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 tcms classic film festival. Mr. Reiner and mr. Reiner, its 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 . Its 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. Thats the only sad thing. If you go on the hollywood walk of fame, we both have stars. And theyre right next to each other. Right next to each other. So thats 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 . Its unbelievable. What do you, to your fathers 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. Its 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, whats it like growing up . Well, its not as funny at other peoples 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 didnt 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, cuttingedge television at that time. And i would go to his office sometimes, i dont know if you knew this. But he would be on the stage working out with the actors or making changes in the script, and id sit behind his desk and go theres no way, how do i ever, i cant compete with this. This is a guy who won 12 emmies. Wrote in the first few seasons, hed write 2025 scripts a year just by himself. It was, you know, the one thing that i love about this hollywood, im 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 hasnt seen them, ill 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, youll never forget that. And he made an actor out of his mother. One of the top five lines of all time in movies. Ill have what shes having. I wrote about that. Shes w shes one better than humphrey bogart. But because of that, she started getting acting jobs. She said im going to be in that, she went to the Actors 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. Theres no question about it, you have access if you have that name. But its also, like they say, the door opens, but the door can close real quick and real hard if you dont have something to, and speaking of kirk douglas and Michael Douglas, ive had conversations with michael, you know, were friends and weve 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, its not that many. You know, its a very small club. So its 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. Mmhm. And its 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 worldrenowned painter, my daughter who is a doctor of psychiatry, written books on analysis, shes going through the world giving lectures. Thats 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 hes 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, didnt make, but they were all valid, sensational movies. Every time, ive 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. Hes the greatest role model you could possibly have. He has this, not only talented and a great work ethic and all this, but theres a humility there, he never would push his fame out there or anything like that. And i saw how he handled that. So thats 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. Hes sitting there with a book in his hand. And he writes, he writes every day. See the segue . I didnt 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 obrien 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, im not coming i screamed conans name. I didnt hurt myself, i got right up. And this is a public service, im not kidding. When i was about 20, 25 years old, i slipped on an icy stairway, hurt my back, wentt t 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, im 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, heres 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. Im watching this, i want to get to 95, too. Im not kidding. Im watching, im 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. Thats 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, thats, thats thats unbelievable. Public service. If you do those youll live to 95. You have a public service, call random content. Com ill 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 Childrens Book coming out . A Childrens Book which i wrote a while back, but i held it back for a while. Its called you say god bless you for sneezing and farting. And my little granddaughter, lucass daughter, when she was 4 years old, she passed wind, she said to her little friend leo, they were going to kindergarten. She said dont you say god bless you . He said no you say it when you sneeze. She said no its 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 im waking up with tweets about antitrump tweets. Oh, yeah. He tweets every day. I know, i follow him. I follow him. Absolutely. Todays tweet was about, he was talking about win, win, win, were going to win, were 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 wouldnt mind, but were losing, losing losing, while hes winning, winning. Hes 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 im going with this i know exactly where youre 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 well call in the debt and that will be it and well 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 its so good, why dont you forego your fee, your consulting fee and keep a piece of seinfeld. So he did. And ive never met the guy. He did that. And then my wife took the picture on the cover of the art of the deal. Shes a photographer. So we both feel in some way responsible for this man. [ laughter ] i mean, its 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, didnt it . Hes working very hard now to take away everything from poor people so rich people get a tax break. Thats 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. Its really squary cary to what happening. And to go from having the smartest president weve had since way back, to this guy is crazy. It is crazy. Its nuts. I mean, i feel so sorry, obama, i cant 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, heres an interesting thing. All during the campaign, right up to the election, people asked me that question, what would be going on . I said wed 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 arent 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, its not only suspicious, but its bad for the country. Im 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 countrys going to get off the ground. Theres something wrong with the notion of business being had as usual with this cloud hanging over our country. Its 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, theyll run, theyll run indoors, theyll 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, somethings wrong with that. Its one thing to fool around with policy and they cant get health care offer the grou the taxes or infrastructure. But the minute they start putting somebody like judge gorsuch, im not saying hes not qualified, a great jurist or whatever. I dont agree with him on a lot of things, but thats 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 wouldnt give the last guy a hearing. Thats another conversation all together. And that, to me, is all about, i hate to say it, its 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 wasnt born, you know, he wasnt born in america, all of that is about delegitimizing an africanamerican person. And everything thats followed from that. Were not going to let him have anything, were not, we wont let him have it. Hes not a legitimate president. So thats what theyve done. And unfortunately, theyre continuing to do it. Mr. Reiner, they say you know what i was thinking about, one of the saddest things im thinking about, you hear my son talk. A long time ago somebody, hes been very understanding of whats 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. Theres though questi theres 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 couldnt carry my family, i probably shouldnt do it. They say the more things change the more things stay the same. When youve lived 95 years youve seen so much of what is good and bad about america. How do you process this moment after all youve seen and gone through . Its scary, because this is the first time ive seen anything like this in the white house. Weve had people we didnt agree with, nixon and the bushes, but we lived with it. This, we cannot live with. Alan aldas grandson wrote a little film where people wake up in the morning, on the back of everybodys 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, hes still there. People walking the streets, very nicely, doing their things, whatever theyre doing, two people meet in the market, ah theyre all screaming. In the back of our head, no matter what you do, you go about your business, but in the back, trump i couldnt 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. Theres an actor who plays a part, i could not believe. I havent 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. Im not kidding. I love it. He jumped in at the last minute. Somebody fell out. Your daddy loves you. Thats 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. Kings 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 todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with actor steven fry. Thats next time. Well see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Today, on americas test kitchen. Julia and bridget cook a comfortfood classic Roast Chicken with root vegetables, and dan shows julia a foolproof recipe for making sourdough bread from scratch. Its all coming up, right here on americas test kitchen. Americas test kitchen is brought to you by the following Fisher Paykel. Since 1934, Fisher Paykel has been designing