what does rob reiner say now? >> "firing line with margaret hoover" is made possible by... additional funding is provided by... corporate funding is provided by... >> rob reiner, welcome to "firing line." >> thanks for having me. >> it's such a delight to be you are an iconic film director... >> really? nd ...of classic american films, like "stand by me" "the princess bride" and "this is spinal tap." and almost more germane to this conversation is the role you played as the son-in-law of archie bunker... >> yes. >> ...on "all in the family." >> yes. >> but you have gone on from your acting career and your directing to bece a political activist. i met you first on a cause that maybe started as a liberal cse but then became a bipartisan cause... >> right. >> .where you worked very closely with conservative legal icon ted olson and liberal lion david boies... >> right. >> ...to challenge the constitutionality of proposition 8 in california,wh h outlawed same-sex marriage. >> right. and that led to, essentially, making it the law of the land to allow for same-sex marriage. and

why are you opposed to action like rob reiner is calling for right now to get this train rolling and have a vote eventually on impeachment? >> unless we find something new or different that we didn't see before, it seems that this just continuing. so first it was going to be the mueller report was really going to give us the information, and it did. i read it from the first page to the last page, and it gave some information. and certainly there are some distasteful sections and parts of that that really are concerning, but not high crimes and misdemeanors, at least in my opinion. and obviously in other people's opinions as well. and then it was going to be once he testified, it will come to life and it would bring the

rob reiner, you heard the case. what do you say? >> i couldn't disagree more with the congressman, because all of the issues that he talked about of course are critical. none of them will ever, ever pass when we don't have the white house and ultimately the senate. we passed a million bills already, and they lay dormant at mitch mcconnell's feet. that's not going to do anything, and if it didn't -- >> that's because we are so involved. we are so involved with this only, or at least the perception of this only. >> no, no, no. >> look, i'm there every day. let me finish for a second. >> congressman, do you think the seats like yours are in danger if the democrats move toward impeachment? >> absolutely. i don't even know that mine. i was fortunate. i won by a good number more votes than many of the other ones did. folks have to realize it was middle democrats, middle of the road democrats that created the majority. and that their voice counts too, and we have to -- and by the way, if something really new comes up, something big that we

third show was rob reiner with penny marshall.y the fourth show we found the show with candy burgen, the show that resembles the show today. david: the original idea was to have a cast of characters and a host. lorne: a different host every week. david: who was the first host? lorne: george carlin. david: was he so funny in those days you knew it would be a hit? lorne: he had monologues that worked and i thought he was funny. the biggest controversy in the first show was the network wanted him to wear a suit, jacket and tie. and he didn't want to. he wanted to wear a t-shirt. it was not the biggest thing in my life. let him wear whatever he wants, but the compromise which took up a lot of time on show day was he wore a suit with a t-shirt. perfect solution. david: did you have to have a censor? for words that might not be appropriate? lorne: we had a lot of discussions about what we could do and could not do. and what you could do at 11:30 and what you could do at midnight. i think that we sort of -- all those phrases from the 197

lot of help from reiner writing the neurotic main character, and that's because he was based on rob reinerood. you work and work and work torture yourself rewriting the script. >> i know nora, and i pitched this idea about the dance that people go through to get together after they've both gotten out of long-term relationships and they become friends, and does sex come into the picture? and if it does, does it ruin the friendship? she said, well, that would be something i'd be interested in. >> he rips off my clothes. >> then what happens? >> that's it. >> that's it? a faceless guy rips off your clothes and that's the sex fantasy you've been having since you were 12, exactly the same? >> well, sometimes i vary it a little. >> which part? >> what i'm wearing. >> a good romantic comedy is, listen, you know they're going to be together, so how do you get them there and what's the roadblocks? it's all about the story and it's all about the people. do you care about them? do you want them to be together? are you seeing what they're not seeing? >> it's just that all men are sure it never happene

. >> some of what i was doing was by what i saw rob reiner do with "stand by me" but they didn't speakrom. >> we got a call on a burglary here. >> that was about an hour ago. >> we didn't ask you that. >> i decided to have a black cop be more vehement than the white partner. >> something wrong? yes. it's just too bad you don't know what it is. >> the same black cop encounters trent years later when he's a teenager and profiles him. >> i didn't do nothing. >> you think you're tough, huh? oh, you're scared now, huh? i like that. >> singleton was nominated for two academy awards, best original screen play and the youngest person ever nominated for best director. >> it was an era when a lot of people were paying attention to black film. there was a famous moment in "new york times" magazine does this cover story. you really had for the first time a large collection of black filmmakers documenting what was going on in the culture. >> you've got to be ready to go down, stand up and die for that shit like he did. >> blaze ard ain't sticking up to nothing now. >> that's because we wasn't there

. >> "when harry met salarylsally" he was based on rob reiner. >> every scene has to be good.orture yourself. >> i had known nora. i pitched this idea for this film about the dance that people go through to get together after they have both gotten out of long-term relationships. they become friends and does sex come into the picture? does it ruin the friendship? that's something i would be interested in. >> he rips off my clothes. >> then what? >> that's it. >> that's it? a faceless guy rips off your clothes and that's the sex fantasy you have been having since you were 12? >> sometimes i vary it a little. >> which part? >> what i'm wearing. >> a good romantic comet did i i comedy is, how do you get them there? it's all about the story. it's all about the people. do you care about them? do you want them to be together? . >> most women have done it. >> you don't think i could tell the different? >> no. >> get out of here. >> the deli scene. when we first did it, meg was a little nervous. crew members, extras, people standing around. >> are you okay? >> oh. >> rob says, here is

farm ♪ plowing through your field >> let's say you look at a prospective movie and it's a squat, rob reinerding a way to enjoy it in a completely nonconventional way. >> he didn't fall? >> inconceivable. >> i do not think it means what you think it means. >> "the princess bride" is a blend between romance, satire, adventure, squash buckling, i mean, it's all mixed in and it's a very strange mixture hard to capture. >> wesley, what about the -- >> rodents of unusual size. i don't think they exist. >> you have to walk a balance, you know? it's a fine line between stupid and clever. >> beat it or i'll call the brute squad. >> i'm on the brute squad. >> you are the brute squad. >> rob is a phenomenal director. his first movies one after another, beauties, and took risks in different genres. to be in three of them, i'm really blessed. >> one half of the '80s was a lot of different styles of comedy being thrown at audiences. there was the spoof comedy that became popular, whether that be "airplane" or "the naked gun." you had ensemble academies like "police academy," imports like "crocodile dunde

. >> some of what i was doing was inspired by what truffaut did with "the 400 blows," what rob reinerfrom where i was standing from. >> whoa, we didn't ask you that. >> i decided to have a black cop be more than the white partner in the scenes where he's encountering the black residents. >> something wrong? >> something wrong? yeah. it's just too bad you do't know what it is. >> the cop, encounters him years later when he's a teenager and profiles him. >> i didn't do nothing. >> you think you're tough. you think you're tough, huh? oh, you're scared now, huh? i like that. >> singleton was nominated for two academy awards, best original screenplay and the youngest person nominated for best director. >> it was an era when a lot of people were playing attention to black film. there's this famous moment when "the new york times magazine" does this cover story. you really had for the first time a large collection of black filmmakers documenting what was going on in the culture. >> you got to be ready to stand up and die for that shit like blizzard did if you want some juice. >> blizzard ain

. >> somebody who doesn't want to talk about that is rob reiner, the named child actor and then director, you were on with yesterday and said almost the same thing. this is what he said and we'll get you to react. take a listen. >> i couldn't disagree more with the congressman. i would make the case that it would be great politics for the democrats to stand up and hold this guy accountable. sorry to lose your seat, but-- >> you don't look amused there. >> that's fine, that's what america is, but everybody can have their opinion, but my sense is when i go back in the district, that people really want to see us doing other things, this overwhelms. >> first it was okay, we've got a report and when that report comes out. we'll find out what's going on. when the report comes ouchlt certainly distasteful parts of it. >> when you look at fellow democrats that we need to get things done, especially some of the freshmen as far left as you can go within our own caucus and you say i need to got things done, not focus on impeachment, what's their response? >> tbig thing about our freshme are blue do