George Lucas threatened Spaceballs’ Mel Brooks over Star Wars parody merch

Mel Brooks’ recently published memoir, All About MeFor anyone who is interested in history and comedy,, offers a virtual tour of the showbiz. Brooks’ career has spanned from working with Sid Caeser and Carl Reiner on the variety show Your Show of Shows In the 1950s, to recent signing a Hulu agreement for comedy series. History of the World: Part 1. There isn’t a comedian alive who hasn’t benefited from Brooks in some way.

LitHub publishes an except from All About MeThis article explains how Brooks made a masterpiece of science-fiction: Spaceballs. This book was released in 1987. Spaceballs A decade had passed since the parodying of its first film. Star Wars IV: A New Hope, And for four more years thereafter The Return of the Jedi. While critics saw as the movie as an upgrade from his other efforts from the decade (including the infamous “Hitler Rap” from To Be or Not BeJanet Maslin (New York Times) felt that it’s “underlying silliness cannot help but wear thin.”

But unlike rapping Hitler (“ My name is Adolf / I’m on the mic / I’m gonna hip you to the story of the New Third Reich”), Spaceballs It has staying power. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on its 25th anniversary, Brooks said that “I’ve made a dozen films — some of them really big hits — and all of them have been left in the dust by Spaceballs.”

Why? Brooks describes in All About MeFinding the right story is key to any parody of scifi. Instead of looking for, look to Star Wars, Alien, 2001 Brooks can also write about other sci-fi plots. Spaceballs was “inspired by Frank Capra’s 1934 classic It Happened One Night.”

“This is the story about a runaway heiress, Claudette Collbert, who flees from her husband, a very wealthy but very dull man, on her wedding day. She then falls in love (Clark Gable), with a wise-guy commoner. We took that same basic plot and shoved it into space!”

Also, Spaceballs The art of casting is important. Brooks was able to find an Off-Broadway actor who had only one screen credit. He had “charm, presence, and I knew he was the right guy for the part.” That actor was Bill Pullman, who in 1996 would become a household name as President Thomas Whitmore in a very different sci-fi movie, Independence Day.

Pullman, as Han Solo stand-in Lone Starr, played against Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, the Leia stand-in who gets a lot of Borscht Belt jokes (on being told she is a Druish princess: “Funny, she doesn’t look Druish.”), John Candy, the Chewbacca stand-in as a Barf, half-man and half-dog, and Rick Moranis, who plays Vader stand-in Dark Helmet.

Brooks’ explanation of Dark Helmet gets to the heart of Spaceballs: “Because Rick was short, we decided to literally encase him in a huge black helmet. This is an excellent sight gag. This was an absurd, silly, and hilarious idea. It was the kind of cartoonish joke that worked for adults as well as kids.” Seeing a guy in comically large headgear is just a gag that hits, be it Dark Helmet or Turd Ferguson.

Brooks transmitted the script Spaceballs to George Lucas as a courtesy measure, “if not to get his blessing, then certainly to give him a heads-up.” Lucas, a Blazing Saddles And Young FrankensteinBrooks was a fan and he made one demand of him: no toys. “He explained that if I made toys of my SpaceballsThey would be a great match for the characters Star WarsAction figures. And that would be a no-no for his lawyers and his studio’s business affairs department.”

A recurring gag is the merchandising and sci-fi movie cashing in. Spaceballs. Dark Helmet is seen playing with action figures, and Brooks’ Yoga stand-in Yogurt, gives a speech proclaiming “Merchandising! This is the place where all the money in the film is made. SpaceballsThe t-shirt SpaceballsColoring book SpaceballsThe lunchbox SpaceballsBreakfast cereal Spaceballs the flame- thrower!”

Brooks was adamant that Lucas’ situation could be confusing and decided to hold off creating real, meta-merchandise. Spaceballs.

Spaceballs is not a sci-fi parody that’s very cognizant or worshipful of the nitty-gritty of the genre. Instead, it focuses on the big and general ideas of sci-fi, making them funny as much as possible while also adding some heart. Brooks stated to Entertainment Weekly 2012 that he believes the following: Spaceballs is not “a better movie than Young Frankenstein and it isn’t as dangerous as Blazing Saddles. The secret to it is sweet and emotive. It’s kind of a beautiful fairy tale.”