Mel Brooks won one Oscar over the course of his illustrious career. Care to guess which film earned him his lone statuette? 
 
Nope, it wasn’t Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein or even Spaceballs, though those are all good guesses. It was a writing Oscar for his The Producers screenplay. 
 
Brooks currently sits on the long list of esteemed directors who never took home the Best Director Oscar for their work. Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Tim Burton, Sidney Lumet, Sergio Leone … the list is pretty extensive. 
 
Yet with Brooks finding out today that he’s receiving the lifetime achievement honor from the American Film Institute, we wanted to go back over his resume and single out the five movies that should have earned Brooks an Oscar nomination (and probably an Oscar win). They are the five reasons we’re delighted with the AFI recognition. Now tell us, which ones did we miss?
 
1. Blazing Saddles
The quintessential Brooks comedy, Blazing Saddles spoofed the movie industry (a storytelling trick that Hollywood usually adores) and also tackled uncomfortable opinions on racism and sexism in ways that only Brooks could. Like the first three movies on the list, it also features a side-splitting turn by Brooks' favorite leading man, Gene WIlder. Probably not Oscar material, but Brooks’ best movie, anyway. 
 
 
 
2. The Producers
At least Brooks was recognized for his razor-sharp script. Oddly enough, The Producers is better known for the smash Broadway musical with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick that the film recently spawned. But those who go back and rewatch the original will be treated to brilliant comedic performances by Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel. 

 
 
3. Young Frankenstein
Speaking of Wilder, the funnyman was at the top of his game playing Dr. Frankenstein, a descendent of the infamous, mad scientist who moves back in to his family’s castle and resumes his experiments. Young Frankenstein taught me the importance of wordplay in a comedy, and few were better at delivering Brooks’ scripted lines than Wilder.

 
 
4. Spaceballs
Can you think of another movie that so foolishly lampooned George Lucas’ Star Wars saga … and even received Lucas’ blessing in the process? With Spaceballs, Brooks introduced Dark Helmet, Pizza the Hut and many more memorable characters into our memory banks. This easily could have been a flop, but Brooks so masterfully understood the joke, he kept us laughing all the way to another galaxy. 
 

 
5. History of the World: Part I
Long before Scary Movie, Epic Movie and the string of silly spoof films that clog today’s multiplexes, Brooks tackled our global history books with a series of comedic vignettes that covered everything from Moses (played by the director) to the French Revolution. His ensemble consisted of comic legends, from Dom DeLuise and Harvey Korman to Cloris Leachman and Sid Caesar. It’s not too late, Mr. Brooks, to deliver Part II. 
 
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