Editing Mel Brooks (section)

===1958–1969: Rise to prominence===
[[File:Carl Reiner with toupee 1964.jpg|thumb|right|190px|Brooks collaborated with [[Carl Reiner]] on "The 2000 Year Old Man" albums]]

Brooks and co-writer Reiner had become close friends and began to casually improvise comedy routines when they were not working. In October 1959, for a [[Random House]] book launch of [[Moss Hart]]{{'}}s autobiography, ''[[Act One (book)|Act One]]'', at ''Mamma Leone's'', [[Mel Tolkin]] (standing in for Carl Reiner) and Mel Brooks performed, and it was later recalled by [[Kenneth Tynan]].<ref name="newyorker/1978/10/30/mel-brooks">{{cite magazine |last1=Tynan |first1=Kenneth |author1-link=Kenneth Tynan |title=Mel Brooks' Indestructible Comedy |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/10/30/mel-brooks-frolics-and-detours-of-a-short-hebrew-man |access-date=September 29, 2022 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=October 23, 1978}}</ref> Reiner played the straight-man interviewer and set Brooks up as anything from a Tibetan monk to an astronaut. As Reiner explained: "In the evening, we'd go to a party and I'd pick a character for him to play. I never told him what it was going to be."<ref name="Wakeman, John 19882"/> On one of these occasions, Reiner's suggestion concerned a [[2000 Year Old Man|2000-year-old man]] who had witnessed the crucifixion of [[Jesus Christ]] (who "came in the store but never bought anything"), had been married several hundred times and had "over forty-two thousand children, and not one comes to visit me". At first Brooks and Reiner only performed the routine for friends but, by the late 1950s, it gained a reputation in New York City. [[Kenneth Tynan]] saw the [[comedy duo]] perform at a party in 1959 and wrote that Brooks "was the most original comic improvisor I had ever seen".<ref name="Wakeman, John 19882"/>

In 1960, Brooks, without his family, moved from New York to Hollywood, returning in 1961.<ref name="grunge/363048"/> He and Reiner began performing the "2000 Year Old Man" act on ''[[The Steve Allen Show]]''. Their performances led to the release of the comedy album ''2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks'' that sold over a million copies in 1961.<ref name="Wakeman, John 19882"/> They eventually expanded their routine with two more albums in 1961 and 1962, a revival in 1973, a 1975 animated TV special, and a reunion album in 1998. At one point, when Brooks had financial and career struggles, the record sales from the 2000 Year Old Man were his chief source of income.<ref name="1975/brooks-playboy"/> Brooks adapted the 2000 Year Old Man character to create the 2500-Year-Old Brewmaster for [[Ballantine Beer]] in the 1960s. Interviewed by [[Dick Cavett]] in a series of ads, the Brewmaster (in a German accent, as opposed to the 2000 Year Old Man's Yiddish accent) said he was inside the original Trojan horse and "could've used a six-pack of fresh air".<ref name="1966/brooks-playboy">{{cite news |last1=Siegel |first1=Larry |title=Mel Brooks: The Playboy Interview |work=Ysos.sammigirl.com |agency=Playboy |date=October 1966 |url=http://ysos.sammigirl.com/interviews/playboy1966.html |access-date=November 1, 2012 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512095922/http://ysos.sammigirl.com/interviews/playboy1966.html |archive-date=May 12, 2013}}</ref>

Brooks was involved in the creation of the Broadway musical ''[[All American (musical)|All American]]'' which debuted on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1962. He wrote the play with lyrics by [[Lee Adams]] and music by [[Charles Strouse]]. It starred [[Ray Bolger]] as a southern science professor at a large university who uses the principles of engineering on the college's football team and the team begins to win games. It was directed by [[Joshua Logan]], who script-doctored the second act and added a gay subtext to the plot. It ran for 80 performances and received two [[Tony Awards|Tony Award]] nominations. The animated short film ''[[The Critic (1963 film)|The Critic]]'' (1963), a satire of arty, esoteric cinema, was conceived by Brooks and directed by [[Ernest Pintoff]]. Brooks supplied running commentary as the baffled moviegoer trying to make sense of the obscure visuals. It won the [[Academy Award for Animated Short Film]].

[[File:DonAdams.jpg|thumb|left|190px|[[Don Adams]] with the iconic "Shoe Phone" in ''[[Get Smart]]'']]

With comedy writer [[Buck Henry]], Brooks created a TV comedy show titled ''[[Get Smart]],'' about a bumbling [[James Bond]]–inspired spy. Brooks said, "I was sick of looking at all those nice sensible situation comedies. They were such distortions of life... I wanted to do a crazy, unreal [[comic-strip]] kind of thing about something besides a family. No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first."<ref name="time1965">{{cite magazine|title=Smart Money|url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,834525,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730214034/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,834525,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 30, 2013|magazine=Time|date=October 15, 1965|access-date=August 30, 2009}}</ref> Starring [[Don Adams]] as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, the series ran from 1965 until 1970, although Brooks had little involvement after the first season. It was highly rated for most of its production and won seven [[Primetime Emmy Awards]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emmys.com/celebrities/mel-brooks|title=Mel Brooks Emmy Nominated|publisher=Emmys.com|access-date=November 1, 2012}}</ref> including [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series|Outstanding Comedy Series]] in 1968 and 1969.

During a press conference for ''All American'', a reporter asked, "What are you going to do next?" and Brooks replied, "Springtime for Hitler," perhaps riffing on ''[[Springtime for Henry]]''.<ref name="vanityfair/making-producers"/> For several years, Brooks toyed with a bizarre and unconventional idea about a musical comedy of [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bh.org.il/blog-items/five-jewish-comedians/|title=Let There Be Laughter – Jewish Humor Around the World|website=Beit Hatfutsot|date=March 20, 2017|access-date=October 2, 2019|archive-date=October 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025163314/https://www.bh.org.il/blog-items/five-jewish-comedians/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He explored the idea as a novel and a play before finally writing a script.<ref name="Wakeman, John 19882"/> He eventually found two producers to fund it, [[Joseph E. Levine]] and [[Sidney Glazier]], and made his first feature film, ''[[The Producers (1967 film)|The Producers]]'' (1968).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Producers |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87256/the-producers |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |access-date=December 17, 2020}}</ref>

''The Producers'' was so brazen in its satire that major studios would not touch it, nor would many exhibitors. Brooks finally found an independent distributor who released it as an art film, a specialized attraction. At the [[41st Academy Awards]], Brooks won the [[Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay]] for the film over fellow writers [[Stanley Kubrick]] and [[John Cassavetes]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1969|title=The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners|access-date=July 3, 2020|year=2019|publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences}}</ref> ''The Producers'' became a smash underground hit, first on the nationwide [[college circuit]], then in revivals and on home video. It premiered to a limited audience in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 22, 1967, before achieving a wide release in 1968. [[Peter Sellers]] personally championed the film, paying out of pocket to take out full page ads in [[Variety (magazine)|''Variety'']] and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="MENF">{{cite web|last1=Mancini |first1=Mark|title= 12 Outrageous Facts About The Producers|url= https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/80238/12-outrageous-facts-about-producers|access-date=January 20, 2023|work=[[Mental Floss]]|date= May 19, 2016}}</ref> Brooks, along with his collaborator [[Thomas Meehan (writer)|Thomas Meehan]], later adapted it into a [[The Producers (musical)|musical]], which was hugely successful on Broadway and received an unprecedented 12 Tony awards. In 2000, [[Roger Ebert]] included ''The Producers'' in his canon of Great Movies, and remembered being in an elevator with Brooks and [[Anne Bancroft]] shortly after the movie was released: "A woman got on the elevator, recognized him and said, 'I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar.' Brooks smiled benevolently. 'Lady', he said, 'it rose below vulgarity.{{'"}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=July 23, 2000 |title=The Producers |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-producers-1968}}</ref>