A Broadway Musical the black-themed musical itself. "The Wiz" proved to be Brown's only success. Following a dismal October–November tryout with Helen Gallagher and Julius LaRosa at the theatre in the Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, the producers fired most of the cast and creative personnel, including director/choreographer George Faison. Gower Champion was called in to rescue the Broadway-bound production with only a month to go, but he feared that the show's defects were too serious to remedy and insisted on receiving a "Production supervised by" credit only. After 14 previews, the Broadway production opened and closed the same night at the Lunt-Fontanne
Mel Brooks of his movie career, Brooks tried TV again with "When Things Were Rotten", a Robin Hood parody that lasted only 13 episodes. Nearly 20 years later, in response to the 1991 hit film "", Brooks mounted another Robin Hood parody in 1993 with "". Brooks' film resurrected several pieces of dialogue from his TV series, as well as from earlier Brooks films. In 1976, Brooks followed up his two hit films with an audacious idea: the first feature-length silent comedy in four decades. "Silent Movie" was written by Brooks and Ron Clark, starring Brooks in his first leading role, Dom