Silence, all you "You couldn't make 'Blazing Saddles' today" fools: it just so happens that Mel Brooks almost wasn't able to make "Blazing Saddles" in 1974. To be fair, Brooks knew going into making the film that he was looking to push buttons and boundaries, extrapolating from the anything-goes ethos of his prior comedy ventures. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly from 2014, Brooks confessed that his primary interest in making his brand of cinematic anarchy was that he "just wanted to exorcise both my angels and demons." Brooks encouraged his writers to "go nuts," on the assumption that Warner Bros. Pictures would see the finished film and refuse to release it.

Although "Blazing Saddles" was eventually released to great acclaim, becoming one of the most beloved comedy films of all time, Brooks' assumption did prove well-founded at one point. Surprisingly, WB didn't take issue with multiple aspects of the movie — and...