American Masters » Video

Mel Brooks: Film: Mel Brooks: Make a Noise

Tom McNamara — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:37:26 +0000

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Mel Brooks: Make a Noise journeys through Brooks’ early years in the creative beginnings of live television — with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows — to the film genres he so successfully satirized in Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs — to the groundbreaking Broadway musical version of his first film, The Producers. The documentary also delves into his professional and personal ups and downs — his childhood, his first wife and subsequent 41-year marriage to Anne Bancroft — capturing a never-before-heard sense of reflection and confession.

Robert Trachtenberg is writer, director, producer, and editor. Susan Lacy is American Masters series creator and executive producer.

Mel Brooks: Film Excerpt: The Difference Between Comedy & Tragedy Is…

Tom McNamara — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:24:16 +0000

The logic here is, as long as it isn’t happening to Mel Brooks, it’s funny.

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Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)

Mel Brooks: #ComedyFest Live: Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner with Judd Apatow

Tom McNamara — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:39:31 +0000

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner in conversation with director and writer Judd Apatow, marking the day on which the 2000 Year Old Man joins Twitter.

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings).

Video Note: Content includes profanity.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Sister Rosetta Live! 1964: ‘Didn’t it Rain’

Tom McNamara — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:00:32 +0000

The scene is England in 1964. You hear the band playing when Sister Rosetta Tharpe pulls up on a horse drawn carriage to a make-shift stage at an abandoned railroad station. It’s a rainy day and Sister Rosetta is in her Sunday overcoat. You can almost hear a train whistle blowing when she belts out “Didn’t it Rain” accompanied by a full-blooded, swaggering electric guitar sound.

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Premieres Friday, February 22 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)

Mel Brooks: Film Excerpt: Mel Brooks’ Debut

Tom McNamara — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:23:37 +0000

“I’m fifteen! I never did this before! I’m not an actor!” That’s a Mel Brooks ad-lib from his first stage appearance. The crowd loved it. The director did not.

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Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)

Mel Brooks: Film Outtake: Do You Want To Know How ‘The Critic’ Came About?

Tom McNamara — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:22:45 +0000

In 1963, Mel Brooks and director/animator Ernest Pintoff came up with the animated short film The Critic, a satire of arty, esoteric cinema. Brooks supplied running commentary as the baffled moviegoer trying to make sense of the obscure visuals. The short film won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

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Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)

Mel Brooks: Film Excerpt: Mel Brooks, a Bullhorn & Some German Soldiers

Tom McNamara — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:22:07 +0000

Even while fighting in WWII, Mel Brooks went for the laugh.

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Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)