Mel Brooks Talks Get Smart

By Edgar 'El Toro' Arce on May 21, 2008

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mel Brooks spoke about his thoughts regarding the series and now modern day version of "Get Smart"

“It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy” says Brooks when trying to describe Get Smart to those unfamiliar with the television series. When asked about whether it is hard to do comedy his answer is rather simple.

“It's talent. Either you got it or you ain't. Give someone else the premise of "Blazing Saddles" and you'd probably get only the vulgarity…So you've got to know how to do it.” Mel then gives his thoughts on the upcoming Get Smart film for Warner Bros. by saying “It’s got a good director, Peter Segal. Wonderful director. The writers were great. The producers were young and aggressive and smart. But the brilliance is Steve Carell.

To choose a guy who's right in the Don Adams groove. You couldn't get a better guy than Steve Carell. And yet he doesn't do Don Adams. He does none of his delivery. He just does Steve Carell. As you can imagine, Brooks probably had a few run ins with the real deal when it came to the CIA or FBI. He goes on to say “I once met somebody from the CIA who said they were very big fans. He said "I work for the Department of Transportation" Then he winked and said, "It's really CIA." I said, "OK, OK. Maybe there's more money in transportation. You should go there." He said all the CIA guys loved the show. I thought they'd hate it. Maybe they're smarter than I thought.”

On whether or not the shoe phone was his invention…..

“I guess Buck Henry and I actually invented the cell phone. We didn't know we were doing that. We still haven't gotten any royalties from that or the Cone of Silence. And I think they did a great job with the Cone of Silence in the movie. They super-teched it.

I don't know. I stole it from Dick Tracy. I think Dick Tracy had a watch that was a TV watch or a radio watch. And he communicated through this watch. I thought that's too simple and too nice. Let's put his communicator device in his shoe. And it worked.”

Interestingly enough, Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein is not what Brooks is more famous for. In fact it’s something else. "Spaceballs. I don't know why. They are always talking about Just Plain Yogurt and President Skroob.” Little kids will always have a "Spaceballs" reference. In fact, we're doing "Spaceballs" as an animated series. I'm doing two voices: Just Plain Yogurt and President Skroob – who isn't that far from the Bush administration.

Click HERE FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW.

Source:Los Angeles Times