not because we have to."...

Lorene Yarnell, half of the mime-dance-comedy team Shields and Yarnell, died July 29 at the age of 66 after suffering a brain aneurysm, the Los Angeles Times reports. Best known for her partnership with then-husband Robert Shields, the duo worked the streets of San Francisco before hitting the small screen, where they starred in their own 1970s variety show and made appearances on hundreds of programs including The Sonny & Cher Show, The Muppet Show, and the Christmas at Walt Disney World special (which featured their signature robot personas The Clinkers, watch below). They were also a hit on the Vegas strip and...