Mel Brooks’ favourite TV shows of the 21st century: “It seems superior in intelligence”
As his status as one of history’s few EGOT winners can attest, Mel Brooks is a jack of all trades. The actor, filmmaker, and comedian has conquered stage and screens both big and small, but cinema has always been his first love.
Even though his career began on television, where he worked under the influential Sid Caesar and struck up a lifelong friendship with Carl Reiner before creating the spy spoof series Get Smart in the 1960s, it was his Academy Award-winning script for The Producers that got Brooks to where he wanted to be.
The films he grew up watching remain his favourites to this day, and his tastes are constantly evolving. After all, he once revealed that he and Carl Reiner watched Ridley Scott’s Gladiator at least once a month, and he fell in love with Matt Damon’s Bourne franchise, naming the first instalment one of the 21st century’s best, in part because it fulfilled his and Reiner’s all-important “secure the perimeter” criteria.
Brooks is responsible for several of Hollywood’s most beloved feature-length comedies, but he’s no slouch on TV, either. Whether it’s Get Smart, the History of the World revival, or his countless cameos in things like The Simpsons, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Frasier, he’s kept his fingers in a lot of pies.
He doesn’t share his preferred episodic offerings anywhere near as often as he does the movies that capture his imagination, though, but he did offer an insight into his viewing habits in a 2014 conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, when he divulged the only four things on TV that he felt were worth his time.
“There are a lot of shows that I like, but, honestly, there’s not a lot of comedy that I’m crazy about,” he said. “I like The Good Wife; I’d like to meet her. Breaking Bad was incredible. Justified with Timothy Olyphant is a wonderful show. I like mostly hour drama. It seems to be superior in intelligence and in writing ability than half-hour sitcoms that just don’t thrill me.”
Immediately making his own point redundant, Brooks then named a half-hour sitcom that did thrill him. “I like Modern Family,” he explained. “It’s funny, especially when my old friend Nathan Lane is a guest star. It’s adorable. Otherwise, I like Chinese food. Peking duck.” What’s that got to do with 2000s TV? Who knows, but the Blazing Saddles director isn’t averse to the odd wandering aside.
If one were to be singled out as a favourite, then Bryan Cranston’s transformation from mild-mannered science teacher to drug kingpin would likely take the cake. Why? Because Carl Reiner felt compelled to issue a social media apology for himself and his best friend being so far behind the curve on Vince Gilligan’s masterpiece.
“Mel Brooks and I just watched and enjoyed Breaking Bad and cannot believe that we missed seeing this great, great series when it first ran,” the comedy legend decided to tell the world. Walter White’s slow-burning descent into the criminal underworld is one of the best ever, The Good Wife was an awards season and ratings favourite, Justified remains sorely underrated as one of the ‘prestige TV’ era’s greats, and Modern Family lasted for 11 seasons, so the elder statesmen definitely had decent taste.
Mel Brooks’ favourite 21st-century TV shows:
- The Good Wife (2009-2016)
- Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
- Justified (2010-2015, 2023)
- Modern Family (2009-2020)
