 The original cut of the movie was almost twice as long as the final  cut, and it was considered by all involved to be an abysmal failure.  It was only after a marathon cutting session that they produced the  final cut of the film, which both Gene Wilder (qv) and  Mel Brooks (I) (qv) considered to be far superior to the original  product. At one point they noted that for every joke that worked,  there were three that fell flat. So they went in and trimmed all the  jokes that didnt work.