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The ditzy blonde was a comedy archetype long before Teri Garr came along. Comedians from Johnny Carson to Monty Python to the ribald gang on Three’s Company played the stereotype for cheap laughs, somehow equating blonde hair and big boobs with a comic lack of intelligence. But Garr, who passed away Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 79, turned the archetype on its ear, playing characters that might be described as flighty or eccentric while secretly being the smartest person in the room.

Take her Oscar-nominated turn in Tootsie as Sandy, Michael Dorsey’s eternally flustered best friend who deserved way better than she got. Like Dorsey, Dustin Hoffman was a notoriously difficult scene partner, but Garr gave as good as she got, improvising and arguing with the actor about the best ways to insult Dorothy, his female alter ego. “We have the same comic rhythm,” Hoffman says in Making Tootsie.

A new documentary will look at the life and career of filmmaker Mel Brooks, whose films like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs defined comedy for several generations of people through the past seven decades. The docuseries, which is still in production, will air in two parts on HBO. Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio are co-directing it.

“I went into comedy because of my love for Mel Brooks,” Apatow said in a statement. “This project is the dream of a lifetime.”

Apatow, who’s best known for his own films,...

HBO is working on a two-part documentary about comedy legend Mel Brooks.

Judd Apatow is directing the untitled doc with Michael Bonfiglio after the pair directed George Carlin’s American Dream together. It is now in production.

The docu is an “expansive yet intimate look at one of comedy’s most hilarious and influential minds, whose work has had audiences around the world laughing for more than 70 years”, per HBO.

It comes from HBO Documentary Films and Apatow Productions with Kevin Salter exec producing and Joe Beshenkovsky editing.

It marks the latest Mel Brooks doc to air on HBO; the network aired Mel Brooks: Unwrapped, originally a BBC production, in 2020.

“I went into comedy because of my love for Mel Brooks. This project is the dream of a lifetime,” said Apatow.

It is the latest documentary for Apatow, who directed Bob and Don: A Love Story and The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling.

How does one edit “A Black LadySketch Show” when comedic talent such as Issa Rae, Gabrielle Dennis and Robin Thede have gone off-script? “It’s a challenge because everyone is giving you something hilarious,” editor Stephanie Filo says.

Filo is no slouch herself. This year, she achieved something remarkable, landing three Emmy nominations for her editing work on HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” Netflix’s “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” and Hulu’s “History of the World, Part II.”

On “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” Filo relished the chance to edit a Coral Reefs gang sequence on the “WeMurk” sketch featuring Rae, Thede and Dennis . “I didn’t get to cut the other iterations, so I got to have a swing at it,” Filo says. This time, Tracee Ellis Ross, who she describes as “hysterical,” was also in the sketch.

Filo was used to having one...

The comedy great received the honour in person in London.

Us comedy writer, actor and director Mel Brooks has been awarded the highest honour of the British Film Institute (BFI), the BFI Fellowship, at a private dinner in London tonight (March 20).

Previous recipients include Sir Christopher Lee, Ralph Fiennes, David Cronenberg, Dame Judi Dench, Isabelle Huppert, Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese and Orson Welles. The honour is awarded by the BFI Board of Governors and is presented for outstanding achievement in film and television

Ahead of the presentation, Brooks said: “I am deeply honoured to be the recipient of the BFI Fellowship and to be inducted into such distinguished company.

“When I was informed that I had been chosen, I was surprised and delighted. Not many Americans have been offered this prestigious award…and for good reason.”

BFI chair Greg Dyke, who hosted the event, said of Brooks: “His brilliant wit and satire have continued to surprise and delight...

Chicago – I’m a huge Mel Brooks fan, one of those critics who bows at the altar of arguably the two best comedies of all time, “Blazing Saddles” & “Young Frankenstein.” I’ve seen them both a dozen times and can’t wait to watch them again. “The Producers,” “A History of the World,” “High Anxiety,”” “Silent Movie,” “To Be or Not To Be,” “The Twelve Chairs,” his work on “Get Smart” & “Your Show of Shows,” “The 2000 Year Old Man” — the first response that most people should have to “American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make a Noise,” debuting on PBS tonight and releasing on DVD tomorrow, May 21, 2013, is a simple one — What took so long? “American Masters” premiered in 1986 and he should have been one of the first choices.

Television Rating: 4.5/5.0

To be fair, “Make a Noise” doesn’t do much more than confirm what most of us fans...

Mel Brooks: Comedy As The Currency Of Friendship

By Eddy Friedfeld

(Photo copyright Steven R. Stack)

Mel Brooks is profiled in a superb American Masters documentary entitled Mel Brooks: Make a Noise, which premieres nationally on PBS stations on May 20th. One of 14 Egot (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) winners, he has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer, and shows few signs of slowing down. With new interviews with Brooks, his friends and colleagues, including Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman, Rob Reiner, and his close friend, with whom he created The 2000 Year Old Man, Carl Reiner. A DVD with bonus material will be available Tuesday, May 21 from Shout Factory.

"When they called me to say I had been chosen as the next 'American Master,' I thought they said I was chosen to be the next Dutch Master. So I figured what the hell,...

Writer and director Mel Brooks said his aim in his work always was to please himself and he hoped the audience would enjoy it as well. Brooks, 86, is the subject of a new "American Masters" documentary called "Mel Brooks: Make a Noise," which will be broadcast nationwide on PBS stations starting Monday. It features new interviews with Brooks; comedian Carl Reiner, with whom he created "The 2000 Year Old Man" more than 50 years ago; and actors Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane,...

At 86 years old, Mel Brooks easily has more energy than the average man half his age. In support of his new Shout Factory! box set The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy, the Hollywood Egot legend (a member of the highly exclusive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award winner's club) enthusiastically regaled stories of his career to me for 45 minutes until his staff gave him the hook.

Out of the gate, Mel told me on the phone, "David, you're going to have to suffer. You're gonna suffer me eating a cinnamon-raison bagel as we talk." But before I could say another word, he turned the tables and asked me a barrage of questions about my life and career. The man wanted to know who he was talking to. He wanted to be able to relate, and ended with, "So this is good. You write for Entertainment Tonight -- the blogs, the web, the...

Photos by Alan Light

When people recount the great comedy duos of all time, Mel Brooksand Carl Reiner certainly top the list. Although they’ve each enjoyed hugelysuccessful careers on their own, their 2000Year Old Man comedy albums are among the funniest recordings of all time.

The two met while working for Sid Cesar on Your Show of Shows and pitched the ideafor the show. It was rejected but became their go to bit when trying to filllulls in conversation, entertain each other during a long day, or at dinnerparties around town. They never intended to commit it to vinyl until a famousfriend intervened.

This past weekend Mel and Carl appeared together for screenings of Ten from Your Show of Shows and Carl film Enter Laughing. Read what they have to say about The 2000 Year Old Man and Sid’s shorttemper.

On Recording the 2000 Year Old Man

Carl: Mel,...

TV Land will be honoring some of the greats of television, some from the golden age of TV, some from just a few years back, and even the greats of tomorrow? How's that? Well, look at the line up: Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, the creators of 'The 2000 Year Old Man' among other comic gems, the cast of 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' a salute to Farrah Fawcett by the other 'Charlie's Angel' stars, and with a wink toward the future, a celebration of 'Glee.'

The Annual TV Land Awards will be taped in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 17, for broadcast the following Sunday, April 25 at 9 Pm Et on TV Land. Scheduled to appear are the 'Raymond' gang -- Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts; two of the 'Angels' -- Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith; and 'Glee' cast members Jane Lynch, Dianna Agron,...

[This interview originally appeared in print in The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles in the issue dated Feb 26- March 4, 2010. Go to www.JewishJournal.com to hear exclusive audio: Interview with Mel Brooks, Mel Brooks sings] Mel Brooks is on a hot streak: He was just a Kennedy Center Honoree (along with Dave Brubeck, Robert De Niro, Grace Bumbry and Bruce Springsteen); 20th Century Fox just released "The Mel Brooks Collection" in Blu-ray - a nine-dvd set that includes "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein" and "Spaceballs," among other classics; and Shout! Factory has released "The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History," a three-cd, one-dvd set that collects the various incarnations in which Carl Reiner, the world's greatest straight man, interviews a visitor who's survived since ancient times and who speaks in a thick Jewish accent to hilarious effect. Brooks discussed all this,...