{"id":104552,"date":"2018-08-23T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=104552"},"modified":"2018-08-23T16:46:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T21:46:45","slug":"interview-screenwriter-norman-steinberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/interview-screenwriter-norman-steinberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Screenwriter Norman Steinberg on Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, and Getting Heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norman Steinberg has worked on some of your favorite projects with some of your favorite people. We sat down with him recently to talk some shop.<\/h2>\n

Recently, we spoke with Norman Steinberg from his idyllic home in upstate New York. It was hard not to think of one of his classic comedic films as he continually moved from room to room to avoid the blaring sound of the gardener\u2019s leaf blower. He interrupted every anecdote with “Can you believe this guy?” as the roar of the blower would creep closer.<\/p>\n

At nearly 80, Steinberg isn’t slowing down. He’s currently writing the book for a musical based on the 18th-<\/sup>century comedy of manners\u00a0The School for Scandal\u00a0<\/em>with composer Charlie Fox<\/a> (who wrote the theme songs to all your favorite ’70s shows, including\u00a0Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, <\/em>and Monday Night Football<\/em>), he quipped, “You can\u2019t make a living in the theater, but you can make a killing.”<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

PremiumBeat:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s hard not to imagine the writing process of\u00a0Blazing Saddles\u00a0<\/a>as<\/em>\u00a0a combination of a Dean Martin<\/a> roast and a comedy brawl version of\u00a0Fight Club<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0How were you able to get your ideas heard and implemented among such giant personalities as Mel Brooks<\/a> and Richard Pryor<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Norman Steinberg:\u00a0<\/strong>By speaking up, by not being afraid. Basically when we started, it was me and\u00a0Andrew Bergman<\/a>, and I brought along Alan Uger<\/a>, who left after a couple of weeks and still got credit for some reason \u2014 and Mel. Mel says I\u2019m looking around the room, and I see four Jews\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>we need a person of color. Who can we get? I did the Flip Wilson show<\/a>, and Flip went to number one, and we had all these great guest stars\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Bing Crosby, Jack Benny. I had worked with Richard Pryor on the Flip Wilson show. My writing partner was George Carlin<\/a>. I brought Richie in. I told him,\u00a0“<\/em>Hey, we are doing this film, and it\u2019s about a black sheriff in the old west,” and he kinda lost his breath. “Mel Brooks? Mel Brooks?” He was a huge fan of Mel\u2019s. I told him we\u2019d love for him to write with us. He said, “Get me some money, get me train fare, get me a hotel, and I\u2019ll be there.”<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image via Blazing Saddles<\/em> (Warner Bros).<\/p><\/div>\n

First day, he came in late. We started at ten; he got there at twelve. “CPT” he said. He sat down, and we started explaining the story, where we were, and he was going “ah ha ah ha” \u2014 pulls out a little vial. I didn\u2019t even know what it was, and it was coke. Started doing coke. He turns to Mel, gestures to it and says “Brother Mel?” Mel says “Me? Never before lunch.”\u00a0And we started.<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image via Get Smart<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n

To be in the room with these two guys. Incredible.\u00a0Mel Brooks was my hero. He helped me start my career by hooking me up with the producer of Get Smart<\/em><\/a>. Mel called and told me you want to be a writer (I was a lawyer) write a spec script, and I did. I sent that script to Leonard Stern at Get Smart,\u00a0<\/em>and a week later he called [to say] that it\u2019s a good script. “If the show gets picked up, we\u2019ll buy it.” The show got cancelled. I quit my job anyway and started being a writer.<\/p>\n

I wrote for Cash Box<\/em> (trade music magazine), then I got an agent through someone I met through the army reserves\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>happened to be Bill Cosby\u2019s agent. He got me a job writing on\u00a0I Am The President, <\/em>David Frye\u2019s comedy album about Lyndon Johnson leaving the white house. David Frye\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>one of the great impressionists (“not a painter”) He was crazy, but he could do anyone. I think I got five hundred dollars and royalties. It was a hit.\u00a0Kept going up the charts. The album won a Grammy.<\/p>\n

Next I did Comedy Tonight<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on CBS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>star was Robert Klein<\/a> and Madeline Kahn<\/a> and Peter Boyle<\/a> and all the great second city players. We did ten shows, was thrilling writing the sketches. It was a real writers room\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Tom Meehan<\/a> (Annie<\/a>, The Producers<\/a><\/em>)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Just a great group of people.<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image via The Flip Wilson Show<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then I go out to California to do Frye\u2019s next album, Radio Free Nixon \u2014\u00a0<\/em>all happenstance\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>I run into Robert Klein<\/a>, and he\u2019s doing a new show with Flip Wilson\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>says I should come by, and I go out to see him and meet Herb Baker. They were looking for a new writer and offered me seven hundred and fifty a week, which was a fortune to me. Flip paired me with George Carlin\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>he was great, and he became my partner. It was a number one show\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>we get nominated for an Emmy,\u00a0so I get an Emmy! My first two jobs basically, I get a Grammy and an Emmy (handed to me by Jimmy Durante.)<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image via Blazing Saddles<\/em> (Warner Bros.).<\/p><\/div>\n

I was then offered $1,500 a week, and I quit because I wanted to come back to NY. Gary Belkin<\/a> hired me to do a special, Aquacade in Acapulco<\/em><\/a>, with Tony Randall<\/a>, Ed McMahon<\/a>, Aquamantics, Stiller and Meara and Mel. This was a couple of years later. The only other time I saw Mel was at the unemployment office. We wrote a sketch together\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>I was in the sketch. Wonderful,\u00a0I had no fear of saying what was on my mind and what I thought was funny, and I could make him laugh. Mel is tough as hell, and he yells at people, and I would say “Shut the fuck up.” Getting heard\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>you just rolled the dice.\u00a0It\u2019s the same thing in the writers room\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>you have to learn to take a punch. That was my indoctrination under fire. That was my instinct\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>I\u2019m going for it. With Richard and Mel, it was like watching these two masters just go for it. They so respected each other and just laugh and embellished each other. I could never duplicate that experience\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>it was incredible. If you go at Mel\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>he will stand his ground, but he will respect you.<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image via Blazing Saddles<\/em> (Warner Bros.).<\/p><\/div>\n

This is how it works with Mel.\u00a0He doesn\u2019t sit down and write a script.\u00a0He pitches\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>he says things off the top of his head. Like once we were having dinner and he said “Whoa that\u2019s hot! My tongue just dialed the fire department.” He is the funniest man I know.<\/p>\n

The day that Mel showed the film to Warner Bros.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>he came back to the office, he was ashen. He said they didn\u2019t laugh once. He said “I\u2019m going to re-cut the film.<\/em>”\u00a0Andy and I begged him to wait until the screening we had that night with all the Warner office workers. And they went bat shit, and it never changed. People were falling on the floor\u00a0\u2014 <\/em>because it was so outrageous at the time. And Mel said “Fuck \u2019em this is our film,”\u00a0and that was the film that was released.<\/p>\n

PB<\/strong>: You\u2019ve been involved in a lot of projects that speak to social justice\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Blazing Saddles\u00a0<\/em>tackled race in its own zany way, and\u00a0Free To Be You and Me<\/em><\/a> dealt with gender identity and gender roles way before there were national conversations on which bathroom you can use or who should be able to serve in the military. How did you come to that project, and what was the process creating that show with so many liberal icons like Marlo Thomas<\/a> and Alan Alda<\/a>?<\/p>\n

NS:\u00a0<\/strong>Free To Be You and Me\u00a0<\/em>was created by Carol and Bruce Hart with Marlo\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>they did the album, then we did the TV Special (also an Emmy winner!). I was working with Carol and Bruce on something, and they asked me if I could help them.\u00a0Marlo was great. I brought Mel into it, and Mel and Marlo did the baby song<\/a>.\u00a0It was great\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>puppets by Waylon Flowers\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>he was a genius.\u00a0 Marlo is a great producer and a really good person.<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image: Joseph Maher When Things Were Rotten<\/em> (ABC).<\/p><\/div>\n

PB:\u00a0<\/strong>You have bounced often between features and TV work\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>does one have more of an appeal to you than the other?<\/p>\n

NS:\u00a0<\/strong>Most of my career was in film\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>when I started, you either were film or TV and never the twain, but after Blazing Saddles,\u00a0<\/em>I was doing piecemeal here or there. I pitched some movies and sold one to Fox. Producer Bud Austin just adored Blazing Saddles\u00a0<\/em>and asked if I would consider heading up comedy development for Paramount TV and promised that anything I wrote on the side was a separate deal. I had this crazy Robin Hood idea, When Things Were Rotten<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>and sold it to ABC and brought Mel in. I had to give up my writing credit because of the Paramount job. \u00a0So, I worked in TV, but I was really disdainful of it. It was a step down at that time. Now it\u2019s everything.<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image via My Favorite Year<\/em> (MGM).<\/p><\/div>\n

PB:\u00a0<\/strong>My Favorite Year<\/em><\/a>. Just mentioning the title of that film brings a smile to my face. How did that come about?<\/p>\n

NS:\u00a0<\/strong>Dennis Palumbo wrote a script about Wyatt Earp, who comes to New York to publish a book\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>this guy is a drunk and he has a gun. The book publisher sends a young man to babysit him.\u00a0 The producers said it\u2019s period, expensive\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>we\u2019ll never get it made\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>how about the same kind of relationship, but between Errol Flynn and Mel Brooks? Mel got in involved. The script became, In like Flynn<\/em>. Mel hated the script and gave Dennis notes. He refused the notes, so Mel called me that he was looking for someone to rewrite it. I said I\u2019d do it. Mel said “I can\u2019t pay you enough.”\u00a0I said “Can\u2019t or won\u2019t?” Ten drafts and four years later, we got it made.<\/p>\n

\"Screenwriter<\/a>

Image courtesy of Norman Steinberg.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tom Hanks<\/a> was first in the door, but the director, Richard Benjamin, thought he was too sketchy.\u00a0Mark Linn-Baker<\/a> was great. But who knows how Tom Hanks would have been. He ended up doing Splash<\/em><\/a> instead. Getting Peter O\u2019Toole<\/a> was like a dream come true.\u00a0We said we wanted Peter O\u2019Toole.\u00a0MGM said “He\u2019s a drunk, get someone else.” We said, “He\u2019s perfect, and he doesn\u2019t drink anymore.”\u00a0We did meet with Albert Finney<\/a>. He had just finished Shoot the Moon<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and Annie <\/em>back to back. He told us he needed six months to rest. We knew we couldn\u2019t wait\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>there could be a whole new batch of executives then, and our movie could be shelved. We told him we couldn\u2019t wait. Finney said to us “O\u2019Toole’s your man \u2014 I went to RADA with him. He\u2019s your guy. I know I\u2019m going to regret this. I said this once before and that was Lawrence of Arabia<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Cover image via Warner Bros.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Looking for more industry interviews? Check these out.<\/p>\n