Mel Brooks Was Inspired by His Son’s Love of Star Wars
Spaceballs riffs on many sci-fi classics, but it especially parodies the original 1977 Star Wars. He got the idea for Spaceballs, he wrote in his memoir, All About Me!, because “my son Max loved the Star Wars movies. I would take him to various showings of them. And for his tenth birthday, he had a Star Wars-themed birthday party.”
That gave Brooks an idea: “Science fiction! Now there’s a genre I haven’t wrecked yet.”
He had of course already taken on Westerns with Blazing Saddles and horror films with Young Frankenstein, both in 1974 — as well as several other genres.
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