Comedy legend Mel Brooks is teaming with Shout! Factory for a multi-DVD boxed-set retrospective of Brooks’ prolific output.
“The History of Mel Brooks, Part 1,” which begins production this month, will cover the range of Brooks’ life and career and will include exclusive interviews, film clips and rare archival TV footage, according to Shout! There will also be rare photos, “critical appreciation” and special tributes.
“As I so boldly wrote in ‘The Producers,’ ‘When you got it, flaunt it!’ ” Brooks says in a release. “Well, I got it and Shout Factory’s going to flaunt it.”
The DVD set is expected to be available next spring, in time for Brooks’ 85th birthday.
Speaking of comedy geniuses, one side note regarding Brooks and “The Producers.” The late Peter Sellers was such a huge fan of “The Producers” that, when the movie was first released in 1968, he took out a full page ad in Variety touting its genius, and would hold (chemically enhanced) parties where he’d screen the flick for a coterie of friends.
In 1974, Sellers appeared in a famous TV interview on the BBC’s “Parkinson” show (hosted by Michael Parkinson) dressed like Kenneth Mars’ character from “The Producers,” Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind, and recited some of Liebkind’s dialogue.
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Remember Steve Bartelstein? The former Ch. 7 and Ch. 2 anchor, who had a troubled history here, has now been fired from his job in Chicago.
Bartelstein is out after 10 months at WBBM, according to Chicago media columnist Robert Feder, who broke the story Sunday in his Time Out Chicago column. According to Feder, Bartelstein was let go last Friday for undisclosed reasons; his bio was yanked that same day from the station’s Web site.
Bartelstein, 48, was hired at WBBM — where he hosted a morning news show with Susan Carlson — after a stormy tenure here, which included being fired by Ch. 7 in March 2007 after a series of incidents — including sleeping through a news update and battling a sexual harassment charge.
He was hired by Ch. 2 in October ’07, where he battled cancer but quit in March 2009 after accusing the station of not appreciating him.
Last, but not least:
* Monday’s “Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular” averaged 8.6 million viewers on NBC — its best showing in 11 years . . . The sixth season of “Supernatural” is out on DVD Sept. 13 . . . Tony Dovolani (“Dancing With the Stars”) will be at today’s NYC Dance Alliance Convention at the Sheraton. Over 1,500 dancers are competing in the week-long program for $1 million in scholarships . . . A new episode of HGTV’s “Selling New York” airs tomorrow night . . . Last Friday’s season finale of Discovery’s “Dual Survival” snared 1.6 million viewers and finished second among men 25-54 in basic cable (excluding sports telecasts) . . . Olympic gold medal gymnast Dominique Dawes is a guest coach for the President’s Council on Fitness, which is teaming with iVillage on the six-week “Get Moving Now Challenge” . . . So how depressing is it that I heard a “back-to-school” radio ad — on July 5th? It was for cell phones.
Contact The Starr Report: mstarr@nypost.com.