I remember when I was a kid watching "The Silver Streak." In my best fantasies I wanted to combine the nerdiness of Gene Wilder with the almost out of control cockiness of Richard Pryor and end up sleeping with Jill Clayburgh every night.

Not many people know that Richard Pryor helped write "Blazing Saddles." Mel Brooks originally cast him in the lead role. The studio said no. The role went to the late Cleavon Little who delivered one of the best performances of his too short career.

We really needed Richard healthy the last 15 years. Anything hypocritical going on in the world? He'd have pointed it out through the use of his favorite word, "mothafucka." He could go around for five minutes giving us 50 different recitations of mothafucka. He wouldn't need to say anything else. Each mothafucka would carry a different meaning. And we'd laugh, and laugh, and then eventually get to the point where we'd run out of air but we'd keep laughing anyway.