It is always a great pleasure to talk with Carl Reiner, and I was very happy to welcome him back to my show to help promote his new book, “I Remember Me,” an autobiography in which he shares essays about his career, his family, and some of the famous people he’s known.
His show business experience has been a remarkable one, spanning more than seven decades, including as a performer and writer on “Your Show Of Shows,” creator of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” director of “Oh, God!” and Steve Martin’s first 4 movies, and acting in “Ocean’s Eleven” movies, “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,”and “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” He has also written several books and plays — and as if that wasn’t enough, he’s now on Twitter!
Some of the topics we covered today:
- His friendship with Mel Brooks and their love of “Jeopardy!”;
- His appearances as both panelist and host of TV game shows;
- What he learned from working with directors like Stanley Kramer and Norman Jewison;
- What is was like to direct George Burns in “Oh, God!”;
- His appearance with Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews on a 1974 British TV special;
- A 1966 movie trailer he made with Alan Arkin for “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming”;
- How he made sure no one else could read a Scientology book that was given to him.
Listen to our conversation here.
I haven’t digitized all of my previous interviews with Carl Reiner, but here are 3 more you can listen to: