AMERICAN MASTERS: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise

After 60 years in show business, Mel Brooks has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer; he is one of 14 EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) winners. Yet, the comedy giant has energetically avoided a documentary profile being made, even issuing an informal gag order on his friends ... until now. Brooks agreed to throw himself into a new documentary about his storied career, giving AMERICAN MASTERS exclusive interviews and complete access to his film and photo archives.

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Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor.

Courtesy of Michael Grecco

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Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor.

Courtesy of WNET/AMERICAN MASTERS

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During PBS’ AMERICAN MASTERS “Mel Brooks: Make A Noise” session at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. on Monday, January 14, 2013, series creator and executive producer Susan Lacy, Mel Brooks and filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg discuss the film profiling Brooks’ life.

Courtesy of Rahoul Ghose/PBS

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Photo taken for for Mademoiselle Magazine while Mel Brooks was filming "History of the World: Part I" in 1980-81.

Courtesy of Pamela Barkentin Blackburn

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Mel Brooks in "To Be or Not To Be."

Courtesy of Brooksfilms LTD.

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Mel Brooks in "To Be or Not To Be."

Courtesy of Brooksfilms LTD.

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Mel Brooks directing "Life Stinks."

Courtesy of Brooksfilms LTD.

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Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft at the premiere of "LA. Story" film on February 5, 1991.

Courtesy of REX Photo Library/ Photo by Berliner Studio/BEImages (263350b)

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Mel Brooks, Alfred Hitchcock and Anne Bancroft.

Courtesy of Mel Brooks

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Mel Brooks and Sid Caesar in the early 1950s.

Courtesy of Mel Brooks

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Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn taken on the set of "Young Frankenstein" circa 1974.

Courtesy of Steve Schapiro

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Mel Brooks drinking coffee. The photo was taken by Carl Reiner while the two were writers for "Your Show of Shows" c. 1950-54.

Courtesy of WNET/AMERICAN MASTERS

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Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks in their in their iconic "2000 Year Old Man" routine.

Photography by William Claxton/ Courtesy Demont Photo Management, LLC

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Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.

Courtesy of © Robert Trachtenberg

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Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks in August 2009.

Courtesy of Shout! Factory

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Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor.

Courtesy of WNET/AMERICAN MASTERS

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Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor.

Courtesy of Brooksfilms LTD.

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Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer and actor.

Courtesy of Steven R. Stack

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Family photo: Back Row Left To Right: Mel’s brothers Leonard and Irving; Front Row Left To Right: Cousin Merrill, Mel Brooks and brother Bernard.

Courtesy of Mel Brooks

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Mel Brooks' school photo.

Courtesy of Mel Brooks

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Mel Brooks in the early 1950s.

Courtesy of Mel Brooks

Premiering nationwide Monday, May 20, 2013 on PBS, AMERICAN MASTERS "Mel Brooks: Make A Noise" features new interviews with Brooks, his friends and colleagues, including Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman, and his close friend, with whom he created "The 2000 Year Old Man" more than 50 years ago, Carl Reiner.

A DVD with bonus material will be available Tuesday, May 21, 2013 from Shout Factory.

Showcasing the Brooklyn native’s brilliant, skewed originality, "Mel Brooks: Make A Noise" journeys through Brooks’ early years in the creative beginnings of live television — with Sid Caesar on "Your Show of Shows" — to the film genres he so successfully satirized in "Young Frankenstein," "Blazing Saddles," "High Anxiety," and "Spaceballs" — to the groundbreaking Broadway musical version of his first film, "The Producers."

The documentary also delves into his professional and personal ups and downs — his childhood, his first wife and subsequent 41-year marriage to Anne Bancroft — capturing a never-before-heard sense of reflection and confession.

“There are a few singular voices of genius in film comedy; Mel Brooks joins the ranks of Chaplin, Keaton and Woody Allen, creating a genre unto himself,” said Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of AMERICAN MASTERS. “This project has been a joy. Mel can make anything funny — he even had me in stitches during a conference call about distribution contracts. His humor is truly instinctive — and constant!”

“When they called me to say I had been chosen as the next ‘American Master,’ I thought they said I was chosen to be the next Dutch Master. So I figured what the hell, at least I'll get a box of cigars. When I realized my mistake I was both elated and a little disappointed at losing the cigars,” cracked Brooks, who will receive the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award this June.

Summing up his experience making the film, filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg said, “I asked him deep, probing questions for four months, and he got to keep the shirt we bought for him. So I think we both made out pretty well.”

Trachtenberg’s past films for AMERICAN MASTERS include "Cary Grant: A Class Apart" (2005), "Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer" (2002) and "On Cukor" (2000) about director George Cukor. He’s also the author of the bestseller "When I Knew" (2005) and an award-winning entertainment and fashion photographer.

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