Editing My Favorite Year (section)

==Relationship to real life==
Executive producer [[Mel Brooks]] was a writer for the [[Sid Caesar]] variety program ''[[Your Show of Shows]]'' early in his career. Swashbuckler [[Errol Flynn]] was a guest on one episode, and his appearance inspired Dennis Palumbo's mostly fictional screenplay. The character of Swann was based on Flynn, and Benjy Stone is based on both Brooks and [[Woody Allen]], who also wrote for Caesar.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

According to Brooks, the character Rookie Carroca was based on a Filipino sailor in the U.S. Navy who was his neighbor in Brooklyn. The name of the King Kaiser character is based on that of Sid Caesar ("Kaiser" is the German equivalent of the Roman title Caesar). [[Selma Diamond]], another former ''Your Show of Shows'' writer (who inspired [[Rose Marie]]'s character on ''The Dick Van Dyke Show''), appears in the film as a wardrobe mistress.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

The character of Herb, one of Kaiser's writers who whispers rather than speaks, is based on [[Neil Simon]], another of Caesar's staff writers, who, according to [[Carl Reiner]], whispered ideas to colleagues rather than trying to shout to be heard above the din of the noisy writers' room.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
 
Brooks acknowledges that most of the film's plot is fictional. He said that Flynn's appearance on ''Your Show of Shows'' was uneventful and that none of the writers had much interaction with Flynn, socialized with him or took him home to dinner.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}