. good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. never before have a father and son been jointly honored with a hand and footprint ceremony outside the chinese theater. next week, carl and rob reiner will be first. but before they do, the three of us will talk about their long and successful careers as well as their new projects. carl has two new books coming out, and rob has a pair of films, one starring woody harrelson. we're gr we're glad you joined us. i think you're in for a treat tonight because carl and rob reiner are coming up right now. ♪

♪ and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ how fortunate am i and pleased to welcome two comedy legends to this program. carl reiner create the dick van dyke show and created films like "the jerk", with steve martin,

but meathead in "all in the family" but went on to direct films like "harry met sally", and on and on. next week they will be honored with a hand and footprint at the chinese theater during tcm's classic film festival. mr. reiner and mr. reiner, it's nice to have you. >> as you mentioned, we are the first father and son to get together. kirk douglas and michael douglas have been, but they were separated. >> how cool is that? >> it's ridiculously cool. >> all i keep thinking is that people who are not knowing it, like my wife, who made this person. >> yeah. >> and my father and parents, i said they would, they were so show business, in love with show business. that's the only sad thing. >> if you go on the hollywood walk of fame, we both have

stars. and they're right next to each other. >> right next to each other. >> so that's it. the hand prints, foot prints, always together. >> and my father did go to hollywood and stand on the one that when i got, before he, he took a picture of it. >> how cool is that? >> it's unbelievable. what do you, to your father's point, you had no control over being born into this family. >> none whatsoever. none whatsoever. >> you were fortunate, you were blessed to come into this union. what do you make of this, just the good fortune of being born into this family? >> well, lots of laughs. it's like, you know, the great thing is that the funniest people in the world, and if you look at anything you laughed at in the second half of the 20th century, you requecan look to t group of people that my dad was a part of, mel brooks, sid caesar, neil simon, you know, larry gelbart, woody allen, all

the greatest, funniest people, and they all were people that were in the house. so, you know, people were always asking, wh asking, what's it like growing up? well, it's not as funny at other people's houses. >> by the way, and the fact that robbie has a photographic memory. he remembers ever since he was this big. but the amazing thing is, when we were doing these, the 2,000 year old man was born in the living room, we just did it for fun. for years, never put it on. he was this big. and he used to sit there and laugh, and we didn't understand how he understood what we were doing, but he did. >> he had it. >> as a matter of fact, at one point, he actually gave us a joke. he said i got a joke for you. we said sure, and he came to it. >> it was the craziest thing, because, you know, to me, i idolized my father and mel

brooks, and the idea that they would even listen to me for a second. i walk in and they were working out a routine for the sullivan show or hollywood palace, and i said i got an idea for the joke, the derrivation of applause. what is it? a thousand years ago, if you liked something, you would show your appreciation by going, oh, is that good! and if you really liked something you could kill yourself. he pulled his head out and went like that. and they brought it down here, and that was the applause. they actually used that joke and that was the greatest thrill for me. >> you were writing jokes at 16? >> well, i wrote that joke. >> when he was very young, he worked on the smothers brothers show with dean martin. >> how you never got intimidated by all this greatness around

you, if you were starting that early, you were never intimidated. >> i was completely intimidated. i was intimidated all the time. i remember, he was nice to me all the time. when i was a teenager he would let me come down, when i was off on the summers to watch them do the dick van dyke show, when i was 13, 14, 15, 16, and i would sit there and watch them create the shows. it was brilliance, cutting-edge television at that time. and i would go to his office sometimes, i don't know if you knew this. but he would be on the stage working out with the actors or making changes in the script, and i'd sit behind his desk and go there's no way, how do i ever, i can't compete with this. this is a guy who won 12 emmies. wrote in the first few seasons, he'd write 20-25 scripts a year just by himself. it was, you know, the one thing that i love about this hollywood, i'm literally following in his footsteps.

>> wait a second. wait a second. >> literally. >> much more than following in footsteps. >> yeah. >> i have, my favorite pictures of all time, i have them in my head. i watch them often, when somebody hasn't seen them, i'll say you have to see this. the count of monte cristo, worst villains, and in that top five, random harvest with greer garson and ronald coleman, the princess bride. anytime you, anytime you are depressed. "when harry met sally." two things, you'll never forget that. and he made an actor out of his mother. >> one of the top five lines of all time in movies. >> i'll have what she's having. >> i wrote about that. she's w

she's one better than humphrey bogart. but because of that, she started getting acting jobs. she said i'm going to be in that, she went to the actor's studio at 50 years old. >> the first time rob had been intimidated is how you responded to the things you had to to persons who say you have gotten all the access, you got this because. >> there's no question about it, you have access if you have that name. but it's also, like they say, the door opens, but the door can close real quick and real hard if you don't have something to, and speaking of kirk douglas and michael douglas, i've had conversations with michael, you know, we're friends and we've done a couple movies together. and you can count on one hand the people whose parents achieve at a very high level whose children also achieved. and, you know, kirk and michael, i mean, the fondas, i mean, you know, it's not that many.

you know, it's a very small club. so it's tremendously difficult to, to maintain or to be able to achieve. >> i feel very lucky, because we, i have three children. i said my wife raised three great children. and one great husband. >> mm-hm. >> and it's true, because i was eight years old, she was eight years older than i. and when i was 20, she was 28. it only worked for 65 years, but the three children, him being one of them. lucas reiner is a world-renowned painter, my daughter who is a doctor of psychiatry, written books on analysis, she's going through the world giving lectures. that's the only thing that matters in this world, what you send out to the world in children. and by the way, when i talk about what he's done, i went to his office one time, i saw these posters. and out of 12 or how many pictures?

>> 20 now. two duds, two duds. >> one or two duds. >> there may be some people that would, didn't make, but they were all valid, sensational movies. >> every time, i've been fortunate to have you guys a couple times on the show together, more times separately. but the thing i always take away, because i can literally, when you guys leave here, i could, i could fly from here to new york unaided. i could just -- >> really? >> levitate. >> really? maybe we should do more of that. it will kwut docut down on carb emission and we can save the planet. >> i walked into that chin up, booty out. the reason i say that, it is such a beautiful thing to see how much your father, we know you love your dad, how much your father loves you and is proud of you. every one of us wants to make our moms and daddies proud. it must be something special to

you to see your dad live this long. 95 years young and to know that your dad is just as proud of you. >> he's the greatest role model you could possibly have. he has this, not only talented and a great work ethic and all this, but there's a humility there, he never would push his fame out there or anything like that. and i saw how he handled that. so that's the best thing i got from him is just a great role model and the fact that at 95 he still gets up every day, look. he's sitting there with a book in his hand. and he writes, he writes every day. see the segue? i didn't mean to, though. >> your dad taught you well. i love this book. and i just mentioned it at the top of the show. you have not one, but two more books coming out. >> this is a public service. >> please, please, take it away. >> i was on the conan o'brien show a couple weeks ago. i was coming down the stairs,

and i fell down a flight of stairs. >> this is a true story. >> true story. and as i fell, i said conan, i'm not coming! i screamed conan's name. i didn't hurt myself, i got right up. and this is a public service, i'm not kidding. when i was about 20, 25 years old, i slipped on an icy stairway, hurt my back, went to a therapist. and he said to me, for the rest of your life, do not get out of bed until you do the following stretches. and he gave me stretches to do, and i swear, this is a public service, i'm giving it to you now, too. do not get out of bed until you do these stretches, in case you fall down a flight. okay. here it is. this is a graphic diary, by the way. it is, i asked mel, i said, does anybody be interested in a graphic diary, which means every mundane thing i did from the morning i wake up, here's mel,

he says anybody interested in the mundane things. he says, why add 900 pictures. here it is. here it is. >> the stretches. >> here it is, here it is. >> these are the stretches. >> these are the exercises i do, and i did these this morning. >> before you get out of bed. >> of about you get out of bid. y and you do it on both sides. >> look how limber he is. i'm watching this, i want to get to 95, too. >> i'm not kidding. >> i'm watching, i'm watching man. >> these are all stretches i do to this day. and a couple of them, here, like this, one of these was on a billboard. >> that's limber right here. good lord. >> you want to talk limber? look at this. i can still put my legs and bend all the way. anyway, that's, that's >> that's unbelievable.

>> public service. >> if you do those you'll live to 95. >> you have a public service, call random contencom i'll personally autograph a book for you. >> this is the trick making it to 95, doing your stretching every morning. >> yes. the new book, mel brooks gives me titles. i said what do i do now? he says write a book called "too busy to die." >> and you did. >> i just finished it. >> and you have a children's book coming out? >> a children's book which i wrote a while back, but i held it back for a while. it's called "you say god bless you for sneezing and farting". and my little granddaughter, lucas's daughter, when she was 4 years old, she passed wind, she said to her little friend leo, they were going to kindergarten. she said don't you say god bless

you? he said no you say it when you sneeze. she said no it's sneaezing and farting. >> what do you do for your mind. this is for your body. >> you keep thinking. i wake up with thoughts. i wake up with thoughts. now i'm waking up with tweets about anti-trump tweets. >> oh, yeah. >> he tweets every day. >> i know, i follow him. i follow him. >> absolutely. >> today's tweet was about, he was talking about win, win, win, we're going to win, we're going to win so much that we -- >> sick of winning. >> no, i said, it was him talking about win, win, win. makes me feel, now i wouldn't mind, but we're losing, losing losing, while he's winning, winning. >> he's not winning at all.

>> speaking of trump, rob, i read this story. you have to explain this to me. steve bannon gets a check, you know where i'm going with this >> i know exactly where you're going. >> steve bannon gets a check every year, however these checks go out, for seinfeld. steve bannon gets a check for the tv series "seinfeld" here to tell us why and how. >> it is so humiliating and so upsetting to me. i had no idea. one of the investors in our company, castle rock was westinghouse. they put like $50 million in a loan to us. and when we were owned by ted turner and he sold his whole company to westinghouse, they were thinking we'll call in the debt and that will be it and we'll be done. bannon was advising westinghouse. and he said, no, no, stay in there. you know, it might, basecause a that point, "seinfeld" was

nothing, it was not a hit at all. they said if you think it's so good, why don't you forego your fee, your consulting fee and keep a piece of "seinfeld." so he did. and i've never met the guy. he did that. and then my wife took the picture on the cover of the "art of the deal." she's a photographer. so we both feel in some way responsible for this man. [ laughter ] >> i mean, it's horrible. >> your wife took the photo. and had you not sold castle rock. >> yeah. terrible. >> what scares me about this is the number of people who may stop watching "seinfeld" reruns because of the check to steve bannon. how did your wife end up taking the picture? >> this was years before i met her. she was a photographer. she took covers of magazines and things and she was hired to take a picture of donald trump. >> what do you make of the "art of the deal" that he did last week on health care?

>> beautiful. just worked out perfectly, didn't it? >> he's working very hard now to take away everything from poor people so rich people get a tax break. that's very good. >> their is is the most scary t in our country in terms of leadership. we have a person who is clearly mentally unstable, who has no understanding of government or policy. has no desire to fknow about it is an ego maniac and pathological liar. it's really squary cary to what happening. >> and to go from having the smartest president we've had since way back, to this guy is crazy. >> it is crazy. >> it's nuts. i mean, i feel so sorry, obama, i can't believe how he must feel today. >> what, what, what would, what kind of arguments would archie and meathead be having in this era of trump? >> you know, here's an interesting thing.

all during the campaign, right up to the election, people asked me that question, what would be going on? i said we'd be arguing the same thing. archie is the patriot. he would not like the fact that an enemy power was invading our country and taking, trying to take things over. he would, he would divert, die verge from trump on that. so the fact that there aren't more republicans that are outraged about the fact that the russians have come in here and done this and that trump is not saying anything about it, it's not only suspicious, but it's bad for the country. >> i'm glad you said that, i wanted to ask what you make of it. but it seems to my washington is engaged in business as usual whatever whatever it is, while this dark cloud of this entity, whatever impact it had on the election, and how the country's going to get off the ground. there's something wrong with the notion of business being had as usual with this cloud hanging

over our country. >> it's very scary, and two things. one is clearly the republicans only care about holding onto their seats. at a certain point, if this cloud starts causing rain to happen, they'll run, they'll run indoors, they'll run for the hills, because their seats will be in jeopardy, that said, that we have to wait that long for that to happen. but the other thing is when you have a potentially illegitimate president making decisions on judge gorsuch which will have maybe 30 year ramifications, something's wrong with that. it's one thing to fool around with policy and they can't get health care offer the grou the taxes or infrastructure. but the minute they start putting somebody like judge gorsuch, i'm not saying he's not qualified, a great jurist or whatever. i don't agree with him on a lot of things, but that's not right

that a president should have that right, he could be illegitimate and also could have done things that are illegal. >> and that on top of congress who wouldn't give the last guy a hearing. >> that's another conversation all together. and that, to me, is all about, i hate to say it, it's all about obama not wanting to give him anything. and we were talking about this before we came on the air. this is like all of these feelings that have been submerged for such a long time in this country have been unleashed in terms of racism and all of the feelings that they had about not feeling obama was legitimate, because he wasn't born, you know, he wasn't born in america, all of that is about delegitimizing an african-american person. and everything that's followed from that. we're not going to let him have anything, we're not, we won't let him have it. he's not a legitimate president. so that's what they've done. and unfortunately, they're continuing to do it. >> mr. reiner, they say -- >> you know what i was thinking about, one of the saddest things

i'm thinking about, you hear my son talk. a long time ago somebody, he's been very understanding of what's going on politically in the world, always. they asked him to run for office. governor. and he, we all thought it was great, because he could run the country. there's though questi there's no question about it. >> rob reiner could have done it. >> tell them, tell them why you decided not to run. >> we had a serious discussion at our house to talk about it. the family, michelle and i have three kids, and we talked about it and, you know, i make a joke, but it was true. i polled 40% in my own family. i figured if i couldn't carry my family, i probably shouldn't do it. >> they say the more things change the more things stay the same. when you've lived 95 years you've seen so much of what is

good and bad about america. how do you process this moment after all you've seen and gone through? >> it's scary, because this is the first time i've seen anything like this in the white house. we've had people we didn't agree with, nixon and the bushes, but we lived with it. this, we cannot live with. alan alda's grandson wrote a little film where people wake up in the morning, on the back of everybody's head, you go about your business, but this kid woke up, and he started to scream, hey! he realized trump was his president, he goes to the toilet, ah! we all have that. wake up, turn on msnbc, ah, he's still there. people walking the streets, very nicely, doing their things, whatever they're doing, two people meet in the market, ah! they're all screaming. in the back of our head, no matter what you do, you go about your business, but in the back, trump! >> i couldn't have said it better myself. >> rob, very quickly in 30

seconds. you have two films coming out. >> one is lbj, woody harrelson plays lbj with jennifer jason leigh and another called "shock and awe" about the journalists from night ridder, and tommy lee jones and james marsden, jessica biel. >> i saw that movie, by the way. there's an actor who plays a part, i could not believe. i haven't seen him acting for a long time. i could not believe the depth of his acting and the reality of it. i was blown away. it turns out it was him playing the lead. i'm not kidding. >> i love it. >> he jumped in at the last minute. somebody fell out. >> your daddy loves you. that's all you can ask for. next week these guys will be the first father/son team together to get their feet and hands

cemented outside of the choines theater. tcm, thanks for doing that. keep writing these books, my friend. before we go, a quick programming note, we will be in new york city next week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of dr. king's speech beyond vietnam, delivered five decades ago at the riverside church in new york. so next week, all five nights of this show will be dedicated to looking back at that speech on where america is on racism. thanks for watching. and, as always, keep the faith. ♪ for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with actor steven fry. that's next time. we'll see you then. ♪

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley, first tonight, a conversation with paula poundstone about her latest book, the "totally unscientific book for human happiness." and chooeech marin. we're grad you joined us, paula poundstone and cheech marin coming up in just a moment. ♪ ♪