This Post is Contractually Obligated to have a Title
January 31, 2021 3:01 PM Subscribe
Hey, remember that Blazing Saddles TV series that ran for four seasons?
There have been a lot of questionable productions made due to contractual obligations, from the last Monty Python album to musicians including Prince and Van Morrison, but filming a TV series for four years so you can make a sequel to a movie, and never airing the series?
There have been a lot of questionable productions made due to contractual obligations, from the last Monty Python album to musicians including Prince and Van Morrison, but filming a TV series for four years so you can make a sequel to a movie, and never airing the series?
I have never wanted to pirate an entire four seasons of a series more.
posted by deadaluspark at 3:15 PM on January 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by deadaluspark at 3:15 PM on January 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
Holy cow indeed! That was ballsy of the studio.
One thing that stuck out to me was the TV show's title, since "Black Bart" was supposedly considered for the movie's.
posted by May Kasahara at 3:16 PM on January 31, 2021
One thing that stuck out to me was the TV show's title, since "Black Bart" was supposedly considered for the movie's.
posted by May Kasahara at 3:16 PM on January 31, 2021
I just read that entire article and I am still not 100% certain that this is real.
posted by phooky at 3:34 PM on January 31, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by phooky at 3:34 PM on January 31, 2021 [7 favorites]
Wait, what
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:38 PM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:38 PM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
I was telling someone about this a few days ago. It seems once every few years I learn about it again, having forgotten it since my previous discovery of it. I will probably quote this comment in 2025, writing "Well, I did it again..."
In the spirit of mitheral's metatalk question about what in the past would you observe if you could, I occasionally think what media I might want to scoop off the shelves of an audio/video store in an alternate dimension: maybe the multi-platinum Beatles reunion album from 1986 (after John and Paul reunited at Live Aid), probably the full six-season box set of Firefly, definitely the third and final season of Von Trier's The Kingdom... (Of course with my luck these would all be in a format unplayable in this reality.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:41 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
In the spirit of mitheral's metatalk question about what in the past would you observe if you could, I occasionally think what media I might want to scoop off the shelves of an audio/video store in an alternate dimension: maybe the multi-platinum Beatles reunion album from 1986 (after John and Paul reunited at Live Aid), probably the full six-season box set of Firefly, definitely the third and final season of Von Trier's The Kingdom... (Of course with my luck these would all be in a format unplayable in this reality.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:41 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
@ricochet biscuit you might've crossed over https://deadline.com/2020/12/lars-von-triers-the-kingdom-returning-third-final-season-1234658191/
posted by matimer at 3:56 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by matimer at 3:56 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yeah, this is unfortunately completely made up:
If nothing else, the sheer implausibility of this going on for four years should be a tip-off. TV production is crazy expensive, never mind the question of why or how it would have been somehow kept secret for so long.
posted by teraflop at 3:59 PM on January 31, 2021 [36 favorites]
I'm sharing this again because it came to our attention that Wikipedia has it quoted on the Blazing Saddles page about the TV pilot. All the information here was comedy, written by my writer John Sheehan, and wasn't supposed to be take seriously. Someone copied it and put it on Wikipedia.(The text has since been removed from Wikipedia, but not before a bunch of other places copied it.)
If nothing else, the sheer implausibility of this going on for four years should be a tip-off. TV production is crazy expensive, never mind the question of why or how it would have been somehow kept secret for so long.
posted by teraflop at 3:59 PM on January 31, 2021 [36 favorites]
To clarify: the pilot episode really exists -- it's all the stuff about contractual obligations that seems to be fictional.
posted by teraflop at 4:08 PM on January 31, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by teraflop at 4:08 PM on January 31, 2021 [10 favorites]
Awww fiddlesticks, was so looking forward, well back, well somewhere... usenet?
posted by sammyo at 4:08 PM on January 31, 2021
posted by sammyo at 4:08 PM on January 31, 2021
Someone get netflix and amazon into a bidding war.
posted by sammyo at 4:09 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 4:09 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
It'd be awesome if a studio made 4 secret seasons of a TV show out of spite and/or contractual obligation. Sadly untrue... I'm not familiar with the this Reprobate site is this their thing? Funny fake stories? Because I happened upon this article on Lord Buckethead which is interesting (and I hope it is true).
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:22 PM on January 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:22 PM on January 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
The fact that Mel Brooks put out a Robin Hood-themed TV series in the 70's called When Things Were Rotten, some of the material of which I think ended up in Men In Tights. That would add to the believability of of a Blazing Saddles series existing.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:04 PM on January 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:04 PM on January 31, 2021 [4 favorites]
Other shows I want now:
- Jews In Space
- sitcom featuring Frederick Fronckensteen and his monster touring Europe as a song 'n' dance duo.
posted by LionIndex at 5:10 PM on January 31, 2021 [14 favorites]
- Jews In Space
- sitcom featuring Frederick Fronckensteen and his monster touring Europe as a song 'n' dance duo.
posted by LionIndex at 5:10 PM on January 31, 2021 [14 favorites]
ITYM "Froederick"
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:15 PM on January 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:15 PM on January 31, 2021 [5 favorites]
A Blazing Saddles miniseries: that sounds cool. A Blazing Saddles series that didn't exist in its own right but occasionally, without any notice or context, crashed through the sets of other TV shows to start fistfights and throw food, now that would be amazing.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:22 PM on January 31, 2021 [35 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:22 PM on January 31, 2021 [35 favorites]
Other shows I want now:
- Prequel to Young Frankenstein called Old Frankenstein: When Viktor Met Blucher
- Any Walking Dead show where a zombie resists being destroyed, exclaiming "...on you, I work for Max Brooks!"
posted by zaixfeep at 6:04 PM on January 31, 2021 [8 favorites]
- Prequel to Young Frankenstein called Old Frankenstein: When Viktor Met Blucher
- Any Walking Dead show where a zombie resists being destroyed, exclaiming "...on you, I work for Max Brooks!"
posted by zaixfeep at 6:04 PM on January 31, 2021 [8 favorites]
wait I actually want Jews In Space: The Series now.
like, obviously Star Trek makes a pretty good substitute but a lot of that’s subtext, you know?
posted by nonasuch at 6:44 PM on January 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
like, obviously Star Trek makes a pretty good substitute but a lot of that’s subtext, you know?
posted by nonasuch at 6:44 PM on January 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
The four seasons actually being filmed but never being shown was where I got skeptical, so thanks for the update Teraflop. I could believe some kind of potemkin series being in "production", but not one with actual actors.
posted by tavella at 7:04 PM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by tavella at 7:04 PM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
I've always pondered the idea of having been rich back in the day and approaching Roddenberry and Paramount about finishing the Five Year Mission on my own dime.
Shatner and the gang doing Trek without network notes and with funding being no object so the last few seasons wouldn't have been crap like season three... Mmm.
posted by Fukiyama at 9:03 PM on January 31, 2021
Shatner and the gang doing Trek without network notes and with funding being no object so the last few seasons wouldn't have been crap like season three... Mmm.
posted by Fukiyama at 9:03 PM on January 31, 2021
There's a new "Snowpiercer" TV show, but, before that, I can't recall many recent examples of generating spinoff TV series from movies. This is how some really bad TV shows (Delta House, Logan's Run) got made, back in the day, although you also have your M*A*S*H and Buffy.
posted by thelonius at 1:03 AM on February 1, 2021
posted by thelonius at 1:03 AM on February 1, 2021
I swear to God that there was a pilot for a sitcom that was obviously inspired by Blazing Saddles, with a black sheriff (Sheriff Off White -- really!) arriving in a hostile town in the old west.
That single episode showed up once on the CBC or CBS in the early seventies, but that was it. I didn't see the movie until years later when I finally made the connection.
posted by maudlin at 3:38 AM on February 1, 2021
That single episode showed up once on the CBC or CBS in the early seventies, but that was it. I didn't see the movie until years later when I finally made the connection.
posted by maudlin at 3:38 AM on February 1, 2021
Ok, now that I RTFA, it must have been black Bart, and the Sheriff Off White part must have been what one character said. Don't have time to watch it all on YouTube right now, but wow, some of that opening language is unbelievable to hear on a sitcom.
posted by maudlin at 3:45 AM on February 1, 2021
posted by maudlin at 3:45 AM on February 1, 2021
I want History of the World Part II.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:54 AM on February 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by zengargoyle at 3:54 AM on February 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
Missed the edit window -- meant to write RACIST language.
posted by maudlin at 3:55 AM on February 1, 2021
posted by maudlin at 3:55 AM on February 1, 2021
Why are we talking about made-up Mel Brooks contractual obligation TV shows when we could be talking about the very real unforced error that was Spaceballs the Animated Series?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:56 AM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:56 AM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Mandalorian but set in the Spaceballs cinematic universe and with Western motifs from Blazing Saddles. The Spamdalorian and Baby Yogurt going on adventures. This is the way.
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:33 AM on February 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:33 AM on February 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
some really bad TV shows (Delta House, Logan's Run) got made, back in the day, although you also have your M*A*S*H
Actually, the MASH TV show was also bad, compared to the film. (A surprising number of the former's fans never saw the latter.)
As for Blazing Saddles, peee-you, wotta POS. But Mel Brooks redeemed himself the next year, with Young Frankenstein.
posted by Rash at 11:59 AM on February 1, 2021
Actually, the MASH TV show was also bad, compared to the film. (A surprising number of the former's fans never saw the latter.)
As for Blazing Saddles, peee-you, wotta POS. But Mel Brooks redeemed himself the next year, with Young Frankenstein.
posted by Rash at 11:59 AM on February 1, 2021
Ashwagandha, that write-up of Lord Buckethead is substantially accurate. It misses one important fact: Todd Durham, director of Gremloids, went on to create the Hotel Transylvania franchise and is now rich enough to engage lawyers over silly stuff like this. I know the person who was in the Lord Buckethead helmet at the 2019 election--in fact two of the ushers at my wedding stood in that election: one of them deserved to win a seat, and the other one did.
posted by Hogshead at 3:13 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Hogshead at 3:13 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
I remember this show! What really stuck with me is how, in the intro, one of the characters gets an accidental paint roller to the face.
posted by xedrik at 8:06 AM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by xedrik at 8:06 AM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
There's a new "Snowpiercer" TV show, but, before that, I can't recall many recent examples of generating spinoff TV series from movies.
WandaVision, Westworld, Fargo, Hannibal, What We Do in the Shadows, The Exorcist, 12 Monkeys, The Mist, The Girlfriend Experience, Teen Wolf, Nikita, Hanna, The Purge, Scream, and Castle Rock would like a word...
posted by ejs at 6:47 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
WandaVision, Westworld, Fargo, Hannibal, What We Do in the Shadows, The Exorcist, 12 Monkeys, The Mist, The Girlfriend Experience, Teen Wolf, Nikita, Hanna, The Purge, Scream, and Castle Rock would like a word...
posted by ejs at 6:47 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
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Holy cow!
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:05 PM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]