Happy 50th Birthday! ...

[Pyperkub]

... to Blazing Saddles!!!!

Brooks worried about using the racial epithet I've just elided. But his co-screenwriter Richard Pryor insisted he use it — and use it often — consciously putting it the mouths of evil or unthinking characters, so that star Cleavon Little could comically mock or demolish them.

Which he does. Repeatedly. And hilariously....

...'Bury it.'

When studio executives first saw Blazing Saddles, they were not amused. One distributor suggested they "bury it." Others wanted rewrites. But Brooks' contract gave him final cut, and he flat-out refused to make changes.

So on Feb. 7, 1974, the studio opened the film as a test in three cities — NYC, LA, Chicago — considered the most likely to get Brooks' Borscht Belt sense of humor. Critics were dismissive, but even the most negative reviews conceded that audiences were howling.

And word got around. By the time the weather had warmed, Blazing Saddles was playing to long lines in suburban cinemas across the country.

It ended up the biggest box-office hit of 1974

Kudos to Mel Brooks for sticking to his guns.

[LawBeefaroni]

A classic.

[Jeff V]

It could never be done today, but I'm quite sure Brooks never aimed for cheap laughs (in that movie, anyway). Richard Pryor was also quite the influence back in those days.

[Pyperkub]

So many great lines, and skewered Westerns so thoroughly that they didn't come back for a decade (Pale Rider/Silverado), and never at the same level.

[hepcat]

“We present you with this laurel and hardy handshake” is friggin” stupid….but it makes me giggle like a loon every single time.

Then you have this gem.

[Daehawk]

I couldn't count the times Ive seen it since I was a kid.

Pryor was supposed to be the sheriff but the studios refused due to his drug use and scandals. So Mel hired him as the script guy to shove it to the execs. I think it was Pryor himself who suggested Little.

[Jaymann]

Too bad it was overshadowed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

[Pyperkub]

Too bad it was overshadowed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Blazing Saddles farts in your general direction!

[hepcat]

Too bad it was overshadowed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

They’re both great cinema, in my opinion.