Spaceballs: The Series!

I know Spaceballs isn't among Mel Brooks' best work. I know it's flawed and riffs too heavily on Star Wars--when it branches out and sucker-punches franchises like Alien and Planet of the Apes, that's when it really shines. A couple of years ago, right about the time Brooks was gearing up for The Producers musical on Broadway, he said in an interview he was working on a Spaceballs sequel, since that was the most fun he'd ever had working on a film. Then, after The Producers became a monster hit, he mentioned a Spaceballs musical. Apparently all of those ideas have fallen by the wayside in favor of Spaceballs: The Animated Series!

MGM TV has commissioned an animated series based on Mel Brooks' 1987 "Spaceballs" movie and sold exclusive rights in the U.S. to Comcast's G4 cable network.

Encompassing a one-hour pilot and 13 half-hour episodes, project represents the first scripted series greenlit by the new TV division at MGM, led by Jim Packer, president of the worldwide TV distribution group. Series kicks off on G4 in fall 2007.

Although the movie grossed only $38.1 million in U.S. multiplexes, Packer said "Spaceballs" has become "a successful franchise for our library" through sale in video and DVD and to cable and pay TV nets.

Brooks and Thomas Meehan, who co-wrote the movie with Ronnie Graham, have penned the one-hour pilot, and Meehan will supervise the writing of the 13 half-hours. Brooks will do two of the voices, President Skroob and Yogurt.

This, I think, is good. Brooks really shines when he's doing voice work (listen to his 2,000-Year-Old-Man routines if you don't believe me) and animation is a medium uber-friendly towards wacky SF goodness (re: Futurama). Brooks hasn't had success with his television ventures in the past (why isn't When Things Were Rotten out on DVD yet?) but maybe this will break the jinx? All I know is that I'm looking forward to it.

Skroob the people!

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