Carl Reiner
1922 - 2020
I don't remember the first time I ever saw Carl Reiner on TV. It was probably on the Ed Sullivan Show or some other variety show doing his "2,000 Year Old Man" bit with Mel Brooks. I was probably ten or twelve years old at the time, and I knew one thing: That Carl Reiner was funny. Very funny. Everything that I ever saw from him over the next 50 or so years did nothing but confirm that not only was he funny, he was an authentic comic genius and a true American treasure. He died today at the age of 98, and what a legacy he leaves.
His first major breakthrough came as both a writer and a performer on Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" in the 1950's. I don't remember those shows, but the stable of writers that worked on those shows with Caesar and Reiner are legendary - Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, Woody Allen among others. It was in those writers' rooms that the 2,000 Year Old Man was born when Reiner and Brooks just started riffing the bit.
Reiner: You must have know Jesus.
Brooks: Oh sure. Nice young man. Always wore sandals. Hung around with the same twelve guys all the time. They came into the store a lot, but they never bought anything.
Reiner tried to fashion a sitcom starring himself as a suburban husband who worked in a variety show writers' room, based on his experiences with Caesar. The pilot for that one went nowhere, but producer Sheldon Leonard approached Reiner and asked him to rework it with him. They did, and "The Dick Van Dyke Show", one of television's all time classics, was born. The show ran for six seasons, won a slew of Emmys and made stars out of Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.
Reiner would go on to win nine Emmys, five for the Van Dyke Show alone, as an actor, a writer, and a producer. He also won two Writers Guild Awards, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. IMDB notes over 100 acting credits, 25 writing credits, 12 Producer credits, and 25 director credits for him.
When director Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney decided to remake Frank Sinatra's "Ocean's 11" movie as "Ocean's Eleven" in 2001, they cast Reiner, then 79 years old, as one of Danny Ocean's (Clooney) crew. If you own a copy of the DVD for that movie, watch some of the extra features on the disk, and you will hear the other actors, Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Julia Roberts talk about what an honor and a privilege it was to work with "the great Carl Reiner." They were in awe of him.
The last time I saw Carl Reiner was just last week on a 2012 episode of Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." In that seventeen minute episode, it was revealed the Brooks would visit Reiner's house every night, where the two of them would have dinner off of TV tray tables and watch "Jeopardy." Like everything that Reiner and Brooks did, it was hilarious. If you have access to Netflix, look it up and watch it.
I will close this post with the same video clip that I used three years ago on my Absent Friends post for Mary Tyler Moore. It was from the Van Dyke Show episode where Laura appeared on a televised game show and was tricked by the smarmy host into admitting that Alan Brady was bald. Moore was great in the scene, and Reiner was, well, fantastic.
RIP Carl Reiner.
Show Biz and American Humor will not see his like again.
With son Rob Reiner.
A Chip off the Old Block.
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner
With Brad Pitt in "Ocean's Eleven"
They're laughing in the Afterlife today!
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