Editing Mel Brooks (section)

===1980–2001: Established career===
[[File:Mel Brooks.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Brooks in 1984]]

By 1980, [[Gene Siskel]] and [[Roger Ebert]] had referred to Mel Brooks and [[Woody Allen]] as "the two most successful comedy directors in the world today&nbsp;... America's two funniest filmmakers".<ref name="siskelebert">{{cite episode| title=Take 2: Who's Funnier: Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?|series=Sneak Previews|credits=Siskel, Gene; Ebert, Roger |network=PBS|location=Chicago |air-date=May 1, 1980|season=4}}</ref> Released that year was the dramatic film ''[[The Elephant Man (1980 film)|The Elephant Man]]'' directed by [[David Lynch]] and produced by Brooks. Knowing that anyone seeing a poster reading "Mel Brooks presents ''The Elephant Man''" would expect a comedy, he set up the company [[Brooksfilms]]. It has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including ''[[Frances (film)|Frances]]'' (1982), ''[[The Fly (1986 film)|The Fly]]'' (1986), and ''[[84 Charing Cross Road (film)|84 Charing Cross Road]]'' (1987) starring [[Anthony Hopkins]] and Anne Bancroft—as well as comedies, including [[Richard Benjamin]]'s ''[[My Favorite Year]]'' (1982), partially based on Mel Brooks's real life. Brooks sought to purchase the rights to ''84 Charing Cross Road'' for his wife, Anne Bancroft, for many years. He also produced the comedy ''[[Fatso (1980 film)|Fatso]]'' (1980) that Bancroft directed.

In 1981, Brooks joked that the only genres that he hadn't spoofed were historical epics and Biblical spectacles.<ref name="Wakeman, John 19882"/> ''[[History of the World Part I]]'' was a tongue-in-cheek look at human culture from the [[Stone Age|Dawn of Man]] to the [[French Revolution]]. Written, produced and directed by Brooks, with narration by [[Orson Welles]], it was another modest financial hit, earning $31 million. It received mixed critical reviews. Critic [[Pauline Kael]], who for years had been critical of Brooks, said, "Either you get stuck thinking about the bad taste or you let yourself laugh at the obscenity in the humor as you do [[Luis Buñuel|Buñuel]]'s perverse dirty jokes."<ref name="Wakeman, John 19882"/>

Brooks produced and starred in (but did not write or direct) a remake of [[Ernst Lubitsch]]'s 1942 film ''[[To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)|To Be or Not to Be]]''. His [[To Be or Not to Be (1983 film)|1983 version]] was directed by [[Alan Johnson (choreographer)|Alan Johnson]] and starred Brooks, Anne Bancroft, [[Charles Durning]], [[Tim Matheson]], [[Jose Ferrer]] and [[Christopher Lloyd]]. It generated international publicity by featuring a controversial song on its soundtrack—"[[To Be or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap)]]"—satirizing German society in the 1940s, with Brooks playing Hitler.

The second movie Brooks directed in the 1980s was ''[[Spaceballs]]'' (1987), a parody of science fiction, mainly ''[[Star Wars]]''. It starred [[Bill Pullman]], [[John Candy]], [[Rick Moranis]], [[Daphne Zuniga]], Dick Van Patten, [[Joan Rivers]], Dom DeLuise, and Brooks.

In 1989, Brooks (with co-executive producer [[Alan Spencer (writer)|Alan Spencer]]) made another attempt at television success with the sitcom ''[[The Nutt House]]'', featuring Brooks regulars Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. It was originally broadcast on NBC, but the network aired only five of the eleven produced episodes before canceling the series. During the next decade, Brooks directed ''[[Life Stinks]]'' (1991), ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights]]'' (1993), and ''[[Dracula: Dead and Loving It]]'' (1995). [[People Magazine|''People'']] magazine wrote, "Anyone in a mood for a hearty laugh couldn't do better than ''Robin Hood: Men in Tights'', which gave fans a parody of [[Robin Hood]], especially ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]''."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20105999,00.html |title= Picks and Pans Review: Robin Hood: Men in Tights |work= [[People (magazine)|People]] |first1= Ralph |last1= Novak |first2= Tom |last2= Gliatto |first3= Leah |last3= Rozen |date= August 9, 1993 |volume= 40 |number= 6 |access-date= July 11, 2015 |archive-date= July 13, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150713211414/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20105999,00.html |url-status= dead }}</ref> Like Brooks's other films, it is filled with one-liners and the occasional breaking of [[the fourth wall]]. ''Robin Hood: Men in Tights'' was Brooks's second time exploring the life of Robin Hood (the first, as mentioned above, being his 1975 TV show ''When Things Were Rotten''). ''Life Stinks'' was a financial and critical failure, but is notable as the only film Brooks directed that is neither a parody nor a film about other films or theater. (''The Twelve Chairs'' was a parody of the original novel.)