tavis: good evening. from losngeles, i am tavis smiley. a conversation with one of the great pioneers of television carl reiner and his son writer and director rob reiner. he has gone on to direct classics like "this is spinal tap" and ""when harry met sall " ."

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: actor and director rob reiner who has given us such great comedies like "when harry met sally" and "this is spinal tap" group up in a household dominated by laughter. his father created "the dick van ," and with his good friend mel brooks created a 2000-year-old man. he has a new memoir titled "i just remembered." we will start with a look from

rob's latest movie, "and so it goes." eugene.looks like >> and what does a eugene look like? >> like someone who loved you. last time i had sex, i tore my acl. >> is this relevant to anything? >> i just thought some information you should have. >> is this a pathetic attempt at flirtation? >> when you put it that way, no. . night. tavis: diane keaton and michael douglas, they have never happened before. >> they are sensational together. great chemistry. tavis: give me a bit of the storyline. >> it's about love later in

life. list," did "the bucket everybody would ask is what is on your list. nicholson,sked jack he would say one more great romance. that gave me the idea to do a film about people who find each other later on in life. it's a love story for adults. tavis: i'm sorry you said that -- i'm glad you said that. what has to happen in this contemporary moment for a movie starring actors who are chronologically gifted, shall we say -- [laughter] >> how very kind of you. tavis: how do you make that work in hollywood? the adage is that this stuff doesn't make money. >> and does. "the bucket list" did quite well. the baby boomers is a big segment of the population. we made a joke when we screened "the bucket list" is that there

was a great desire to see with a 40% ability to get to the theater. [laughter] if there is something there that they like, they will come. tavis: i am honored to have the two of you here together. what was it like? i was just stunned -- maybe stunned it was to strong a word. i was tickled when i saw this. your father was on television before your family owned a television. >> that's right. he started in television in 1946 -- 47. we first got a television in 50 when he9 or 19 was doing "the show of shows." around a 10-ish television. i was four or five years old and it was onay to me -- saturday night, late at night. when he said, they don't want us

waiting at the end of the show. i can't wave at you like this. but i am going to let you know that i know you are watching. i am going to adjust my type. and that meant i love you and it's time to go to sleep. so he did that every night saturday nights. >> and carol burnett used the ear. tavis: what do you make all these years later, carl reiner, that your son has not just followed in your footsteps? >> he jumped over my footsteps. rob has made my favorite movies of all time. "the princess bride comes on television and i cannot leave it until it is over. i find myself laughing. ,he very first movie ever made "this is spinal tap" is brilliant. every movie ever made, save one, thank goodness.

[laughter] all perfect, someone will hurt him. he is too good. he is not perfect. one movie didn't work. i consider him the best director/writing on motion picture today. tavis: which one is he talking about? >> i don't know. there are a couple of stinkers in their. [laughter] we love all our children equally. tavis: your friend mel brooks was here a few weeks ago. >> we watched together. tavis: we had a wonderful time talking to him. he absolutely adores you. when you mention your name to mel brooks, there is nothing like it. >> he is my very, very best friend in the world. the 2000-year-old man, he never knew what i was going to as kim and i never knew what he was going to say. i had to bite my lip most of the time. tavis: tell me your recollection

of it. >> in the beginning, i didn't know who he was. i came to do the show of shows as a straight man for said. his not working for the show. he is getting $50 for jokes. but he is standing up and he is doing a jewish pirate. [laughter] i will never forget the first three lines. you know what it is costing to buy a yard of sail cloth these days? $3.95 a yard. i can't afford to pillage or rate anymore. [laughter] it's funny. then the next 10 years, we never put it on record, but 10 years later. tavis: hugh mr. friend sid caesar. >> how can you not miss the man who made your career for you? knows to nose and saw the

greatest comedian that ever lived. the greatest sketch comedian that ever lived. every canadian today owes something to him. tavis: how does one go -- this is an age-old question. how does one go about trying to find his or her own voice come into their own talent when you have this sort of aluminous -- >> it's very, very difficult. , they was a little boy tell the story that i was about eight years old and i went to my mother actually and i said to my mother, i want to change my name. guide, thought, oh, my this for a kid having to live up to carl reiner and then living in that shadow and she felt so bad for me and she said, what do you want to change her name to.

i said carl. i admired him so much and i looked up to him and i wanted to be like him. but it was not easy. the greatest, finance people in the world came over to our house. -- the greatest, funniest people in the world came over to our house. inthing that you laughed at the second half of the 20th century, you can look to that show. meleen sid caesar and brooks and carl reiner and neil simon and woody allen and their gelbart and aaron ruberg and joe stein and mike stewart, i mean, these are the output of their work. just between woody allen and neil simon alone and then mel brooks. it's astounding when you think about it. deciding to see you run 180 degrees in the other direction because there is so

much pressure and expectation. all these people you mentioned are at your kitchen table. why set yourself up for that kind of pressure? >> that is a good question. tavis: why do it yourself? >> all i know is i loved so much what he did. i was so fortunate because, when i was 13, 14, 15, 16, when he was doing "the dick van dyke show," i know that i was a pain in the but. he let me come every day in the summer. iluould go to the des cahuenga studios and i would watch them with the writers and the directors and the actors and it was a tremendous experience for me. i always just wanted that. but it was overwhelming. i didn't know how i could quite ever do that. >> there is no question about it. rob reiner is one of the smartest people i know and he

has been smarts and a little kid. very serious. when he was three or four years old and we did the 2000-year-old man, he would sit on the steps. he would get it. there is a very good brain in there. there is no question that he had to become who he became. i the way, his brain manlius from his mother. [laughter] i said this many times and i really meant it. his mother is an extraordinary woman. i said she raised three great kids. he has two siblings. i am proud of all of my kids. i said she raised three great kids and one great husband. i was eight years younger when i married her and she informed everything i knew about everything. tavis: you are starting to answer a question that i want to ask. industry, which is

notorious for what it does to families, how have you lovingned this intact family structure? how can you and your wife do that tavis: >> there is one thing that keeps it. the thing that matters most are the kids. the thing that should matter to everybody, more than ever need in -- more than anything come is the children. if you can send people out that you are proud to have raised, there is nothing that you could have done in movies or anything else in the world. maybe cure every disease in the world, but that is not even -- but sending out like the three kids i have, the kids -- my grandchildren, i have five grandchildren. they are all part of that thing about sending out wonderful people in the world. they've done it with their kids. my son lucas is doing it with his kids. my daughter is a doctorate.

-- a philosophy and a psychoanalyst. sending great people out in to the world is the greatest thing i have ever done. tavis: this is a great father's day conversation. that you werefelt disappointing your father? and if you ever felt that, how did you navigate your way through that? maybe you didn't. >> not that i was disappointing him but that i -- tavis: not measuring up? >> that sort of thing. i was always wanting his approval. i remember very distantly when i was like 19 years old and i had put on -- i had directed a production of "no exit," which is a pretty adventurous thing to do at 19. richard dreyfuss was in the show. is that hehat i love would never bs me.

he never did. i remember him coming backstage after and he looked me in the eye and he said that was good. no bs. it made me feel really good. i was not living at home at the time and i came to see him the next day at his house. we sat back in the backyard and he said, i'm not worried about you. whatever you do, it's going to be ok. and that was a big deal. i was age 19. it was a big deal for me to get that. i didn't ask for it. i knew it was honest and real because he would never just say that. >> i asked him a question because it was some of the best writing i had ever seen. "no exit" is about adults. i said how did you get them to get that performance? he told me something i thought was so brilliant. he said, i told them don't play older people.

by yourselves. later on age. -- play your own age. if they had put on any kind of character, it would have been false. it was so true. but he knew enough to say play your own age and they were honest. tavis: when you are watching rob play meathead on "all in the family," what were you seeing playing his iconic character? >> first of all, iwas the best piece of acting i have ever seen. he played himself because he had a lot of those feelings. he was the liberal in the world of reactionaries. he was so comfortable in his own skin. the relationship with archie, they did some of the funniest sketches i have ever seen. there was one -- ,> it's the one scene

whenever anybody comes up to me -- tavis: i love that, classic scene. >> in rehearsals, i started to put my sock into my shoe. and carol says you don't do it that way. we got into this rift. i put the sock in the shoe. to this day, i still do it. i put on one sock and one shoe and then one sock and one shoe. >> he says, suppose you go out and it's raining. at least you can hop around. [laughter] >> but it was just -- tavis: this wonderful familial slim that chances are the father ends up doing iconic work in television and that the sun does the same thing. list,ou look at the anybody's list, of the best tv shows ever done, both you and your father are on the list.

had these tophey 10 lists for movies. one year, i remember, he directed "all of made," the steve martin movie, and that was the year i did "spinal tap" and we were both on this top-end list. i thought that was even more incredible. there are no father-son directors that both achieve at that high level. i have had this conversation with michael douglas who is a good friend. and we count on one hand the number of people whose fathers achieved at a very high level, whose children also did well. there is not a long list. it's clear how this relationship with the guy next to you has advanced you professionally, personally, spiritually, psychologically. that's obvious. what's the drawback? what's the challenge to being the son of a guy like this in this town? >> the challenge is early on.

[laughter] it's not now. the challenge is early on when you're just starting out. the classic thing of the name opens the door. but if you don't deliver, the door gets shut very quickly. so that part of it is the most difficult part. but once you get your foothold --their, if you can deliver if you can actually hit the ball out of the park, they will keep you around. it's that kind of thing. >> there was no worry about him because he is so smart. he really is, on any subject. i was so proud of him. he was sitting with a bunch of reactionary people on "the bill maher s -- "the bill how." and what about mom helping

raise you and giving you a sense of social justice and all that, it's all true. these things were all talked about in the household growing up. civil rights, the vietnam war, these were things we talked about. i was raised in that. people talk about where they were when kennedy was shot. i knew where i was obviously. i also knew where i was when mcgregors was shot. i ended up making a movie. it was part of our way of talking. group was part of a mothers for peace, antiwar, mothers together to stop the war. it was part of how we were raised. >> by the way, his mother was a very left-winger as a young girl, in the 1930's. if you want a left-wing then,

you weren't thinking. civil rights, blacks and whites, were a big thing. tavis: i'm glad you said that. those of us who have known you in the last 25 years, we have seen not just your advocacy, but the results of your advocacy up and down the state of california on any number of major propositions. so this kind of social justice work came naturally. allto be honest, working on " in the family" and seeing norman lear and how he used his celebrity and his influence and launching people for the american way, that made me think there is a way of utilizing, for lack of a better term, celebrity. i don't think necessarily you should listen to a celebrity because he went -- because he is one. but if you can marshall your celebrity and steep yourself in whatever issue you want to promote, you can move the ball

forward. we did with early childhood and overturning proposition eight hearing colophon you -- here in california. otherwise, you are just another celebrity mouthing off. >> people notice what he knows and the depth of his understanding. tavis: a lot of people were, like, is rob reiner going to run for governor? >> we had a meeting at my house and there was some serious talk about it. i have three kids. 40% in my ownlled family. [laughter] once i realized i couldn't carry my own family, i thought maybe that wasn't a good idea. it is really cool when you have two books out. ," lastled "i remember me year's book with a forward by billy crystal, and a new book called "i just remembered" with

a forward by jerry seinfeld. more thancted them they probably respect me. guys, billye crystal the of the day doing "700 sundays," i can't believe his brain. seinfeld may be the most original comedian we have ever had. what i love about these books is that i finished the first book and i walk around the block and things pop into my head and think i should put that down. then i finished the book and something else popped up. oh, i just remembered. [laughter] and by the way, there is a third iook in my computer called " almost forgotten that i remembered something -- [laughter] i hope you will let me come on when it is finished. tavis: any time. you can cohost. >> i'm sure billy crystal will

be happy that you caed him a younger cat. tavis: i was tried to be charitable. [laughter] trying to be generous. the book that came out last year, carl reiner, is "i remember me." few moreemembered a things and the new book is out now called "i just remembered." >> not only does it have some of the best stories i ever remembered, but stories that will get me not in a lot of trouble, but something called castro cuban castration. most of it is very funny. but also, it has 190 photos of in it. every story has a picture. wherever i open it up, there is battista. this is the one that is going to get me in trouble.

this is a book within a book. [laughter] a book within a book. carl reimer. cark reimer. a romance novel, a novel withneural m romance the longest title. a guinness book of world records title. >> you can't even tweet that title. the photofavorite is of you and your wife on the back of the book. ml, love of my life.

tavis: thank you for coming. congrats in advance on the new movie. opening -- >> july 11. tavis: starring diane keaton and michael douglas. >> i bet it will be a sensational movie. it doesn't do anything but sensational movies. tavis: i am delighted to have you on this program. >> not as i am to be here. >> everyone is delighted. tavis: thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with toni braxton about her candid ."w memoir, "un-break my heart

a >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.er