Blazing Saddles Almost Wasn’t Released

“When we screened it for executives, there were few laughs,” Brooks said in the Blu-ray commentary, He added that Warner Bros. executives opined, “It’s simply too vulgar for the American people. Let’s dump it and take a loss.”

But Brooks said that studio president John Calley decided to open it in three cities — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — as a trial, and “it became the studio’s top moneymaker that summer.”

Brooks also said in the Blu-ray edition that, following a sneak preview, Warner Bros. chairman Ted Ashley called for several cuts, including of the racial slur, and the flatulence noises.

“When he left, I crumpled up all of my notes and threw the wad into a wastebasket . . . I didn’t cut a sentence or a word or even an expression on anybody’s face,” Brooks said.