Mel Brooks Talks Working on ‘History of the World, Part II’ at 96: ‘I’m the Jewish Advisor’
variety.comJoe Otterson TV Reporter Mel Brooks came up with the title to his 1981 comedy feature “History of the World, Part I” as a joke.
There were never any plans to make a Part II. Until now. As the streaming revolution took hold, Brooks, his producing partner Kevin Salter and rightsholder Searchlight Pictures decided to explore a long overdue sequel, but in series form.
That’s when they contacted Nick Kroll, who’s known for his sketch comedy (in addition to the painfully funny take on adolescence “Big Mouth”), to kick around a “Part II” that was four decades not in the making. “There was something slightly more exciting about hearing from Mel Brooks, with all due respect to the wonderful folks at Searchlight,” Kroll says.
Kroll brought in Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen to develop the 21st century take on the original. But they didn’t want to do a new “History of the World” without the king who started it all.
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