>> good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with one of the great pioneers of television, writer and performer carl reiner and his equally talented son and writer/director/actor rob reiner who has two emmy's for his work for "all in the family" and gone on to direct "this is spinal tap" and "when harry met sally" we're glad you joined us. a conversation about fathers and sons with carl reiner and rob reiner coming up right now.

>> and by contributions from your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. sons with carl reiner and rob reiner coming up right now. "this is spinal tap". actor and director rob reiner who has given such great comedies like "this is spinal tap" and "when harry met sally" grew up in a household dominated by laughter, generated in no small measure of course by his father, one carl reiner, one of the pioneers of television who among his many critics created the dick van dyke show and with his good friend mel brooks created "the 2,000-year-old man" love that. has a new memoir out titled "i

just remembered" first we will look at a clip from rob's latest movie, "and so it goes" >> this looks like eugene. >> 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 thought it was information you should have. >> is this by any chance some pathetic attempt at flirtation. >> when you put it that way, well yes -- no. >> good night. >> only rob reiner could get diane keaton and michael douglas. this has never happened before. >> no they never acted together and were both dieing to do it and are just sensational together. >> give me a little bit about the story line. >> well it's basically about

finding a love later on this in life. when we did bucket list and we did the press tour on it, everybody would ask the question what's on your bucket list and whenever they asked jack nicholson he would say one more great romance. that gave me an idea to do a film about two people who find each other later on this lifeful it's a love story for adults. >> bucket list did quite well at the box office. >> it did very well. >> what has to happen in this contemporary moment for a movie starring actors who are chronologically gifted, shall we say. >> very kind of you tavis, very, very kind. >> how do you make that work. because the addage is in a this stuff doesn't make money. the bucket list did quite well. there's an audience of baby boomers. a very large segment of the population. we made a joke when we made bucket list that there was 100% desire to see amongst our

demographics with 40% ability to get to the theater. [ laughter ] we're hoping they will get to the theater. if there's something there they like they will come. >> i want to talk to your dad. i'm so honored to have the two of you together on this couch. what was it like. i was stunned -- maybe that is too strong of a word, i was tickled when i saw this. your father was on television before your family owned a television. is that true? >> that's absolutely true. he started in television 1946, '47. we first got a television in '49 or '50 when he was doing "show of shows" and when we used to gather around this little tiny television about that big. >> ten inch or so. >> ten inch small television. he would say, i was like four or five years old, i was a little kid and he would say to me, now, it was on saturday night, so it was late at night and he would

say, when we say good night at the end of the show, they don't want us waving. i can't wave at you like this but what i'm going to do is i'm going to let you know that i know you're watching. i'm going to adjust my tie like that and that meant i love you and it's time to go to sleep. and so he did that every night saturday nights and we watched. yeah. >> and carol burnett used the ear. >> yeah. >> and what do you make of all these years later, carl reiner that your son has not just followed in your footsteps. followed in your footsteps. >> he jumped over my footsteps. rob has made my favorite movies of all time of the princess bride comes on television sometimes and can't leave it until it is over. i find myself laughing. the first movie he ever made "this is spinal tap," brilliant. every movie he made, save one.

thank goodness >> there's more than save one. >> because if they are all perfect they will hurt him. somebody will hurt him say he's too good. well he's not perfect. one movie didn't work. i consider him the best director writer on motion picture today. >> which one is he talking about? >> i don't know there's a couple stinkers in there but we love all our children equally. [ laughter ] >> your friend mel brooks was here a few weeks ago. >> yes i know we watch together >> thank you for watching. we had ai wonderful time talking to him. and he absolutely adores you. you mention your name to mel brooks he lights up. >> the feeling is mutual. we love each other. he is my very best friend in the whole world. and for ten years, i had to bite my lip most of the time not to get a laughter on the track. >> tell me about "2000-year-old man".

and your recollection of it. >> the beginning was very funny because i didn't know who he was. i came to do the show as a straight man for sid. and there's a guy standing up, he's working for sid at the time, not working for the show, he's getting $50 a week for sid for jokes. he is standing up doing a jewish pirate. [ laughter ] >> and he said i will never forget the first three lines, he said you know what it is costing to buy a yacht of sale cloth, he says $3.95 for a yard of this, i can't afford to pillage or rape any more. [ laughter ] we never put it on record you for the next ten years. >> you still have your friend mel. i assume you miss your friend sid cesar? >> oh, boy, sid, how could you not miss the man who made your career for you. i worked with sid seven years nose to nose and saw the

greatest sketch comedian who ever lived. i think he informed the sketch comedy world by his performance. every comedian today owes something to him. >> rob, this is an age-old question, but how does one go about trying to find his or her own voice, come into their own talent. >> it's very, very difficult. when i was a little boy, they tell a story, that i was about eight years old, i went to my mother and said, i want to change my name. she said this poor kid living in the shadow of carl reiner, she said what do you want to change your name to. i said carl.

i loved him so much. and admired him so much and looked up to him that i wanted to be like him. but it was not -- it was not easy. i mean the greatest funniest people in the world came over to our house. you think about the show of shows and what it has spawned, anything that you laughed at in the second half of the 20th century, you could look back to that show, i mean. between sid cesar mel brooks, carl reiner kneel simon woody allen, aaron ruben joe stien, mike stewart these are the big output of their work just between woody allen and neil simon alone and mel brooks, it's just astounding when you think about it. >> i could see you deciding to run 180 degrees in the other

direction because there is so much pressure and expectation. all of these people you mentioned are at your kitchen table. i mean why set yourself up for that kind of pressure? >> you know, that's a good question. i don't know why i did it. all i know i loved so much what he did. and i was so fortunate because when i was 13 14, 15 16, when he was doing the dick van dyke show i know i must have been a pain, but he let me come every day, i was off school in the summer and go down to the studios and sit there and observe and watch him working with the other writers and actors and watching the director stage the scenes and it was a tremendous experience and i always just wanted that. but it was overwhelming i didn't know how i would quite ever do it.

>> there's no question about it that robbie reiner is one of the smartest people i ever have known. he's been smart since he was a little kid. when he was three or four years old old he would sit on the steps an he would get it. there's a very good brain in there. no question about it. he had to become who he became. by the way his brain mainly is from his mother. i said this many ties and really meant it. his mother is an extraordinary woman, estelle reiner. she raised three great kids. he has two siblings, i'm so proud of all my kids. she raised three great kids and one great husband. i was eight years younger when i married her and she informed me about everything. >> you're starting to answer a question i want to ask, let me ask it anyway, which is how in this industry, which is

notorious for what it does to families, how have you maintained this in tact, loving family structure? >> well you know there's one thing that keeps it, the thing that matters most to my wife and i are the kids. the thing that matters, should matter to everybody more than anybody is the children. what you send out to the world non-toxic people. if you can send people out that you are proud to have rayised, there's nothing else in the world you could have done, movies, cure every disease in the world, that's not even -- sending out the three kids i have, my grandchildren, i have five grandchildren they are all part of that thing of 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 psycho analyst, sending those people into the world is the best thing i've ever done. >> have you ever, rob, felt that you were disappointing your father? and if you did, how did you navigate your way through it. maybe you didn't. but this is a whole lot. >> well, yeah, not that i was disappointing him but that i -- >> not measuring up. >> yeah that kind of thing certainly. i was always wanting his approval and i think that i remember very distinctly when i was like 19 years old and i had put on a i directed a production of no exit which is a pretty adventurous thing to do at 19. richard dreyfus was in the show.

the thing about my father, one thing i loved about him is he never bs'ed me he never did, he came back stage and said that was good, no bs. and it made me feel really good and i remember going, i was not living at home at the time and came to see him the next day at his house and we sat back in the backyard and he said, i'm not worried about you. whatever you do, it's going to be okay. and that was a big deal. it was at age 19. it was a very 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. >> by the way, i asked him a question. it was some of the best directing i've ever seen. i said no exit is about adults, i said how did you get them to get that performance. he told me something so

brilliant. i said don't play older people, play yourselves. play your own age. and doing that made it all come to life. 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. so they all were honest. >> when you carl reiner were watching rob play meat head on "all in the family" we know what we were seeing, what were you seeing watching him play this iconic character? >> well first of all it was the best piece of acting i've ever seen. first, he played himself. he had a lot of those feelings. he was a liberal in the world of reaction aries. he was so comfortable in his own skin and the relationship with archy, they can some of the funniest sketches i've ever seen. one sketch with shoes they

ad-libbed and it was great. >> it was the one scene that anybody who comes up to me they talk about the shoe scene. >> it's a classic scene. >> it happened in rehearsal whether i started putting on my sock and shoe and carol said what are you doing, i said what do you mean i'm putting on my sock and shoe she said don't do it that way. to this day i still do it one sock and then one shoe, and one sock and one shoe. >> he said suppose it is raining and you have to run out, at least you can hop around. >> what's amazing about this wonderful familiar story here is that the chancers are slim that the father ends up doing iconic work in television and that the son does the same thing. >> yeah. >> when you look at the list, i mean anybody's list of the best

tv shows ever done, both you and your father are on the list. >> one near you know, they have these top ten lists for movies. >> yeah. >> and one year i remember he directed "all of me" you know the steve martin movie and that was the year i did "spinal tap" and we were both on the top ten list. i thought that was even more incredible. there are no father-son directors that both achieve at that high level. i've 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, very high level whose children also did well and there's not a long list you know. >> it's clear how this relationship with the guy next to you has advanced you professionally personally, spiritually, psychologically, i think ha isthat is obvious.

what's the draw back to being a son of a guy like this in this town. >> the challenge is early on. [ laughter ] it's not now. i mean, 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, very quickly. so that part of it is the most difficult part. but once you get your foot hold in there then if you can deliver i mean you look at, ken griffey, sr and ken griffey, jr. if you can hit the ball out of the park they will keep you around. >> it was no worry with him because he's so smart, he really is on any subject. i was so proud of him he was sitting on the bill mahr show, whatever the subject is, he knows it. and he was pounding away.

that is what i'm most proud of you. >> we talk about mom helping raise you and giving you your sense of social justice and all that, and it's true. i mean these things were talked about in the household as a kid growing up civil rights, vietnam war, these are things we talked about, i was raise in that. people talk about where they were when kennedy was shot. i knew where i was obviously. i knew where i was when edgars was shot and i ended up making a movie. it was part of our way of talking. my mother was with anti-war mothers together to stop the war. and so, it was part of how we were raised. you know. >> by the way, his mother was a very left-wing as a young girl in the 30s. if you weren't a left-wing then,

thinking, civil rights for blacks and whites were a big thing. >> i'm glad you said that because i was going to ask you. those who have known you for the last 20 or 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 and et cetera, et cetera. this kind of social justice work -- >> -- it came naturally. and working with norman leer and how he used his celebrity and influence in launching people for the american way that made me think, there's a way of utilizing your for lack of a better term, celebrity. i don't think you necessarily should listen to a celebrity just because he is one, but if you can marshall your celebrity and really steep yourself on whatever issue you're trying to

promote it could actually move the ball forward. we did that with early childhood and in over turning proposition 8 in california. you can get things done. but you have to know what you're doing otherwise you're just another celebrity mouthing off. >> a lot of people know what he knows and the depth of his understanding. he wanted to run for governor a few years ago. >> a lot of people were like is rob reiner going to run, especially after auctionrnold it. >> we had a talk about it in our house and i polled 40% in my own family then found out that wasn't a good idea. >> i love this. it is not just that his son loves him we all love him but it is cool to have two books out. one called "i remember me". >> that's last year's book.

>> with a forward by billy crystal. and a new book called "i just remembered" with forward by jerry jerry jerry seinfield. it must be nice to be respected by all these cats. >> i probably respect them more than they respect me. billy crystal, i can't believe his brain and seinfield maybe one of the most original comedian we've ever had. i finished the first book and i walk around the block, things pop in my head oh, i should put that down, and then oh, i just remembered. and by the way, there's a third book in my computer called "i almost forgot something and i remembered" anyway i have seven chapters of the new book and i hope you allow me to come on

when it comes out. >> you're welcome on any time. >> i think billy crystal will be very happy you called him a younger cat. >> i was trying to be charitable, trying to be generous. before i let you go the book that came out last year, carl reiner," i remember me". he remembered a few more things and the book out now is called "i just remembered". >> it has some stories that i just remembered but other stories that may get me in trouble i talk about castro cuban castration, but most of it is very funny. also it has 190 photos. every story has a picture. he's young mel brooks. wherever i open it up, oh

here's bautista. look at this going to get me in trouble. this is a book within a book. [ laughter ] this book is by carl reimer. i always hit the l key one day i hit k and said i will write a romance novel and change l to k, so it is a three-page romance novel with the longest history of titles, guinness book of record title, 199 words. three-pages. >> my favorite is the gorgeous photo of you and your wife on the back.

>> loml, love of my life. >> rob reiner i'm always honored to have you on the program and to bring your daddy is a special treat. so thank you for coming. and congratulations on the new movie starring michael keaton and diane keaton. >> he doesn't do anything but sensational movies. >> carl reiner i'm delighted to have you on the program. >> not as delighted as i am for being here. >> on that note, we'll say good night, as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show visit tavis tavis smiley smiley.org.

>> and by contributeions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> charlie: welcome to the program. we begin this new year with a look back at one of my favorite broadcasts in 2014. it is about the brain and new add -- advances and understanding in treating blindness. the brain has been a particular focus of this program and so we look back at that program but think about the future and the remarkable achievements in science. >> as you indicated, there are close to 300 million people worldwide that have various degrees of visual impairment and, in the past, the only thing you could do for people like that is to give them non-visual guides. teach them how to read braille, a seeing eye dog. but recently this has changed. we are sitting here amidst the revolution of treatment of mack what are degeneration and it opens the treatment of many kinds of