It's a somewhat known fact that Mel's original ideas for Blazing Saddles were to have Richard Pryor play Bart and have John Wayne play the Waco Kid. But Pryor was way into his drug addiction at this point, and Wayne, though he LOVED the script, was worried about how it would affect his "family-friendly" image. But let's say Pryor was able to clean up earlier, and Wayne figured it was time in his career to try something different. How would it have worked out? While I can see Pryor as Bart working well, I cant see Wayne pulling off the Waco Kid as well as Gene Wilder did.
Film WI: If "Blazing Saddles" had the "original" casting
- Thread starter Hadley
- Start date
Wayne was a trooper.
Wayne did 11 episodes of Laugh in.
And I give you:
North to Alaska
One of Wayne’s few comedies, but, he could do a good job, and Brooks would direct to Wayne’s strength.
Can you not see Wayne and Pryor in this scene:
Waco kid
And not find it even funnier?
We definitely need a Deep Fake of this one.
I think it would have been even bigger than it was in OTL.
Maybe Brannigan doesn’t get made because of this, but, hopefully, he still does Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist.
Can anyone else think of another comedy done around then, that Wayne could do?
Wayne did 11 episodes of Laugh in.
And I give you:
North to Alaska
One of Wayne’s few comedies, but, he could do a good job, and Brooks would direct to Wayne’s strength.
Can you not see Wayne and Pryor in this scene:
Waco kid
And not find it even funnier?
We definitely need a Deep Fake of this one.
I think it would have been even bigger than it was in OTL.
Maybe Brannigan doesn’t get made because of this, but, hopefully, he still does Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist.
Can anyone else think of another comedy done around then, that Wayne could do?
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Was Wayne's Playboy interview a source of controversy in the 1970s? Because if so, statements like "I believe in white supremacy" are going to have some impact, one way or the other, on the way an ostensibly anti-racist movie is received.
Either it's gonna be seen as hypocritical for the creators to promote anti-racism while showcasing someone known for racist views, or maybe it's seen as a redemptive move by Wayne. Possibly both, depending on the commentator.
Or if people just shrugged the interview off as "Whatever, half the country thinks that way", it might not be an issue.
Either it's gonna be seen as hypocritical for the creators to promote anti-racism while showcasing someone known for racist views, or maybe it's seen as a redemptive move by Wayne. Possibly both, depending on the commentator.
Or if people just shrugged the interview off as "Whatever, half the country thinks that way", it might not be an issue.
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And interesting thing about Wayne worried about his "family-friendly" image. I've always thought that Blazing Saddles, along with a lot of other Brooks' 1970s output, was sort of coasting on the new "screen freedom" to lay in a lot of taboo humour, while otherwise remaining firmly rooted in a pre-1960s mentality.
Don't get me wrong. Brooks can be pretty brilliant. But something about his raunch humour has the feel of your funny-but-square uncle showing up at your hipster party, and telling dirty jokes because that's the only place he could get away with it. (Which arguably, makes his films more interesting.)
Don't get me wrong. Brooks can be pretty brilliant. But something about his raunch humour has the feel of your funny-but-square uncle showing up at your hipster party, and telling dirty jokes because that's the only place he could get away with it. (Which arguably, makes his films more interesting.)
Persuant to my point about Brooks' pre-boomer sensibilities, when I was a kid, I watched a bit of Young Frankenstein on TV with my mom, who was born in the mid-1930s. She laughed at this scene, but had to explain it to me.
Where I'm going with all this is I'm wondering if Wayne could possibly maintain his family-friendly image after a gig with Brooks, because Brooks' humour is largely appealing to older people. And in those pre-VCR days, it was relatively difficult for kids to get into adult movies, so the raunch would be less of an issue.
Where I'm going with all this is I'm wondering if Wayne could possibly maintain his family-friendly image after a gig with Brooks, because Brooks' humour is largely appealing to older people. And in those pre-VCR days, it was relatively difficult for kids to get into adult movies, so the raunch would be less of an issue.
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I'll also observe that Harvey Korman's reputation for being family-friendly wasn't much damaged by his association with Brooks. He did three seasons of Carol Burnett after Blazing Saddles, and Herbie Goes Bananas with High Anxiety added to his resume after that.
Mind you, Korman was arguably close to being a character actor, rather than a cultural icon like Wayne. Though I will say that as a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, he was a pretty big deal.
Mind you, Korman was arguably close to being a character actor, rather than a cultural icon like Wayne. Though I will say that as a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, he was a pretty big deal.
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I also wonder if this version of Blazing Saddles was a success, would Brooks try to get Pryor into his other films (though looking at History of the World Part 1 and Spaceballs, I cant see any roles that would fit Pryor, and by Men in Tights, he had MS).
edit: Actually, thinking about it more, he could probably had pulled off Dark Helmet. Cant you just see Pryor in the "I cant breathe in that thing!" scene?
edit: Actually, thinking about it more, he could probably had pulled off Dark Helmet. Cant you just see Pryor in the "I cant breathe in that thing!" scene?
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"Transylvania Station about a quarter to four...."
I do get what you mean about Brooks' type of humor. Back around 2007 I saw "The Producers" in Vegas with David Hasslehoff as Roger....as much as hearing those notes of "Springtime for Hitler" always makes me smile, I felt most of the rest of the production was very dated...
A couple of nights later I saw "Spamalot" and the Pythons kept that humor up to date..a couple of really good Brittany Spears jokes (about the time she was REALLY going off the deep end)
Wayne was born poor in 1907, rode a scrawny horse to school, moved a few times as a kid before high school, he believed what he believed, never hid it. One of his wives made him get rid of his valet, he set the guy up with his own carwash in south central LA. Wayne could have played Slim Pickens part in Strangeglove but he kind of trapped himself in the image. Unless somebody's wearing a hood and doing the Sieg Heil I wish revisionists would stop judging them by today's mores.
Fuzzy Dunlop
Banned
He'd been great as Taggart.
Look at how many 'straight' actors sent themselves up in the 'Airplane' franchise. In fact it's those actors that mostly play their roles straight that do comedy the best.
Fuzzy Dunlop
Banned
2nded.
Refer to my answer above regarding the 'Airplane' franchise
I wonder if Mr Eastwood would reapprise his role as 'Dirty Harry' Callahan in this and make it a third film in the franchise and thus 'The Enforcer' becoming the fourth. Base it as always in SF . . . then move to the UK.
Fuzzy Dunlop
Banned
I stand corrected if wrong but I heard that Pryor have a cameo as one of the group that built the 'mock' town?
It's one of those 'blink and you missed me' parts
It definitely makes "I was your Father's Brother's Nephew's Cousin's former roommate" that much more hilarious!
Hear Hear. We are all people of our time and place and should remember that in the future people will try to apply their values and attitudes to us. How many of those we judge good and virtuous people will be looked on by their chattering classes with contempt and hatred?
People knew that racism was bad back then when he made his white supremacy comments and lambasted native Americans for being 'selfish' for not giving all their land to white people. So it's judging by the standards of his own day as much as anything else. You don't need to wear a hood or do the Sieg Heil to to be a racist, it simply makes it more obvious.
Absolutely. Been a classic. I can almost here him saying "somebody needs to go back and get a shitload of dimes!"
The Waco Kid needed someone who was NOT the classic Western gunfighter.
Pryor would have been interesting in the role, although his approach would certainly have been vastly different than Little's. Pryor was an "everyman" sort of actor and that would have carried over into the role. Little, and I think that this really helped make the movie the classic it is, played the entire role like he was 1970s playboy, who was bemused by the gang of shitkickers that he was surrounded by, friends and foes (he was undoubtedly the biggest "wink" to the audience in the movie, and he played the urbane, highly educated "fish out of water" brilliantly)
Everything I read about Wayne just showed how complicated a guy he was. He was allegedly Mr Racist but loved Mexico, married 2 Hispanic women, got hate mail from conservatives for backing the Panama Canal treaty. He was a warrior on film but tried to get in Ford's Motion Picture unit in WW 2 and did a Hollywood tour in south Pacific, he hated communism, was he wrong? Those were the times. Would have loved seeing him in some offbeat roles, they couldn't be worse than playing Ghengis Khan....And as far as racism he had company,FDR and Earl Warren, LIBERAL icons, threw over 100000 American citizens into concentration camps and stole them blind. I believe most of Lakewood California belonged to a Japanese-American bean farmer.