Remembering Carl Reiner

Mike Schilling

Mike has been a software engineer far longer than he would like to admit. He has strong opinions on baseball, software, science fiction, comedy, contract bridge, and European history, any of which he's willing to share with almost no prompting whatsoever.

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5 Responses

  1. Michael Cain says:

    Carl Reiner’s Alan Brady and Mary Tyler Moore’s expressions while she wrings her hands and talks herself in deeper and deeper. If they could have worked a couple of Dick Van Dyke’s spectacular falls into the scene somehow, it would have what I always thought were the three best things about the show.Report

  2. rexknobus says:

    My buddy Jeff Maxwell (Private Igor from M*A*S*H) did an interview with Mr. Reiner one time where, at the end of the show, Jeff said: “Well, we’re just about out of time…” and Mr. R bounced right back with: “YOU’RE out of time!?! I’m 89 years old!”

    The nexus that was “Your Show of Shows” is just amazing. All of them should have statues in the Garden of American Heroes.

    Thanks for a nice write-up. And thanks for the “My Favorite Year” mention. Terrific film, Richard Benjamin’s insightful direction, half-comic half-realistic look at that early comedy era, and a treasured moment of Peter O’Toole screaming: “I’m not an actor; I’m a Movie Star!” Don’t miss it.Report

  3. CJColucci says:

    In honor of Reiner, I’ve been listening to my recording of The 2,000 Year-Old Man. It reminded me that there is a book to be written on the great straight men — should it be “straight-men” to avoid a possible ambiguity? — and the art of the straight man, Carl Reiner, Bud Abbott, George Burns, Margaret DuMont, etc., etc.Report

    • Groucho used to say that Dumont never got any of the jokes, but that’s nonsense, of course; the starchy grande dame was a part she played, and very successfully, goth on Broadway and in films.

      I was just looking at her Wikipedia page, and I had no idea that her godfather was Joel Chandler Harris. “Why, Mr. Driftwood. Do not throw me into the briar patch!”Report

  4. This is wonderful, thank you.

    Reiner also co-wrote Dead Men Don’t Wear Plain and The Man With Two Brains, both of which I have a huge soft spot for. For decades now my mother and I have made a long running joke of “Who’s that lurking over there? Isn’t it Merv Griffin?” A joke that somehow manages to offend no one and yet still be totally hilarious.Report