Movie Musings: Disney and More

Carl Reiner: The Value of Humor

Throughout the history of comedy, there have been those who write it, those who perform it (in movies, television, and stand-up tours), those who produce and direct it, and some who do all of the above. One of the greatest examples of someone who has done all the above is Carl Reiner. For more than 70 years Carl Reiner made the world laugh in every medium of entertainment! He wrote, produced and starred in some of the most endearing television sit-coms and motion pictures ever. He also wrote humorous books and plays, and even lent his voice to some cartoon shows and even narrated some audiobooks.

      Carl Reiner was born on March 20th, 1922 in the Bronx, New York. His parents, Irving and Bessie Reiner, were Jewish Immigrants who had relocated to the Bronx where his father worked as a watchmaker. At the age of 16, he took a job as a sewing machine repairman. While working that job he heard from his older brother, Charles, about a free drama workshop sponsored by the Works Progress Administration and decided to attend. After attending the workshop, he knew his career path. In an interview he did with “Newshour” in 2016 Reiner said “My influences in comedy started because my parents loved comedy. My parents always sought out comedies. The Marx brothers were their favorites. Those people who have a sense of humor get through life more comfortably than those who don’t.”

At 20 years old, Reiner was drafted into the United States Air Force and served in WW2. During his service, he was trained as a French interpreter at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and while there directed his very first play, which was by Moliere. He achieved the rank of corporal by the end of the war, but was honorably discharged in 1946. In ’48, he made his Broadway debut in the musical revue Inside U.S.A.. Two years later, in ’50, he starred in another revue called Alive and Kicking, also the year he got on NBC’s groundbreaking classic comedy variety series, Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) starring with Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca and Howard Morris. The show was groundbreaking because the entire cast always did one take per sketch, without any retakes whatsoever! In addition to performing on the show, he also wrote sketches for it, though he won the first two Emmys of his career for his performance. The show led to Reiner meeting and befriending Mel Brooks, who worked as a writer on the show. Their friendship led to collaboration on five different comedy albums, the most beloved of all being “The 2000 Year Old Man,” in which Reiner plays an interviewer and Brooks plays a man who witnessed Jesus’s crucifixion.

The success of “Your Show of Shows,” led to NBC continuing with “Caesar’s Hour,” which ran from ’54-’57. Reiner’s time on these shows inspired him to think about writing a new sit-com about his time as a writer/performer on the shows. In 1959, he made his film debut in Happy Anniversary (1959). He also wrote the pilot script for a sit-com entitled Head of the Family, in which he portrayed a fictionalized version of himself, named Rob Petrie, who lives a humorous life as the co-writer of a comedy-variety show and a loving husband and father. Although CBS liked the pilot, they didn’t like him in the role of Rob Petrie, and suggested he find someone else for the role. This led to Reiner collaborating with Sheldon Leonard (producer of The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964) and The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968)) and as co-producers they found Dick Van Dyke, at the time starring in the hit Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie. Hence the show was renamed The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) and remains a beloved classic today. 

While producing “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” Reiner also had a small part in the epic comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), which also starred Sid Caesar along with nearly every well-known American comedian at that time (i.e. Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Edie Adams). That same year he also wrote the James Garner/Doris Day flick The Thrill of It All (1963). In the later seasons of the show, Reiner hired Garry Marshall as a writer and because of that generosity, Marshall went on to have a career similar to Reiner’s.      

             

Prior to creating “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” Reiner also wrote his very first book, an autobiographical novel entitled Enter Laughing, published in 1958. The novel was readapted for the screen by Columbia Pictures in 1967 and starred Reni Santoni as David Kolowitz, another fictionalized version of Reiner. Columbia also granted Reiner the right to make his directorial debut with the film. The year “Dick Van Dyke,” ended its run on TV, iReiner also starred in the films Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of a Title, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (which also starred Jonathan Winters who appeared in “Mad World,”) and he lent his voice to the Czech-American animated film Alice in Wonderland in Paris. 

He opened the ‘70s directing the film Where’s Poppa (1970) and he reunited with Dick Van Dyke on The New Dick Van Dyke Show which ran on CBS from 1971-1974. He appeared on The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978) in 1974, reunited with Mel Brooks for the television version of The 2000 Year Old Man in 1975, and directed The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), The Man With Two Brains (1983), and All of Me (1984). All four films starred Steve Martin, and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” and “Man With Two Brains,” were co-written by Reiner and Martin along with George Gipe. Reiner also appeared in “The Jerk,” and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.” In 1981, he provided the voice of God in History of the World, Part I which starred and was written, produced, and directed by Mel Brooks.

In the ‘90s, he retired from writing shows, but he continued his acting and director career, and he directed Fatal Instinct in 1993 which was a parody of films like Fatal Attraction (1987), Basic Instinct (1992), Chinatown (1974), and Cape Fear (1991). In 1994, he lent his voice to audio books of Aesop’s Fables and Jack and the Beanstalk, and the following year, published a sequel to his first book, Enter Laughing, called Continue Laughing. In the early 2000’s, he accepted the role of con man Saul Bloom in Warner Bros 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven starring alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Julia Roberts. He reprised that character for its two sequels, Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). He continued voice acting, lending his voice to live-action/CGI hybrid film Good Boy! (2003) and the Netflix film Duck Duck Goose (2018). He was thrilled beyond all belief when he was invited by Disney, along with other comedy legends, Mel Brooks, Betty White, and Carol Burnett to all do cameo voice-overs in Toy Story 4 (2019) in which they all voice “toy” fictionalized versions of themselves, Carl Reinerocerous, Melephant Brooks, Bitey White, and Chairol Burnett. They each reprised these roles for an episode of the Disney+ Original Series Forky Asks a Question (2019).

Carl Reiner passed away on June 29th, 2020 due to natural causes at the age of 98. His career and life are inspirational because they inspire literally everyone to look around and see how humorous life really is. On occasion, it is difficult to see the humor in life, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. As the lyrics to the “Dick Van Dyke,” theme song say “When you find the joy of livin’ is lovin’ and givin’ you’ll be there when the winning dice are tossed.” We should always consider ourselves fortunate to have people in our lives who are humorous and who remind us of the meaning and the value of humor. That undoubtedly applies to Carl Reiner.