On Monday, February 27th, Hulu celebrated the premiere of “History of the World, Part II” at The Hollywood Legion in Los Angeles. The red carpet was filled with stars, but none were bigger than Mel Brooks who made a surprise appearance on the stage of the Legion Theater.
Brooks was in rare form, walking to the podium and delivering an improvised speech as a meteorologist. “There’s going to be some mild precipitation,” Brooks joked. The veteran filmmaker and comedian had the room eating out of his hand, and the energy levels never dissipated as Hulu screened the first two episodes of the series.
David Stassen, who served as the Showrunner and Executive Producer on the Hulu series, followed Barinholtz with some heartfelt words on the strain of making a TV series. “We want to thank the families of everybody who worked on the show,” Stassen said. “There were a of early mornings, late nights, and a lot of drives to Santa Clarita.”
Star and Executive Producer Wanda Sykes echoed her appreciation for everyone who came to work on the show. “We also want to thank all of our guest stars,” Sykes said. “It was such an easy gig to cast because you say, ‘Mel Brooks’ and you guys say, ‘Yes,'” Sykes joked. “Thanks for coming out and playing with us and always being so game.”
Star and Executive Producer Nick Kroll praised his brother who was in attendance, citing him as the man who introduced him to Mel Brooks. “We watched Mel Brooks movies when we were children and we met him for the first time twenty years ago,” Kroll shared.
Kroll admitted to pitching Brooks an idea to remake his film “The Producers,” which Brooks comically declined. “He said, ‘Go do your own work,’ and walked away,” Kroll said to great laughter. “But twenty years later, look who came crawling back!”
Kroll revealed that Searchlight Television reached out to him and invited him to work on “History of the World: Part ll.” “I can say safely for all of us, it was the fastest ‘Yes’ any of us have ever said,” Kroll acknowledged on a more serious note. “Everybody in this room is affected comedically because of Mel Brooks.”
Kroll’s continued his praise of Brooks, but it was smothered by the audience’s rapturous applause for the comedy icon. A short video played of Brooks thanking his team and producers before he surprised everyone by appearing on stage and doing his weather forecaster bit.
A majority of the guest star were present on the carpet, including Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Jay Ellis, Josh Gad, Dove Cameron, Pamela Adlon, Sarah Silverman, Hannah Einbinder, Jack McBrayer, Jason Mantzoukas, Marla Gibbs, Michaela Watkins, Reggie Watts, Jon Daly, Timothy Simons, Lauren Lapkus, Malcom Barrett, Ken Marino, Sam Richardson, Poppy Liu, Kimiko Glenn, Zahn McClarnon, Will Sasso, Tim Baltz, Sarayu Blue, Arturo Castro, Rob Corddry, Parvesh Cheena, Nick Robinson, James Urbaniak, David Wain, Drew Tarver, Christopher Thornton, Colton Dunn, Chris Pontius, Cary Elwes, Carl Tart, Atsuko Okatsuka, Brock O’Hurn, Brian Huskey, and others.
Filmmakers in attendance included executive producers David Stassen, Kevin Salter and director Alice Mathias.
The “History of the World, Part II” four-night premiere event starts Monday, March 6 on Hulu with the first two episodes. Two new episodes will drop daily, with the finale on Thursday, March 9.