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Mark Gordon is co-president of the Producers Guild of America and the powerful television producer behind such shows as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Army Wives,” and “Private Practice.” He also appears to be a fan of Mel Brooks. Nikke Finke has the details:

At the table read, there was a scene in the script that had one character putting a gun to another character’s head. At that point, Mark Gordon stood up and started acting out what he said was a scene from Blazing Saddles [scene embedded above]. An eyewitness says he grabbed the person next to him in a headlock (Gordon claims he grabbed himself in the headlock) and shouted “I’m going to kill you nigger… nigger.” It shocked everyone in the room, “especially Union and Davis”, according to an eyewitness. “He offended the whole room. There was strong reaction to it,” an executive tells me. “He did apologize right after. Then folks who were there reported him to Lifetime HR [Human Resources] who then reported him to ABC Studios HR.” Said a Lifetime exec, “There’s nothing we can do about it. He works for ABC Studios.”

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One of the finest comedy movies ever made was the Mel Brooks classic “Blazing Saddles.”  It’s a cult classic that’s still aired on TV today.  The film’s dialogue is riddled with racist, sexist, bigoted speech. The “N” word is used 17 times. Yet, 36 years after the film’s debut the “N” word is “bleeped” whenever it’s broadcast on television. It isn’t because the movie was insensitive to racism in 1974.  Quite the opposite.  The bigotry is an intentional punch line at the expense of the bigoted.  Sensitivity to mere words has neutered an extraordinarily important commentary on race in film.

Mel  Brooks, like so many entertainers of his era made his living skewering racial, religious, ethnic, and social mores.    Brooks, a Jew, was quite fond of poking fun of his heritage.  His movies have lampooned Hitler, Nazis, and the Holocaust.   It makes the “N” word seem like Sesame Street.

Have you ever watched or listened to the Friar’s Club or Dean Martin celebrity roasts?  One of the most famous “roast masters” was legendary comic Don Rickles.  While roasting then Governor Ronald Reagan, Rickles proclaimed it was “his people” that got Reagan elected.  When roasting Sammy Davis Jr. he said “We all have our differences.  Dean’s Catholic, I’m Jewish, Sammy, you’re black.  I’m sorry.”   

Again, these are tame examples, mind you. (more…)