ET Flashback: Mel Brooks' 'Spaceballs'

Mel Brooks' out-of-this-world comedy Spaceballs premiered in theaters 25 years ago on June 24, 1987, and we're flashing back with vintage ET footage of Mel and Rick Moranis hamming it up on the set, plus a hilarious one-on-one with Mel right before the film's release!

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"I just knew the time was right; all these space movies, it was just ripe for my picking," Mel told ET back in '87. "It was time for a Mel Brooks space genre send-up, and we had our fun."

An idea that came to him in the shower, Mel's spoof of the Star Wars trilogy, Alien, Star Trek and every other sci-fi cliché imaginable starred Moranis, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Joan Rivers, Dick Van Patten, the late John Candy and Mel himself and went on to become a timeless comedy classic -- and one of Mel's biggest hits (the 25th Anniversary blu-ray edition is scheduled to come out August 7).

"With Mel it's kind of anything goes," Moranis told ET, comparing the atmosphere on the set to his old days working on SCTV. "Anything that's funny kind of finds its way in, so there's all kinds of different styles of comedy in it. … It's really a lot of fun."

"They got every joke," said Mel of the first test-audience screening. "The audience is really right on top of every cliché that has to do with sci-fi and space."

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As for what he thought George Lucas might think of his send-up, Mel replied with a wink, "Like Alfred Hitchcock loved High Anxiety – he sent me a case of wine after he saw it – I hope Lucas will have the goodness to send me a case of wine. I do love Chateau Margaux, George, if you're listening."