A Terrible Casting Disaster

Gene Wilder played the character of the Waco Kid and became an unforgettable character in comedy. However, Wilder wasn’t the first pick for the casting of the character. Brooks offered the role to several other celebrities but they all turned it down. The role was then eventually offered to Wilder who etched the character in the memory of the audience.

Gig Young’s Untimely Retirement

Gig Young, while shooting the scene of Waco Kid being drunk and fooling around, actually got hammered out of his mind. The scene being referred to here was where Waco Kid drunkenly hangs from his bunk and asks Bart if he is black. But because he was drunk out of his mind, Young started behaving in an unruly manner and so he had to be let go by the studio and look for a new actor for the role.

Sleeping Out In The Open

Slim Pickens played the character of Taggart after playing several cowboy related roles. Because he had a reputation to protect, he made sure that he embodied Taggart to the T. To do so he even took his Winchester rifle to sleep with him. He even slept in the open to get a feel of a proper cowboy.

The Struggle For The Title

Mel Brooks’ team struggled with finding a suitable title for the movie but were drawing blanks. They came up with the initial title of “Tex X” drawing inspiration from Malcolm X which was scrapped and they settled on Black Bart. However, Brooks came up with the tile “Blazing Saddles” in the shower and that was the one that was selected. 

The Flatulations

According to Mel Brooks, “Blazing Saddles” was the first movie to include fart noises in the final cut. The scene that’s being referred to here is in which the gang of cowboys is sitting around a fire, eating beans and farting. Brooks came up with the idea for the scene after examining the theme in western films which saw cowboys eat beans around a campfire.

The Fart Jokes

Brooks decided to include several other fart jokes in the movie as well. Even his own character who was called Governor Le Petomane was named after a notorious ‘flatulence artist’ who was a French stage performer. He could blow candles from his fart from almost two feet away.